green smudge-proof ink

[yerach]

Hi all ink-people!

I'm generally a black-ink-guy, and found my place with Platinum carbon black ink.

I'm now looking to get a green ink for annotations (yeah... there are some spooky people out there that annotate their own writing...).

Before I came by carbon black, I used Pelikan 4001 brilliant black, which, to me, was all but brilliant, I and others often use what I write, and the slightest swipe of a perceptibly dry finger would smudge the dry ink at varying degrees, dry times were also less than spectacular.

The green ink I want is one that dries to a usable state, it doesn't necessarily need to be resistant to nuclear energy or fire, but fingers isn't too much to ask for, is it?

When I say green I mean a forest/moss green of some sort.

I write primarily in Rhodia web notebooks and dot pads, so Noodler's bulletproof inks won't work great (I have no experience with polar inks), and my secondary pen is a steel nib so iron-gall based inks may be risky too (although I have no experience with those either, as said I'm a simple black-ink-guy...).

Thanks!

[LizEF]

Perhaps a De Atramentis Document ink (there's at least one green), or one of Rohrer & Klingner's sketchINKs (if there's a green one, can't remember).

[yerach]

7 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Perhaps a De Atramentis Document ink (there's at least one green)

Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone willing to ship those to my country (at least not without having to sell some of my internal organs to cover the shipping...), Amazon don't stock them.

10 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Rohrer & Klingner's sketchINKs (if there's a green one, can't remember)

Couldn't find a green one, only an iron-gall one (not sketchink, but looks nice nonetheless), maybe someone has experience with that sort of thing in a steel nib?

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

There's the R&K  Dokumentus Green too.

[Carrau]

You may want to look at KWZ IG Green #3, a dark green that doesn’t get black like many IG inks, and dries fairly quickly, IIRC.   I don’t believe I’ve come across anyone reporting any issues with KWZ IG inks and steel nibs.  Personally I haven’t had any issues with any of their IG inks and steel nibs, including this one.  A link to a FPN review:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313424-kwz-ink-iron-gall-green-3/

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, yerach said:

Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone willing to ship those to my country (at least not without having to sell some of my internal organs to cover the shipping...), Amazon don't stock them.

  Perhaps tell us the country for more specialized recommendations?  I don't have personal, long-term experience with iron gall inks, so I don't feel qualified to comment there, sorry.

[yerach]

13 hours ago, Carrau said:

Personally I haven’t had any issues with any of their IG inks and steel nibs, including this one.

As I mean this to be an annotation ink, it may sit in the pen for over a month at a time, have you experience with such a situation?

[Carrau]

I have had pens inked with it for several months, however, they did not lie unused during that time.  Of course, you may have problems with any ink sitting unused in a pen for that long, not just IG inks.  In that case, perhaps you are better off inking the pen only when you plan an annotation session, or, use a dip pen, if that infrequent, avoiding problems altogether.

[arcfide]

If you use the pen infrequently, as long as there is a good seal on the pen, modern IG inks should be fine to use even in steel nibbed pens if the nibs are made with good stainless steel. 

 

I wouldn't have expected Pelikan's inks to smudge just with fingers, so you must be in an environment that is very wet? I certainly can't get my Pelikan inks to smudge so easily. 

 

Nonetheless, if that's the case, then you might want inks that are drier and put less ink on the page, because they will have less sheen and that tends to reduce smudging overall. 

 

If I want to use a green, my first choice is Platinum Classic Forest Black. This is an IG ink, dry, but a nice green, IMO. It's reasonably water resistant, and I wouldn't expect serious smudging with it. 

 

I actually like Waterman's Harmonious Green, and that should be competitive with Pelikan prices I would think, in most locations. It's not at all water resistant, but I wouldn't expect smudging, either. 

 

Lamy Crystal Peridot is a dark green that I like, but it might be too close to black for your needs. Platinum Mix Free Leaf green is also a good solid, straight up green color. 

 

Herbin Vert Empire is a light, shading green that could be nice, and Jacques Herbin Vert Amazon is a very nice, saturated green, but might be expensive in your area. 

 

I haven't tried enough of Pilot Iroshizuku or Sailor's green inks to speak on their behalf, but I would certainly be looking at them if I were searching. I know a lot of people hate Lamy Green, but IMO, it's about as low fuss as you could imagine. 

[yerach]

6 hours ago, Carrau said:

I have had pens inked with it for several months, however, they did not lie unused during that time.  Of course, you may have problems with any ink sitting unused in a pen for that long, not just IG inks.

