Which are the more safe inks for vintage pens?

[LAntunes]

Hi!!!! I have a problem!!!

Read to much about all the things i like!

One of them, our beloved fountain pens.

 

I have a lot of fountain pens. I also cut nibs and make some simple repairs, but not an expert!!!!

One of them is a vintage Parker 51 Aerometric,  some MB vintage, like a 252, a 344 and also a 146 and a 149.

The 146 and 149 with ebonite feeder. All of them lovely pens.

 

I normaly use Parker Quink Black (in the past this ink corroted a vintage FB flexible nib, because forgot to clean) and Waterman Black amd green.

I saw some articles in the net that shows the PH ink, so it shows Waterman Misterious Blue 7.6ph. I have so that's the one.

149 charged and then i see in another place saying that ph is about 3...Good God...i putted in the Parker 51 Waterman Absolute Brown (PH 6,5)

The question is...where to find the real ph level? some say one thing others another.

I will buy way to mesasure myself, but what you think about that?

 

Thanks in advanced

[inkstainedruth]

I don't know about the pH for most inks (other than that iron gall inks are pretty acidic (low pH) and that I've read that some Japanese inks are very alkaline (high pH).  Which is why I'm more than a little OCD when it comes to flushing pens out -- especially early on here where someone decided to mix Noodler's Black (pretty neutral pH) and Baystate Blue (very alkaline) together and put the mix in a pen without seeing how they reacted.  And the photos?  They weren't pretty....

I tend to lean less on the pH of an ink than on how wet the ink is (I wouldn't want an ink that's got a lot of pigment in it clogging up the capillary filler on any of my Parker 61s -- so tend to use the basic J Herbin inks like Eclat de Saphir.  OTOH, I've used purple inks (and Noodler's ones at that) in some of my Parker 51s (I figure that those can't be NEARLY as corrosive as Parker Superchrome -- which apparently destroyed the feeder tubes on some early 51s even though they were partially DESIGNED to use that ink).

And I use Waterman inks in a number of vintage pens (my Parker Vacumatics in particular), after getting a Red Shadow Wave at my first pen show, and taking it to the Indy-Pen-Dance table to be checked out and after being told the pen seemed to be in good shape, and Mike Kennedy tested it with water and told me the diaphragm in it was fine, I said "You got ink?"  And he said, "I've got Waterman Mysterious Blue...."  and I ran that pen for THREE YEARS with no maintenance other than refilling it with WMB as needed.  And just recently put that pen back into rotation and refilled it this morning with WMB again. 

I'm more concerned with flow (I put Iroshizuku Yama-guri in my first Pelikan (a 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise) and it was just too wet an ink.  But that same pen SAVED Noodler's Walnut (which is dry dry dry) and does VERY well with Edelstein Smoky Quartz (I've read that Pelikan nibs and feeds are designed to be wet because their standard line inks are so dry).

A lot of times it's just a matter of "try it and see if it works or not" for me....  And expect to be doing lots of flushing if it doesn't....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[LAntunes]

Thanks, I see that the WMB is a great ink!!!! Using AI to help the AI say to be careful so I became alarmed!

[Dillo]

pH is not really that important as much as the actual formulation of the ink. For those inks, I would stick with brands like Pelikan, Waterman, Montblanc, and Diamine. I would avoid anything with shimmer, the permanent inks with pigments like the permanent inks Montblanc makes and carbon or other pigmented inks, and red inks. The Pelikan Brilliant Red, Diamine Hope Ink, Diamine Orange all contain Allura Red dye which can cause corrosion in steel nibs, stain, and be really difficult to clean out of the pen. I would avoid iron gall inks in many things, but your 149 and 146 are probably going to be fine with them.

 

I would also avoid the Noodler's and Private Reserve. Noodler's I have seen a lot of problems in my pens and many pens I've repaired and there isn't a lot of consistency with the way they are formulated from batch to batch.

 

All of the pens you have there are generally quite robust, so I wouldn't worry. The Parker "51" may need a new breather tube if you haven't had it replaced yet.

[LAntunes]

Thanks for all the help!

[Doc Dan]

What about De Atramentis Document Inks?

[torstar]

definitely NOT the first recipe for Baystate Blue... 

 

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

19 hours ago, LAntunes said:

Thanks, I see that the WMB is a great ink!!!! Using AI to help the AI say to be careful so I became alarmed!

I have yet to have “ai” provide the correct answer to anything I have asked. It is notoriously unreliable. 
 

also, IMO any fountain pen ink will be fine in a Parker “51” Aerometric. They are borderline bulletproof. Some will just be harder to clean out. But build this:  

  and you’ll be fine. 
 

as to the other pens, I have no experience with MB pen.
But in general the opinion seems to be (because this question comes up a LOT…) “use ink made by companies who also make pens, and you’ll be fine” as they are unlikely to make an ink that is bad for pens.
 

(Just stay away from Parker “51” ink and SuperChrome inks. Search the forum for why, but they are vintage inks anyways and you’d have to go out of your way to find them… I did)

[torstar]

2 minutes ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

I have yet to have “ai” provide the correct answer to anything I have asked. It is notoriously unreliable. 
 

 

 

strictly forbidden to use at work for anything to do with work... thank goodness...

 

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

1 minute ago, torstar said:

 

strictly forbidden to use at work for anything to do with work... thank goodness...

 

 

I worked in tech for two decades including as a programmer. This “ai” thing is the biggest BS scam I’ve ever seen or heard of.
 

Aside from the tools to help rewrite text that’s a little clumsy (which can be handy) the entire thing is useless junk. And a waste of time and precious electricity. 
 

end rant, back to pens  

[torstar]

23 minutes ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

I worked in tech for two decades including as a programmer. This “ai” thing is the biggest BS scam I’ve ever seen or heard of.
 

Aside from the tools to help rewrite text that’s a little clumsy (which can be handy) the entire thing is useless junk. And a waste of time and precious electricity. 
 

end rant, back to pens  

 

seems to be a godsend to those who don't want to read the required text, write an essay, do any math, think...

 

so basically all but us 5% who enjoy those things, and do them for $$$, until we die from old age... 

 

a lawyer up here was hammered for citing a case that was "hallucinated" by AI

 

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

2 hours ago, torstar said:

 

 

 

a lawyer up here was hammered for citing a case that was "hallucinated" by AI

 

 

As i said. It’s junk. Worse than Useless. Useless would be to provide NO answer. But ai instead provides wildy incorrect answers. Which is far worse. Junk. All of them. 

[torstar]

6 minutes ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

As i said. It’s junk. Worse than Useless. Useless would be to provide NO answer. But ai instead provides wildy incorrect answers. Which is far worse. Junk. All of them. 

 

Hallucinating is a great thing to rely on for school grades or professional reports... 

 

i won't dismiss it entirely, i see medical cures attributed each week... 

 

as a Gen X i watched the effects of Boomer/Hippie new flavours of the week as the fantasy cratered. 

 

awhile back a scholar invented a meeting between DIckens and Dostoyevsky in London and it was quickly accepted into the literary criticism community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Yup forgive me if i ignore The opinions of the “literary criticism community”…

 

back to inks

 

 

safe inks = boring standard inks. Which is just fine if thats what your worried about. Wrt your “51”: its a tank. It'll be fine