The best Travel Pens for Iron Gall Inks (review and experiment)

[efpen]

(This is a review of 6 fountain pens with two different filling mechanisms inked with R&K  iron gall inks and their fitness for travel)

 

I am on a personal quest to find the best travel pen for the R&K Salix and Scabiosa iron gall inks.

First of all -- what is a travel pen? For me, a travel pen is a fountain pen that I am comfortable to take with me on an airplane or to put in my backpack and go on a bumpy mountain bike ride without fear of it burping or leaking ink. So far I have found two types of fountain pens that meet my travel pen requirements -- Japanese eye-droppers like Opus 88 and vacuum fillers like TWSBI vac700R, Pilot Custom 823, Asvine V126 or PenBBS 456. Both these types of pen come with a shut-off valve that, when engaged, seals off the section from the barrel minimizing the chances of ink burping or leaking, an important trait for a travel pen.

 

For this review I chose 6 pens -- two Opus 88 (Clear Jazz with Flex EF nib and Clear Demonstrator with a regular EF nib), three TWSBI vac700R variants (regular, Iris and Kyanite, all with EF nibs) and one Asvine V126 also with an EF nib. 

 

Before going any further, a few words about the R&K iron gall inks that I used. Both Salix and Scabiosa are dry inks and all 6 pens were suffering from a dry and inconsistent ink flow out of the box (skipping, rail-roading, faint lines). I resolved this ink flow problem with the help of the White Lighting additive from vaness1938. After some trial & error experimentation I settled on adding 1 drop of White Lightning to 5ml of Salix or Scabiosa ink. This procedure resulted in a wet and consistent flow in Opus 88 and TWSBI vac700R pens. Asvine V126 flow improved too but was still not as good as the others. Instead on White Lightening one can use dish washing liquid soap (no idea about the right concentration).

 

I have been running my experiment for about a month and am ready to present my preliminary score card. No pen has come out a perfect travel pen for the Salix or Scabiosa iron gall ink. There are pros and cons for each one of the pens. That said, here is the current leader board.

 

The winner -- Opus 88 Jazz with Flex EF nib. 

Pros:

1. Construction Quality. The pen is made like a tank with a strong and durable resin. No chance of cracking or breaking under normal use.
2. The stainless-steel nib is the only metal part in the pen reducing chances of corrosion by acidic nature of iron gall inks. The plunger rod is made of firm plastic. No nib corrosion has been observed so far in my experiment.
3. Shut-off valve to seal-off the ink barrel preventing ink from burping or leaking.
4. Huge ink capacity (2.4ml for Jazz and 3.4ml for Clear Demonstrator)
5. Ease of disassembly and cleaning. Eye droppers are designed for ease of unscrewing the section. After all this is how you refill the pen. This is particularly important when using iron gall inks that generally require more frequent cleaning/flushing than the die-based inks.

 

Cons: the cons are more subjective and the readers may disagree:

1. The Opus 88 are bulky. I would prefer a bit thinner body.
2. The Opus 88 EF nibs write well but I slightly prefer the nibs in TWSBI vac700R. It is a little surprising that they write differently because both Opus 88 and vac700R use JoWo #6 (aka #12) nibs. Go figure 🙂 

 

Close Runner Up -- TWSBI vac700R

Pros:

1. Great Writing. I like vac700R EF nib better than the similar Opus 88 EF nib.
2. Pen Ergonomics is to my liking (thinner body than Opus 88).
3. Large Ink Capacity of almost 2ml when filled to the brim using Pineider ink well.
4. Shut-off valve to seal-off the ink in the barrel from the section similar to the Opus 88.
5. Good cap design with a o-ring on the base of the section to prevent ink from drying out when the cap is closed. 

 

Cons: 

1. Construction is good but not as solid as of Opus 88. There are reports over Internet about TWSBI pens cracking problem. I have had three vac700R pens for about a year and none of them cracked yet. The blind cap's threads are plastic in direct contact with the metal threads of the vacuum mechanism. Over time metal threads will damage the plastic ones.
2. Very quickly, after two or three refills with iron gall ink the plunger has become very stiff making vacuum filling mechanism hard to operate. It happened with all three vac700R pens I have been using. Applying silicon oil that comes with TWSBI pens is of little help. After couple of refills the plunger is stiff again. It seems that iron gall ink deposits ferrous oxide on the plunger's rubber gasket, or silicon oil is somehow negatively affected by the acid in the ink. I never had such problems with die or pigment based inks. Following Ron Z's recommendation I applied Molykote 111 silicon grease -- a thick hydrophobic substance that is supposed to be chemically inert. So far it is working better than the TWSBI silicon oil but I need more time to evaluate Molykote 111 effectiveness. This serious issue alone put TWSBI vac700R in the second place. If not for this problem vac700R would be a clear winner. 

