About my pen and ink help!

[alexgalexg]

Hello all! Going to add some photos as well im hoping they actually attach and display in 4k. This is my vintage American made Sheaffer Prelude with a custom cursive italic 1mm nib. I love it a lot! My handwriting is nothing flattering so I only supplied the obligatory brief nib/ink test rather than a long writing sample. It's currently inked with Diamine Oxblood ink. I also have Mont Blanc Irish Green and Parker Quink Black. I usually use the black but the others are very fun as well.

If anyone wants to talk about my pen feel free! I'm fairly new to the fountain pen hobby. Before this I used lots of Parker pens. If the photos upload properly then maybe I will add some photos of my other writing utensils as well!

I am not just posting to chat about my pen, id also like some input on what kind of fun inks to buy for it. I definitely need to upgrade my ink status. Nothing that will clog or ruin my pen please! I like this pen very much and Id like it to remain in working order for life. Thanks all!

[alexgalexg]

My pen

[alexgalexg]

My Ink

[alexgalexg]

View of the nib

[alexgalexg]

Obligatory test with Oxblood

[alexgalexg]

My other pens

[Pterodactylus]

Show_response_1688

(Pelikan 400NN - F ..... Diamine Oxblood
Montblanc 342 - EF .....Diamine Prussian Blue
Montblanc 344 - M ..... Diamine Misty Blue)


Despite all FP inks should be save I would recommend for a start to focus on the well known established ink brands.

You can't go wrong with e.g. Pelikan, Diamine, Rohrer & Klingner, Montblanc, Parker, Sailor, J. Herbin, Waterman, Pilot .... only to name some big names.
With these you should have more than enough options to choose.

Stay away for now from what is generally tagged as "Designer Inks" (e.g. like Noodler´s, Private Reserve, Organic Studios,....) and small new supplier, not saying that these inks are in general less save or problematic.
Just indicating that staying with the big players will in general avoid most handling, behavior and other possible issues.

Note: I don´t want to start a general discussion about designer inks again here.


Btw. I almost never use black ink, because for me it´s a boring choice.

[alexgalexg]

I am very jealous of that handwriting! Love the pens too! I couldnt tell you why I favor the black ink. My best guess would be due to the fact that my ink selection is so small. I like that Diamine Misty Blue you wrote with! Almost looks like it has a little sheen to it. I like the inks that have sheen but I was told they can clog your pens. I will definitely be checking out that ink! Thank you!

[Chrissy]

Maybe try some ink samples first to check that you like them before buying full bottles.

[alexgalexg]

Maybe try some ink samples first to check that you like them before buying full bottles.

I likely will. I see you review a lot of ink. I have a question on "sheen" or "shimmer" inks. For example Diamine Golden Sands is an ink I was looking at. Ive heard rumors of those kinds of inks being problematic in pens and its typically recommended to have something like a Lamy pen laying around to use for those types of inks because if the pen is damaged its not such a big deal. Would you say this is true?

[Pterodactylus]

I also own quite a bunch shimmering inks.

First, sheen and shimmering is not the same.

The shimmering inks have sparkling particles in it which shimmer.
Sheen is not produced from added particles, it‘s an optical effect caused by the ink dye or in combination of several dyes.

As a rule of thumb you can say:
As more saturated an ink is as more likely it will produce some sheen.
Sheen is more likely with nibs that have a very generous flow (broad gusher nibs).
Sheen is also highly depending on the paper used, very absorbent paper will most likely has no or very little sheen.


My experience with shimmering inks is that they tend to be problematic regarding flow and clogging the pen.
Use them in pens with broad nibs and a generous flow to minimize these problems ( no fine nibs).
E.g. my son love the shimmering effects, he got this Christmas a TWSBI 580 with a fine nib, loaded it first with Diamine Golden Oasis, but it clogged the pen very fast so that we had to change the ink.

These inks are show inks, they produce a “wow” effect writing a couple of words, but they are not consistent.

