Birmingham – Pennsylvania Railroad Boiler Steam Blue-Black

[crahptacular]

Birmingham – Pennsylvania Railroad Boiler Steam Blue-Black

 

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors at the time of writing) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

PRRBSBB has a ridiculously long name. Even the initialism is long, so I’ll further abbreviate it to PRR. This is a blue-black that has more black (grey) than blue. Based on my initial color swatch, I expected this to be much darker in writing. When pooled, such as in flex writing, it does get quite dark; but in writing, even with a broad nib, it won’t be mistaken for an actual black. The “blue” component is on the green side. It somehow reminds me of weathered wrought iron in a garden—dark grey with shades of blue/green from the reflected light of the surroundings. If you could read my mind , that description would make sense. Anyhow, for some reason, blue-blacks are one of the least represented color groups in my collection, so I don’t have many good inks to draw comparisons to. I’ve included several less-saturated blues, all of which are much blue-er, less green, and less grey than PRR. The closest of these is Aonibi, which doesn’t have the green of PRR, but has a similar level of grey. I also included a cool black to show how far PRR is from being actually black, even when pooled. I enjoyed this ink in broad nibs for all the papers, but not as much in fine nibs, where I wished it would come out a touch darker.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Medium

Sheen: None. Very matte.

Water Resistance: Moderate-High (not waterproof, but resistant enough to survive spills)

 

The following sample was done with a PenBBS 308 (Fine) and a Franklin Christoph 31 (Broad) on Tomoe River (52gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a size 3/0 mop. Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Bad Scanner Disclaimer: Photo had to be taken with indoor lighting because the sun hasn’t come out for days now, so it has that orange-ish cast over it and the right half is obscured by glare. Ick. The color accuracy is decent, though. I would say the scan is better for the most part, except the comparison inks all came out looking very greenish for some reason. Everything else in the scan is quite accurate.

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo, Kyo no Oto Aonibi, Sailor Nano Sei-boku, L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Oconto, Kyo no Oto Nurebairo

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction), from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

Edited November 12, 2017 by crahptacular

[Intensity]

Ohh I like this one a lot. Dark enough with a thin nib and with great shading.

[Tas]

WOW!

Wow to everything 💕

One of your finest. Thank you.

[ehemem]

Beautiful artwork as usual, but the ink is too tealish for my taste for a writing ink...

[LizEF]

I think this should become the official ink for keeping score in Monopoly.

 

Fabulous drawing (they should use that for the label). And thank you for the comparison inks - that really helps.

[inkstainedruth]

Not a color for me, but the drawing is fabulous. And I've liked some of the other Birmingham concoctions.

Thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[gylyf]

Not my color at all, but I do love your reviews!

[Charles Rice]

Steam Engines and Pens. What could be better!

[Carrau]

Thanks for the review- spectacular drawing with incredible detail. With a great grandfather and grandfather who worked for the PRR, I was around steam engines a good bit as a boy. As a non-artist studying that detail on the locomotive alone, I can’t imagine how hard that is to draw something in ink with overlapping parts that retains three dimensionality. Even the smoke billowing out of the stack flows backward in a realistic, three dimensional way. I like blue blacks, but it does lean to that teal side, which I don’t mind in green inks, but am less attracted to in blues. Well done.

[Biber]

Looks like the color of money! Actually it seems to be very similar to an Australian Noodler's exclusive - Catalpa.

[PAKMAN]

Great review! Love the Train!

[Cyber6]

BEST ARTWORK!!!!!

 

 

Thanks so much for the amazing review...

 

 

 

 

C.

[webgeckos]

Wow! Amazing review!

[Pensei]

Wow. I like the ink, but that drawing is just wonderful. Trains are such a good subject for art and photography.

[chromantic]

Very interesting color. I do like it, though I would hesitate to call it blue-black due to the greenish cast. The look of it reminds me of GvFC Deep Sea Green - somewhat muted, the shading in the broader nib sample and the 'creamy' appearance.

[IndigoBOB]

How would you rate the water resistance on this one?

[kpfeifle]

Great review and artwork! I've been using this for a while and quite like it.

[Gazcom]

Stunning review and artwork!

This ink has an hue that reminds me vintage letters found forgotten in a drawer for dacades. I like it a lot.
More than a blue-black it's a sort of grey-teal, quite an uncommon colour.

[BiggieD]

Great review! So interesting how everyone's reaction to color is different - my first thought was wow, that's a great drawing and my 2nd thought was I love that color, I'm a big fan of teal inks especially blues that lean green!

[amberleadavis]

GREAT review and I LOVE TRAINS!!!