New to ink

[Whittg]

I am brand new to fountain pens and ink. I just bought a Pilot Metropolitan, a Jinhao x750 with a Goulet fine nib on it, and my next purchase will be a Sailor pro gear slim or pro gear slim 2. I have just started back in college and I am looking for an every day ink or inks that are good for taking notes and writing papers? I prefer black, but I also like some dark blues. If there are other colors that are good for those applications I am open to them as well.

[AZBennett]

Waterman Mysterious Blue, Pilot Kon-Peki, Noodlers X-Feather, Diamine Prussian Blue, those are some of my current favorites.

[recluse]

When it comes to black inks, I think yours is the case when Noodler's Black fits the bill nicely. Among different features, which are shared by many inks, it's quite tolerant to the quality of the paper (read, less bleeding through and feathering) plus it's waterproof and, therefore, will withstand usual hazards of college environment.

Noodler's Black is not unique, of course, from this perspective. Sailor Nano Black is also quite good if not expensive (I prefer a bit more the color of Noodler's Black).

If the paper quality and possible water damage are not an issue, then there's a plethora of good black inks: Aurora Black, Pelikan Brilliant Black, J. Herbin Perle Noire to name a few.

When it comes to dark blue, however, it becomes complicated. There are many good dark blue inks out there: Noodler's Ottoman Azure, Private Reserve Supershow Blue, Diamine Majestic Blue and more. All of them, however, have some unpleasant features, which may be important or not important at all. For instance, Majestic Blue is prone to hiccups and smudging, Noodler's Blue and Ottoman Azure may feather and bleed through and so on. Then, there are blue-black inks, which is the whole universe on their own. Diamine Blue-Black is definitely nice. Some people swear by Noodler's 54th Massachusetts and for a reason (I, personally, am not a big fan, somehow it doesn't appeal to me).

[View from the Loft]

My go to inks are Diamine Onyx (black) and Diamine Midnight (a dark blue). Neither are waterproof, but both are well behaved (so on reasonable paper no bleed through or feathering), inexpensive (at least in the UK) and are easy to flush out of pens.

My suggestion is go and look at the ink reviews, and narrow your choices down that way. Then head over to one of the vendors offering samples and buy samples of your short list and use them to find your favourites. What works for me may well be awful for you and vice versa.

[reprieve]

Ink samples from Goulet Pens or Anderson Pens or ISellPens will save you a lot of money and allow you to experiment with different colors until you find your favorites.

For a reliable black ink, if you want waterproofness, I would also recommend Noodler's Black. Otherwise, my favorites (non-waterproof) are Aurora Black, for its wetness and darkness, and Noodler's Dark Matter, for its very subtle and complicated greenish undertones.

Blues are tough because there are so many shades: teals, blue-blacks, purplish blues, greenish blues, bright sky blues, turquoises, etc.

Pilot Blue-black is a nice dark blue that is water-resistant. It is very well-behaved, easy to clean out of pens, shades well, works nicely with many kinds of papers (though it is a wetter ink so it can feather on very cheap notebook paper). Pilot Blue is similarly well-behaved. These are my go-to blue inks. They are relatively inexpensive, too, which is nice.

Rohrer and Klingner Salix is an iron gall ink, which will have both permanence and a very high tolerance for cheap paper. Just be sure to flush your pen regularly to prevent clogging. Platinum Blue-black is another very nice iron gall ink.

Sailor Sei-boku Blue-black is a pigmented waterproof dark teal blue. It's very pretty, shades well, and looks a bit different depending on paper and nib. I've had this ink in my TWSBI Mini for several months and have been very happy with it.

If you're not concerned about waterproofness or water-resistance, I would recommend: Diamine Midnight, Diamine Florida Blue, Iroshizuku Asa-gao (or any other Iroshizuku ink), Noodler's Aircorp Blue-black, Aurora Blue, De Atramentis Atlantic Blue, De Atramentis Pigeon Blue, Rohrer and Klingner Verdigris, etc., etc., etc.

I could go on and on. Order some samples! Have fun with it! Let us know what you end up liking.

[Sailor Kenshin]

For dark blues: Diamine Twilight and Denim, Waterman Blue-Black (or whatever they're calling it these days!). Since you have the Pilot Met, look into Pilot Black and Blue carts as well.

[Avalona]

Pilot (or Namiki, for some reason, the same ink is available under both names. The only difference I can see is that Pilot bottles are slightly bigger in mLs and easier to store than the Namiki's UFO-shaped bottles) Black is actually my favourite black. It works well on not great paper. I'm not sure of the water resistance, though, and it's not the blackity-blackest ever, more of a deep charcoal black. I use it on Hilroy recycled paper with some frequency and I don't have any major problems with it ever. (It's the same ink that's in the Pilot cartridges, so if you want to try it out before buying a full bottle, get a box of the cartridges for your Metropolitan).

I don't use much in terms of deep/dark blues (I prefer brighter blues if I'm going to use that colour, like Sailor Sky High or J. Herbin's Eclat de Saphir), but I can say that many of the blue-blacks have some interesting colour quirks. Like, the two I have are actually more or less green-blue-black. Waterman's Mysterious Blue turns a deep teal once it dries (which is pretty cool, but if you want something actually blue, then it's kind of useless), and Noodler's Air Corps Blue-Black is a more intense, blackened version of Mysterious Blue. So, definitely look at swatches - sometimes the colour isn't what they say they are.

[Whittg]

Thank you all. These are all great suggestions. I am going to buy some samples to try out and see what works best. Also I would love a great green/black.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hmmm....Diamine Green-Black, or Chesterfield Erinite, both very deep greens with good properties.

[7188photo]

Black-Blue? Montblanc Midnight Blue by far! Plus it's water resistant which is a big plus if these notes you take are in any way important...

[Aleks]

trust me on thisone; try them all (you wont regret it!)

[ac12]

I would recommend you get either samples of or bottles of Waterman and Pelikan black.
The reason for this is, you don't know how wet or dry your pen will be.
I put Waterman ink in the pen first. Waterman is a wet ink, if the pen writes well fine. If the ink flows out and you get too much ink on the paper, switch to the dryer Pelikan ink. That is what I do.

I also recommend a 2nd color that is contrasting to the black. That way you can make notes/comments in your class notes, and easily find them later.

gud luk

[snedwos]

You need some pink and orange in your life...

[Jeph]

For me black means Aurora Black. <Note the complete lack of any qualifying statements!>

For dark blue my favorite is Diamine midnight.

For "just" blue, the options are too many and what I like can change daily if not hourly. My baseline is Diamine Sapphire blue as it is what I use when I can't decide.

A great deal of the fun with inks is finding out what suits you, not what other people like.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Black-Blue? Montblanc Midnight Blue by far! Plus it's water resistant which is a big plus if these notes you take are in any way important...

Oh, yes. I got a bottle not long ago and it hasn't left my pens since.

The shade is a muted blue-black on the denim-y side that shows gray tones under certain conditions. Paper has a lot to do with that.