Means if you are writing more than a couple of lines the distribution of the shimmering particles will drop dramatically and will be not consistent.
You can try to mitigate or made it less obvious when you shake the ink in the pen quite often (every couple of words).

I would not recommend them for serious writing, mainly because of their not existent consistency (beside their problematic flow issues in fine nibs or nibs with a not very generous flow).

They are show inks, perfectly to write some words like greeting cards or similar.

Just to say it clear, they will not damage a pen, they might clog it (temporarily), but when you flush the pen it’s fixed again.

[Pterodactylus]

Show_response_782 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

(Montblanc 144 - BB ..... Diamine Blue Lightning)



Show_response_768 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

(Pelikan M200 Demonstrator - M italic ..... Diamine Purple Pazzazz)



Show_response_761 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

(Pilot Parallel 1.5 ..... Diamine Blue Pearl)

[alexgalexg]

I also own quite a bunch shimmering inks.

First, sheen and shimmering is not the same.

The shimmering inks have sparkling particles in it which shimmer.
Sheen is not produced from added particles, it‘s an optical effect caused by the ink dye or in combination of several dyes.

As a rule of thumb you can say:
As more saturated an ink is as more likely it will produce some sheen.
Sheen is more likely with nibs that have a very generous flow (broad gusher nibs).
Sheen is also highly depending on the paper used, very absorbent paper will most likely has no or very little sheen.


My experience with shimmering inks is that they tend to be problematic regarding flow and cloaking the pen.
Use them in pens with broad nibs and a generous flow to minimize these problems ( no fine nibs).
E.g. my son love the shimmering effects, he got this Christmas a TWSBI 580 with a fine nib, loaded it first with Diamine Golden Oasis, but it cloaked the pen very fast so that we had to change the ink.

These inks are show inks, they produce a “wow” effect writing a couple of words, but they are not consistent.

Means if you are writing more than a couple of lines the distribution of the shimmering particles will drop dramatically and will be not consistent.
You can try to mitigate or made it less obvious when you shake the ink in the pen quite often (every couple of words).

I would not recommend them for serious writing, mainly because of their not existent consistency (beside their problematic flow issues in fine nibs or nibs with a not very generous flow).

They are show inks, perfectly to write some words like greeting cards or similar.

Just to say it clear, they will not damage a pen, they might cloak it (temporarily), but when you flush the pen it’s fixed again.

Much appreciated! You're very kind. I believe my nib is technically a medium nib (1mm cursive italic). I really only use my pens for journal writing so shimmer certainly wont work for my application. I do have one ink picked out so far though, Waterman Mysterious Blue. Looks very nice. Hoping to pick out 2 more and ill be happy. I go on a few extended road trips in a Jeep I restored every year and this next one in march would be fun to write about and have some color options!

[CrimsonDawn]

Show_response_1688

You have gorgeous handwriting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[azkid]

Very nice pens!

Ink samples are the way to go for trying inks. If you like it but aren't sure, get one more sample to be sure, then get the bottle. Otherwise you might end up with a lot of expensive bottles of ink you don't like.

Sheening inks are cool and all but they are a giant pain to clean out of pens and I'm becoming more conservative about using them in vintage pens. I plan to avoid them from now on. I like shading inks with less dye saturation better anyway.

If you are looking for particular colors I'm sure we can offer recommendations.

I hope to try Mysterious Blue at some point. I got Serenity Blue as it is really well behaved and works in everything but... I don't like that color of blue (reminds me of boring ballpoint blue) so I guess that was kind of dumb on my part.

I like darker blues with less saturated hues like Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo or Shin-Kai, or Diamine Twilight (the ink is too dry-writing though) or Registrar's Blue-Black (iron gall). Diamine Oxford blue seems nice if you want more of a rich, pure dark blue.

The challenge isn't so much finding a color you like as restraining yourself

[alexgalexg]

Thank you for the reply azkid! I really am fascinated with the shading inks. I don't really have any specific color in mind so my variety of samples is very broad. They were supposed to be here days ago but Goulet pen company seems to have some downright shameful shipping. I liked that I could make my own variety packs but at this rate I may avoid them in the future.