Jump to content

Noodler's Lexington Gray -- First Review Ever!


WildingLeather

Recommended Posts

Hey guys! I'm looking for some feedback on my review style. What do you want to see more of? What do you want to see LESS of? I know that the quality of the photos are an issue; I'll fix that later. I also didn't write on the page what paper was used; it's a Habana 90gsm pure-white journal. The pen with XF and M nibs was a Safari; the Flex nib was an Ahab.

 

Seriously, the more "I wish you'd done X" I get on this, the better I'll get at reviewing. Constructive-criticism feedback is the BEST feedback.

 

Oh! And the soak time was 10 minutes, face-down in water. Photo is iPhone 4 in sunlight with auto-white-balance in GIMP. YMMV, as always.http://samanthawilding.net/penstuff/LexGreyReview.jpg

 

How'd I do?

 

EDITED AS FOLLOWS:

1) Linked to an external image rather than stored on FPN server. You can now blow it up to mind-blowing sizes to look for feathering (hint: check the various-paper flex samples!). Shading is much more apparent in the full-size image as well.

2) ETA: Soak test was 10 minutes face-down in NYC tap water on Rhodia 80gsm dot pad. Yes, I swear I actually did the test before I shot the photo. Yes, I double-checked. It's that good at repelling water. Similarly, yes, I did sprinkle water on the grid section. That little bit of brown in the image is contamination from the paper towel I used to pat-dry it.

 

3) The only reason anything came off the "Water" section was that the Q-tip started taking off paper fibers after a few passes. Until then, the ink didn't go anywhere.

 

4) The pens for the XF and M samples are the same Lamy Safari, with the nibs hot-swapped. This is to isolate nib width versus feed supply. Since it's the same feed, I thought it would be an interesting comparison (and saved me cleaning out multiple pens!)

 

5) Left the "attached image" for server archiving, as I've growled at lots of reviews where the original image was moved from Photobucket or wherever. This way at least SOMETHING stays on the server if the original source gets moved/destroyed/eaten by wild shrews.

post-118454-0-71417400-1420999031_thumb.jpg

Edited by Miz Black Crow

Samantha Wilding - She/Her

Owner, Wilding Leather

Handcrafted Leather Writing Accessories

wildingleather.com

howlforfpn.jpg.47093baedd24ddf347395f0535911675.jpg      tangledantlersforfpn.jpg.c941ac36a4dd251dce9724be97255547.jpg   monsteraforfpn.jpg.fe496936918a19c6221b8e79f974b793.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 11
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • WildingLeather

    5

  • visvamitra

    1

  • jasonchickerson

    1

  • Davros

    1

Neat!

 

I feel like doing *any* review at all is 90% of the battle; I find them useful pretty much no matter what.

 

I would like slightly longer samples of each nib size - at least a couple sentences. It would also be nice to know if they're of approximately equal wetness, or if one runs extra dry/wet.

 

For the different papers, I'd find it helpful if you'd note bleeding/feathering/other issues you notice, as they can be hard to pick out in smaller samples.

 

I always like knowing people's subjective thoughts, so if there's other impressions you have, those would be awesome.

 

That submersion test is pretty impressive! Which paper did you do that on?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I'd like to see more writing with all three pens as Davros suggested. The samples on different papers is really helpful, but we'd get more out of it if they were larger, individual images instead of stacked all together.

 

As far as the photography, it can be better than scans. The key is setting white balance, which will be very difficult with an iphone because the phone's flash is inadequate to cover a whole page and the lens tends to give a radial color cast to the photos. Still, you can get decent results with a grey card (you can get them to fit in your wallet, about 10 bucks on Amazon). Photograph the card in the shot, then use it, not the paper, to set your white balance in Gimp. Here's a pic of my setup. I used a WhiBal but there are cheaper alternatives.

 

post-106358-0-28100800-1421012941_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Much appreciated!

 

Davros, the way I'm doing nib changes, it's actually just hot-swapping the nib on the Safari, so for wetness, the feed is identical. Also, the 10 minute soak was Rhodia dot pad 80gsm. I was stunned myself; the Lex didn't even blink at it!

 

Jason, thank you for the suggestion! I work near a photo store, I'll see if I have time to run up there before work in the near future.

 

I think what I need to do is go to a 2-page format, with longer writing samples and a section discussing feathering/ghosting/bleeding. Or just expand this to one pahe, shoot it, and tape other paper types to the back of the page..... Hmm. I may take a run at that tonight/tomorrow.

Samantha Wilding - She/Her

Owner, Wilding Leather

Handcrafted Leather Writing Accessories

wildingleather.com

howlforfpn.jpg.47093baedd24ddf347395f0535911675.jpg      tangledantlersforfpn.jpg.c941ac36a4dd251dce9724be97255547.jpg   monsteraforfpn.jpg.fe496936918a19c6221b8e79f974b793.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUESTION: Would it benefit anyone to do even more nibs? EG XF, F, M, B, 1.1stub? I ask because I've been toying with the idea of buying more nibs for the Safari specifically for ink journals; not sure if it's something that is necessary, though, or even helpful for others.

Samantha Wilding - She/Her

Owner, Wilding Leather

Handcrafted Leather Writing Accessories

wildingleather.com

howlforfpn.jpg.47093baedd24ddf347395f0535911675.jpg      tangledantlersforfpn.jpg.c941ac36a4dd251dce9724be97255547.jpg   monsteraforfpn.jpg.fe496936918a19c6221b8e79f974b793.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

{Removed due to duplicate posting.}

Edited by Miz Black Crow

Samantha Wilding - She/Her

Owner, Wilding Leather

Handcrafted Leather Writing Accessories

wildingleather.com

howlforfpn.jpg.47093baedd24ddf347395f0535911675.jpg      tangledantlersforfpn.jpg.c941ac36a4dd251dce9724be97255547.jpg   monsteraforfpn.jpg.fe496936918a19c6221b8e79f974b793.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think adding different nibs would be great but time consuming. On the other hand swapping nibs in Lamy fountain pens takes just a moment. So if you can do it, I would appreciate a lot to see color variation in different nib sizes.

 

I would add one thing. You can open the photo is any free photo editor (even on-line editor like www.pixlr.com) and correct histogram and make a close up of the text to show shading. You can whether crop the image or (as I do= make a printscreen of magnified area and paste it to paint, crop and save.

 

Keep on doing them :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great first review.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUESTION: Would it benefit anyone to do even more nibs? EG XF, F, M, B, 1.1stub? I ask because I've been toying with the idea of buying more nibs for the Safari specifically for ink journals; not sure if it's something that is necessary, though, or even helpful for others.

 

More nibs is always nice because some inks look completely different in fine vs. medium or broader. I personally hate my Safari's dryness (even with bigger nibs) so my $.02 would be a #6 nib to swap with the Ahab since it's a wetter pen.

 

Very nice and thorough review, though.

Edited by TheRealScubaSteve
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic first review - thank you for posting it especially with all the different papers! I love this ink, it is so well behaved.

If there is righteousness in the heart, There will be beauty in character. If there is beauty in character, There will be harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, There will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, There will be peace in the world. Bhagawan Shri Satya Sai Baba

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 10 months later...

@MBC

I just tried a bottle of LG, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm usually into clear colors, so gray was not a color that was of interest, but I find that it works out quite well. With less contrast to the paper, it is not as harsh on the old eyes as BLACK ink is. And I like that it seems to be a clean gray, without shades of other colors.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...