The Ink You Thought You'd Hate...

[ParkerDuofold]

Hello All,

 

Has anyone here fallen for an ink they thought they'd hate?

 

For me, it was J. Herbin's Cacao de Bresil. Every review and swatch of this ink I've ever seen always makes me think, "that's great if you like writing with muddy water."

 

The only reason I even bought it is because I was $3 shy of getting free shipping and I couldn't think of any other inks that I wanted... and I recalled reading a post here from Rachel Goulet how surprised she was as to how well this color sells... so... why not? Right?

 

Well, it still looks like muddy water to me, but it is the most pleasant looking muddy water I've seen in quite a while. I'm really growing fond of a color I thought I'd hate because it's so drab and I like more vibrant or rich hues.

 

What are your thoughts on Cacao de Brasil... or some other color you thought you'd hate, (but bought anyway )?

 

- Anthony

[ac12]

Noodler's Lexington Grey

 

I honestly do not remember WHY I bought it, but I was VERY surprised at how the ink looked.

I had thought of grey as a faded/watered down black, so I could not understand why anyone would sell or buy a grey ink.

 

I was really mistaken, the Lexington Grey looked GOOD to my eyes.

It was not as harsh as BLACK ink on white paper, so my eyes actually preferred it to my usual black ink.

It is now in permanent use in one of my pens, so that I always have it available.

[chromantic]

I loved Cacao, not only an intriguing color but reasonably well-behaved, too (compared to the other Herbins I tried); when I gave away all my Herbins, I debated whether to keep it but in the end threw it in the box with the rest. I'm open to trying it again at some point.

 

It's more likely that people will hate something they thought they'd like - I know that's happened to me many times. Why would you buy something you wouldn't think you'd like? Maybe it was a random sample someone sent you?

 

There have many been instances where I liked something more than I thought I would (KWZ Maroon, for one), most recently GvFC Deep Sea Green.

[KKay]

I recently got a sample of J. Herbin-Cacao du Bresil, and I really like it. I have only used it in one pen so far. I would say the color is muted, and it is a change from some of the more saturated inks I normally use. I also got a sample of Vert Empire. The first moment I inked that one up, I was disappointed it wasn't a little darker. But after I started writing with it, it grew on me quickly. Those two inks remind me of Papier Plume, which also seem to have muted colors. (at least from the ones I've tried) Cacao and Papier Plume-Pecan are both brownish grey inks. They are different enough from each other that you could have both if you wanted. The more subtle colors are easy on the eyes in decent light. Some of my inks would be described as retina searing here. They are in the minority though. I can only write for so long with those. My main two objectives are color and shading. If it also has sheen without clogging my pen, I'm even more happy. I like inks that are smooth though, and the subtle colors look & feel better in a wetter type pen.

[Old_Inkyhand]

I have fallen in love with Kaweco Caramel Brown. I think I wouldn't have tried it if a good friend of mine hadn't given me a few cartridges. My opinion changed from 'meh' to 'lovely'. I think that a Goulet Pens picture is a little misleading - I hate the colour they show in their swab, but I love the actual colour of the ink. It reminds me of CdA Grand Canyon.

 

Another ink is Montblanc Irish Green. I am not too fond of the colder shades of green, but again, I've received a few cartridges and found this ink pleasantly surprising.

 

Aurora Black was also a nice surprise. I am not a fan of black inks, but this one is sooo smooooth that I have already decided that it will stay in my everyday rotation.

 

Sailor Shigure. My boyfriend has always liked it, but I wasn't fond of the colour. After trying it in a right pen, I can admit that it is a wonderful ink. Dark, professional and lubricating. Just a little stinky.

 

Iroshizuku Yama Budo. I bought it, because I got a good price. Usually I dislike pink inks, but this one is more of a purple. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it changed my ordinary Parker Frontier into a really enjoyable pen.

Edited May 19, 2017 by Old_Inkyhand

[LizEF]

I don't know that there was ever an ink I thought I'd *hate*, but my thinking has certainly changed after using some inks. One of the members here gifted me several ink samples, and I started with Montblanc Jonathan Swift Seaweed Green, thinking I wouldn't like really like it, but I *loved* it. From that experience, I learned my like / dislike is more about the overall look of a particular ink, especially shading, but not only that, rather than about the color. Now my attitude is that I'll try any ink because you never know, once you see it on paper, in person, you might love it.

 

(Though black and "regular pen blue" still bore me.)

[Pensei]

I also like CdB, by the way. But my answer to the question is easy. Soon after I discovered Bungubox inks, I was drawn mostly to their various blue offerings. I saw some praise for Tears of a Clown, looked at it, and said, no way, that's ugly. But then, in accordance with Murphy's Law, someone who knew I loved ink, but not which colors, gave me a bottle of it as a gift. I concealed my disappointment, and of course inked up a pen out of politeness, but, BOOM, as soon as it got on the paper I loved it, and still do.

[torstar]

How do I let myself get psyched up to expect to hate an ink?

 

Noodler's on here was pushed hard as curing all diseases and a substitute for oil for my car by a tremendous agitprop effort by many, but I calmed down and started using the brand and found many great and near great and poor inks through the years.

[thudthwacker]

I don't know if I thought I'd hate these inks, but I surely didn't expect to love them.

