#17InkQuestions: A Gathering of Curiosities edition
I decided to answer the 17 ink questions after I saw them on KC’s blog, Dime Novel Raven. It’s fun to do things inspired by the cool folks in the pen community!
#17InkQuestions
1. What was your first (memorable) ink?
I think the very first bottle I bought which wasn’t Pilot Black was J. Herbin Émeraude de Chivor (Emerald of Chivor). I love emerald greens, and that ink seemed absolutely magical to me - the combination of the emerald base color, red sheen, and gold shimmer was enchanting. I quickly found that EoC is not the most well behaved ink. I used it quite a bit with TWSBI Ecos back in the day, and that worked fine for the most part, but ultimately that love affair did not last. I do still think fondly of EoC and ink it from time to time.
My first lasting ink love was Montblanc Red Fox. I bought it in 2020 for a great price from Endless Pens, and it has been in my top five ever since.
2. What is your favorite ink bottle design, and which bottle (or cartridge) is your favorite to use?
Hands down, the Montblanc special edition bottle. For me, that is the perfect combination of refined design and usability. I think their classic shoe bottles offer an advantage for ink filling, but the bottle is less appealing to me aesthetically. I also really love the design and the vintage label of the Color Traveler inks.
Montblanc Red Fox with bird friend
3. What's an ink you love or find useful, but would not use for everyday writing?
I use all my inks for everyday writing, or else I let them go.
4. How do you discover new inks?
I read widely, and am usually up to speed on the latest inky releases, but I’ve slowed down considerably on acquiring new things. I have more than enough ink, a lot of ink I love, and I want to prioritize what is already in my ink library.
5. Do you use inks for anything other than writing?
I use inks for art! I mostly enjoy shimmer inks for that purpose, and it’s a great way to use up my Diamine Inkvent samples.
6. What's an ink that's worth hoarding (whether you actually do or not)?
For me personally, nothing is worth hoarding. I will be sad when my favorite Montblanc special edition inks run out, especially Red Fox, but that’s still far away. Once the ink runs out, it will remain a pleasant memory - and there will be many others to try.
7. How do you choose which ink goes into a pen? Do they have to match? Do you always use the same ink in a particular pen?
I don’t necessarily like matching the color of inks to the color of pens - with some exceptions. I’ll often ink a contrasting or complimenting color, for example a yellow pen with blue ink. When in doubt, I’ll ink pretty much any pen with a dark purple (like MB Enzo Ferrari), a classic blue (like Diamine Blue Velvet), or a blue-black (like Scribo Blu Cosmico). Some pens do call for particular inks and color matches. For example, my Scribo Piuma Impressione gets inked with teals and emeralds. Right now it has Diamine Velvet Emerald, and before that it was inked with Stilo e Stile Roman Bronze Oxidation. Roman Bronze is bluer than Velvet Emerald in swatches, but in everyday writing, they do not look all that different.
When I need to ink a pen, I usually narrow down my ink selection to a few possibilities, then do a quick comparison in my journal. :)
Nighttime ink testing
8. Do you use ink samples? If so, is your goal find an ink to buy a bottle, or just get a smaller amount of ink to use?
I have gone through a bunch of samples, and used to order samples more frequently earlier in my journey- now I only exchange samples with pen friends. I strongly prefer to fill from bottles.
9. Is there a popular ink that's just not for you? What underhyped ink would you like to see more people try?
According to the Fountain Pen Companion, which helps people record their ink collections and usage, the most popular five inks are:
Of these five, I own bottles of #3 and #5, and a sample of #1. I actually need to let go of my Yama-Budo sample - I had it for a few years, and it does not get touched. I’m just not into it. I tried both Oxblood and Ancient Copper, but did not fall in love. I might yet change my mind on Ancient Copper - it is a cool color - but my true love is Diamine Vintage Copper, a shimmery copper from the Red Inkvent. That’s a winner for me. I already discussed EoC. As for Kon-Peki, it’s a great medium blue, but has also not seen all that much use lately. When I’m after a medium blue, I seem to reach for Pure Pens Celtic Sea.
I want to recommend Scribo Blu Cosmico. It’s a fantastic blue-black with gold sheen, but I don’t hear much about it even among blue-black afficionados. I do wish Scribo offered a smaller bottle as an option - I find the 90ml jam jar to be unwieldy. I also really don’t want to own 90ml of any one ink - but I make an exception for this one.
