Chesterfield Samples?

[bassmannate]

A couple months ago, I ordered a sample of Chesterfield archival from xfountainpens. Now, the site has changed and while the description on each ink says that 3ml samples are available, I can't find them anywhere.

 

Am I missing something?

[Scootz]

I have read that Chesterfield inks are repackaged Diamine, and Diamine ink samples are widely available. There is a thread with a Chesterfield to Diamine cross reference.

[bassmannate]

Thanks. I'll have to find the cross reference chart. I knew that it was repackaged Diamine, just didn't know what was what. Still puzzled by the reference to samples and yet I can't find the samples on their site.

[Ceilidh]

They're not listed separately anymore. But I just looked at Night Sapphire and Archival under bottled ink. "3 ml samples available" is listed below, no price and not shown in the dropdown box of bottle sizes to purchase. I guess you have to email them about it.

[Sasha Royale]

"Archival Vault" is the Chesterfield name. I believe Diamine calls it "Registrar" .

I especially like Chesterfield's Garnet Red.

[Icywolfe]

I wonder why did they rename them though.

[mhosea]

I expect they wish to encourage the presumption that they are inks unique to that vendor, so that if you wish to try, say, Chesterfield Bowtruckle Brown, you would be obliged to buy it from them rather than hunt down a bottle of Diamine Golden Brown for a lower price somewhere else.

 

Edit: I should add that there should, IMHO, remain a certain amount of nagging uncertainty. An ink manufacturer knows what he is willing to do, and a would-be ink vendor knows what he wants (hopefully) and what he is willing to pay for it. There are a lot of possibilities.

Edited August 20, 2014 by mhosea

[Icywolfe]

I expect they wish to encourage the presumption that they are inks unique to that vendor, so that if you wish to try, say, Chesterfield Bowtruckle Brown, you would be obliged to buy it from them rather than hunt down a bottle of Diamine Golden Brown for a lower price somewhere else.

 

Edit: I should add that there should, IMHO, remain a certain amount of nagging uncertainty. An ink manufacturer knows what he is willing to do, and a would-be ink vendor knows what he wants (hopefully) and what he is willing to pay for it. There are a lot of possibilities.

Generally when I see a no-name brand I think of cheap chinese quality.

 

I wonder did they get Diamine's permission to do that?

[mhosea]

I wonder did they get Diamine's permission to do that?

 

Why would they need it? I presume as insiders they are buying ink (and cartridges) in bulk from Diamine and bottling/branding it themselves. The alternative, that there is a big pile of empty 80ml Diamine bottles at the xFountainpens warehouse, doesn't make a lot of sense.

[stuartk]

They're not listed separately anymore. But I just looked at Night Sapphire and Archival under bottled ink. "3 ml samples available" is listed below, no price and not shown in the dropdown box of bottle sizes to purchase. I guess you have to email them about it.

 

I've never had much luck e-mailing them. I was promised a chart or list of the Chesterfield - Diamine correspondence, and they never sent it. I tried again today and now they claim they don't even have that information. They're very courteous, but I'm not sure they know the products that well. They're probably just there to answer the "an item was missing/broken/wrong in my order" questions.