Kung te Chang! Have not heard that one for a while. Great name. Great shading! Great color.
What are your "top five" inks?
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tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
Okay, I'll play. In no particular order...
Pilot Iroshizuku Tzuki-yo: My favorite ink color period (but I know tealish blue-blacks are not everyone's jam)
Visconti Blue: The best pure blue; just the right shade of dark blue, but not quite navy
Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite: My birth stone, but also a great shader with the right nib
Pilot Iroshizuku Asa Gao: Another great blue that really pops; when I write with Asa Gao, it feels like I'm shouting on the paper
R&K Salix: My go-to IG for permanent writing and taming gushy vintage nibs
Pilot Iroshizuku Tzuki-yo: My favorite ink color period (but I know tealish blue-blacks are not everyone's jam)
Visconti Blue: The best pure blue; just the right shade of dark blue, but not quite navy
Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite: My birth stone, but also a great shader with the right nib
Pilot Iroshizuku Asa Gao: Another great blue that really pops; when I write with Asa Gao, it feels like I'm shouting on the paper
R&K Salix: My go-to IG for permanent writing and taming gushy vintage nibs
That was my favorite ink for a very long time. It is exquisite in color and performance. Well-said about the Asa Gao. It really does pop. Sort of the opposite from that pop is Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun, a nuanced gray, which seems soothing to me for some reason. Looks a bit like pencil, but more sophisticated.
I've got a bottle ... love the color too, but found it a little "runny" for most of my arsenal. Too much ink and it starts to feather and bleed.
Another thing, I've never tried the Edelstein Tanzanite. Looks subtly understated.
tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
Being a Japanese ink, Pilot Iro does indeed run wet. Its designed for dry Japanese pens. Its all too wet for gushy Western pens, especially vintage pens with ebonite feeds. Also, I wouldn't use Iro in a vintage pen since Japanese inks are alkaline.
Yes, exactly - Tanzanite is a nice understated ink. Even though its billed as a "blue-black", I would say its closer to the "black" side. From my fine nibs, it looks straight up black, but with a nice broad nib it comes alive with enough blue-grey and fantastic shading to make it interesting. I think many Pelikan aficionados would compare it to -and often even prefer - Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. However, I do enjoy the personal connection, as silly as that is, to an ink named after my birthstone. For that matter, I like Pelikan Edelstein Topaz for the same reason, though I don't like Topaz's color quite as much.
tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
Well said, sir. Thank you. I've never tried Fuyu-Syogun, but am intrigued. I have to wonder, if I loaded that into a Sailor with its characteristic "pencil-like" feedback, would I basically be writing with a $500 pencil?
Ha! Yes, I guess so. One you can't erase! I suppose there are only a couple of fountain pens I ever end up using, and I have not had problems with the Iro inks, or any other inks I have tried, that I can think of, in them.
I suppose we could have a whole thread or just continue in this one on what inks folks use for what purposes, and whether we intentionally switch off.
As I recall, I liked the Fuyu-Syogun as a kind of informal ink for journals and the like. It seemed kind of soothing to me. Maybe even for informal handwritten communications to others, as it seems somehow less abrupt than more intense colors, while still having lots of attractive shading, which I think adds to something being handwritten. Somehow this ink seems to be it better than other gray inks I have tried.
On the other hand, B&B 5 O'Clock Shadow, a real long term favorite of mine, a green-gray, seems very serious and business like, without being as abrupt as black. Also, when I was wet signing things it tended to show up as not something photocopied or printed out by a printer. I suppose for most wet signatures I have favored something in a blue-black and closer to black so that it showed up well, but still did not look like printer output. I tend to use green black ball point pens.
The Tzuki-yo seems particularly pretty to me. So maybe if I am writing something light and uplifting. Same for the intense blue FPN Da Vinci or whatever it is/was.
The Noodler Air Corps blue-black, which to me has lots of green (hope I have the name right) always looked sort of archaic, which might fit a particular mood. Herbin Poussiere de Lune, a light purple-gray to my eye, looks sort of 1950s adding machine print out to me, and thus also archaic. I really like that color but have not had much use for it. There is something I like about intense purple inks, but am usually afraid to use them.
The iron gall inks tend to look official/formal to me, which is often nice.
When I was making handwritten comments and corrections to documents, I tended to use green rather than red ink, so that what I wrote stood out from a black type page, but did not seem so much like I was being harsh.
I have not found much use for brown inks.
Red black inks are interesting, but again I do not tend to use them.
I am sure there is lots of psychology to ink colors.
Probably also good for another thread, but I notice Kate Gladstone has a You Tube video on creating a set of type fonts based on one's own handwriting. which seems like an interesting concept. I admire her work in general.
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IMHO the most reserved and business-like of the Iro blues.
