Testing Fountain Pen Inks
3mon 4d ago by feddit.online/u/Unattributed in fountainpens
Question: has anyone done extensive testing on any fountain pen inks?
I don't mean the standard Mountain of Ink style, sample card, writing sample, etc. visual comparisons. (I'd like to call this subjective measurement, but chromatographic measurements aren't subjective if done in a controlled manner.)
I am thinking more objective testing: viscosity, density, flow rate a given line width, etc.
I was thinking about this type of testing tonight, and it seems to me that there are a lot of factors that would need to be controlled: temperature, air pressure / barometric pressure, nib consistency, friction (aka heat), etc. Given what I was thinking this could be an interesting experiment, if someone wanted to undertake controlling all the variables, and implementing the controls necessary for consistent results.
@Unattributed
I've done durability tests, for lack of a better term. Based of methodology of an entomologist's lab notes methods and testing. My conclusion was that if an ink survives water, it does ok with other solvents.
Nice work. I like the methodology for your testing. That's definitely a major step-up over just wetting your finger and trying to smudge the ink. :)
@Unattributed
I've only run into one ink that confused me. River City Pen Company Triangle Pen Show Blue (later renamed Urban Ripple) was impervious to a spray of water that's wiped up. Water soaking into the paper over a few minutes erased the writing completely.
My current testing is a spray bottle squirt, wipe after 30 sec and see if it's legible. Then I soak the paper under the tap and check again for legibility.
Urban Ripple does sound like a strange ink. Almost sounds like some kind of bond was formed over the top of the ink like a shell, but when you soaked the paper the shell was broken.
Curiosity question: do you control for the pressure at the nib point?
@Unattributed
I don't. A new ink goes in something clean that I want to use with the ink. Or maybe I'll just feel like testing whatever I'm using. The only time I suspect nib issues is when I get feathering. I use a 15x loupe to look for subtle ink properties and that's when I may notice the nib crushing or cutting the paper. I usually have a mix of pressure on my sample sheet and haven't noticed it affecting water resistance.