Best Waterproof Inks for Fountain Pens

Permanent Blue by Montblanc: This ink is renowned for its permanence. It is great for official documents that must stand the test of time. It comes in a beautifully designed bottle that will grace any desk.

Graf Von Faber-Castell Bottled Inks: Within the elegant bottle of these inks is a fluid that is indelible; it is waterproof, smudge-resistant, and survives chemicals and solvents intended to tamper with writing. Best of all, it comes in a variety of brilliant, saturated colors. The ink flows evenly and easily from premium fountain pens as well as everyday models. These inks are also available in cartridges for pens that use them.

Pigment-Based and Iron-Gall Inks: Instead of dyes, these inks use non-soluble particles suspended in water. Once they dry, the particles are embedded in the paper and won’t wash away. The downside is that, if left to dry in the pen, the particles can clog the channel. Since the particles aren’t water soluble, this makes the pen with dried ink in it very hard to clean.

Iron-gall inks date back to medieval times. Originally made by mixing iron salt crystals with tannic acid from “oak apples” (growths caused when a gall wasp lays eggs in a leaf bud), they are often mixed with dyes to make them easier to see while writing. In time, however, they will fade to the gray of the iron gall particles embedded in the paper.

Hundreds of years ago, iron gall inks were very acidic, and could cause paper to dissolve or disintegrate. Although now less acidic, these inks can clog pens, and possibly corrode nibs. Regular cleaning is necessary with these inks.