Fountain pen red ink

[caerau]

I gots myself a lovely Parker fountain pen as a Christmas present from the ewif at Christmas and it has brought back to me the joy that can be handwriting.


Trouble is, most of my handwritten stuff is marking student work for my job and me is wanting some decent source of red ink.  Yes I can buy the standard refils that are available in shops and at Amazon.  But they don't seem to seem decent sized refils for red ink - just the little ones that will run out quick.
Also I notice you can buy big bags of black or blue ink refils of a generic nature for a quid or so.


Anyone know a good decent source of red ink that is more satisfactory?

[Brody]

You might be able to do a deal with your local blood bank?

[caerau]

 


But what will I drink instead?

[Jaded]

You may have to be less critical of the student's work!

[pcolbeck]

Get a converter that lets you use bottled ink (very cheap and easy to get hold of for Parkers) then choose any one of Diamines selection of reds:

Choose your shade of red:

http://www.diamineinks.co.uk/listings.aspx?catid=14

[caerau]

A converter?  Little lever for pulling it out of the bottle?  Thought you needed a specific pen for that... hmm


*runs off for a look*




[edit]


comes back..


You mean this sort of thing?

[Dibdib]

Diamine inks are excellent, and yes a converter is very easy to use.

Also, he's too modest to say, but Woofage OTP's Emporium Of Inky Goodness is an excellent (but painfully tempting) source for all these things.

[yoav]

The converters can be a bit messy to refill so what I've done is to refill a standard empty cartridge using a syringe and needle.

[Paul]

The converters can be a bit messy to refill so what I've done is to refill a standard empty cartridge using a syringe and needle.

And, you suggest, that is less messy?

[hellymedic]

The advantage of using a syringe and needle is that you don't need to wipe the nib.

IIRC a Parker cartridge holds 1.1ml and a converter 0.8ml.

[pcolbeck]

You mean this sort of thing?

Yes but don't bother with knock offs on ebay as nice ones are cheap anyway.
One from Woofage's emporium:

http://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/showproduct.php?brand=Parker&range=converters

[pcolbeck]

The advantage of using a syringe and needle is that you don't need to wipe the nib.

IIRC a Parker cartridge holds 1.1ml and a converter 0.8ml.

Depends which converter, some of them have less volume.

[Paul]

Ah. But I don't put the nib in the bottle. I take the refillable bladder doodad out of the pen and refill that.

[T42]

Diamine inks are excellent, and yes a converter is very easy to use.

Also, he's too modest to say, but Woofage OTP's Emporium Of Inky Goodness is an excellent (but painfully tempting) source for all these things.

That's the place I was trying to remember - ta.

IME converters are no messier than the lever-fill FP's of our youff. Well, some of ours.  Unless you try filling the converter before shoving it up the pen, but that way lies madness.

The only real way to have a large ink capacity is to have a bottle in your bag.

Re red inks, some of them are pretty cruddy and will gunge up your implement if it's allowed to sit unused for a significant while.  You'd need to consult Sir Woofage on the topic.

[Dibdib]

Maybe I'm just weird then, but I've never felt that refilling a pen was particularly messy - certainly no less inconvenient than having to keep a syringe handy (and clean) when the piston in the pen does exactly the same job. Fill, wipe with a bit of kitchen towel or a tissue, done.

Which, if you have a piston-filler like a TWSBI rather than a cartridge pen with a converter, you have to do anyway.

[caerau]

Excellent stuff- I just knew there would be the sort of knowledge I was after here.  Thanks all. 


Now I just need to get a feather and related attachment for the pen so I can truly get into spirit of things 


(I have to say that a syringe and needle is not hard to find hereabouts, that's actually not a bad plan).

[Brucey]

both cartridges and converters have the same issue which is that they are designed to go into the barrel of every model of pen made by the manufacturer.

With the caveat that the expansion space (hidden from view between the reservoir and the nib) may not tolerate a larger ink reservoir in your pen (NB  your range of temperature changes makes a difference too), it may be possible to fit a much larger ink reservoir. If the pen has a metal barrel, you may find that there is a plastic insert (which normally pushes on the top of a cartridge) that needs to be drilled/removed before you can install a larger reservoir, (or indeed any converter in some models).

The new reservoir can be made using the base of a cartridge, and a length of plastic tube, glued (or welded) together. The other end of the tube can be plugged permanently, or with a removable stopper of some kind (which can be retained by the barrel once it is screwed home).  In the latter case the reservoir can be refilled using a syringe or w.h.y.

If you want to make a cheap refillable reservoir and you are happy to use a syringe, you can drill (and tap) the top of a cartridge to accept a small machine screw, or some other kind of plug.

