Re-run of an ink test

 

By Johan Thole – jthole@gmail.com

Years ago, I did a test on the water resistance of various inks. The results can still be found in the Pentrace archives:

http://www.newpentrace.net/ink111501_013.html  "Water resistance of blue-black fountain pen inks".

Recently, I acquired a bottle of Akkerman #10 ijzer-galnoten (iron gall) ink, so I decided to re-run part of the test. This time, I only included some blue-blacks. The previous test already showed that the blue-black inks were the most waterproof.

The inks I included are the following:

• Sheaffer Skrip blue-black; new “Slovenian” formula

• Lamy blue-black; old formula, reformulated in 2012

• Akkerman #10 iron-gall ink

• Lamy document ink ballpoint refill

 

As a comparison, I also included Lamy Turquoise, which is known to have very little water resistance. Results were captured using a simple flatbed scanner.

The following pens were used for this test (in my original test, I used a dip pen):

• Pelikan 400, OB nib: Sheaffer Skrip blue-black

• Hero 100, F nib: Akkerman #10

• Lamy 2000, F nib: Lamy blue-black

• Lamy Spirit ballpoint

• Lamy Persona: Lamy Turquoise

The various nibs and pens make a difference in how the inks look on paper. However, they should make no difference in the water resistance of the inks.

The first scan was made before soaking, after I gave the inks 30 minutes to dry on the paper.

After the initial scan, I let the paper soak in tap water for 15 minutes. After drying to the air (no blow dryer or heater used), I scanned the paper sheet again:

Results

The most obvious outcome, as expected, is that the Lamy Turquoise ink almost disappeared from the page. It's clear that this is not the best ink for important notes, as nice as the color may be!

The Lamy document ink fared well. The Lamy blue-black and Akkerman #10 are still perfectly readable too. Not unexpected, since they both are iron gall inks. However, re-readingthe original ink test (in the archives), I was surprised to see how badly Lamy blue-black performed. My guess is that I have used dye based Lamy cartridge ink back then, instead of the bottled ink.

The performance of the Sheaffer ink was a surprise.As far as I know, it is dye based, but the 15 minute soak did not influence the writing at all.

I expect the new Lamy blue-black to be less water resistant, because it is dye based. Dye based inks are somewhat less susceptibleto clogging and dry writing, so it is understandable that manufacturers switch. However, I have used Montblanc and Lamy blue-black in my pens for years, and I expect Akkerman #10 inkto perform flawlessly as well.

Fig. 1 - Dry Paper

Fig. 2 Inks after soaking

 

 © 2014 Johan Thole - all rights reserved