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Ok, so I just found this: https://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?t=31184 From the comparisons photos that were posted there, I think that you might like the colour of Aurora Blue/Black, although I note that I have seen several comments that say that it is an ink that is very ‘dry’-writing. That thread from penexchange.de could also be a useful guide to inform other members here of what Online Nachtblau looks like, and therefore enable them to offer better recommendations for you.

How do you find Tamiya polishing comlound (Fine grade)? Does it polish finer than Novus 2 or eventually Polywatch?

Ah, I got my Tuesday fix but so many questions and so few answers 🤪 Is the high Wizard (or With-ard) the same as the original one? No wise cracks from Makhabesh and no innocent truths from Essri. Must be all that sheen hiding the secrets 🙂 And niw for the ink. I had heard this ink is a stainer. So I was surprised that the cleaning was so easy. Thanks @LizEF for bringing so much excitement to our Tuesdays 🙏🙏🙏

I like my Japanese and European EF nibs, but I also like the look of shading inks. Unfortunately, I am finding the inks I have tried so far to be too dry. Any recommendations for inks for me to try out? Or should I just continue what I am doing which is to add a tiny bit of White Lightning to make them a little bit wetter?

I have no experience of Online Nachtblau. But, if you desire a greyish blue-black, Rohrer & Klingner ‘Salix’ starts out on the bluer end of the blue-black spectrum, but it ‘cures’ to a grey-tinged colour. If you find that ink to be too ‘blue’, I would also recommend Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black, which also turns grey-ish. Or, for a darker blue/black, Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite (although that ink isn’t really very ‘grey’, and is not ‘inexpensive’). After you have received a few recommendations for suitable inks, I advise you to have a look through the ‘Ink Reviews’ board. Its ‘index’ thread is a good place to start . Linky! Another good place to start looking for suitable inks yourself is the following thread: N.b. I advise you to read/watch several reviews of any inks that get recommended to you. That is because: different people’s cameras/scanners render colours differently different reviewers use broader or narrower nibs, or ‘wetter’ or ‘drier’ pens different reviewers use different types of paper Ideally, you want to see reviews by people who use the same types of pen that you do, the same width/grind of nib that you do, and who write on the same type of paper that you do. But of course it is highly unlikely that many people will use all the same ‘equipment’ that you do, so reading several reviews is a good way to get an idea of the ink’s range of behaviours from different pens/nibs/papers etc. That said, I know that @namrehsnoom uses Lamy Safaris in different widths to write most of his ink reviews, so his reviews will be a good place for you to start. Especially his review of Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite 🙂 I also recommend the reviews by @Sandy1, who was for many years the most-thorough reviewer of inks on FPN, and who is much-missed. Of the inks that I mentioned before, she reviewed e.g. Pelikan 4001 Blue-black and R&K Salix. Another reason to consult several reviews is because different reviewers notice different things: is the ink ‘wet’-writing or ‘dry’-writing? does the ink shade/sheen? does the ink feather/bleed? is the ink difficult to clean, or does it clog pens? does the ink cause nib-creep? Reading/watching several reviews of any ink gives you the best chance of being alerted to anything that would be a ‘deal-breaker’ for you before you buy the ink. If, after you have read several reviews and want to try out an ink before buying an entire bottle, many retailers will sell you a ‘sample’ of a couple of ml of the ink. I wish you good luck - and good fun too - in your search Slàinte, M.

Herbin eclat de saphir (once my last 2 bottles of Parker Penman Sapphire run out)

Lamy's Bentoite (crystal ink series)? Organics Studio's Manganese? Visconti's Wheatfield with Crows? Note: Those are all in bottles, but you can always fill your converters from them.

when TWISBI (??) came out with a very cheap and bad line of pens i had no problem buying 6 and going to town with a razor blade to carve out the section, usually going too far i let the local hobbyists get first crack at real repairs, they will tell me to ship it to HQ if they can't handle it.

I started learning to repair my own pens after I had given a Parker 51 to a known repair person, who is no longer with us. I was charged $35 for the repair, and when I got home, I discovered that the pen still had the same issue (wouldn't take ink). I dug around online, and figured out what was needed, and fixed it myself. In doing that, I found that I enjoyed working on pens more than just collecting or using them. So, my first few years of doing repairs was simply to learn how different pens worked. And here I am....knee deep in pens to repair, with a dozen or more labeled parts boxes. And...old age creeps up, so I now have trigger finger in both hands...sometimes simultaneously. My repair days may be limited.

same old same old for decades

Well, I decided to buy a Safari with a 1.1 stub nib and see how it goes. A buddy told me that he has one and really likes it. We'll see. If I don't, there is a nib meister close by.

