Editing The Pen Addict 41/transcript (section)

== Fountain Pen Inks ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So what I want to talk about today is fountain pen inks in general and also the testing and reviewing of inks, which is something I'm working on. And to kind of kick this off, I got an email just the other day from a gentleman named Peter, and I actually told him I was going to talk about this in an upcoming podcast episode. So I hope you're listening, Peter. So his email reads, the subject line is bottled ink. He says, guys, I listen to your podcast and enjoy your thoughts. I don't know if you've talked about this before, but I'm one of those people who enjoy several different fountain pens, but I've always viewed ink as a commodity. I have six or seven fountain pens that I rotate through. Typically, I'll fill one, use it till it runs dry, then clean it and fill up the next one. I have two Parkers, a Waterman, a Montblok Meister Stuck, which I love, and a custom pen made for me in Hawaii, which I think has a pilot nib. Point is, I normally use the same ink for all the pens. I don't need a lot of different colors, only black. And my primary criterion is simply a good line that doesn't skip or thin out. Are inks a commodity? Are they fungible? Should I use Quink, which is a Parker ink? I put a link in the notes. We'll share. For my Parker, should I use Quink for my Parker, but something else for the pilot? Help. So this was a really good...

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to make a very quick plea to Peter. I want to see a picture of his pens. Okay. Because he just sounds like he's got a really nice selection there. That does. Peter, please email us back with some photos of the stuff that you've got. I especially want to see the Mont Blanc and the custom pen that you had made.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Absolutely. And I want to see the Parkers. So yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' People should include more images in their emails that they send us, I think.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to see what people are using.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I want to see the Parkers. And I'm going to sidetrack us here. But when I go to the pen show, at the top of my list is a pen, which is super, super famous. And there's tons of out there, but I don't own. It's called a Parker 51. So maybe after I purchase one, we'll go do a whole episode on that. Because that's one of those, you know... This isn't the... We could lose an hour talking about that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This isn't the one that we were talking about a couple of weeks ago.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No. Oh, no. No. This is an old, no longer made pen that was made from like the 40s to the 60s or 70s. Something like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm going to put in the show notes one of the ugliest web pages I've ever seen in my life.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Parker51.com.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Some of them are pretty rough. There's one guy whose website I've... Maybe this website. I don't know. Who's tried to... Who's got information like on every Parker release ever. So I've spent some time browsing on that. But that's a digression. That's a digression. So back to Peter. I thought this email was really good and had a couple of separate topics to discuss just in his email. And one is, are inks a commodity? Do you use... Is it necessary to have different inks for different pens? He asked, are they fungible? Are they interchangeable with each other? Is one ink as good as the next?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, it depends on the person, honestly. If ink's a commodity or not. I personally could not live with a single ink color in my pens. And that goes back to me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Until I was a kid, I didn't just... I searched out everything but black ink for my pens back from, you know, when I could only find ballpoints or rollerballs. Anything but black. Now, I've come to love black and black is one of my favorite ink colors now. But at the time, for me to get enjoyment out of my writing or drawing or whatever I was doing at the time, I wanted to use anything but black because I felt that everyone used black and I wanted something different for me. And I think that's translating into fountain pen inks for me. I'm looking at all the fountain pen inks colors is intimidating. And I'm going through that right now. So, there's no reason you have to step out from your black ink. But you should know that even in your black ink, there's different inks that could be better or could be worse than what you're currently using. But by no means should you feel a need that you have to use different inks and all your different pens. A lot of people test out a bunch of inks, find an ink they love, and then stick with that one ink in all their pens. Some people pick one from the get-go and stick with that. Some people, like myself, use a unicorn's poop worth of ink colors. Unicorn's poop rainbows. Did you know that, Myke?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I didn't until now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay. Well, you fail at the internet. So, yeah. I mean, I've got a rainbow of colors. At my disposal. You know, I liken it to unicorn poop. Sorry. I'll get off that now. Yeah. No point. But it's – and that's what I enjoy. You know, the color – now that I'm getting into fountain pens, I want to see what other options are out there besides black ink or blue ink. Although, I do have a fondness for blue ink. That seems to be kind of an area where I'm going to get a little bit deeper on blue inks than other, you know, outlier inks like greens or reds and things like that. I've found a – there's a huge, huge variation in blue inks. But anyway, I don't know if I've answered your Peter.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't know if I've answered your Peter question.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know if I've answered your question completely, Peter. But to summarize, you don't have to feel like you have to change if you like black ink. But there's a lot out there, even just in black inks, that I think are worth checking out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like for me as well, like you're saying, are all inks the same? They're not. I mean – because there are other properties. Like I use some inks that dry really quickly and some that don't. And a lot of people might not notice that, but that is really important to a left-handed person.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a huge deal.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's the difference between being able to use your pen comfortably or not. Because if – as a left-hander, if I'm using an ink which is very slow drying, it means I can't write comfortably because I can't have my hand trail across the page. Because otherwise, my writing is totally smudged. So it makes a big difference to me that an ink is quick to dry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And I think actually that the ink that he uses, the Quink, is actually one of the – and I haven't tested it myself, but it's an ink that's been made for ages and ages and ages. And I think the idea behind it is that it is a quick-drying ink. But yes, there's a whole wide range of ink properties, and you're liable to buy one.