Last weekend I assembled some inks, a dip pen and a large bowl of water. My goal was to test the water resistance of the blue, black and blue/black inks I own at this moment. I certainly admit that this experiment has little relevance. After all, I don’t make a habit of soaking my journals in a fishbowl. And I use a multitude of ink colors, so if I did soak it, the result would probably be interesting, but definitely unreadable. But performing the experiment was fun, and if the results are useful to someone, that’s a nice bonus.. ...

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When a complimentary ink chart from Pendemonium arrived in the mail, I saw the wide variety of ink colors that J. Herbin makes for fountain pens. The chart showed some colors that reminded me strongly of the primary inks used in standard four-color offset printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. I immediately wondered if these could be mixed to create other colors. A little experimentation has shown me that you can mix Herbin colors pretty easily. By varying the recipe you can get an astonishing array of colors. ...

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Yellow and Orange Fountain Pen Inks:

Galerie Jansen Gelb (Yellow): Very light lemon yellow, almost impossible to use in a fountain (bottled ink) pen because it is too light but might be great for mixing

Herbin Jaune Bouton D'or (Buttercup Yellow): True bright yellow, darker then Jansen Yellow (bottled and cartridge) but still pretty light, OK for highlighting with a fountain pen

Private Reserve Buttercup (Yellow): Similar to Herbin Yellow(bottled ink)...

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A couple of words about my guide to the brown ink family are appropriate. My primary motivation was to determine which color is most appropriate for the task at hand.

As usual, YMMV. A brand that looks wonderful from one pen won't necessarily look as nice in another pen. And (as we all know) some pens are just plain picky. One brand that flows like the Nile from one pen may flow like molasses in another. Naturally my comments are based on my experience and are not the be-all or end-all of the topic!

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Many of you will be familiar with the Ink Recipe pages compiled by Paul from various sources including the Zoss and 4Pens lists.

This resource is now here on Pentrace and will be maintained by Paul. As new recipes are added or "discovered", we will publish them in this box and add them to the recipes pages.

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This great resource lists cartridges and converters by brand and source and is invaluable for checking which c/c fits which pen.

This is currently being loaded into a database table, but for the moment we present it in spreadsheet form. Please use your browser's back button to return here until the final web page is ready later today.

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Fourth in a series!
from the fountain pen of Michael Richter

This time Michael explores blue and blue black inks.

Blue Ink

Aurora Blue: Very intense darker blue with a very visible touch of violet; dries slowly. (bottled ink and cartridge)

Jansen Indigoblau (Indigo Blue): Unique very dark (darker than Aurora) blue with a violet touch. (bottled ink only) Darkest representative of blue inks. Does not flow freely in all pens because of its color intensity.

Parker Penman Sapphire: I think I speak for most fountain pen enthusiasts, that this ink is (bottled ink and cartridge) "THE" blue ink used as a reference. Outstanding very intense darker blue with no purple tones at all. Unique color but like all Penman inks dries up quickly in a pen not used frequently. Entire Penman line of inks is discontinued.

Omas Roma 2000 Blue: Maybe the only/closest alternative ink to Parker Penman. Intense blue but (bottled ink only) just a tiny bit more purple (compared to the Sapphire) and slightly lighter. Produced in limited quantities (now discontinued) in the year 2000 to accompany Omas' limited edition pen with the same name which is also discontinued. There are indications that Omas may change their regular blue formula to that of Roma 2000.

 

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Third in a series!
from the fountain pen of Michael Richter

This time Michael explores red and burgandy inks.

Jansen Rot (Red): Very light washed out "ordinary" red.(bottled ink only)

Montblanc Rubinrot (Ruby Red): Similar to Jansen Red (cartridge and bottled ink)

Lamy Rot (Red): Slightly more orange than Jansen & Montblanc; appears slightly more (cartridge and bottled ink) intense,too.

Omas Hong Kong Rot (Hong Kong Red) : Limited production ink, bright red with just a touch of orange (cartridge and bottled ink) with better intensity than Lamy, MB or Jansen.

Parker Quink Red : Unique medium red, maybe the most basic red without orange or pink (cartridge and bottled ink) shades.

Waterman Red: Intense bright red with orange touch. Darker than Omas H.K. Red, but (cartridge and bottled ink) it is said to come in different color variations.....

Click the "Read More" link below to discover Michael's recommendation for the best red for serious writing...

 

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The search for the perfect black ink!
from the fountain pen of Rick Womer

Getting a new pen a couple of years ago started me looking for The Perfect Black Ink (we won't discuss the number of pens I've acquired...). My old "daily user" pen (a 1976-vintage Mont Blanc Noblesse) was the fountain pen equivalent of one of those engines that will run on anything (gasoline, kerosene, paint thinner, perfume) and work well. My current "main pen," a Waterman Preface, is a little more particular.

So, I've accumulated quite a collection of black ink. I've collected black because I like it, and because my employer requires it. Recently, Ken Lopez joined this endeavor by shipping me five bottles of hard-to-find brands of black ink.

Among the things I have learned is that there are mysterious interactions between pens, inks, and papers. I've used most of these inks in a few pens and on a wide variety of papers, though, and their characteristics tend to be stable. Even so, YMMV ("Your Mileage May Vary").

With those ritual caveats and disclaimers, herewith my impressions of sixteen black inks...

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Second in a series!
from the fountain pen of Michael Richter

This time I tried to come up with an ink-color chart for green inks. With such a big variety of different shades I've found it pretty hard to find verbal descriptions for everyone to imagine the true color.

If you mix equal parts of the two primary colors yellow and cyan ("-blue"), you should get what I would consider a medium green which does not tend towards the yellow not towards the blue ("cyan").

I'll call the color in between this medium green and cyan a turquoise green .

Adding more yellow to the green will give you a yellow green or some sort of lime or grass green.

The fourth kind of green would be the olive green , which can be created by mixing
the third primary color magenta (a reddish pink) to the yellow green, adding a brownish hue.

These four "primary" shades of green can mainly be varied in lightness/darkness and intensity.

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• Water Resistance of Blue, Blue/Black and Black Inks
• Herbin Ink Colors
• Mixing Herbin Inks
• Purple and Pink Guide
• Brown Ink Chart
• Red Ink Chart
• Parker Quink Ink Chart
• Blue Ink Guide
• Red Ink Guide
• Green and Turquoise Ink Guide
• What ink in what pen?
• Yellow, Orange and Grey Ink Guide
• Treb's Brown Ink Guide
• What got me started collecting inks!
• Black Ink Reviews

Recipies

• Ink Recipes Pages

Resources

• C4 ( The Cartridge and Convertor Compatibility Chart)