Fountain Pen Ink

Warning: This is an extremely geeky post (as the title suggests) so if you're not into pens, this might be of limited interest.

Having written before about my love of fountain pens, you will know that I appreciate the novelty of filling a pen from a bottle rather than clipping in an ink cartridge. This injects a new level of choice and complexity into the writing process; namely which ink to use.

My standard day-to-day ink (the stuff that lives in my drawer at work) is Parker Quink black. I use this  black ink for work so my writing can be photocopied if needs be and so I can use my fountain pen in almost any circumstance (some official paper work can only be filled out in black ink). I also happen to think that black ink on white or off-white paper looks neater and clearer than blue ink. Parker ink has a nice rich colour and is fairly viscous making it well suited for most pens and papers. It also makes my writing feel smooth and free-flowing. Another advantage to Quink is it's near universal availability. It is sold in almost every high street stationers so in the (unlikely) event unexpectedly running out, it is easy to get hold of more. Finally, it's cheap. Although I mainly use this ink for work, sadly they have not yet offered to pay for it (instead they supply dreadful disposable biros). Since I'm not paid a salary that would make most professional footballers blush, I don't want to have to spend more than necessary on office consumables.

My other bottle of black ink is a cross one. Originally it was bought to go with my Cross pen (sucker I know) but I genuinely think it's high-quality ink hence the bottles being replaced when empty. This ink is thicker still giving a beautifully smooth feeling on the paper and a nice, rich appearance. Looking back at old Uni notes, this ink doesn't particularly fade either which is always a plus.

I also have a couple of bottles of Sheaffer ink; one red and one green to be precise. I bought the red one to go with my Sheaffer pen for the purpose of annotating documents. It doesn't get used regularly now because a) I rarely have cause to annotate documents these days and b) because I always think writing with red ink shows a bit of a teacher complex (unless, of course, you're a teacher)! The green ink was mainly bought for my girlfriend who has recently taken up calligraphy. I have used it a couple of times but as I don't really like the colour, I don't think I'll be using it a lot. With both colours, the ink seems a bit on the thin side making the nib feel scratchy on the page. It also means that the colour lacks the intensity I like - it all seems a bit watered down. I'm not sure if this is to allow the colours to show through and not appear a uniform, sludgy, black or if it is a feature of Sheaffer ink. A bottle of black Sheaffer ink I had many years ago was similar I seem to remember so perhaps it's the latter.

This post was prompted by the fact I received a new pen as a gift recently. Due to it's sentimental and monetary value, it is going nowhere near my workplace lest it get stolen or damaged. Because of this, I thought I would indulge my eccentric side and get an unusual, quirky colour. There is quite a tradition of this. Captain Mansfield Cumming (founder of MI6) used emerald green ink, a tradition that is carried on by all subsequent heads of MI6. This transposed into fiction where James Bond's boss M also used green ink. That said, there is some evidence to suggest that this choice was more than mere eccentricity; the colour used also denoted seniority.

However choosing a colour wasn't that straight forward. First of all, it can't bee too girly so that's pinks, purples and most of the lighter shades out. The same are excluded by the fact that it can't be too garish. Although most of what I write is for my own personal consumption, I do intend to use it for personal correspondence so I don't want it to appear too childish. Therefore out go the lighter, brighter shades. Finally, I don't want it to clash with the paper I habitually use; either the white stuff of the deep  cream stuff. I did toy with the idea of another bottle of green ink but I don't want to look like I'm playing copycat to M/C. Nor do I want to be seen as a member of the infamous, "Green ink brigade". As a final nail in the coffin; green ink is fairly available in horrible disposable biros and I wanted to go for something unique.

Eventually I settled on a bottle of Diamini ink (chosen for the price, range of colours and the rave reviews it received on line; not to mention the rather splendid bottles). The colour I went for is Oxblood or reddish brown to those who don't speak spectrum. It looks like something that will go with  everything I write on and with. Having received it, I am gratified to say that the ink has a fantastically rich and intense colour and flows beautifully. So far I have only tried it in my Parker 51 but the results are stunning. The ink is nice and thick so the nib feels lubricated on the paper and the line is solid and unbroken.

So there you go, a whirlwind tour of the intricacies of ink (and yes I did write this out long-hand with the new stuff to try it out!)

JR