what is best ink?

[Rifleman1776]

I'm sure it has been discussed before but I wasn't paying attention and can't find with a search. A customer (a high end store) wants to know what is the best [e.g. highest quality] ink for fountain pens. One of their customers bought one of my pens and wants this info. Thanks.

 

[RussFairfield]

All of the fancy brands have their advocates, but I still like Parker Quink. It is available at Office Depot at a price that is 1/2 that of Private Reserve or Noodlers, and there is no postage. The only problem is that it comes in only 3 colors - blue, black, and blue/black.

 

[Monty]

From what I've read, Private Reserve and Noodlers are two of the best. Just take this for what ever it's worth.

 

[IPD_Mrs]

I personally love Private Reserve. No shipping either as the guy that developed it is right here in our little town.

 

[tnilmerl]

Hmmmm, highest QUALITY. Tough question. I've used a lot. As far as BOTTLED ink, Lately I've been using Noodlers. I like it. Comes with eye dropper for the eye dropper type fills. Used Waterman and like it, used Pelican and Mont Blanc, so so. The are a couple of custom ground/blended ink houses, don't recall their names off the top of my head. Look at Farhneys and Pendemodiums.

Now, this will probably start an ink war, but as far as pre-filled ink cartridges go, I favor Watermans. They have a very large selection of colors and you can buy a box at a time. The cartridges are larger than the short cartridges normally supplied with the kits and last longer. Now, this may be a downside, since you should use the all the ink before storing the pen for any length of time, but this goes regardless of the size of cartridge. The big advantage to pump/piston systems is that you can empty any excess ink back into the bottle at the end of the day and not waste any.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Now Frank... the answer is simple. It's yes!

Every pen, paper and user will be diffrent, taste is diffrent. That said, I like Visconti the best.

 

[jjudge]

Hit the www.FountainPenNetwork.com's forum for "Inky Thoughts" -- you'll see the RANGE of answers to this.

There are a lot of fine inks -- J Herbin, Noodlers, Private Reserve, and others (Parker, Waterman, Aurora, etc)
- Some only do blue, black inks
- Some do some amazing range of colors
- In the ranges (J Herbin, PR) you'll get some common favorites: PR Grey Flannel, Aurora Black, J Herbin Eclat d'Saphir, etc.

There are very few clear winners, that a lot of people tend to identify as a whole -- e.g., Aurora Black is "the" black, some inks are great for shading, some are the best royal blue, Sherwood Green is the writing dark green, Tanazanite is the best purple/blue but is slow to dry, etc.

There are some common perceptions -- e.g.,
- some of the Noodlers inks clog up some folks' pens; and
- Iron Gall inks are just BAD for non-gold (i.e., steel nibs as they eat the metal.
- Ink cartridges don't offer much color range compared to bottled inks
... notice, some true, and some maybe/don't know or "it depends"


Do like I did today -- get a 12-pack of PR Tanzanite, Dakota Red, and Placid Blue are US$6.50 each ... ink a few, and pull up some bottled Quink blue in a clear demonstrator and start scribbling around !!!


-- joe

me? trying to find something different than the Tanzanite I've been using.

 

[Scott]

I have lots of different inks, in lots of different colors. All of them have their good points (well, most anyway!). The brand that wins, in my book, for overall quality is Watermans. It is the ink I use when a pen is stubborn, or doesn't like other inks. The flow quality is great! I understand that the Parker Quink recommended by Russ above is pretty much identical, seeing as both companies are owned and manufactured by the same company.

Other inks I like quite a bit are the Visconti, Noodlers and Private Reserve.

Good Luck!

Scott.

 

[johncrane]

l am still a bit off a green horn on inks, but l have tried a few.And l am with Scott on this one! l really like the Watermans.

 

[jeffj13]

It has been said before, but bears repeating. Pear Tree Pens has s sampler program where you can sample 4 different inks for $4.

Not only do you get the ink, but you get 4 small bottles that you can then use to give customers a small sample of ink when they buy a pen.

jeff

 

[bgray]

All of the advise given above is good advise.

The only thing that I'll add is that I don't trust the ink that comes with kits. Especially Berea ink.

They usually pose no problem, but there have been times where I put a nib that doesn't write well under a 10x loupe, and there is absulutely nothing wrong with it.

Then I get rid of the Berea ink, and put Private reserve in the pen and Viola.

This doesn't happen real often, but if I've adjusted the nib for flow and smoothness....and still it doesn't write well, I try different inks.

I never give out kit inks with my pens.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Scott, bottom line is that you want an ink that makes the customer want to spend more money on your pens because they appear high end. If all the ink you had laid out were say refills, it looks cheap. Noodlers has one down side, it "looks cheap" Lots of ink, cool labels very plain white boxes. They have some great colors and some great inks, but it's kind of like buying in bulk. You get a lot for your money, but you loose the flash that yells "buy me".
We all have our favorties, but this is from using the inks.I highly recomend the sample program from PTP to anyone who buys a pen and teach them that ink is a highly personal choice. You really need to find the one that you love and this can take a few tests to get the right one.
What you need is one or two (or more) ink lines that have all the flash to bring in your buyer into the inky depths.[}] For this, let's face it, you need ink that just yells out "look at me". Visconti has the bottles nailed for looks, and the box looks like a ring would be inside it. One plus side is that you can buy larger "refill bottles" cheaper to refill the nice bottle. Diamine has a decent looking bottle, but grabs you in with the fact they have been making ink since 1864. J. Herbin?? Well, it's French! There are a few others that have this flash, but some of the others have an old look, but more of an "I have been in a store for the last 50 years un-touched" Which may be wanted by a ton of people, but for someone who is new may not be an attraction.

Here are a couple of mine. Try to look at it as "What does the buyer want to see" because they are the one who will buy the ink based either on knowledge or looks.

 

[PenWorks]

Got Ink ? [:0] []
Some different bottle samples