Hi Everyone -

If you didn't know, I'm currently working on a book about vintage inks. It will include an ink sample section that will include a swab and a writing sample. I'm wondering what you'd prefer to see for the writing sample? I would like to write the same word for every sample. My wife wants to write something different. She was thinking maybe something to do with Colorado (where we live) such as names of mountains or cities. I was thinking if it was going to be different words, to at least have them pen-related. What do you think? If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Also, you can find out a little more about the book here.

Thanks!
John

Just visited your site . . . AWESOME!
The picture of the Skrip bottle brought back some very pleasant parochial school memories.

It would be kind of nice to use a list of mountains, rivers, valleys, etc. and run through the list.

Also, this book sounds great. Let us(I assume that I speak for most here) know when it is released.

I think for a true sampling, one would need to write more than a word. At least a sentence, ideally a paragraph. When I was doing ink reviews, I wrote a passage from Lorem Ipsum (see below). Lorem Ipsum is, for all intents and purposes, a nonsense language used by printers to showcase a given font or color. In other words, it takes emphasis off content, and puts it on form.

I would concure. A common phrase which hits most of the letters and gives you a chance to show off some fancy S or Fs gives one more of a hint. Especially so with inks that lend themselves to shading. Ipsum dolors will do as will some common bit of Shakespear.

IMO: importance in this order:

(1) Write everything with one and the same pen, or, even better with 3 and the same pens (XF, M, broad or stub). Use a piston-filler or c/c and not a dip pen. Yes, lots of work but that'd look best.
(2) For each ink just write "The quick brown fox..." and then spell out the alphabet in capitals.
(3) Stay away from swabs. They don't convince, can't convince either.
(4) Your idea about colour naming is nice, like e.g. CdA. But then please do write in parentheses a very rough description, like "Grand Canyon (Dark Brown)".

Sure am looking forward to your harvest!

Mike

I have been trying, for my own purposes, to standardise a way to make ink samples.
The big problem is that the same ink, in three different pens, will give you three different colours.
My solution is to pick a pen that is medium broad and that writes a medium wet line, so you can see the colour of the ink, without it being too dark.
It would also be nice to have a pen that is common and cheap, so that others can reproduce your results.

Many dip pens, with the possible exception of the Esterbrook 314 Relief Pen, are too wet to give an accurate sample.

I do use cotton bud swipes, but only to compare a mixed ink with a reference sample. This way I have been able to get a couple of good replicas of Parker Penman Sapphire.

I decided to get a matched set of three Jinhao X-450 pens for my testing purposes. That way, I can compare three different inks at the same time.
I did find that just dipping the nib will give you a wetter line than filling the pen properly and wiping the nib off before writing.

I think is also important to choose a paper that really shows off the colour of the ink. I have tried a number of quality acid-free papers, including HP Colour Laser 100 gsm, OCE TopColour 100 gsm, Clairefontaine DCP 100 gsm and Stora Enso 4CC 100 gsm. It wasn't until I tried the 4CC paper that I found a paper that really showed the inks off well. For example, Visconti Blue, which had always seemed to be a blue with a hint of grey, suddenly became a bright, vibrant blue.

Just my tuppence worth...

Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far.

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Greg Clark's book (now Gingko Tree Enterprise's - you can see a sample here if you've never seen it before), but my samples will be somewhat similar to that. It's not meant to be an ink review, but more of a collection of inks. I want to include a writing sample, but please understand that space is very limited and I'll probably only have room for one or two words per color.

As for the pens I'll use to write the samples, I've tried to choose an assortment of pens that have similar nibs. They're all flexible, so I can get a range of widths into one word. I know it's not perfect, but hopefully it will communicate the color of the ink with something besides a swab.

I would say to write the same word or, better yet, the same short sentence. For sure, use the same pen and paper.

Your wife has a good idea, but you are testing and comparing inks. Write about your state in a separate work.

Paddler

While the ideas from JJBlanche and lapis are good, it might be cumbersome to maintain for an ink sale site. If your wife is up to it, then by all means- but please do provide a smaller sample on the main all-inks list page- personally, I like a couple words and then a scribble, ala Private Reserve.

IMHO, lapis is totally right in saying do it in the same pen! I think a stub/CI/I or flex is good, as it can show some variances in color without having to load the ink into a lot of pens for a two-line writing sample.

Another random idea is to solicit users of your ink to share their samples. This is probably a goofy idea for various reasons- it'd introduce inconsistencies. Just mentioned it because I did this for both shipments I've received from you; sentence in a pen, and a 4x/3x/2x/1x swab wipe above it. For the first order I made, I even took those samples, and then ran water resistance tests and a diluted bleach test.

Oddly enough, Carter's Washable Blue withstands a water soak quite well, better than a lot of the "permanent" varieties.

Great idea and great inks- thanks!

Regards,
Aaron

Just had a thought. You could do what many here do and write the name of the manufacturer, the color name, the pen used, and the nib. Just a suggestion.

I was going to suggest one line of a Robert Frost poem or EBB sonnet for each ink, until I saw your space restrictions. I also liked the idea of maybe the names of rivers, oceans, parks, or mountain ranges, or maybe cities or townships. Or maybe the names of famous authors and philosophers. Names from Greek mythology? If it has to be just one word, make it your favorite, over 5 letters word. How about the names of spices? A short Latin phrase, as in my signature?