Any cheap water resistant blue and black inks ?

[KidleP]

Hi everyone. My boss just told me heartbreaking news today that I am not allowed to write with fountain pens or gel pens on company documents anymore! I asked him for reasons and he said that my fountain pena /gel pens cause damage to the document in this rainy season when air humidity is high. (did they soak my paper in water ?). Anyway, my company is not entirely paperless and I enjoyed using my fountain pens at work. I felt like a samurai choosing a sword when I leave my home in the morning. Do you have any waterproof ink, not too expensive, and work on cheap paper (I forgot to tell you my company uses cheap paper on half of the documents) so that I will not be fired if I insist to use a fountain pen? I appreciate all your thoughts thank you. (I know I can just Google it but I want to hear from real-world experiences too) 

 

PS. I currently use waterman mysterious blue, pelikan blue 4001, pelikan black 4001, diamine royal blue, all of these is not water resistant I assumed.

[A Smug Dill]

 

[KidleP]

14 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Thanks a lot!! I will try this! By the way, did you have experience with pilot blue (non-erasable)? Where I live, pilot is readily available it has 2 blue ink that is super cheap which are Blue (erasable) and Blue (non-erasable). I guess that non-erasable is water resistant ?

[Lithium466]

Pilot blue is pretty water resistant, but while what you write will remain clear and visible, some blue will be displaced by water.

In the same style you can try Koh-I-Noor Document blue which is a bit more water resistant than Pilot blue.

[LizEF]

I haven't tried the Pilot permanent blue.  My preferred permanent inks are Sailor Seiboku and Souboku - of the two, I suspect Souboku would behave best for your needs.  If Hero 232 BB is available where you are (assume it is), it was one of my favorite IG inks, FWIW.

 

If you can get it, De Atramentis Document Blue may be worth sampling - it dried and was waterproof nearly instantly in my testing.  But it may feather or bleed if your paper is bad enough - diluting with water may reduce those problems.  A very light hand will also help.

 

ETA: Forgot the "cheap" requirement - neither Sailor nor De Atramentis are likely to be cheap in Thailand.

[LizEF]

2 minutes ago, Lithium466 said:

Pilot blue is pretty water resistant, but while what you write will remain clear and visible, some blue will be displaced by water.

I think @KidleP means the newer permanent (pigmented, I assume) Pilot ink.

[A Smug Dill]

21 minutes ago, KidleP said:

By the way, did you have experience with pilot blue (non-erasable)?

 

No. I have the ink, not experience with it.

 

45 minutes ago, KidleP said:

I asked him for reasons and he said that my fountain pena /gel pens cause damage to the document in this rainy season when air humidity is high. (did they soak my paper in water ?).

 

What kind of damage specifically? My assessment criteria is rather stringent, but even what I deem to be waterproof ink may exhibit bleed-through to the opposite side of a sheet — even if it didn't do so in the first instance, up until and including when the ink marks fully dried — if you get the paper damp enough afterwards.

 

By the way, marks made by darker colours of Zebra Sarasa gel pens are quite waterproof, in my experience. Do they also “damage” your company's documents if the paper gets damp subsequently?

[KidleP]

21 minutes ago, Lithium466 said:

Pilot blue is pretty water resistant, but while what you write will remain clear and visible, some blue will be displaced by water.

In the same style you can try Koh-I-Noor Document blue which is a bit more water resistant than Pilot blue.

Thank you! That would be helpful! I will try it since it is readily available in the local store.

[KidleP]

22 minutes ago, LizEF said:

I haven't tried the Pilot permanent blue.  My preferred permanent inks are Sailor Seiboku and Souboku - of the two, I suspect Souboku would behave best for your needs.  If Hero 232 BB is available where you are (assume it is), it was one of my favorite IG inks, FWIW.

 

If you can get it, De Atramentis Document Blue may be worth sampling - it dried and was waterproof nearly instantly in my testing.  But it may feather or bleed if your paper is bad enough - diluting with water may reduce those problems.  A very light hand will also help.

 

ETA: Forgot the "cheap" requirement - neither Sailor nor De Atramentis are likely to be cheap in Thailand.

Wow! Thank you for your reply, after I saw your reply, I did some research about De Atramentis and it's a really good ink! Thanks for sharing your technique about diluting it with water, I will try it if I can get my hand on these inks in the future! Maybe I will put expensive ink in a pen that uses for signing only and use another pen with cheap ink for general documents.

[KidleP]

33 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

No. I have the ink, not experience with it.

 

 

What kind of damage specifically? My assessment criteria is rather stringent, but even what I deem to be waterproof ink may exhibit bleed-through to the opposite side of a sheet — even if it didn't do so in the first instance, up until and including when the ink marks fully dried — if you get the paper damp enough afterwards.

 

By the way, marks made by darker colours of Zebra Sarasa gel pens are quite waterproof, in my experience. Do they also “damage” your company's documents if the paper gets damp subsequently?

I am also not sure what he meant. I guess that the problem is the person in another department responsible for scanning all the documents to digitalize them. (my company is quite low-tech but slowly progress to a paperless workflow) Maybe he spilled some water on the documents while scanning them? What my boss have for a solution(he always be like this) is to give a policy for every office workers to not use gel pens or fountain pen. (it sounds like a very funny policy but he is the boss so I don't want to argue with him that much)

[KidleP]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Amazing ink and review!! Thanks again. But I couldn't find the ink on Aliexpress. Only Hero 202. (may be out of stock?). I will try searching on eBay or Etsy.Nice review!!! I will try it if I got one.

[LizEF]

49 minutes ago, KidleP said:

Wow! Thank you for your reply, after I saw your reply, I did some research about De Atramentis and it's a really good ink! Thanks for sharing your technique about diluting it with water, I will try it if I can get my hand on these inks in the future! Maybe I will put expensive ink in a pen that uses for signing only and use another pen with cheap ink for general documents.

