When I started collecting
fountain pens I logically came across fountain pen inks as well.
It seems to be a German tradition to use "royal-blue"
ink for just about everything ; except the obligatory bright-red
for correcting papers (I bet we all remember this red!!!) and
green for architects or school principals for example.
I have thought a lot about the "why" of using exactly
this color; I know of other countries where black is a more
common color and pens if fitted with a cartridge when bought
come also with black ink, which sounds more "sensible"
then blue. Books, magazines and other printed media is black
on white as well, like the saying "in black and white"
also suggests! After a lot of thinking I could not come to
a conclusion "why" we (here I'm talking about my
fellow German citizens) use this color and prefer broad and
broad oblique nibs unlike other countries. Maybe it's just
a case of taste or simply the fact that it had been the only
washable/erasable color for a long time and therefor pretty
useful in school.
Anyway this is the main reason I started to discover the
world of inks, because I never really liked this somehow pale
blue with the purple hint in it.
After coming across the other most common variety of ink
colors black,red, green and purple which I knew already from
my time back in school using those cheap giveaway cartridge
fountain pens from banks or other places, my dad gave me his
old Montblanc 32 (also with OB nib) from the early sixties,
along with a 1 liter bottle of Pelikan Blue-Black which he
used all his life only to sign school reports, so the bottle
was still about half full. Being from the early sixties as
well the ink had slightly discolored but was still usable.
The Blue-Black had turned into a color you cannot tell if
its gray or green or maybe gray-green This maybe does not
sound very appealing but the fact that the color got darker
while drying (like on some Blue-Blacks) and that it was different
from those bright and kind of cheesy, loud colors I really
liked this color a lot and used it.
After discovering that ink choice was not confined to Pelikan
Blue, Black, Red or Green, I was totally hooked on strange
colored inks.
I started first with some other not so common inks but still
easily available brands like Penman, Omas and Montblanc and
carried on buying ink after ink to find out if a Montblanc
Emerald green differed from a Penman Emerald or whatever;
and they did differ !!! This made me buy almost every kind
of color I could get, just out of curiosity to see what color
it would turn out to be! Spending between $5-$10 per bottle
of ink gets expensive after a while so I buy cartridges instead
if I don't use the color regularly (I really don't know how
to use up all the purples and pinks!) just to put the color
into a sample book.
I listed the color by brands and a second time by color and
written with one special nib as a curvy line and as a solid
square to get a better impression of the color.
Having all those different inks (must be over 50 by now)
over the years I found out that ink is not just ink (which
I really don't have to tell any serious collector or user
of fountain pens!).
The first problems occurred with Montblanc Blue-Black; in
a Montblanc pen of course. After having Montblanc take a look
at the pen (which was a Writers Edition and therefor very,
very expensive for me especially at the age of 19) to regulate
this malfunction I talked for an hour with the service lady
after they could not get rid of the problem, about the use
of this kind of ink in a Montblanc pen.
The lady told me honestly, that it isn't strange at all
that problems (my problem was the pen stopped writing completely
after one page of writing) occur with Montblanc Blue-Black
in Montblanc pens and suggested I use a different color to
get rid of the problem. (I sent it back a third time to increase
the ink flow, which kind of worked, but I think I never dared
to try Blue-Black again in this pen - this was my first experience
with the great Montblanc service).
The next problem occurred with Omas Gray, which didn't work
in Omas pens either. I found out about the high viscosity
of the ink and that some chunks of what I would think, was
arabic-rubber (used in most inks for making the color pigments
to stay in solution and not to settle), so I filtered it and
it was more likely to use in some pens.
By now I'm aware that you can't use all inks in every pen,
and that you have to find out by yourself mostly. Be careful
with purple inks in clear demonstrator or other "see
through" or light colored pens, don't use too much Quink
in Omas pens and Sheaffer ink is said to be pretty "destructive"
on some pens (esp. Montblancs!!!).
I didn't have serious problems with inks in my pens damaging
them, only "flow problems" so far.
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