Picking the right ink for a fountain pen
If you've read my Designer's Guide to Fountain Pens post over on the main blog, you know that I haven't done a good job picking inks for my fountain pens. All of the Lamy pens come with a Lamy blue ink cartridge and those work well, but I wanted to branch out and try some different inks.
When I bought the neon lime green Safari, I picked up neon lime ink cartridges, too. They are very cool if you are looking for a highlighter ink, but it's way too light for everyday use.
When I got my AL-Star, I picked up a bottle of J. Herbin Gris Nuage. It's also too light for everyday use. When it dries, using a fine nib, it looks an awful lot like pencil. Which is cool, but not what I want, either.
I think my major issue is that a very fine nib doesn't show color well. I'm going to buy a broad or calligraphy nib and see if that helps. If you are new to fountain pens and interested in trying out various inks, you may want to have pens with different nib styles.
I'm also learning that there are plenty of people that review inks. If I had read the reviews on either the neon lime Lamy cartridge or the Gris Nuage, I would have know pretty much exactly what to expect.
I'm still learning what works. I need to purchase a couple of different nibs for my Lamy pens. I want to find a really nice "Sketchbook B" green and a garnet because of the day job. I feel like I need to have some black ink, but that doesn't sound like fun. So maybe a blue black? Or a dark gray?
