Parker Quink For V Mail Black

[akszugor]

Manufacturer: Parker
Series, colour: Quink For V Mail Black
Pen: Waterman Hemisphere „F”
Paper: Image Volume (gramatura 80 g / m²)

Specifications:
Flow rate: low
Lubrication: good
Bleed through: unnoticeable
Shading: noticeable
Feathering: unnoticeable
Saturation: good

A drop of ink smeared with a nib


The ink smudged with a cotton pad


Lines


Water resistance


Ink drying time


Ink drops on a handkerchief


Chromatography


Sample text in an Image Volume (80 g / m2)


Sample text in an Oxford notebook A5 (90 g / m2)


Sample letters in a Rhodia notebook No 16 (90 g / m2)


Sample letters in a Clairefontaine (120 g / m2)


Palette of shades

[LizEF]

This is more like it! (Is it just me, or does this look blue-black?) But it doesn't look like something readily available - is this an old ink, like the superchrome?

[bsenn]

World war 2. Letters transformed to microfilm which was shipped overseas and printed. Allowed more mail to be shipped in less space. Assumably the ink had the right characteristics to be readable when transferred to microfilm.

[inkstainedruth]

@ LizEF -- My first bottle of Microfilm Black had a definite blue undertone to it. Wasn't sure whether that meant it had been diluted at some point or not (another bottle I've gotten since is definitely more of a grey/black (I wish I knew where the first bottle has gone). That being said, both bottles have been very well behaved -- the ink is pretty waterproof (which means I feel comfortable signing checks and writing on envelopes), and none of it seems to have gone "bad" (like having SITB).

Another possibility is that it's not Microfilm Black at all (and that my bottle wasn't), and someone just refilled an empty bottle with something like vintage Quink Permanent Royal Blue at some point. (I'm minded of an Agatha Christie mystery where the murder victim was originally thought to have killed herself -- but the "suicide note" found was in the wrong color ink (she had refilled her pen with someone else's green ink rather than waiting for someone to go shopping and picking up a bottle of "Quink" for her...).

Sheaffer also had an ink used for microfilming letters to the troops: Skrip V-Black. The first bottle of it I tried was very grey-brown, rather than the much darker Quink Microfilm Black. Which is odd, in a way -- someone told me that vintage Skrip inks take to being reconstituted better than vintage Quink inks do.

@ akszugor -- Thanks for the review. This is proof that vintage inks (unless obviously contaminated, or iron gall inks) are nothing to be afraid of (I've got the grey/black version of Microfilm Black in a vintage Parker Vacumatic at the moment) and are often very well-behaved.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

Edited October 10, 2020 by inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

@ LizEF -- My first bottle of Microfilm Black had a definite blue undertone to it. Wasn't sure whether that meant it had been diluted at some point or not (another bottle I've gotten since is definitely more of a grey/black (I wish I knew where the first bottle has gone). That being said, both bottles have been very well behaved -- the ink is pretty waterproof (which means I feel comfortable signing checks and writing on envelopes), and none of it seems to have gone "bad" (like having SITB).

...

Thanks!

 

....

Another possibility is that it's not Microfilm Black at all (and that my bottle wasn't), and someone just refilled an empty bottle with something like vintage Quink Permanent Royal Blue at some point. (I'm minded of an Agatha Christie mystery where the murder victim was originally thought to have killed herself -- but the "suicide note" found was in the wrong color ink (she had refilled her pen with someone else's green ink rather than waiting for someone to go shopping and picking up a bottle of "Quink" for her...).

...

Um, SPOILER ALERT!!! You never know, I might wanna re-read Agatha Christie novels too...

[Tas]

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks!

 

Um, SPOILER ALERT!!! You never know, I might wanna re-read Agatha Christie novels too...

No spoilers. I didn't reveal who the murderer was!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

No spoilers. I didn't reveal who the murderer was!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Just teasing!

