Any cheap water resistant blue and black inks ?

[PithyProlix]

7 hours ago, KidleP said:

สวัสดีเช่นกันครับ ยินดีที่ได้ รู้จักนะครับ 🙏😊

Thank you for your reply! 

 

ด้วยความยินดีครับ 🙏🏻

 

8 hours ago, KidleP said:

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

 

I think Lazypup has an online store on Shopee only. I live far from the city but I have a friend there who orders from Lazypup and then meets up with the 'owner', who brings him his orders. 

[Runnin_Ute]

The Pelikan 4001 Blue Black is an iron gall ink, and has water resistant properties. Among other things, I use it to address envelopes to my penpals.

[inkstainedruth]

Not sure where the OP is, or if it's available in that country, but Noodler's Heart of Darkness would be my first recommendation for a good black ink to use.  Dries quickly, well behaved, and is pretty waterproof (it's an ink that I wouldn't hesitate to use for signing checks or addressing envelopes).  I've recently tried Platinum Carbon Black, but wasn't that all impressed with it.

For blue, good choices (which might be easier for the OP to get) would be Sailor Souboku or Seiboku -- I prefer the color of Souboku, as it's a little darker and less teal-leaning.  Now those are pigmented inks, so they do take a little extra maintenance, such as more frequent flushing.  Not as big a fan of Sailor Kwa-Guro, which is Sailor's pigmented black ink -- but that may be because I first tried it in a Platinum Preppy set up with the roller ball head, and it was very groggy.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PithyProlix]

14 hours ago, KidleP said:

I will try pilot permanent blue first (never knew that it is made in Thailand, no wonder the price is so affordable!).

 

I re-read this and, as both an ink-geek and an engineer (with its accompanying mindset for precision and detail) I want to clarify. The Pilot inks made in Thailand are exclusively in cylindrical bottles, as far as I know. You won't find the 'regular' Pilot ink - the ink that is usually seen in other countries, but also sometimes in Thailand - in those bottles.

 

Also, be careful because the Thai Pilot ink for refillable whiteboard markers are in the same bottles - the labeling is different but it's not always super clear. Some say "not for fountain pen", some don't. The English word "ink" printed in a cursive font on the product labeling is an easy way to tell that it is fountain pen ink and not something else. 

 

So, what struck me about what you wrote is that there is a Thai Pilot permanent blue - I wasn't aware of it. I am going to investigate and follow up on this later but, with a cursory look, there are two Thai Pilot blues, one labeled as "erasable", the other as "washable". But it gets a little confusing - more later. 

 

------

By the way, for those not in Thailand, we can get Thai Pilot ink for as little as 23 Thai baht per 30cc bottle or 250 baht for twelve 30cc bottles (roughly 21 baht per bottle) - 23 baht is the equivalent of $0.66 USD and 21 baht $0.60 USD at the current exchange rate. Yes, roughly $0.02 per cc! 

 

WARNING - some conjecture follows, qualified by "I suspect", "I believe", etc.. I am not sure if it is still made - I suspect it is a legacy of Pilot Korea, a totally separate company than Pilot in Japan, with a licensing agreement between the two. Pilot Korea is no longer in business, as far as I know, but they had a huge presence in Thailand, and I believe the licensing agreement gave them exclusivity to the Thai market. Anyhow, one of the reasons I believe that it is a Pilot Korea legacy is that a blue black could be found as recently as about 2 years ago but seems to have disappeared (I have looked for it a bit because, to my eye, it looks like a dead ringer for Montblanc Midnight Blue). I suspect the remaining ink is old stock. 

[AceNinja]

On 6/19/2023 at 10:35 AM, KidleP 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 ?

I never knew that pilot has a Blue (Erasable and Blue (Non-erasable)...  I thought you're referring to Pilot Tsuwario Blue as the Blue (non-erasable)?  Tsuwario is a new line of pilot pigment ink, which is advertised as water proof.  The regular pilot blue that i know is at most considered water resistant.  I don't think your company will accept that (the way you describe it).

 

Sounds like its almost a "life and death" situation for you, in that case, would suggest you go straight to the highest water proof fountain pen ink, the Platinum Carbon Black.

[Lithium466]

Regular Pilot blue (made in Japan) will remain perfectly readable but some blue will wash away, Pilot Tsuwairo blue will practically not bulge, just like Platinum pigmented blue but Tsuwairo looks less boring

Platinum blue-black is very nice and given it has enough time to dry and "cure", will be very water resistant, with a bit of blue washing away. It all depend if you want some (high) water resistance or fully waterproof ink.
 