No, I don't mean unused, but used less often, it's mostly a matter of taking more time to finish the ink, what I have heard around is that IG inks corrode the steel if not "regularly" cleaned, if "regularly" in this context means once every 2-3 months, that's fine, but if it means once every couple of weeks, that's not the use case here.

[Carrau]

If you are persuaded that IG inks are all bad for steel nibs, that’s your choice.  If you are unsure, I suggest researching the topic on FPN, as I believe use of modern IG inks has been discussed quite a bit on FPN.  If I were unsure, and liked an IG ink,  like Arcfide’s suggestion for Platinum Forest Black, or KWZ IG ink, and expected to use infrequently, I would dip it when I needed it.  There are other water resistant inks I could mention, however, as LizEF suggested, without knowing what country you are from it they may be of no value to you.  Good luck with your search.

[arcfide]

13 hours ago, yerach said:

No, I don't mean unused, but used less often, it's mostly a matter of taking more time to finish the ink, what I have heard around is that IG inks corrode the steel if not "regularly" cleaned, if "regularly" in this context means once every 2-3 months, that's fine, but if it means once every couple of weeks, that's not the use case here.

 

With modern IG inks and modern stainless steel, corrosion isn't an issue. However, if you have a pen that doesn't seal well enough, then leaving the ink in the pen for an extended period of time can cause evaporation, which, in the case of IG ink, causes a sedimentation that isn't necessarily eliminated by adding more ink (as with some dyes). This means that the sedimentation can cause some clogging if you don't flush it out. However, if you have a pen that seals well enough, then I wouldn't hesitate, personally, to keep IG inks in a pen for 2 - 3 months at a time. I think most pens benefit from cleaning monthly, with dye or IG based inks, but if used regularly but lightly (writing a little here, and a little there), most of my daily writing pens easily go 2 - 3 months of use without needing cleaning. 

[yerach]

8 hours ago, arcfide said:

However, if you have a pen that seals well enough, then I wouldn't hesitate

Thanks for the informative reply arcfide!

I currently use a Lamy ST as my secondary pen, it has a click cap and isn't as sealed as a good screw cap, although it is a good one and doesn't hard-start even when not written with for a week or 2, would you consider that sealed enough?

[arcfide]

9 hours ago, yerach said:

Thanks for the informative reply arcfide!

I currently use a Lamy ST as my secondary pen, it has a click cap and isn't as sealed as a good screw cap, although it is a good one and doesn't hard-start even when not written with for a week or 2, would you consider that sealed enough?

 

Lamy's can be hit or miss, but I have a Lamy cp1 which I think is close to the ST? If so, then it wouldn't bother me at all to use an IG ink those pens. Indeed, the Lamy steel nibs are quite good quality and solid, easy to clean, and very reliable, so I wouldn't have any qualms at all about putting IG ink in my Lamy pens, and I do. IG inks are definitely drier writing typically than many inks, but that's not universally true (KWZ seems wet enough, and it is easy to make an IG wetter with some additives). If you like the IG inks, then I'd go for it. At least for me, my cp1 seals plenty well enough, especially if I'm going to use it regularly, even if only for small notes here and there. 

 

A little trick if I were really concerned about maintenance with any ink and a converter. You can buy an extra Lamy converter and then disassemble the back to leave only the piston and the main body. Then, if I want to do a quick flush, I can just attach that and use it as a quick pump to rapidly and forcefully flush out the pen in seconds. That would make it almost trivial to give the pen a few seconds flush every month or two, and I would think that would be more than enough to keep such a pen writing well with just about any standard inks, including IG. 

[agaric]

On 9/18/2022 at 6:09 PM, yerach said:

Couldn't find a green one

The R&K sketchINK "Emma" seems to be a nice mossy green.

FPN review 1 (LizEF), review 2 (visvamitra)

 

They also have a "Klara" but on my computer display it looks much more bluish and turquoisish. I haven't tried either, but I do use the sketchINK blue and pink all the time, and have found those to be water- and finger-resistant, once they've dried on my Leuchtturm paper.

[dragondazd]

Pens:. You might consider getting a platinum preppy or other platinum prouct with slip and seal (I love my prefounte!)

 

Inks: I honestly don't know if I could replicate your situation. I do know that some of my inks just disappear if there are some water spray but it doesn't happen from my bare hands. You may need to get some inexpensive bottles and test them yourself (diamine, mini j herbin, waterman, monteverde)

 

If it were me, I would unhelpfully use vinta kelp Leyte, kwz standard green gold 2, sailor epinard, sailor tokiwa-matsu. After an extensive search this spring, Leyte is my favorite mossy ink. Ooh I'd try a sample of monarca nopal--they had remarkably unsmeary yet saturated inks.

 

It might help to know if you had access to Japanese or Australian inks.