[NumberSix]

On 10/10/2020 at 5:12 PM, inkstainedruth said:

@ LizEF -- My first bottle of Microfilm Black [snip]

 

Ruth, have you have experience with Quink Permanent B-B or Black, from the same period? I believe this bottle design is also 1940s. Any issues in pens? I am going to guess no issues, as a lot of inks at that point were more "permanent" than the standard washables today. 

 

How does the black compare with V-Mail?

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Not sure if I have any of the regular black.  I do have some of the Blue-Black, but wasn't that impressed with it and wondered if had been reconstituted at some point.  I have some Washable (I think) blue that is a more recent vintage bottle than the stuff from those bottles.  
I have tried Skrip V-Black and the one bottle's contents were a much more brown leaning black.  Not sure what has happened to the blue undertone bottle of Microfilm Black.  I was using some of a different bottle's ink in the Silver Pearl Vac Major recently, and the color was a lot more grayish (so I'm wondering if that had been reconstituted as well).  Of course I'm ALSO now wondering if the contents of the first bottle of Microfilm Black was perhaps a mix of inks dumped together -- maybe Microfilm black mixed with (or even replaced by) something like Permanent Royal Blue or Permanent Blue-Black. 

After the bit in an Agatha Christie mystery (which I think was first published in the 1950s) about a character refilling her pen with someone else's green ink because she hadn't gotten to the store to buy a replacement bottle of Quink) I'm thinking that back then people were not nearly as hyper about ink mixing as we are nowadays.  (I don't know what the green ink brand was -- Christie didn't  say, but the character who used it had a tendency to pull pranks on his fellow residents of a youth hostel).  It's interesting in binge reading a lot of her work where she describes various characters in different stories -- particularly the ones from the 1920s and 1930s, as using "fountain pens" and I'm now wondering if this is a holdover from when more people still used dip pens and only relatively rich people had fountain pens.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NumberSix]

13 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Not sure if I have any of the regular black.  I do have some of the Blue-Black, but wasn't that impressed with it and wondered if had been reconstituted at some point.  I have some Washable (I think) blue that is a more recent vintage bottle than the stuff from those bottles.  
I have tried Skrip V-Black and the one bottle's contents were a much more brown leaning black.  Not sure what has happened to the blue undertone bottle of Microfilm Black.  I was using some of a different bottle's ink in the Silver Pearl Vac Major recently, and the color was a lot more grayish (so I'm wondering if that had been reconstituted as well).  Of course I'm ALSO now wondering if the contents of the first bottle of Microfilm Black was perhaps a mix of inks dumped together -- maybe Microfilm black mixed with (or even replaced by) something like Permanent Royal Blue or Permanent Blue-Black. 

After the bit in an Agatha Christie mystery (which I think was first published in the 1950s) about a character refilling her pen with someone else's green ink because she hadn't gotten to the store to buy a replacement bottle of Quink) I'm thinking that back then people were not nearly as hyper about ink mixing as we are nowadays.  (I don't know what the green ink brand was -- Christie didn't  say, but the character who used it had a tendency to pull pranks on his fellow residents of a youth hostel).  It's interesting in binge reading a lot of her work where she describes various characters in different stories -- particularly the ones from the 1920s and 1930s, as using "fountain pens" and I'm now wondering if this is a holdover from when more people still used dip pens and only relatively rich people had fountain pens.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback, as always. I might give a bottle of each - Blue-Black and Black - a go. They're not cheap, but each one is less than a bottle of Iroshizuku. (Unlike the bottle of "51" India Black I have on the way - that one was NOT cheap for an ink I will have to use very carefully and isn't even a full bottle. LOL)

[bugsydog55]

I have also accumulated some of these inks.  My impression of the V-Mail is the same, feels like its been rehydrated somewhat but it could just be an age problem.  They are quite old now.  The other inks from the era seem to be darker with a better appearance on paper.  Those I have, permanent black, royal blue, blue-black seem more saturated, not like a new ink but deeper color than the V-Mail.  Have not had a single problem with them in any pens.  There are some folks out there that would take advantage of somebody looking to experience a piece of history in their writing so always ask questions and check out those photos.  A lot of this old ink is still good but some is not.