For the "cheap" aspect I'm with Hero 232 already mentioned (shipping might kill the deal), or some KIN document blue on ebay. At least there are the cheapest I can get after regular Pilot blue as a non-US resident, so YMMV.

 

 

[PithyProlix]

On 6/19/2023 at 9:35 AM, KidleP 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 ?

 

I missed this before. These are the two blues made in Thailand, presumably. 30cc cylindrical bottles, right? 

 

What I thought was confusing is that the Shopee sellers who have the one labeled on the box as "washable" (on the box, not the bottle, by the way) have added Thai text to their photos indicating that it is indelible or the like. That makes no sense to me. 

 

I think I might already have the "erasable" blue but, regardless, I think I will order all the remaining colors I don't have, which also includes black and red, and figure out what the heck is going on. And, at 23 baht per bottle, why not? 😅

[KidleP]

17 hours ago, Mr.Rene said:

This ink is very good for your purposes

 

Thanks for your information ☺️. Just read a review about it. Such a great ink with incredible red sheen !!  I will try it in the future. Plan to get it on my desk... 

[KidleP]

7 hours ago, Runnin_Ute said:

Pelikan 4001 Blue Black is an iron gall ink

Thank you for sharing this information 🙏! I am quite a newbie to fountain pen world and did not have much knowledge about ink. So all iron gall inks are water resistant right? 

[KidleP]

6 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Noodler's Heart of Darkness would be my first recommendation for a good black ink 

I can easily find Noodler's inks in online stores in Thailand. I will try them in the future! Thank you 🙇 ☺️ I'm glad to hear that you have had a good experience with it.

 

[KidleP]

3 hours ago, AceNinja said:

Sounds like its almost a "life and death" situation for you

 

😂Yes... It's almost a life-and-death situation for me, the worst-case scenario. I could be fired if I ignore my boss's warning and cause damage to the company documents... Anyway, thanks for your recommendation! I've heard great reviews about Platinum Carbon black.! 

 

[KidleP]

4 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

be careful because the Thai Pilot ink for refillable whiteboard markers are in the same bottles - the labeling is different but it's not always super clear

Thanks I will ask the seller first before I buy!  I've heard many tragedy stories about wrong ink that can ruin a fountain pen before... 🥲

4 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

there are two Thai Pilot blues, one labeled as "erasable", the other as "washable". But it gets a little confusing - more later. 

Yes... They are very confusing. I guess that washable blue is water resistant blue.. And erasable blue is non water resistant.... 

 

2 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

That makes no sense to me. 

True! I am now more confused, 😆hahaha..

Due to it's super cheap price. I decide to get all the colors like you did. We will see when it arrive. 

[KidleP]

3 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

It all depend if you want some (high) water resistance or fully waterproof ink.

Thanks for your information 🙏 it seems that I have more choices now😆

 

3 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

shipping might kill the deal)

Yes...🥲

[PithyProlix]

4 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

For the "cheap" aspect I'm with Hero 232 already mentioned (shipping might kill the deal)

 

Shipping from Aliexpress is often free to Thailand - it just takes weeks. I tried to find Hero 232 on both Aliexpress and Shopee. I can't find it on Aliexpress for the low prices I've seen there before. I can't find it at all on Shopee.

 

For what its worth, I opened my Thai Pilot Erasable Blue, which came along with a second hand pen I bought, maybe a few months ago. I used a wet Montblanc Noblesse which puts a good bit of ink onto the paper. It's been really humid all day, consistently humid for the past two weeks (at least), raining when I used the ink, and the notebook has been sitting out on my desk for a few days. Dry time was between 20-25 seconds. I brushed a lot of water over the ink. Water resistance is not great but better than I thought it would be - you can do much, much better. As far as it being erasable, I tried removing it with a Tombow Mono eraser and nothing happened. I'm not familar with erasable inks - maybe it requires a special solution to remove the ink? I don't know. If there is a special solution, it doesn't seem to be available any more. Here's Pilot Thailand's webpage for it: https://pilotpen.co.th/th/product/fountain-pen-ink-2/

 

It will be interesting to see what the "washable" but indelible (?) blue will be like. 😅

 

If I were you, I'd just splurge for Sailor Souboku, which is a really professional-looking, office-friendly, interesting color, with about the best water resistance I've seen, great behavior, and pretty much clog-free, as much as I can tell. It's a pretty expensive ink but Noticemark on Shopee carries it and has really good prices (their prices on Pilot Iroshizuku are better than anything I have seen outside of Japan). Or go to PIPS Cafe and ask him for advice - he has a number of inks that should work very well and are also a bit less expensive than Souboku. Plus, he's a really nice guy and it's good to support a store like that, I think. But most of all, keep your boss happy!

