Troublemaker Petrichor

[lgsoltek]

Fascinating colour: this ink of low saturation varies between a light greenish grey and a pinkish brown depending on the amount of ink on paper. When little ink is put on paper, it shows a light green grey colour, especially at the edge of letters ("haloing"). Where the ink pools, it dries to a pink brown. The effect is gorgeous.

However, this has to be the most unpleasant ink I've ever written with. The flow is medium to dry - that can be remedied by using a gusher pen. Actually several people told me they love it with a wet pen. But it's the extreme lack of lubrication that makes it such a terrible ink to use. It's extremely "scratchy" "toothy" in a Pilot Elabo Soft Fine, though understandable since it's a fine nib. But even when I put it in a dripping wet Pelikan M1005 Medium nib, it still feels "squeaky". I can almost hear the nib screaming across the paper. Petrichor writes like dragging a needle across a sandpaper.

Hence,

Theory 1:
When you dilute heavily a chromatographically complex ink, especially one composed of two (or more) dyes of contrastive colour, you will get a similar colour variation effect like Petrichor. See the end for an example of KWZI Rotten Green heavily diluted.

Theory 2:
The dry flow and lack of lubrication are the trade-offs of such undersaturated inks, because anything in the ink that helps with the flow and lubrication is so heavily diluted that it's barely functional. If you increase the flow of such undersaturated inks, you lose the colour variation and shading, see for example the writing samples below with the Pelikan M1005, where the ink is mostly brown pink and the greenish grey is mostly gone except at the edge of the letters where there is less ink.

Splash

Sample

(Pens: Pilot Elabo Soft Fine, Pelikan M1005 Medium. The close-up shots below include both a dry pen writing sample and a wet pen writing sample.)

(Rhodia)

(Tomoe River)

(Clairefontaine 90g)

(Copy paper)

Comparison

(Maruman looseleaf)

Miscellaneous

(KWZI Rotten Green heavily diluted. It now shows a greenish grey colour and a yellow brown colour, though the contrast is less drastic (a dry Nakaya was used). And yes it is now very unpleasant to write with.)

Edited November 15, 2019 by Lgsoltek

[Karmachanic]

Thanks. I'm hoping their other inks, Abalone and Kelp Tea in particular, do not exhibit this unpleasant characteristic. Hopefully not, as they have more saturation.

 

Perhaps our kind Moderator will make a Troublemaker listing listing in the Review Index. I have made a request.

[grmbrk]

Very interesting color.

[Uncial]

Thanks for this review. I have this one, Kelp Tea, Milky Ocean and Abalone. All of them are really interesting but it's only Milky Ocean that eases the lubrication problem.....but only very slightly. As you say, even in very wet flowing pens all of the inks still have problems, which is a shame because they are really quite stunning.

[Intensity]

Same experience here - Milky Ocean feels relatively lubricating. Petrichor’s dryness does improve a bit after a day or two of sitting in a pen. These are special effects inks, so I accept the trade-off. Milky Ocean can be used for daily writing as normal, though I do notice that increasing saturation leads to a loss of that hue variation range (less light sky blue portions, more toward lavender and purple).

[DrDebG]

Thank you for taking time to do this review. I really appreciate your reviews, your writing samples and particularly your perspective.

 

I have had a different experience than yours, albeit an initial experience. Earlier this week, I received bottles of Petrichor, Abalone, Milky Ocean and Grape Vine. I was a conference yesterday and wrote notes with Petrichor and Abalone. The Petrichor was loaded in a Nemosine Fission with 0.8 stub (fairly dry pen) and the Abalone was in a Leonardo Momento Zero with medium nib. My notebook was Tomoe River (Bond notebook). I had no problems with either ink. Both were well behaved and flowed nicely from the pens. I didn't see quite the degree of color variation in Petrichor that you show above and seemed like a pale blue-grey. But my "doodles" showed the slight green and pink undertones. And the Abalone was even better.

 

I had purchased mine from Shigure Inks. Perhaps they were the more lubricated variety.

Edited November 14, 2019 by 5Cavaliers

[inkstainedruth]

Very interesting color.

 

+1 on that. Normally an ink in this color family would not be my cup of tea -- but there is something that is making me look at it twice (kinda the same way I kept going back and looking at the photos in a review of Noodler's El Lawrence a few years ago.

Wonder if Photo-flo might help with the lubrication issues.

Thanks for the review. This one bears paying attention to. Hmmm. Maybe not (I probably have too much ink already... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LobsterRoll]

Thank you for this review. Your photos and penmanship show off the ink beautifully.

I am totally in love with how these types of complex shading inks look, and my next indulgence is going to be to try some of them. It's very helpful to hear about how writing with the ink feels. I appreciate your two theories and the testing you did with the KWZ ink. I think I'm willing to put up with some squeaky, dry feeling as a tradeoff for getting the fascinating color, but within reason. Based on other commenters' experiences, Milky Ocean is getting bumped up to the top of the ink wishlist. But Petrichor looks very, very pretty.

[namrehsnoom]

Great review of a very interesting looking colour. But the horrible behaviour doesn’t sound too good. I really hate inks like these: gorgeous looks that make me want to have this ink RIGHT NOW. And then horrible to write with... Aaargh!!! As for now... I’m going to give these inks a pass (I already have enough inks that beg my attention ;-)

[Uncial]

Sailor Studio 123 is also dry but a good bit better than the Troublemaker inks and the Sailor ink has more interesting qualities in various nibs and on different papers. It's just a shame in comes in such small amounts,