Process for Finding Your Favorite Inks

[Janeite]

I'm curious to know what the process has been like for people to find their favorite inks.  How long did it take?  How many similar shades did you try before you found The One (i.e. your favorite blue or black or red, or whatever "shade" you were looking for)?  Are there certain tests that you do with an ink to see if it will make it to your favorites?  How many different inks do you have that you consider your favorites?  Anything else you want to share about finding your favorite inks is welcome!

[ElPlacerDeLaEscritura]

It's a long, expensive and fun trip. But now my pens are “almost” settled, as well as their respective inks. 

Ink results are highly dependent on paper, nib point size and ink flow. If you use flex writing (Pilot 912 Falcon, MagnaCarta M600) the ink is not so important, any ink will look stunning. 

Start testing the most inexpensive inks and if you are satisfied, just use them. With gold nibs won't be much issue, but steel nibs will improve -a lot- using lubricated inks (Pilot Iroshizuku and Sailor Shikiori -the more concentrated the better lubrication-).

I went full pigmented ink (i am left handed and needed inks that don't smear with my hand).
- Blue - Sailor SeiBoku
- Red - Octopus Fluids Document
- Green - Octopus Fluids Document
- Black - Platinum Carbon Black (almos similar to Sailor Kiwaguro)

My previous favourite inks (before going pigmented):
- Blue - Sailor Souten - Sailor Blue - Pilot Konpeki - Pilot Asagao - Private Reserve Electric DC Blue (Private Reserve are not good inks, but the color and shading of this blue is 10/10)
- Red - Sailor Irori - Diamine Poppy Red (real reds, no pink ones, no orange ones).

If you are a hardcore fountain pen fun, go for the Kakimori Brass Nib and make your own swatches.

 

[Mercian]

I found most of what are now my 'favourite' inks by reading through the reviews on here.
When I joined, I really didn't have much 'spare' cash to throw around on experimental purchases, so was very reliant on seeing other peoples' photos of inks, and reading their accounts of their experiences with them, before 'risking' ordering anything online.

So, if I thought about buying e.g. a brown ink, I would look through reviews of brown inks, etc.

Luckily for me, as I joined FPN when Sandy1 was still around and reviewing prolifically, I was able to learn early on to not rely solely on an ink's appearance in photos, but also to pay a lot of attention to the physical/performance properties of inks - do they feather/spread/bleed? Are they hard to clean out of a pen? Etc.

And also to read several reviews of any ink, because different reviewers notice different things, or object to different things, or use different types of nib, or types of paper, etc.
Fore-armed with that knowledge, I was able to look at reviews of several inks of any given colour, in order to 'disqualify' inks that do things that I don't like, or ones which don't do things (e.g. shading) that I do like.

That 'method' of 'researching' inks made me far more confident that I was going to get inks that I would like when I ordered them, and it probably saved me a lot of disappointments (and money too).

 

That said, my tastes have changed markedly since when I joined. E.g. when I first joined here I was only interested in inks that produced very solid lines of colour, whereas now I really love inks that give 'shading'.

I was also dead-set against 'blue-black' inks - boring, 'workmanlike' colours, and can't make up their mind what they want to be! - but I got Tempted by some reviews of iron-gall blue-blacks, and now I find that my 'favourite' inks include several blue-blacks 🤯

My list of 'favourites' is a long one - I am a flibbertigibbet who has a very short attention-span, and who is very easily distracted by...
Ooh! Look! A Shiny Thing!

[Janeite]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the topic.  @Mercian, your path and my path sound pretty similar!  In the beginning (not that I'm far into the path), I wanted virtually no shading, though now I am opening up to the idea of some shading.  I would look at colors of interest and then check out reviews, but there's much for me to learn still.  I didn't realize how much I was going to care about water resistance until I would spill a couple of drops of tea and see a page of notes virtually disappear.  Now, I know that's something that I need to look into more.  And I still am far more interested in "colors" than I am in blacks and conservative blues, but I'm beginning to see the utility in those, too.

 

I had gotten a sample of De Atramentis Fuchsia, and I was astounded at how staining that ink was on a glass dip pen.  I never was able to get the pen fully clean, which made me very wary of waterproof type inks, but perhaps that one was just exceptionally staining/strong? 

 

I'm also a sucker for finding things on sale, but perhaps I need to make a list of the inks I want and then just wait for them to go on sale. 

 

Looking forward to hearing about others' process for finding their favorite inks!

[davisgt]

Trial and error. 🙂

 

I prefer darker inks to lighter inks, so I stay away from pastels, yellows, pinks, teals, oranges, and tans. This narrows down the field extensively.  