 

 

 

 

Notice the labeling for a manufacturing date towards the bottom, but no manufacturing date is printed.

 

 

 

 

 

[AceNinja]

2 hours ago, KidleP said:

Thank you for sharing this information 🙏! I am quite a newbie to fountain pen world and did not have much knowledge about ink. So all iron gall inks are water resistant right? 

Iron gall ink is water resistant.  But sometimes, when water hits the ink, some ink will still be lifted off.  It will be still legible, but one still can see that it has been smudged by water.

 

Pelikan blue black is particularly a lighter IG, so it's water resistant isn't as good as some other IG ink, like diamine registrar's blue black.  But pelikan 4001 blue black is a worry free IG ink in terms of pen maintenance.

[KidleP]

21 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

It will be interesting to see what the "washable" but indelible (?) blue will be like. 😅

I just received it! 

it has some water-resistant property I think, but not entirely waterproof. 

 

Here is a photo comparing to diamine royal blue. ( I just swab the paper with some water, is it called a swab test? I am not sure) 

 

 

 

21 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

Notice the labeling for a manufacturing date towards the bottom, but no manufacturing date is printed.

 

 

I think the manufacturing date is inside the box as shown

 

 

 

I also tested Pilot ลบไม่ได้ (washable )Black with swab test and the test result is like this.  ( ลบไม่ได้ mean non-erasable. so the label is indeed confusing)

 

 

 

But one thing I observed from these pilot inks is that they stink of chemicals!!! Or is my nose too sensitive ?? Just write it with a broad or stub nib and you will notice some unpleasant, chemicals smell !!! not sure that other water-resistant ink will be like this.  Maybe I am too sensitive. 

I did not smell anything from using diamine royal blue or Pelikan 4001 blue or black and Waterman ink. Do you know what causes these inks to smell like chemicals? Is it harmful?  Do you have any other ink that is water-resistant but also harmless and safe to use? 

PS. It really stinks that I need to wear a mask and the smells are much noticeable  in blue ink than black (washable) ink. 😭

 

PS2 The good news is my company will go paperless real soon, so I may need less ink for documents, maybe just sign something. So I am interested in more expensive but safer permanent inks. 

If every waterproof inks contain stinky chemicals then that would leave me no choice but to use ballpoint pens 🥲🥲.

 

PS3. I did not mean to discredit Pilot Company, it is a great company. The color was very beautiful and seemed like ideal blue for me.

 

 

 

[KidleP]

19 hours ago, AceNinja said:

pelikan 4001 blue black is a worry free IG ink in terms of pen maintenance.

Thank you! I will try it tomorrow! I remembered I bought it last year and keep it somewhere.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, KidleP said:

I did not smell anything from using diamine royal blue or Pelikan 4001 blue or black and Waterman ink.

 

Interesting… because Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black is one of the strongest smelling inks I've come across, not of inorganic chemicals per se, but of sumi ink for Chinese brush calligraphy.

 

1 hour ago, KidleP said:

So I am interested in more expensive but safer permanent inks. 

If every waterproof inks contain stinky chemicals

 

Well, Sailor's inks usually smell of phenol, and KWZ Ink products usually smell of (distinctly artificial) vanilla. The odd Diamine ink smells anywhere from faintly to strongly of algae, which physically sickens me; but they are few and far between in the brand's product line-up.

[KidleP]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black is one of the strongest smelling inks I've come across, not of inorganic chemicals per se, but of sumi ink for Chinese brush calligraph

Thanks for sharing your experience! maybe the experience varies for each person. I use Pelikan Brilliant bBlackwith no issues for 2 bottles. I am not sure if the smell I noticed from Pilot ink is phenol or not, need to do some research about ingredients they use in making inks. but it smell like strong inorganic chemicals to me. 

PS. there are warning at side of the ink box labeled in Thai as"ห้ามสูดดม" mean "do not inhale". I'm not sure if @PithyProlixexperience the same chemicals smell as me ?

 

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

KWZ Ink products usually smell of (distinctly artificial) vanilla

interesting... at least it has pleasant smell. 😁🙏 never try KWZ ink before. Hope that the smell is not too strong.

 

To me Pilot ink (especially Blue, washable) give me unbearable smell 🤢 . It is different than blue ink that @PithyProlix (the one he just reviewed is "erasable", while mine is "washable") just reviewed. I haven't tried pilot erasable ink yet.

[Azulado]

Pilot blue achieves good results, but Koor-i-nor document blue is simply perfect. I believe it also meets an ISO standard for water resistance.