You're welcome!  Best wishes finding an ink that works so you can avoid the dreaded ball point.

[KidleP]

11 minutes ago, LizEF said:

You're welcome!  Best wishes finding an ink that works so you can avoid the dreaded ball point.

Thank you 🙏 My boss and my colleagues(and also my wife) all thought that I am a weird nerd middle age man who insists on using some old technology fountain pen(despite my company being one of the low-tech companies that still not go paperless yet). They never understand the pleasure of writing with a fountain pen. Next time I may gift a good colleague of mine a fountain pen so he can never go back to a ballpoint pen haha!

[InesF]

Hi @KidleP, I would always recommend to try Rohrer & Klingner SketchINKs. They are fully waterproof and you get a black (Thea) a sort of grey-green-brown (Lilly) and a blue-black (Frieda) - and seven other colours that may not fit your office requirements. My recommendation is based on experience about how easy they are to use in fountain pens and how easy to clean the pens. The inks are waterproof on paper but can be washed out from the pen with water. However, there is also a cleaning fluid for the pen.

[KidleP]

1 hour ago, InesF said:

Hi @KidleP, I would always recommend to try Rohrer & Klingner SketchINKs. They are fully waterproof and you get a black (Thea) a sort of grey-green-brown (Lilly) and a blue-black (Frieda) - and seven other colours that may not fit your office requirements. My recommendation is based on experience about how easy they are to use in fountain pens and how easy to clean the pens. The inks are waterproof on paper but can be washed out from the pen with water. However, there is also a cleaning fluid for the pen.

Thanks for your recommendation! I've just read the review about them, very interesting ink with reasonable price!  I will try it in the future if I got hand on them!🙏

[KidleP]

@InesF Thank you for recommending the ink 🙏 I just found out that there was a store in Bangkok that sell the inks. It is sold for 7.5 USD per 50 ml bottle of ink. That's a really good deal! I think I will try Blue Mare or Konigblau.

[PithyProlix]

สวัสดีครับ - I live in Chiang Mai.

 

I am assuming you need a waterproof, near waterproof, or highly water resistant ink that is unlikely to feather or bleed through the paper, especially on paper that has a lot more retained moisture than 'normal'. By the way, it can help a whole lot if you store the paper in a dry, air-tight container, away from the humidity.

I can second Hero 232. You can get it on Aliexpress and it is super-inexpensive but it will take a few weeks to arrive. I haven't been able to find it on Lazada or Shopee but it's bound to be on Shopee someplace ... maybe you can find it?

 

13 hours ago, KidleP said:

I just found out that there was a store in Bangkok that sell the inks. It is sold for 7.5 USD per 50 ml bottle of ink. That's a really good deal!

 

Is it Lamune? The only stores that I am aware of that sell anything different from the more common inks, such as Parker, are Lamune and The PIPS Cafe. For some odd reason Lamune's prices are lower on Shopee than their own webstore.

There is a big variety of ink on Shopee but many of the inks, other than most Chinese ink and Pilot ink made in Thailand, are priced high. But, you can find Pelikan Blue Black there for very low prices. Give that one a try to see if it meets your boss's needs. If not, you still get a nice ink for little money.

 

13 hours ago, KidleP said:

I think I will try Blue Mare or Konigblau.

 

Unfortunately those Rohrer & Klingner inks are unlikely to do any better than what you already have. I also don't think Blue Mare is an appropriate color for office work.

 

From Lamune's current stock, Rohrer & Klingner's Permanent Blue and Dokumentus Black might meet your needs. 

The PIPS Cafe has a large stock of ink and, all in all, prices are not bad. Here's all the inks they list as "waterproof":https://thepipscafethailand.bentoweb.com/en/category/90674/category-78628?page=1&sort=low-to-high  If you go to that store, I suggest asking the owner for recommendations - he is very knowledgeable. He has a big selection of De Atramentis Document inks, which are considered to be archival inks, and there are a few Noodler's inks there that would probably work well (most especially Noodler's X-Feather Black, I think). The Rohrer & Klingner sketchINKs and the Platinum Pigment Blue would probably work well but I'm a little hesitant with pigment inks other than the previously mentioned Sailor Seiboku & Souboku (which are really great, I think). I don't know anything about the Colorverse "Permanent" inks but I suspect those would work well for you. 

Generally, it's a good idea to read reviews for any of the inks you are considering.

[KidleP]

37 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Is it Lamune?

Yes!

 

38 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Unfortunately those Rohrer & Klingner inks are unlikely to do any better than what you already have

Thanks 😊 I almost place an order on Lamune shop. it was my bad not do enough research. I I will try pilot permanent blue first (never knew that it is made in Thailand, no wonder the price is so affordable!). And I will try looking into the Pipcafe shop as you advise!! 

 

It is glad to hear you also live in Thailand too. Now I don't feel that lonely in this country anymore haha. 

43 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Pelikan Blue Black

I also kept it on my desk. Use it once but never test water resistant properties of this ink! Agree with you that Pelikan ink act friendly on cheap paper! I guess it is designed for students.

 สวัสดีเช่นกันครับ ยินดีที่ได้ รู้จักนะครับ 🙏😊

Thank you for your reply! 

 

PS. I think chiangmai had a shop name Lazypup? Do they have a lot of ink?

[LizEF]

11 hours ago, KidleP said:

Thank you

You're most welcome!

 

11 hours ago, KidleP said:

Next time I may gift a good colleague of mine a fountain pen so he can never go back to a ballpoint pen haha!

Brilliant!

[Mr.Rene]

This ink is very good for your purposes