Very much ... to me, it's like Baystate Blue, but not on steroids. (So, I'd call BSB "Asa Gao on steroids", as it were.)
To me, journals are for posterity, so I want an ink with some archival qualities. The 5 O'clock Shadow you mentioned (or Benevolent Badger Blue) fits the bill nicely.
"Colour photocopiers" make that harder to accomplish.
Indeed.
I truly love both of those inks, and I do not think it is just because of my bleed blue loyalty to B&B!
Interesting point. I have tried all sorts of different journaling. I wish I would keep with one sort or other better than I do. If I were writing more important stuff, I would probably go for something with more gravitas/legibility like either of those two inks, and I would write more slowly and carefully. What I have been doing lately though is to try to make sure that at least a couple of times a day I take a break and check with myself about how I happen to be feeling at that particular instant, to check in with whatever background interior dialogue might be going on. Sort of a limited exercise in mindfulness. It is hard to be mindful all the time, but useful to check in occasionally. it is interesting what comes up. But I am usually writing quickly and much of it is close to jibberish. I do not what it to be preserved for the ages. If my thought dreams could be seen, they'd put my head in a guillotine!
Also, I suppose, additions to to do lists.
Messygoon
Abandoned By Gypsies.
Top 5 inks from this St. Louisan:
- Great Sphinx of Giza
- Wynken, Blynken & Nod(poem by St. Louis-born Eugene Field)
- Scipio Spinks (St. Louis Cardinal pitcher, 1972)
- Enterprise Center Ice Rink (home of the St. Louis Blues' high jinx)
- And my personal favorite... drum roll please...
Colonel Wilhelm Klink
- Diamine Celadon Cat - great color, lots of shading
- Diamine Prussian Blue - blue-greys are my favorite
- Diamine Merlot - the perfect dark purple/maroon/burgundy color
- Pilot Iroshizuku Ajisai - bright color but not too bright
- Platinum Citrus Black - I like to watch the color change as it dries, water resistant
AimlessWanderer
Remember to forget me!
Mine have changed somewhat since my last post in this thread.
Diamine Midnight
Diamine Misty Blue
Diamine Sherwood Green
Diamine Ochre
Diamine Majestic Purple
As a migraine sufferer, these are great. They're well behaved, with no shading, sheen, or other visual confusions. They all have good contrast from each other too, without being too bright or eye straining, even on whole paragraphs of writing.
Diamine Midnight
Diamine Misty Blue
Diamine Sherwood Green
Diamine Ochre
Diamine Majestic Purple
As a migraine sufferer, these are great. They're well behaved, with no shading, sheen, or other visual confusions. They all have good contrast from each other too, without being too bright or eye straining, even on whole paragraphs of writing.
My favorite and had a nice supply until the flood of '22 wiped out my office. Haven't used one fill of ink through my pens since but many others had it worse than I did so I can't complain. I'm on the upswing and maybe this will be the year I start using them again.
Hmm my top five inks. That is not an easy question. This list is quickly changing. Let me see
Noodler's Black
Parker Quink Permanent Blue
Rohrer & Klingner Salix
Diamine Midnight
Diamine Ancient Copper
Noodler's Black
Parker Quink Permanent Blue
Rohrer & Klingner Salix
Diamine Midnight
Diamine Ancient Copper
Ok I’ll play,
Here are my top 5 favs.
Diamine wagner
Diamine delaware
Diamine oxblood
Monteverde Capri blue
Monteverde scotch brown
These are favs not just for colour but also they dry fast and that’s important…… lefty here.
Here are my top 5 favs.
Diamine wagner
Diamine delaware
Diamine oxblood
Monteverde Capri blue
Monteverde scotch brown
These are favs not just for colour but also they dry fast and that’s important…… lefty here.
1. ESS Reistrar’s
2. ESS Reistrar’s
3. ESS Reistrar’s
4. R&K Scabiosa’s alright
5. De Antramentis Document Grey Fog is pretty promising as a sampler so far.
Cause ESS is the best permanent, smooth, good dark blue I’ve ever used.
I’ve still got bottles of Noodler’s 5 O’clock Shadow and Heart of Darkness and they’re great blacks, but I don’t use black anymore.
2. ESS Reistrar’s
3. ESS Reistrar’s
4. R&K Scabiosa’s alright
5. De Antramentis Document Grey Fog is pretty promising as a sampler so far.
Cause ESS is the best permanent, smooth, good dark blue I’ve ever used.
I’ve still got bottles of Noodler’s 5 O’clock Shadow and Heart of Darkness and they’re great blacks, but I don’t use black anymore.
Update
- Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun
- Diamine Celadon Cat
- Diamine Merlot
- Diamine Polar Glow
- Platinum Citrus Black
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