 

The last place -- Asvine V126.

Pros:

1. The price -- at $26 on Amazon it is by far the cheapest
2. Aesthetics of Pilot Custom 823 that Asvine V126 copied.

Cons:

1. Stiff EF nib. I do not like how it writes.
2. Poor construction quality. The Shut-off valve does not seal properly. The pen leaked ink into the cap while on the airplane. 

 

I will be continuing my experiments and hope to provide an update in a month.

 

[Merrick]

Sorry to hear the Asvine leaked on you. I took one on a plane trip filled with Kon-peki and it was completely sealed during the trip without issue. 

[efpen]

3 hours ago, Merrick said:

Sorry to hear the Asvine leaked on you. I took one on a plane trip filled with Kon-peki and it was completely sealed during the trip without issue. 

I suspect it might be iron gall ink that interacts with the rubber gasket.

[Mercian]

Hi @efpen,
if you can get hold of one, I suspect that a 'UK Parker Duofold' from 1953 onwards may be a good 'travel pen' for any i-g ink.

 

It has the same 'aerometric' fill system as a Parker "51" Special, so it ought not to burp ink with the pressure changes on aircraft.
That said, it doesn't have the complex 'collector' that is in the front of a "51", so I cannot be sure about it.
Its ebonite feed (with ink-channels that were cut in to it, rather than being the fine channels from injection-moulded feeds) makes it very 'wet' writing, and it is the pen that I have dedicated to my ESS Registrars' Ink - which is a 'heavy iron-gall' ink.
The flow is perfect, and the ink oxidises fully to black, while retaining the tight lines that are a characteristic of i-g inks.
They were made in several sizes, so you should be able to get one that is a perfect fit for your hand.

 

But, if you are only using 'light i-g' inks, I have had superb results from unadulterated R&K Salix in my own two aerometric-fill Parker "51"s - and those will undoubtedly be able to cope with air travel. They were even advertised as being fit for such back in the days when aircraft cabins were pressurised less-well, so should be perfect in modern aircraft.

Weirdly though, I found that R&K Scabiosa felt so 'dry' in my "51" that I actually dumped it out of the pen. Your White Lightning may be a good idea there.

And I definitely wouldn't put my ESSRI (or Diamine Registrars' Ink, or Akkerman #10) through a "51" - the collector has too many very-fine channels for me to trust it.
I once had some Salix dry out in a "51", and getting it all out of the collector unit took me several weeks of running vinegar through the pen!

 

The only 'downside' for you of the vintage Parker "51" is that the nibs on them are all very stiff. No 'flex' at all.

 

Slàinte,
M.

[efpen]

Thanks @Mercian for the suggestion.

I will try to find `UK Parker Duofold`  but I doubt that it has shut-off valve.

 

In meanwhile, I acquired Pineider Avatar Twin Tank Touchdown currently on sale by several vendors. It is a great vacuum filler and made as a tank surviving Dante's hammer and Doodlebud's multiple drops on the floor. I will include it in my ratings of the travel pens when I use it for long enough to form an opinion. So far everything is great except for some concerns over magnetic cap causing nib drying out (need to experiment more).

 

Best,

EF.

[Mercian]

15 minutes ago, efpen said:

I will try to find `UK Parker Duofold`  but I doubt that it has shut-off valve.

 

I can confirm that it DOESN'T have a shut-off valve.

 

If that information doesn't put you off from buying one, and you would like some more information about the various pens in this range, I recommend that you take a look at this ↓ website:

https://parkerpens.net/ukduofold.html

 

[lamarax]

I believe the Pilot custom 823 is the one you seek; I have filled up mine with Aurora Black (a rather viscous ink) for 1½ year and it's still going!

 

Some puny "light" IG ink (Pelikan BB, R&K Salix or Scabiosa, Platinum Classics etc.) won't make it sweat, even if you were to take it along crossing the Pacific with an inflatable duck.

[efpen]

@lamarax Thanks for your suggestion!

 

I do have two Pilot Custom 823 pens (Ember and Clear). I use them with pigment inks (Platinum Carbon Black and Platinum Pigment Blue). At some point in the future I will try to ink them with light Iron-Gall inks.