It's a very different kind of formula.īUT I find the benefits are that it's probably the most water resistant/proof ink I've seen. I find it works OK in some regular fountain pens, but does have a tendency to have hard starts. I suppose it all boils down to each individual's idea of what is an offensive smell and what is not. This brings to mind Mark Twain's statement, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Especially the report of Bad Blue Heron having an awful smell. I have found that all of them have only a faint smell, and it is not the least bit offensive. Thanks to all who have given me their input! I got several Noodler's samples: Bad Blue Heron, Baystate Blue, Upper Ganges Blue, Midway Blue, Legal Blue and Kung Te Cheng. I have Kiwa-Guro, but that one does have a significant smell (I actually grew to like ) Sailor Sei-Boku may be up your alley, but I don't know of the scent. One of the better water resistant inks with less maintenance. Very mild odor I only smell when I put the nib up to my nose. If you get one of the newer batches it is a beautiful dark green-teal blue black. My only option I have that may hit your preference that offers richness is Noodler's Air-Corps Blue Black. I think the Blue is OK, the Black is OK, and the Blue Black is OK. If you like them for their color, maybe after a sample, then you are lucky. Pilot Namiki inks are great, but to be honest, they are boring, but I still recommend trying them. They are invaluable, cover the varying grades/quality of papers and what ink works for what. I recommend checking out VittaR's youtube reviews.
I always recommend trying out samples for those who are new to fountain pens. It depends on what kind of paper you're using. I’ve got a couple Kaweco Sport pens, but there’s a lot of choices besides them. I’m not sure what pen I’d suggest if you would prefer standard cartridges. If you tend to prefer a fairly fine line, I’d suggest a Platinum Preppy and a packet each of their blue black and carbon black cartridges. Most of the very permanent inks aren’t offered in international cartridges, so I don’t think there’s a strong advantage to one or the other in terms of method. I’ve ordered samples from Goulet Pens and Anderson Pens in the US, both have been excellent. Whichever route you pick, I’d wait to buy a bottle until after you’ve used the ink a bit. Two, many pens take short international cartridges which hold about 0.6 to 0.7mL of ink, and have a huge range of suppliers. That will fill the average pen between 1 and 4 times. One, many shops offer ink samples of around 2mL. There are two good routes to trying ink in a low risk way. And for obvious reasons I haven’t tried any intentionally scented inks. I haven’t tried Bad Blue Heron, so I can’t speak to that one. Even if there is some scent to the ink, so far it hasn’t caused a reaction. But I have a lot of scent sensitivities, and so far regular inks have been ok. I haven’t tried every ink that exists, so I can’t tell you for sure. No matter what your ink goal, I’d suggest starting out with an inexpensive modern pen. Even if you are, a regular ink may still work. If you’re not doing regular watercolor painting over your work, a regular ink may work well enough. Most ink reviews will discuss how waterproof an ink is. Alcohol frequently doesn’t mix with fountain pens, and it can damage some plastics. The smell you notice with Sharpie markers isn’t phenol, it’s alcohol. And not all pigment ink formulas are waterproof either! Pigment inks that aren’t black may or may not be light fast, and they won’t tell you for sure what is in them. It’s mostly a problem for vintage pens so I wouldn’t stress too much. That’s one of the oldest pigments humans use so it’s fairly sturdy, but pigment inks can cause clogging problems for fountain pens. Platinum, Sailor, Rohrer and Klingner and de Atrementis make pigmented inks, and I believe all of them use carbon black (PBk6) for their black ink. They get marked as bulletproof or eternal, but they may not all be light fast enough for art use. Noodler’s brand makes some inks that are dye based and react correctly to dye the paper.
It can also damage paper if the chemistry of the ink is off, but that’s a multiple centuries issue. Iron gall ink resists water, but it might damage a vintage pen if the p.H is off (modern pens should be fine). They’re also mostly not permanent in the sense of waterproof. They don’t smell much tho there are some scented inks. Most fountain pen inks are a mix of water and dye.