Why Swab Test With Multiple Passes?

[subbu68]

I am not new to FPs but was not serious till a year back about reviews, inks etc. Used to get Parker ink or Pelikan carts and use them with my pens.

 

On reading the ink reviews I find swab tests with multiple passes being done.

 

Why swab test when we write with a nib and not 'paint' a word or sentence with a swab? We write only one time and not over write on what we wrote. What does swab test reveal and these two or three passes that a 'writing test' does not?

[Sadiq]

I think it gives you the various degrees of shading qualities the ink has.

 

Also, you may notice that in a fine nibbed pen an ink is quite darker & in a broad/stub nib pen the same ink would lighter/vivid.

[TheRealScubaSteve]

It also illustrates wetness. My pens are adjusted very wet and one pass would not be an accurate demonstration of how the ink would write in my pens.

[inkstainedruth]

I'll admit that I don't like swabs at all. I don't think they give an accurate feel for what the ink will look like coming out of a pen -- even multiple passes tend to be too light or inaccurate.

I look at the swabs on the Goulet Pens website, for instance, and I mostly try to look at just the writing above the swabs -- that gives me a better feel for whether I'm going to like a color enough to try a sample.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lapis]

I don't like swabs either but I still use them (as fast and short as possible) and only in my reviews but for two reasons:

(1) I think a few other members do like them, so why not give them a shot?

(2) Since a lot of sites offer swabs, I do that too, if only to see and then compare what "my" swab will look like. Honestly, most swabs I've ever seen on most sites hardly resemble what I see with that ink on my papers.

 

Mike

[aeba]

I agree with @TheRealScubaSteve. On the swabs I have done on 80g Winsor & Newton notebook, 1, 2 and 3 pass swabs correlate pretty well about brightness range I would get on my pens. (Parker Frontier M being drier and thus more "washed out" than wetter Kaweco BB and so on.)

 

I have no idea how well that works after scanning, "user grade" monitors and so on.

[Pentulant]

I regularly swab inks - primarily because I like the way swabs look and it's fun. As for color and accuracy, it's an additional tool that helps the user choose an ink.

[mmg122]

I'm not an artist but many folks who do pen and ink drawings use various fountain pen inks. They tell me that the multiple pass swabs give them an idea of the inks drawing potential and ink wash potential. I suspect the benefits are more for the artists than the writers among us.

[amberleadavis]

I never do swabs. I always feel like I'm wasting ink. I do little doodles.

 

That way, I feel like I used my pen and my ink.

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Colors/Red/slides/00-2013-Ink_871.jpg

[lapis]

Food for thought. I'll eat that... immediately....

 

Mike

[amberleadavis]

And on that one, you know it's Wild Strawberry.

[migo984]

I always do swatches for myself. To me, all inks have a 'texture', a certain feel on the paper and an individual behaviour as they dry, that I can better see and assess from swatches made on good mixed media surface sized paper, than just by writing or sketching with a pen or pens. I can get a good idea of potential for shading or sheen too. The number of passes I take usually depends on whether I'll use the ink for purposes other than writing. But it's usually just one quick single layered swab. I also like them for quick visual referencing of colour groups & comparisons.

 

I also do writing tests too, of course.

 

Given that every ink is affected by so many factors (nib, feed, length of time in pen, cap type, paper, whether dipped or filled, environment, age of ink, etc etc etc etc) I never take much notice of other peoples' written exemplars/reviews either. The whole 'ink thing' is totally subjective.

Edited August 13, 2015 by migo984

[Sandy1]

nul

Edited August 16, 2015 by Sandy1

[canibanoglu]

Personally, I find swabs absolutely pointless. They are not an accurate description of the color when coming out of a pen and multiple swabs are not a good way to simulate wetter pens. Even after reading the comments in this thread, I still don't see how people find them useful.

[Pentulant]

Different strokes for different folks.

 

😂

[migo984]

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Exactly.

[mhosea]

The multi-pass swabs are supposed to show the ink's color in a wet pen. I've stopped doing swabs for this, though I'm not philosophically opposed to their use. What I do instead is cut old credit cards into strips, clean them with alcohol, then use them to write a long stroke on the paper, trying to include both very wet areas and the drying out gradient as the stroke becomes increasingly starved for ink. I have more fun doing it, and the results seem easier to interpret and compare. At least it could be said that when I subsequently write with the ink in a pen, I perceive that this is precisely the same ink looking as if the letters had been cut from the test stroke.

[amberleadavis]

LuMa just got me a gadget for doing swabs. I love it.