Today was a good day for ink. I got Sailor Brown and was surprised to find it produces very good shading with my Namiki Falcon. I also got Namiki Blue and it turned a very dry writing Pilot Elite pocket pen into a free flowing gem. Nice to have my expectations exceeded.

So did you get ink today? How do you like it?

What is Sailor Brown like? Is it lighter or darker than Waterman Havana Brown? Is it a reddish brown, a yellowish brown, a blackish brown, or a true brown? I have some other Sailor inks, and really like them, so I'm eager to learn more about their brown ink.

I bought some Private Reserve DC Supershow Electric Blue and also some Diamine WES Imperial Ink. Love them both. I also thought I would add a couple of others that I have loaded. See the attached scan.

Click to view attachment

*Crosses fingers* I should have a bottle and a set of cartridges of Waterman Florida Blue, as well as samples of Pelikan Brilliant Red, Waterman Red, Diamine Quartz Black, Omas Blue, and I think Aurora Blue. Hopefully James was able to get 'em sent before leaving for Houston!

I have about 35-40 bottles of blue ink. The three you have picked - Waterman Florida (a classic standby), Omas and Aurora - are all great choices.

I just got a bottle of PR American Blue a couple of days ago as part of a Swisher Pens order. Today, I pulled out a sample of Sailor Jentle Gray (thanks Margana!) that I put into my Densho. I've been using it for notes at the office, and it's just great.

Don

PR American Blue is one of my personal favourites. I don't have the Sailor gray but I have the Jentle Blue - its nice but I find it takes a long time to dry.

What a great question! I received samples from Peartree Pens Monday, but have been waiting for the ink in specific pens to run out. Today, I tried Diamine Blue Black. It's just what I've been looking for, darker than my favorite Diamine Prussian Blue, but not too black. It's also a little greener. Not so successful was the J. Herbin Cacao de Bresil. It doesn't match the color I played with at the D.C. pen show, but that's why James' sampler program is great. There is no brown in this sample, not even purple as some have mentioned -- it's a pure pencil gray and was flushed out of my pens (tried two) immediately. Next, sometime this weekend: Noodler's Nightshade.

Just this month alone, I have gotten myself 3 inks: Waterman Florida Blue, Private Reserve Plum & Private Reserve Black Magic Blue.

Sailor Jentle Brown is less saturated and paler than Havana Brown. It also isn't red like Havana. It is more similar to Diamine Golden Brown or Noodler's Golden Brown but not as yellow. It bears some similarity to J. Herbin Lie de The but is less saturated. Pendemonium has a swatch though the real thing is a little more vibrant.

So, Charlie, did I thoroughly confuse you? I wrote a letter with it yesterday in which I described it as a rich but soft brown that would never be mistaken for anything but brown. It flows beautifully, shades a little and takes about ten seconds to dry using my Namiki Falcon with a soft fine nib. Not the fastest but perfectly acceptable. Send me a PM if you would like a written sample.

Don - Welcome!

A bottle of 2005 PR DC Supershow Blue. Quite nice. A more royal blue than Florida Blue, but still well saturated. Definitely good enough as a business ink.

Sheaffer Blue and Sheaffer Blue-Black bottles came in yesterday- it seems like a nice daily use ink that dries fast and flows well.

Margana,
Thanks! Your description is excellent.

Noodlers Fox Red. Orangier (is that a real word?!) than I thought it would be - but nice nonetheless.

It arrived with its larger 3oz sibling, a bottle of Red Black - Im hooked. My first outing with NRB was on a very luminous white sheet of copier paper, with bright autumn sun streaming through the window, picking out the red shadows. Quite lovely.

Regards

David

I'll consolidate a couple of purchases here. Recently: PR Fiesta Red, Pr Ultra Black (seriously evil, light and soul-sucking ink, I love it) PR Tanzanite and my Mom bought (this has got to be the coolest combo purchase ever):

Visconti Van Gogh Midi Sandal Red with Visconti Travelling Ink Pot (amber top) with PR Copper Burst ink...

I have never seen anything as lovely (pen-wise) as that ink coming out of that nib on a taupe Crane card, late afternoon sun shining through the pen on my cedar deck on the prairies. Sigh. Doesn't get better than that IMHO.

