I know with a lot of vintage pens it is recommended to use "well behaved inks", what does this mean and what should I be looking for?
Is it ok to use Shimmering inks? What about permanent or Noodler's inks?
I know with a lot of vintage pens it is recommended to use "well behaved inks", what does this mean and what should I be looking for?
Is it ok to use Shimmering inks? What about permanent or Noodler's inks?
If you’re worried about it, use a washable blue from Pelikan, Waterman, Parker, Montblanc or Lamy. Other colors are probably OK but anything with red dye will be harder to clean and can potentially gunk up your pen. Blue is the easiest to clean. Pelikan Blue-Black is an iron gall ink which can corrode the steel nib.
Alkaline inks will shorten the life of the latex sac. Most Japanese inks are alkaline.
I use only Waterman inks. I read that vintage pens like wet inks and Waterman is known to be a wet ink. I have a few Esterbrooks from the 1930's-mid '50's.
Quink (permanent) Black is a good one for my Esterbrooks. It isn't overloaded with dye so it's easy to clean and it flows a bit wetter than some inks so it works well with those pens.
Not all vintage pens like wet inks. My Esterbrooks tend to write drier so they do.
But My Wahl Ringtop and Vacumatics flow on the very wet side so I use drier inks: Pelikan black in the Wahl and so far Diamine Twilight has worked well in one of the Vacumatics (one of few pens it works well in)
Latex interacts with all kinds of stuff, unfortunately. Based on what pen repairers have written here and there it is probably safest to stick to well established ink makers and use inks with less dye and a more neutral ph.
Waterman serenity blue and mysterious blue both flow well in a variety of pens and many trust it.
Esterbrooks are impervious to everything you could throw at them.
I tend to use Waterman inks in my vintage pens. It's less of a hassle to get them clean when the time comes.
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carlos.q (September 14th, 2020)
I like to try out all of my new or "new to me" pens with Waterman inks first as a sort of barometer that gives me a good idea of what ink I might need to use in the pen. It always shows me whether I will need a dryer flowing or a wetter flowing ink in a particular pen.
And as you say they are always easy to clean out of pens and off of fingers and hands.
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KrazyIvan (September 18th, 2020), SlowMovingTarget (September 17th, 2020)
I'm a big Noodler's fan and use it pretty much exclusively in my newer converter, PF, pens.........., but sac pens beware. I have melted many a sac using Noodlers and use only vintage (or new) Sheaffer Skrip, Waterman and Parker.
No issues anymore
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I considered Noodlers for a couple of minutes.
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