 

Levenger Raven Black: I don't, in general, use black ink. For one, I like colors and shading. For another, I really don't have good handwriting, and black-on-white just seemed to draw attention to how bad it is. But I got Raven Black as a gift, and wanted to try it -- and I really like it. It has a huge amount of silver sheen, and goes down almost like paint -- even where it doesn't sheen, it's got a kind of satiny finish that just looks great.

 

Pilot Blue-black: I got a Prera from a friend who was letting part of her collection go to new homes, and wanted to try it out right away. So I mooched a blue-black cartridge from my wife (who has a Metropolitan) -- and loved the ink. Really well-behaved, a nice dark wet-denim blue, lovely dark red sheen (even from the very fine nib of the Prera) on my Tomoe River paper. Between the performance, the good water resistance, and the color, I'm likely to pick up one of the monster 350ml bottles.

 

Sailor Rikyu-cha: I didn't expect to dislike it, but I really only got it because a lot of people were talking about it (and its unobtainable sibling, Cigar), and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I'd just tried another popular light-brownish ink (J. Herbin Lie de Thé), and it left me cold -- so, weirdly, I wanted to find an ink that was what I'd hoped Lie de Thé would be. And, that ink was indeed Rikyu-cha. Smooth like all Sailor inks I've tried, goes down a deep evergreen, dries to an olive/gold/brown with brick-red sheen. Just absolutely beautiful -- a joy to write with, to look at, and heck, to watch dry.

[inkstainedruth]

1. J Herbin Rouge Hematite (original formula). Bought a sample just to see what the fuss was all about. Expected to hate the color because I don't like orangey-reds.

2. Noodler's Kung Te Cheng. It's now one of my favorite inks, even with its bad behavior. Because I have NOT found another ink that color. And nothing is as permanent. I blame Amberlea Davis.... I just wish it was a little less saturated so it doesn't get cloggy (without losing the color to dilution).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hello All,

Has anyone here fallen for an ink they thought they'd hate?

For me, it was J. Herbin's Cacao de Bresil. Every review and swatch of this ink I've ever seen always makes me think, "that's great if you like writing with muddy water."

The only reason I even bought it is because I was $3 shy of getting free shipping and I couldn't think of any other inks that I wanted... and I recalled reading a post here from Rachel Goulet how surprised she was as to how well this color sells... so... why not? Right?

Well, it still looks like muddy water to me, but it is the most pleasant looking muddy water I've seen in quite a while. I'm really growing fond of a color I thought I'd hate because it's so drab and I like more vibrant or rich hues.

What are your thoughts on Cacao de Brasil... or some other color you thought you'd hate, (but bought anyway )?

- Anthony

 

Well, I can't say anything bad about Cacao du Bresil, because it's one of my favorite 'what-is-its:' is it gray? brown? lilac? But I am not a fan of purple inks (Iroshizuku Yama-Budo is actually magenta). So when I got surprised with samples of both De Atramentis Aubergine, it was so deep and silky to write with that I kept refilling my test pen.

 

Then there was Diamine Vivaldi. Close enough to a what-is-it color that I really like how it looks on paper.

[swanjun]

I don't have any in particular I thought I'd hate, but I too love Cacao du Bresil. Actually, I love lots of those grey-browns, like Kobe #40 and Rohrer & Klingner Sepia. Probably my favorite sort of brown.

Edited May 19, 2017 by swanjun

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi all,

 

Please do not take the term "hate" so literally... my mistake.

 

Let's just say "dislike."

 

- Anthony

[TennesseeTrash]

Terre de feu by J. Herbin.

 

I got it in a sample pack from goulet and cringed. I haven't liked any of the non-1670 J. Herbin inks because I think there's a better version of all of the ones I had tried made by someone else. I don't like reds. I tried it and instantly liked it. I was shocked.

[lgsoltek]

Callifolio Gris de Payne.

[Old_Inkyhand]

But I am not a fan of purple inks (Iroshizuku Yama-Budo is actually magenta).

Thanks - I had it on the tip of my tongue!

[MadTheNeko]

pelikan 4001 royal blue. I tried this ink first time with a jinhao 500, it was dry, skipping... After tried parker and saw how good that is with my pen, I started to hate 4001. 3 days ago I had to buy a blue ink since I gifted my parker to a friend, and only ink I managed to find was 4001 and I bought 30ml one...

Now I'm using this ink with some other pens I bought. And this color... just amazing. It's still dry but no skippings this time. So after this I learned don't use pelikan on ef f nibs.

Edited May 21, 2017 by MadTheNeko

[noddle]

Diamine Salamander.

I had given up searching for a replacement for Noodler's El Lawrence which was, until recently, unavailable. I bought a dozen samples of murky green inks, and Salamander always came low down in the rankings. On its own it looked a bit uninteresting. One test of an ink's appeal I employ, is to see how it looks on paper next to my other inks, and I was surprised how Salamander complemented my other inks (particularly Noodler's Dostoyevsky), and I began to appreciate it more and more in its own right.

Now I have both: El Lawrence gives me a warmer (brown undertones) green murk, Salamander gives me a more neutral (grey undertones) green murk.

Another ink I'd like to try, and may love despite it's reported bad behaviour is Noodler's Texas Live Oak, another complex green - I'd gladly buy a sample from someone.

Cacao du Bresil has always been a favourite.

[KellyMcJ]

Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I generally dislike black inks, but bought it because I thought I should have a good, waterproof black in my arsenal for times when I need black and nothing else will do.

 

Black is boring except when it's so black it looks like someone carved through the page to give a view into the abyss.

 

I currently have 3 pens inked with it.

[Noihvo]