October 1, 2024

Notes on fountain pen inks

Elsewhere I have a list of inks that I use and my comments on them.

One of the best things about fountain pens is that you aren't limited to the usual blues and blacks you get with ball point pens. I would even say that it is a mistake to limit yourself to conservative inks -- if you are just going to use black or deep blue ink, you should just write with a ball point pen.

Goulet sells 2ml samples -- about enough to fill a converter pen twice.
Some sellers offer 10ml mini-bottles.
A normal bottle is 30 or 50 ml.

Pilot Iroshizuku inks

These used to be very expensive "luxury" inks, but these days the pricing is reduced and in line with any quality ink. These are worth buying, just for the bottles. My first was the blue "Kon Peki", which I ordered and got impatient for until I realized it was shipping from Japan! This was some time ago. These days you can buy these inks on Amazon at decent prices and have them in a few days.

Red inks

Red inks are not limited to teachers correcting high school english papers. Red inks are great! I have Noodlers "Nikita red" as well as J. Herbin "Rouge hematite". Nikita is a pretty standard red. Rouge hematite is deeper and more interesting.

The next I may try is Diamine "Writers blood".

Purple inks

I am enjoying Diamine Biberry. It gives a dark line and you might think it was just a dark blue ink if you weren't paying attention. It is blue-purple. The words, magenta, purple, and violet are essentially synonymous in common usage. Some say that magenta is "red-purple". You will be better off looking at photos of the inks that trying to decypher words, but even photos have their limitations.

I also have Sailor "Jentle" Oku Yama. Some call it a magenta ink, and it can yield a green sheen if you lay it on thick (I never do). The name means "remote mountain". The Jentle ink series is no longer offered, but you can buy this in a 20ml bottle in the Shikiori series. I see this ink compared to Diamine Oxblood and they are quite similar. The lesson I guess is that red inks grade into purple inks, and/or vice versa.

Green inks

Blue inks

I once had a bottle of Watterman's blue. I gave it away. There is/was nothing wrong with it, but there is nothing exciting about it either. I looks like any blue ink out of a ball point pen.
Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Pen Info / tom@mmto.org