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.

Taccia Inks

My son (in Sweden) asked me to see if I could get a bottle of Taccia Ukiyo-e Hokusai-sabimidori ink. This is described as "rust green" and one article says they can't make enough of it to meet demand. They have many other interesting inks. The Ukiyo-e inks are their premium and have classic Japanese artwork ont he boxes.

Lennon Toolbar Inks

Every time I turn around I trip over another brand of Ink. These are from Taiwan and I have yet to sample any. 
  •  Lennon Toolbar Ink review

    • 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 Bilberry. 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.

    Blue-Black inks

    I had dismissed black inks, but then put black into an EF Sailor pen I bought and was delighted. So black is back for me now! Then I ran into this article about blue-black inks. I have not yet acquired one, but it is only a matter of time: Pelikan 4001 Blue Black has special notoriety as it was banned (in error) for a while.

    Another one to consider is Pilot Iroshizuku "Tsuki-yo" or "Shin-kai". (I lean towards Shin-kai -- which means deep sea.

    Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

    Tom's Pen Info / tom@mmto.org