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Diamine Bilberry This is review #282 in my series. Here's the YouTube video: Post-recording notes: This is a middle-of-the-road purple, not leaning red, not blurple, not pastel, not muted (greyed). Almost all my other purples either lean red or are blurple. Meanwhile, this one is a sheen machine. That sheen makes it look darker than the ink itself actually is. I think it has pretty heavy sheen, but as you might guess from the swatch card comparisons, it's nothing compared to Purple Rain. Dry time: not all the hash marks between 4 and 16 smeared. I went with 17 as nothing longer than that smeared, but you could get much faster dry times, depending on your paper and pen. The microscope slide had nothing new, so it's not included. The ink dries very fast on the nib for me - this is not unusual for high-sheening inks as they tend to have a very high dye concentration (less water). Cleaning was easy with plain water, but you'll need extra flushes - it's quite concentrated. Zoomed in photo (Fairly close to the color. Might be too blue and muted.) Screenshot (This is too dark and desaturated.) Scan of Completed Review (This might be the best color reproduction.) Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (These are not far off from the color I see.) Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 278µm. With 282 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.) (You can see a little sheen. Surprised by how narrow the line is. I thought it seemed wider - not sure how that works.) Previous Review: Papier Plume Sazerac. Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap. Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll. View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet. Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here. Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

That ‘Coral’ looks like a nice red in your photos 😊 Sadly though, here in the UK a 50ml bottle of it is priced at £34 (€39.50 or $42.15). I would need to be really sure that I really wanted it before paying that much money. (I have ancestors from Yorkshire. A county in which, er, ‘Prudence’ is a highly-regarded virtue.)

Thanks for posting this review I have to admit, I find these ink over priced and basically one pays for the bottle and the name, but not necessarily the ink. However, the Carnelian ink is quite elegant

See if you can figure out which seven inks I got. One of them is a dip pen ink. The first and last line are the same ink. Three of them are no longer in production (but I found NOS bottles), though two of those are still available with different branding. None are 'vintage'. Hint: it might help to read the poem ... I used a dip pen and the swatches were made by rubbing the back of the nib on the paper. You can tell this is an AI-generated poem by "... ancient tales, both old and new ..." 😅 By the way, this is the first time I have used this paper and it is *wonderful*. I like it better than my old 52 gsm Tomoe River. The notebook cover is labelled "Écrire Envelope Series" in French & English and it is made by Maruai. It is very crinkly, light-weight - definitely can write on only one side - and ivory in color. I found it in a Japanese thrift store and it seems to no longer be available, unfortunately. I'm gonna look to see if Maruai has a replacement product ...

Did your Duofold arrive with a converter included inside the pen, or with only those two cartridges?

In my experience of modern (2000s) Parker Quink ‘Black’, it is an ink whose colour leans green, rather than blue. From narrow-nibbed/‘dry’-writing pens, to my eye it looks very green-grey. It does look darker, and ‘blacker’, from pens that write ‘wetter’, e.g. my 1984 Parker 75 ‘M’ makes Quink ‘Black’ look far more black than does my 1994 Parker Vector ‘M’. Also, my experience is that, on some papers - the same ones that make Quink ‘Washable Blue’ ‘vanish’, and that make Quink ‘Blue/black’ rapidly turn teal in colour 🤪 - Quink ‘Black’ fades to that green-grey colour fairly rapidly. N.b. my experience is with cartridges of the ink, which date to the early, and the late, 2000s. The ink may have been reformulated since then.

For more details/information about your lovely 400, I recommend that you open the following link to the superb website about vintage Pelikan pens that has been created by FPN’s own @tacitus: https://tacitus124.wixsite.com/vintagepelikanpens/400-ca-1952 Slàinte, M.

Sigh cubed. AH HA!!!!!! M&K is worth the mailing to the States...German post is still 1/3 cheaper than US.. There is three versions, all very good. The 95g once typewriter paper...now named Office paper is great ...one...sided...paper in it's typewriter paper. I haven't laid hand on the other two versions lately...but I seldom go on line. I do have 2 1/2 M&K 95g typewriter/Office. It's not a pad, but loose 100 sheets in a fold over pad like cover. It's the paper I reach for just after testing an ink on CT or Oxford Optic...always with in reach. When I got bit by that rabid paper beast, I went down town Heidelberg to every place that sold paper...having looked it up. The best Rossler was a joy to write on the feather champ...in all levels. And Brunner is poor...even it's index cards which just ended up in my Ball Point Barbarian wife's fold out office cubical. Brunner papers of all sorts...even Deckel papers where one would expect more were nothing but ball point and printer papers.................OUT SIDE OF M&K. M&K had been an extraordinary good paper companies in the '50's that was eventually bought up by Brunner and ...Not Ruined.