Regarding inks, someone has mentioned clogging with some inks. This is certainly a risk. However there is another issue, which is corrosion; not all inks are equal in this regard. Since ruining an expensive pen with another brand of ink, I now stick to Quink (which is available in red) where possible since this doesn't seem to corrode pens too badly, and allows relatively easy clean-up. Maybe there are other inks that are similarly benign in this respect...?

cheers

[pcolbeck]

both cartridges and converters have the same issue which is that they are designed to go into the barrel of every model of pen made by the manufacturer.

Not true. Lamy for example have three different types of converter (they are quite similar though).  Parker seem to only have a single type of cartridge and converter but then they have standerdised on all their refills for years including the ballpoint ones.

If you want to make a cheap refillable reservoir and you are happy to use a syringe, you can drill (and tap) the top of a cartridge to accept a small machine screw, or some other kind of plug.

Why bother? The proper thing is usually about £5.

Regarding inks, someone has mentioned clogging with some inks. This is certainly a risk. However there is another issue, which is corrosion; not all inks are equal in this regard. Since ruining an expensive pen with another brand of ink, I now stick to Quink (which is available in red) where possible since this doesn't seem to corrode pens too badly, and allows relatively easy clean-up. Maybe there are other inks that are similarly benign in this respect...?

I haven't had clogging issues with Diamine or Visconti but its true for some inks. It seems to be especially prevalent with inks from across the pond (eg Noodlers)

[Dibdib]

If you're going to all that effort, you might as well just put some ptfe tape and/or a suitably sized O-ring on the threads and then fill the body of the pen with an eye-dropper.

(which isn't actually a bad idea, if you like that kind of thing, but I don't empty a normal converter that quickly anyway.)

[caerau]

I think getting drills out and such might juuuuuust be going over the top... I'm not *that* fussed about the ink volume thing. 

[caerau]

Converter and a couple of bottles of Scarlet ink on t'way through the ether.  Lovely jubbly 

[T42]

Regarding inks, someone has mentioned clogging with some inks. This is certainly a risk. However there is another issue, which is corrosion; not all inks are equal in this regard. Since ruining an expensive pen with another brand of ink, I now stick to Quink (which is available in red) where possible since this doesn't seem to corrode pens too badly, and allows relatively easy clean-up. Maybe there are other inks that are similarly benign in this respect...?

cheers

IIRC, black Quink is one of the worst cloggers there is.

[TPMB12]

Anything related to pens and ink i just go to a little pen and specialist stationary shop near me. It's been open about 4 years and the owner is a very helpful guy. He knows a lot about pens and ink. He stocks several types based on different carriers for the colour. The range of calligraphy inks for example is amazing and he can get more colours if they're not enough.

I tried a few fountain pens and luckily for my bank balance the pen that felt nicest to use was a £19 lamy fountain pen. Smooth flow across the page and it just has a balance to it. I chose a cartridge feed but used to use a plunger reservoir for my previous fountain pen. A costly Schaeffer my parents bought me at 21. My mum used to go on about my tiny scrawl so she thought a fat pen would help me write with bigger script. It didn't but the fat pen never felt right and i couldn't write comfortably with it. Quinck ink used in it. Now a nice lamy with lamy cartridge in a blue/black. I like that darker blue over a standard blue or straight black.

[T42]

It's a sad paradox, but when I was into FPs it was very noticeable that the pricier the pen the more likely it was to need nib work before it would write properly.  Modern pens, that is: the pens of 40 years ago all seemed to write perfectly out of the box.  I suspect that this is because fountain pens have gone from being tools to being trinkets, bought mostly for their appearance.  On FPN it was common to read something like "the new Conway Stewart arrived, and all it needed was half an hour with the micromesh to have it writing beautifully". This with a pen costing in the £hundreds.  When I was at school nobody had heard of micromesh, and a two-bob Platignum from the newsagent's wrote immediately. It had to, being bought on the way to school.

I collected pens for a wee while, but didn't find anything that matched my old 1970s Sheaffer. The only one that came close was a Waterman Phileas, and I gave a few of those to family members and friends. Next best were Lamy Safaris, which had the added fun of interchangeable nibs. Almost all the other pens I bought needed work.  One day I simply rolled the lot up and stuck them in a drawer: waste of time & money.

[Brucey]

If you're going to all that effort, you might as well just put some ptfe tape and/or a suitably sized O-ring on the threads and then fill the body of the pen with an eye-dropper.

(which isn't actually a bad idea, if you like that kind of thing, but I don't empty a normal converter that quickly anyway.)

hmm, remember my caveat about reservoir volume vs the expansion space?  I think it is very likely that, when (say) half full, the heat from your hand would cause enough expansion to cause the ink to splooch out of the pen wholesale.

BTW an objection to repeated removal of the adapter (or indeed cartridge use come to that) is that eventually the connection between the pen and the ink reservoir can wear.  It might take years though.

cheers