Birmingham – Bloomfield Red

May 16, 2018

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors when I bought the sample pack, but I think they’re at 40+ and counting) 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.

Bloomfield Red has a surprisingly short full name for a Birmingham ink (yes, that was the entirety of my first impression). It’s a moderately saturated red ink that has a pinkish lean to it, and a bit of maroon in the darkest shades—I might call it a ruby red. It’s not extremely vibrant the way many reds are, and is instead flatter, more faded. It’s got moderate saturation in writing, but to me it seems like the type of color that settles into the paper rather than stands out from it. It’s similar in hue to R&K Morinda, but Bloomfield is a bit more red/orange than Morinda. In a broad nib, it gives the impression of a color that’s been sitting out in the sun for a while. In the extra-fine nib, the sharpness of the line seems to enhance the contrast, which is nice; this is one of the rarer cases where I prefer the appearance of the EF line over the B line. It has some shading and no sheen whatsoever. Behavior was unremarkable across the board. Water resistance is close to nonexistent, leaving a pale pink line that would be difficult to read. All in all, I don’t find the color unattractive, but neither do I find it particularly compelling. In comparison, Sailor Oku-Yama is in a nearby color family but much more saturated and, in my opinion, more interesting. Also, when I go for a red, I almost always want a color that stands out, which isn’t this ink’s strong suit. On the flip side, a page full of this ink is not as harsh on the eyes as a page full of a highly saturated, bright red, so perhaps some will find a use for it.

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Moderate-Low

Sheen: Zilch

Water Resistance: Low

The following sample was done with a Pilot Elite (EF) and a Nemosine Singularity (Broad) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Kuretake Menso brush (Small). Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: This one came out nicely with barely any work! The doodle and the big smear are both relatively accurate, with the doodle being just a tiny bit more purple in the scan than in reality. The comparison inks are decent as well; they all come out a little paler than in reality, but their hues are accurate enough to be used for reference. The writing samples are a little over-saturated across the board.

Scan:

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

Pilot Iroshizuku Momiji, KWZ Thief’s Red, Rohrer & Klingner Morinda, Noodler’s Ottoman Rose, Sailor Oku-Yama

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha

Maruman Mnemosyne:

Midori MD:

Franklin-Christoph:

May 16, 2018

Ooh boy, beautiful subtle red!

Reminds me of my times as professor at Carnegie Mellon.

Thanks for sharing a bit of Pittsburgh history too -

Erick

May 16, 2018

I'm usually lukewarm to reds, but I really like the looks of this one! Maybe because it's kind of a "murky" red with some brown element to it, not sure.