I have the 20ml sample bottle of Blu Cosmico. I prefer it to the gigantic jam jar, but also would love a happy compromise at 50ml. Alas.
10. What do you do with any unused ink when you clean a pen? I almost always use up the ink before I reink; it helps to only ink 5-6 pens at a time. However, there have been cases when an ink just does not get used and the pen sits. In that case, I dump the remaining ink when I clean out the pen. This happens rarely, and I don’t have qualms about doing it.
11. What is the most unique ink you've used or seen?
I often feel that inks have become gimmicky, and “unique” inks have a lot going on: shading, monster sheen, shimmer, more shimmer, multicolored shimmer… I love some of these, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t feel all that unique to me. What I want is a kind of quiet uniqueness - a blend of usable and evocative, with great packaging and story. Taccia Sabimidori is lovely that way, and it has a surprisingly beautiful aspect to it: it changes color as it dries. Unfortunately for me, I prefer the wet to the dry color of Sabimidori, and wish these hues were reversed. MB Robert Louis Stevenson from 2023 made me fall in love with honey brown. It’s a complex, beautiful, shading ink with almost a green undertone to it. The pirate inspired packaging has an antique charm, like old polished wood. I’m not a fan of these colors as a rule, but this one won me over. Continuing the theme of understated elegance, J. Herbin Kenzo Takada Shogun is a beautiful homage, and the gold and silver shimmer evoke the subtle charm of metallic thread in an otherwise sober-colored garment. I’m all about such things.
12. How do you catalog, swatch, track, and store your inks?
I use my Fountain Pen Companion, as well as my collection tracking journal. I use Col-O-Ring to swatch my inks, but I’m not very consistent about it. I also want to be better about tracking my currently inked. This year, I am doing a little Traveler’s booklet for my color palettes for each month.
Should have probably done a regular TR insert instead of a passport!!
13. What is your favorite ink color/color family?
Probably dark moody purple, followed by teal/emerald green. I have more than enough ink in both of these categories :) My favorite purples right now are MB Enzo Ferrari, Scribo Notturno Viola, Bungubox Ink of the Witch, and Diamine Rainbow’s End (shimmer). Rainbow’s End does not qualify as a dark moody purple, but it is a very happy color for me, so I’ll stick with it. In the domain of teals/emerald greens, I love Stilo e Stile Roman Bronze Oxidation with special love. I have also enjoyed Teranishi Lady Emerald, and lately Diamine Velvet Emerald from the purple Inkvent.
14. What ink-related tool or accessory can you not live without?
I can live without most things. These questions are tricky for me — I seem to always take them at face value as a person who’s gone through some pretty extreme hardships earlier in life. But I appreciate having a blunt syringe for cleaning out ink from converters. A blunt syringe is also great for filling ink from sample vials directly into a cartridge converter, and for decanting ink from bottles into sample vials :) And I’ve also been enjoying glass dip pens for swatching and art.
Ink testing day with Emerald of Chivor, Red Fox, the Aurora Internazionale, a glass dip pen, and bird friend.
15. Have you ever mixed inks or used shimmer additives?
In a limited way. I’ve mixed and matched shimmer inks to create art (I’ve first decanted them first onto a paint palette). I don’t feel the pull to experiment with writing inks right now.
16. What is your favorite ink delivery system (cartridges, type of filling system for bottled ink, etc.)?
I like having different filling mechanisms for different uses - cartridge converters are good for shimmer due to the ease of cleaning, for example; piston fillers hold more ink. I like the piston filler system on my Leonardo Momento Magico - the nib unit easily unscrews, and that allows for an easy cleaning. It also has an ink window.
17. What ink(s) are you excited about right now?
I am still excited about some of the Purple Inkvent samples, such as Diamine Rainbow’s End — it is now in its second inking in my Leonardo Momento Zero Fioritura Viola. I just ordered two special edition Dominant Industry inks from Wonder Pens - Chicken in the Sky with Diamonds and Tuna and Olives. The colors of the inks were created to evoke the color of the eyes of the two shop cats, Chichen and Tuna. :) I wanted to try Dominant Industry this year, and this will be a good chance to do so. I am also looking forward to this year’s MB Writer’s Edition ink. If I have to take a guess, I’m guessing burgundy :) I don’t exactly need a burgundy… here I am, trying to talk myself out of an ink which does not exist yet.
Shelves of inky goodness :))