Noodlers Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia

[HDoug]

So far, I've run 5 loads of this ink through my Pelikan Grand Place without rinsing. No probs to report, flow-wise. For reference, the pen wasn't "running aground" on each of the ink refills. The Grand Place doesn't have an ink window so I reload it when I think it's time, or if I plan to do a lot of writing. It's been in constant rotation and has probably gone maybe 5 days without use on the outside. (I started an ink and fill database at the beginning of the year thinking it might come in handy.)

 

I like the ink very much, and my snailers are about equally divided on whether it's a purple-brown or a red-brown. Again for reference, I believe it's from the Jetpens first batch.

 

Doug

[deadmuse]

I ordered a bottle of Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia from Jetpens a few days ago based on the deep red color that was posted in the picture. What I got was more of a dark grey, so I did a search on it and found this thread (and this site!).

 

I also wrote to Jetpens and they are aware of the issue. I'm going to exchange my bottle for another.

 

Their response might explain a few things about the ink:

 

Initially the Manjiro used to be a dark red, but Noodlers changed it

to a deep sepia brown later. The manufacturer's initial response to our

inquiry was:

 

*To more accurately reflect the 1840s whalemen's logbook ink color, future

runs beyond the first 46 bottles will be about 8% darker in shade unless

otherwise requested. Reason: after exposing the reformulated giant squid

ink based whalemen's sepia to an ageing oven and pure oxygen to accelerate

ageing effects it became a color more in line with the whalemen's logbooks

of the 1840s than fresh whalemen's sepia appears before ageing. As the

modern ink can never age anywhere near as much as the original organic

whalemen's sepia aged - the color upon first use should reflect the original

aged color as closely as possible. All other properties are the same, but

the initial shade is now darker.*

Edited July 28, 2009 by deadmuse

[loweevan]

I ordered a bottle of Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia from Jetpens a few days ago based on the deep red color that was posted in the picture. What I got was more of a dark grey, so I did a search on it and found this thread (and this site!).

 

I also wrote to Jetpens and they are aware of the issue. I'm going to exchange my bottle for another.

 

Their response might explain a few things about the ink:

 

Initially the Manjiro used to be a dark red, but Noodlers changed it

to a deep sepia brown later. The manufacturer's initial response to our

inquiry was:

 

*To more accurately reflect the 1840s whalemen's logbook ink color, future

runs beyond the first 46 bottles will be about 8% darker in shade unless

otherwise requested. Reason: after exposing the reformulated giant squid

ink based whalemen's sepia to an ageing oven and pure oxygen to accelerate

ageing effects it became a color more in line with the whalemen's logbooks

of the 1840s than fresh whalemen's sepia appears before ageing. As the

modern ink can never age anywhere near as much as the original organic

whalemen's sepia aged - the color upon first use should reflect the original

aged color as closely as possible. All other properties are the same, but

the initial shade is now darker.*

First, welcome to the board! That does seem to explain the change as we came to understand it. Nathan Tardiff is nothing if not thorough with his work from what I can see. The ink is still a nice color if you can deal with some of the starting issues and the smell. I don't use it frequently, but I still like that it's in my cabinet.

[Thornton]

Deadmuse, thank you for an extremely helpful first post! Although I like the original color better (unfortunately didn't get a bottle) I do appreciate Nathan's attention to detail which I am a stickler for myself. I often wondered if the change in color was intentional or not and this explains it.

[turban1]

fascinating.

 

is it really made from whale, or is that just marketing for japanese customers?

[djh]

I have a bottle of this ink and love it. To me, it is a muddy brown when wet, has red highlights and dries to a dark grey. It works beautifully in some of my pens but just this morning I flushed my Lamy 2000 as I was having hesitation problems with this combination and that is not a good thing for an every day writer.

[AlaskanWriter]

it is a muddy brown when wet, has red highlights and dries to a dark grey.

 

Bingo! exactly as it is for me.

Not my idea of a sepia, but an interesting ink none the less. It hates my Lamy Safari F, got muddy in it and dried up in the nib after a day or 2 of no use... Haven't put it in any other pen, cleaning it out of that one was hard enough, even being able to force water through with a converter... since my other pens don't have that luxery for cleaning, I'm too scared to try it in them. It flows beautifully from my brush pens though!

 

Still not sure I like the color...

 

G.

[docsamson]

Received this ink the other day and just now inked my pen with it.

 

It's a very interesting color. It's kind of looks like an unnatural, artificial brown made from purple, gray and red ink.

 

I like the color and so far it seems to be a very dry ink, turning my Nakaya soft fine into a somewhat scratchy writer. Most Noodler's make my pen write like a medium but this ink definitely makes it a fine.

 

I think it's a fine color but I wish Noodler's would release the original red batch under a different name; it looks so nice, I love to have some.

[Dave Johannsen]

fascinating.

 

is it really made from whale, or is that just marketing for japanese customers?

My understanding is that it's regular ink whose color is formulated to resemble that found in the log books of old whaling ships (i.e., no whales were harmed in the making of this product).

