reference inks
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 10:00AM Over the past year, my ink collection has grown by leaps and bounds. I've written over thirty ink reviews, which averages out to slightly more than one every two weeks. At this point, I own a LOT of ink – enough to start singling out specific inks as those to which I compare all others. I have also noticed that one of the most time consuming aspects of doing ink reviews is washing out the three or four pens that I ink up just to write out the comparison colors.
Therefore, I've decided to compile a list of reference inks for each color. My goal is to whittle my list down to two inks from each color group, and then to fill an eyedropper-converted Preppy Platinum pen with each, so that I have easy access to them on an ongoing basis.
Here's my initial list:
Black
- Platinum Carbon
- Noodler's Black
Blue
- Waterman Florida Blue
- Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng
Blue-Black
- Pelikan Blue-Black
- Sailor Jentle Blue-Black
Brown
- J. Herbin Café des Isles
- TBD
Green
- TBD
- TBD
Orange
- J. Herbin Orange Indien
- Noodler's Dragon's Napalm (added 3/24)
Purple
- Diamine Imperial Purple
- J Herbin Poussiere de Lune
Red
- Diamine Monaco Red
- J. Herbin 1670
So, fellow pen and ink folks, please help me fill in the blanks. What other, better, different suggestions do you have for compiling a list of reference-quality inks?
ink 
Reader Comments (9)
Here's what I have tried so far:
Black
* Noodler's Heart of Darkness - nice bulletproof black
Blue
* Noodler's Navajo Turquoise - very bright turquoise, I like it
Blue-Black
* none
Brown
* Noodler's Polar Brown - I like the shade but there's one small issue that makes me reluctant to buy another bottle in the future. I'm talking about smearing but I'll explain more when I review it.
* Noodler's Burma Road Brown - not a huge fan of this color
Green
* Noodler's Gruene Cactus Eel - I'm not too thrilled with the color
* J Herbin Vert Olive - very nice shade of green but I think it's more suited for drawing or calligraphy work than writing
Orange
* Diamine Orange - if you like oranges, this is the one to have. It will burn your retinas.
Purple
* Noodler's North African Violet - gorgeous shade, it's a must-have.
Red
* Noodler's Nikita - pretty good but it looks better when it's wet, loses some of its richness once it dries up.
* J. Herbin 1670 - beautiful but I'm trying to use it only for drawing and calligraphy. That's where that great shading shows best.
So out of all these, I would definitely recommend Diamine Orange, Noodler's North African Violet and J Herbin Vert Olive.
I'm going to have to put Diamine Orange and Noodler's NAV on the list to try. Thanks for the recommendations!
Diamine Evergreen will fill a gap in your list. Maybe Noodler's Walnut is a candidate for a dark brown. Unfortunately I do not have any orange or purple inks (yet!).
And I totally agree on Noodlers Black and Pelikan Blue-Black (standard in my pens). These are well know and therefore perfect as a reference for comparison.
Hope my comments help you to complete your list :)
Cheers!
Julian
Hi Julian,
I'll have to add Diamine Evergreen and Noodler's Walnut to my list as well.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Dave
Noodler's Dragon's Napalm is possibly my favorite Orange, very similar to Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki to my eye at a fraction of the cost.
I just got Dragon's Napalm recently, and it is a very interesting color. I've got a review halfway written up for it, so watch out for that in the coming weeks. I think it's a good suggestion to add it to the orange list - it provides a red-orange whereas most of the other oranges I have are yellow-orange.
You may want to nix Pelikan Blue Black, it's now discontinued in the US, and will become increasingly obsolete as a comparison ink as it won't be available to most of your readers. There are a ton of other staple blue blacks, though, so you can easily find a replacement.
For Browns, try Diamine Chocolate Brown, PR Chocolat, or Noodler's #41 Brown (though this may be discontinued at some point soon).
For greens, try J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage, Iroshizuku Shin-ryoku, Caran d'Ache Amazon, Noodler's Green, Noodler's Zhivago, Sailor Jentle Epinard, PR Avacado.
Diamine Majestic Purple is good too, that's worth a try. You may want to try Sheaffer Red as a staple red, that's one that a lot of people look back to.
Good point on the Pelikan Blue Black. I've got a handful of other blue blacks in my arsenal, and samples of even more that I haven't tried yet. I suppose I should spend some time concentrating on them.
Do you think people would object to an iron-gall blue black as a reference ink? Diamine's Registrar's ink is pretty fantastic.
For browns, I would add Waterman Havana. It is widely available at a reasonable cost (despite the latest price hikes) and is well known. Regardless whether one likes it or not, those characteristics make it a good candidate.
BT