Kath

I just got back from a weekend in Virginia Beach. Of course I couldn't resist stopping in at Swisher's store. I picked up a bottle of Private Reserve Black Magic Blue. I have to say that this is not at all the color that I was hoping it would be; I wanted a blue/black and this is a deep blue/purple. However, once I filled a pen and tried the ink, I absolutely loved it! The color is a really nice dark blue/purple. Despite the highly saturated color, the ink flows well, dries quickly, and is pretty resistant to feathering. This one is really a winner for me, so I am quite happy with my impulse buy.


Dave


PS I also picked up a Rhodia tablet and I REALLY love this paper! If you haven't tried it yet, I can't recommend it too highly.

After hearing much praise about Noodler's and deciding that one ink (Lamy blue) is definitely not enough, I bought Noodler's Purple and Green Marine. I used them in my last class today, and I am happy with my purchases. Now for some red, brown, gold, etc., not to mention the various shades of each.

Tracy

Brand new to pens . . . my first one is coming through the mail, a brushed copper Sheaffer Legacy. I can't wait.

After reading up on inks around here, I made my first purchase today. I bought three bottles . . . Noodler's SwishMix Nile Ebony waterproof (for business), and Swisher Pens Dark Purple and Emerald Green (for fun). Purple and green are my favorite colors, and I'm hoping these will be 'understated' enough to use as normal choices.

I can't wait until all my goodies arrive!

Congrats on the new pen and inks. Sounds like you made some exciting choices. Do post a photo or two or a dozen when you get 'em all in. ENJOY!!

PR American Blue came in from Pear Tree Pens today, along with a converter for my Safari. Now I need to use up my cartridge so I can try it out...

private reserve sherwood green - best green i've ever seen. looks terrific coming out of a lamy 200 broad nib. what could be better?

t

I travel by subway from Silver Spring, Maryland to the Department of Commerce Headquarters in downtown Washington DC several times a week. Today was one of those trips. On my way back to the subway station in DC, I stopped by a certain well-known DC pen store to buy a bottle of Waterman Havana Brown ink.

The guy who sold me the ink jokingly commented that brown ink was boring. (He likes green ink, and we frequently razz each other about tastes in pens and ink.) I pulled out my beautiful brown celluloid Danitrio Cumlaude with gold trim and medium nib and said, "Not boring in THIS pen!" He did a double-take and admitted that the brown ink perfectly complemented the deep brown celluloid and gold trim. He was astonished to see a celluloid pen of such large size.

Thanks to Winedoc (aka Operadoc) for selling me a wonderful pen that even impresses professional pen salespeople!

2 bottles of Waterman black made it to my house this afternoon.

I got myself a blue-black Parker Quink Ink from our local stationery store simply because it was there. I would have preferred the Noodler's Polar Black, but I'm going to have to like the Noodler's Blue-Black that I just received a week ago. I don't like the greenish cast it has and it looks so close to my Legal Lapis with my medium nib fp's. I've been looking for a true blue in blue-black and hopefully this bottle of Quink will give it.

Today received (from Pendemonium) a bottle of the Noodler's oddity - it's labelled Pequod, and yes, it's WHITE. Also got a bottle of Caran d'Ache Saffron. The saffron is one of the more beautiful yellowish colours i've tried, and I love it - but the bottle wins me over regardless of the ink colour. It's got to be the most beautiful bottle of ink on the market. The white i'll try as soon as i figure out what on earth to write on with it (purchased it on a lark, but I think it'll be fun). jam

I was shopping at a Michael's craft store today, and saw a Sheaffer caligraphy set on sale for 25% off . . . came to about $17. It included three plastic Sheaffer pens with stainless caligraphy nibs in different sizes, but better than that, it had a full selection of all their skrip ink cartidges! A total of 14 cartridges:

• Blue (2x)
• Black (3x)
• King's Gold
• Blue-Black
• Brown
• Green
• Red
• Pink
• Orange
• Purple
• Turquoise

I haven't tried any of them out yet . . . is there an accepted way to use just a bit of ink in a cartridge and save the rest? I thought of using a bit of tape over the hole that's made, but I'm not sure if that'll work. I hate to waste, but I also hate to have to complete a full cartridge before I even get to see the next . . .