 

 

Dave

[bluemagister]

This ink is mystery in a bottle and the most excellent review and comments above this one really catch the essence of Manjiro ink. John Manjiro himself was a legendary character and this ink, with its eternal qualities, will also occupy a spot in the legends of ink.

 

Pairing this ink with a Waterman Phileas and a Pilot Prera (for medium and extra fine point writing) have produced no real ill effects. When you get some bagasse-based papers (like the Staples Eco-Friendly line), this ink becomes NIRVANA and PERFECTION because the light tint of the paper and the tint of the dried ink make it look like an old notebook from the whaling days.

 

I can DEFINITELY recommend this ink and do so without reservation. It's just one of those things you have to see for yourself and experience firsthand. Pixels definitely cannot do it justice.

 

 

**As an aside, if Staples ever comes out with grid and unlined versions of their notebooks, I will never buy anything else but those, ever again**

[Crim]

PenguinMaster, do you attach your reviews or are they hosted somewhere? Just wondering cause a lot of image hosting sites are firewalled here in China, so it makes reading reviews annoying. But I never have a problem when it comes to your pictures/reviews.

Edited September 25, 2009 by Crim

[penguinmaster]

PenguinMaster, do you attach your reviews or are they hosted somewhere? Just wondering cause a lot of image hosting sites are firewalled here in China, so it makes reading reviews annoying. But I never have a problem when it comes to your pictures/reviews.

 

Crim,

 

They are hosted on the server of the campus I work on. They give you so much space to host your own personal website (funny thing is they don't even know what the size limit is). So I host them there and link them to the pages here. As to why you can see them in China, but not others I have no clue. My guess is because it's not an image hosting site per-se (I've made it my own personal image hosting space) that you are able to see them.

 

Your right though, there's no way I could host them all on FPN. In fact I believe my file storage is full here currently with other ink reviews. I can't really port them over though because they can no longer be edited unfortunately.

 

-Tom

[Crim]

Ah, that's lucky of you then.

 

I know why I can't view some reviews. Probably because whatever site they're using to host the image is blocked by China. I'd bet that a lot of people here use ImageShack, which is one of the major image hosting sites currently blocked in China.

 

Oh well, w/e. Would you suggest any good sites to host images? I've ordered a bunch of Noodler's and I'd like to do some reviews as well.

[Silas]

I just got some of this stuff today. When wet it looks brown-sepia-ish. When dried it looks like dirty motor oil. Unfortunately for me I prefer the wet color.

 

It seems to be well behaved and good flowing though.

 

 

Dirty Motor Oil!! Yep, that describes it well. I traded mine immediately....not for me. Looked like an ink experiment gone bad.

[LisaG]

One word: THICK, that's what I would call it. Of all the inks I have tried, this one acts the most like a paint. I am using it in a medium nib Kaweco Dia, and boy does it want to skip. It bleeds through my moleskine journal paper (which seems to resist it at first) more than any of my other inks. I have a tentative theory that when Nathan made it darker, he took some of the water out of it, making it thicker. When I added some purified water, it was much easier to write with, but then it feathered. So I will try adding less next time.

Don't get me wrong, I love the color properties. It looks beautiful (if you like dark taupe, which I do) after it dries. It is also fun to watch it change color.

I will find a way to make this ink work for me.

 

- Lisa

 

The color matches on my screen, may be a shade or two off on your screen depending on thousands of variables!

 

<img src="http://facstaff.uww.edu/pellizzt/ink%20reviews/Noodlers%20Manjiro%20Nakahama%20Whaleman's%20Sepia.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

[bluemagister]

Despite my previous post, I've spent a month or more working this ink in 4 different pens and keep getting feed clogging after just a few days of use. I think this ink becomes more finicky the longer I have/store it...

 

I'm taking a break on this and will just fill with some other ink for now.

[HDoug]

I haven't tried it in a variety of pens, but it's been the ink for my Pelikan 620 Grand Place. Since the first load on March 4, I've put 16 loads through it, rinsing it with water 4 times. So far so good. I have the reddish first batch. Just adding a data point...

 

Doug

 

P.S. I'm kinda weird in that I keep a database of my ink fills. I started this a year ago and will be running stats early next month.

[jaderabbit]

I wish I had read these reviews before buying this ink. I really love the color and the story behind it but it's definitely a pain to write with using my Lamy Al Star fine nib.

Maybe I'll just use it for painting instead!

Edited January 4, 2010 by jaderabbit

[QM2]

That colour is darn nice!

[bluemagister]

I've found that the reason this is so scratchy in my pens is that even with the cap on, one or two days of unuse will dry out the feed. To remedy this, I'll twist the converter piston down ever so slightly to force a smidgen of fresh ink into the feed. Once I see liquid ink under the sides of the nib, I write out the little glob of dye that accumulated and the pen writes like it was just flushed and filled. Maybe the solvent in the ink evaporates more rapidly than other Noodler's inks (it certainly smells strong!)

 

This ink might require a little finagling with the converter, but once you get that ink flow going, you'll be in good shape and I do love the color and durability of it.