[Mercian]

4 hours ago, Janeite said:

I didn't realize how much I was going to care about water resistance until I would spill a couple of drops of tea and see a page of notes virtually disappear.  Now, I know that's something that I need to look into more.  And I still am far more interested in "colors" than I am in blacks and conservative blues, but I'm beginning to see the utility in those, too.

 

With my 'Inveterate Enabler' hat firmly on...

 

Look up some reviews of iron-gall blue-black inks! They're very water-resistant... 😊
Go on; you know that you want to...

 

 

E.g.s for low-iron-gall (and easier maintenance) i-g inks:

Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black → linky;

or Rohrer & Klingner Salix → linky;

For 'hard-core' 'heavy iron-gall' inks:

Akkerman #10 IJner-Galnoten Blauw-Zwart → linky;

ESS Registrars' Ink (aka 'ESSRI') → linky;

Diamine Registrars' Ink → linky.

 

Other reviews of those inks are available, and reviews of other companies' i-g blue-blacks (e.g.s Hero, KWZ, and others) are also available too - but the reviews to which I linked above are great places to start learning about what i-g inks can do for you, and what you need to know about how to use them safely in your pens before buying one.
In particular, Sandy1's review of ESSRI generated more replies (and pics from other people showing their results with it) than any other ink review on here, so it should reward going back to the start of it after you have read the post to which I linked (and/or the one that is two after that one), into which I have restored the original photos.

 

Have fun reading!

[MHBru]

I can’t say that I’ve ever looked for a fav ink.  I look for colors that appeal to me and well-behaved inks and go from there,  favorites float to the top.  I can easily say that iroshizuku is my favorite brand.  Kon peki is likely my favorite ink.

[Penguincollector]

    I was merrily lead down the rainbow path of ink by Sheaffer calligraphy sets that were sold seasonally for the holidays in the 1980s. I couldn’t always get lots of colors, but a few stores sold cartridges (my mom vastly preferred that I used them) of Peacock Blue, and that became my signature ink color when using a Sheaffer.
 

  I tend to also like sales, and often will add an ink to an Amazon order. There’s a surprising amount sold on there, and when you are looking for an add on for same day delivery, an ink will often be just the amount I need to reach that threshold. I’ve bought a lot of Japanese ink this way. I also trade ink and paper samples with pen friends local and far away. I have several places to impulsively buy ink all over town, fortunately, as well as online. 
 

   These days, it’s easy to find ink in every color, for every budget. The hard part is getting to know your pens well enough to make decisions about what to buy based on how the pens you use write. I tend to use a pen with ink made by or recommended by the manufacturer for the first fill or two so I can get to know my instrument, so to speak. Then I know what else the pen might like using the first fill as a baseline.  If it’s a vintage pen it gets Waterman first. 

[inkstainedruth]

I'm not sure I have a "favorite" ink.  I like blues and purples, and have come to like blue-blacks, but also like pinks, some greens (if they're not too yellow leaning or blue leaning, and not too bright), reds, and some browns.  Don't use black ink a lot but it has its uses.

Some inks do better in some pens than others and that's going to depend on how wet the pen writes -- I tried vintage Skrip Peacock Blue in a No Nonsense pen with an italic fine nib, and the feathering and bleedthrough was HORRIBLE -- so when I refilled the pen, it was with distilled water, and that helped a LOT with both issues (you'd think that they'd have been okay together since they were the same brand).

I do go though some inks faster than others -- partly because of the amount in the bottle and partly because of usage (I'm going to be hopefully picking up another bottle of Waterman Mysterious Blue -- maybe even two -- at OPS this weekend, because that is the sole ink I use in the Parker Vacumatic Red Shadow Wave pen: the pen/ink combo just works perfectly together and also the ink looks good coming out of the nib.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[midnightblues]

I'm not sure I have a favourite. I have a favourite today, perhaps, or a currently favourite blue but it changes all the time. Like music, sometimes I'm in the mood for Pink Floyd, tomorrow it might be Metallica, next week Toccata and Fugue in B Minor on a full pipe organ! 

As for finding the inks, SAMPLES. I ended up buying most of my samples from the USA, even with shipping it worked out cheaper than buying a bunch of full bottles I didn't like that much. I also treat Diamine 30ml as a big sample as they're so cost effective here in the UK. 

Like @Mercian I look at lots of reviews. Sometimes I get carried away and don't do that and that's usually when I have a surprise. Sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good! However even the inks I was initially a bit "hmmm" about usually have their place at some point. Apart from JH's Bouton d'Or.