I finally got a bottle of waterman purple. Wanted to recreate Binder's Blurple using 1:1 waterman florida blue and purple. Its a very nice shade that is quite unique. It writes purple and dries to a blue purple. Comparing to the florida blue, its lighter and as expected has a shade of purple too it.
I love this color. Next up i am looking for a nce orange that is not too light or too dark.
hmmm, any suggestions?

This is what I got yesterday:

I received two bottles of FPN Galileo Manuscript Brown. It's been thoroughly reviewed already, but I'll add a quick comment. I like the color, but it runs toward a reddish-brown and brings nib creep to a new level.

Yesterday I bought Sheaffer Brown, and Parker Blue and Noodlers Widow Maker-wow.
Today I bought Noodler's La Couleur Royale.

Got a bottle of J.Herbin Vert Olive from Castle in the Air at Berkeley! Great olive green!

I love olives, and I always have 2 or 3 kinds in my refrigerator -- and they are usually different colors from each other. What color is your olive green? Can you post a scan?

Received more than half a bottle of Diamine Sapphire Blue, as a free bonus along with a pen I bought from estrbrkboy on EBay. An exceptional and very generous seller. The ink is a lovely pure blue. No violet. My wife likes it too, and says she'd like to use it as her personal ink.

Two eternals:

Upper Ganges Blue and Esenin. I am really beginning to love the Noodler inks.

I'd suggest Diamine Orange. To me, it fits the description of not too light or too dark.

Best, Ann

I'll second Ann's suggestion for Diamine Orange. It's great. If you want to see a sample of it, PM me your snail address.

Bought some Diamine Woodland Green, based on several FPN posts. I like it a lot. Nicely saturated, true green. No yellow or blue tint.

I picked up Ottoman Azure and Sailor Blue Black.

Im hesitant guys on an Orange,but, I want one for my LE VP.

Latest inks are PR Orange Crush and Spearmint.

Nice...

ORANGE -- that would be Noodler's Summer Tanager. Although many folks seem to be opting for Apache Sunset.

I ordered Ellis Island Blue Black with mine. I like the idea of complements, rather than the same color for ink and pen. If the EIBB doesn't work, I've got plenty of blues that will, and ... a bottle of Summer Tanager.

Mine is on a truck somewhere between New Jersey and Mesquite. Less than 48 hours away.

I got some Waterman Havana Brown today. It was for myself, but my 8 year old daughter saw it and exclaimed, "Coooool!" So I went back to the shop (which is nearby and therefore dangerous), got her a converter for her Lamy, and now she's using the ink before I even get to.

I'm waiting for the next pen in rotation to empty so I can try it out...but it's really meant for a certain Pelikan White Tortoise that may soon be entering my collection

I like Noodlers' Cayenne for an Orange Ink. More red shades than some others I've seen scans of though.

Chris

Noodlers Habanero is a close cousin of Noodlers Cayenne. The Habanero has fewer red shades than the Cayenne and is a more pure orange color. I load a pen with it every October, about a week before Halloween.

They are both beautiful colors.

So.... Let's hear your impressions of Ottoman Azure and Sailor Blue Black!

Went ink shopping at the Dallas Pen show and found several inks that I wanted to try. Frank at the Pendemonium booth fixed me up!

Diamine Mediterranean Blue
Caran d'Ache Caribbean Blue
Visconti Bordeaux

PR cartridges:
Plum
Chocolat

Also got a bottle of Visconti Black with my new Red Wall Street

I'm trolling for some more interesting editing and grading colors. At the moment I'm taken by the Diamine inks, and have just received cerise (think screaming PINK), deep magenta (a bright plum), blaze orange (says it all), and jade green (a bright, light yellow green). With FPs, it's not like you don't get a choice of ink colors...

Visconti Bordeaux, Visconti Brown refill, MB Racing Green, and MB Violet.

Noodler's Ellis Island Blue-Black ink (Exclusively made for Fountain Pen Hospital).

Noodler's Red-Black - love it...Diamine Violet, MB Violet, and Iraqi Indigo all are coming this week, too! I'm a happy girl!!

2 bottles of Waterman Florida Blue were waiting for me at my house yesterday.