Pelikan Edelstein Moonstone

[Tas]

Mr Postman delivered the Moonstone ink today. I'll have to make do with a Conid Minimalistica with a Ti 0.7 CI nib. Boo Hoo.

Make do

[lapis]

.... This last year I have been finding how much I enjoy grey inks; I love the subtle nuances to other colors. It's not just light black anymore.

Right on! Although I do prefer grey over blacks, that's what I like most about black inks.... "What's in it that isn't black ?

Hmm ???????

[inkstainedruth]

Right on! Although I do prefer grey over blacks, that's what I like most about black inks.... "What's in it that isn't black ?

Hmm ???????

 

Yeah, one of my favorite "black" inks is vintage Quink Microfim Black, which (at least in the bottle I'm currently running through) has decidedly blue undertones to the black.

I like grey inks over black inks, in general -- but I do have to make sure that the ink is still legible on the page (De Atramentis Tchaikowsky/Silver Grey is good in that respect; Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun wasn't -- and was also drippy; but the pink undertones were interesting). Still trying to make up my mind about Noodler's Lexington Gray, which seemed really light, but might be nice for drawing, especially since it seems pretty waterproof.

As for Moonstone? I'll have to try it at some point, but may wait to see if there are any Pelikan Hubs this year.... Or not -- I may decide to get a sample since there are some other inks I want to try as well. I had a list of various retailers and what they had in stock that I wanted to sample (and how much the sample cost as well as how much ink they gave you); but I'm still trying to narrow down the list (I can't order everything from just one retailer, it isn't possible -- last year I ordered a bunch of samples from several different places, depending on who had what, but I haven't gone through all of those samples yet....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TheDutchGuy]

 

 

 

I keep coming back to this discussion to look at the wonderful photos and writing samples. I’m intrigued. Although I can’t say that I find this to be a truly beautiful ink, and although I have some doubts about the clarity and ‘readability’ of this ink in drier pens, I find this ink to be so different and unique that I have to have it. I think this might be an ink that will grow on me, like Sailor kiwaguro did.

[sansenri]

thanks no doubt to some fine writing samples, this is the first grey ink that strikes my interest (and I don't use blacks).

Thank you for the review.

[lgsoltek]

No worries, the review photos are great already. One more question: have you tried this ink with a pen that's not as generous with ink supply? Both Lamy 2000 Broad and Pelikan M1005 Medium put down generously wet, broad lines. Even with those pens, the ink looks quite translucent. I wonder if it's on the pale side with drier pens, narrower nibs.

As promised, I put it in a dry nib: a Nakaya Soft Medium which is quite fine and by no means soft. It's dry and toothy and possibly the nib that I hate the most of all my pens.

I added a few lines to the samples. Some written without pressure, some with flex. The ink looks lighter but still quite legible.

 

 

[rudyhou]

nice. i wouldn't mind having this to my collection of grey inks.

[AmandaW]

Well that's that, I ordered Moonstone today after seeing it pop up on an Aussie online store a couple of days ago and blithering with indecision ever since. If Hub goes ahead this year and I end up with two bottles, so be it. There have been enough disappointments lately, I'm calling this 'proactively avoiding another'.

 

And getting Iro Yama-guri in the same order. Oops. Happy Mother's Day to me. And no new pens for a while. And Happy Birthday for July. That about covers it.

[cgreenberg19]

Interesting ink. I don't tend to buy the Pelikan yearly ink because they have them at the Pelikan Hubs events as a gift.

[sebastel23]

got a bottle today at my local B&M, just came in. i use it now in a B nibbed MB 145.

it's as pleasant as lgsoltek shows. recommended.

[Intensity]

Thank you very much for the update with finer tipping widths! Very helpful once again! Seems to not look sufficiently different from my GvFC Stone Grey, when slightly diluted. Saved me some money!

Edited May 2, 2020 by Intensity

[TheDutchGuy]

Picked up a bottle today. A fascinating ink. Wonderfully subtle shading, a bit of sheen, a bit of haloing, a bit of colour change as it dries on the page, not too wet, not too dry, no retina-searing yet easy to read. In short, a well-behaved, easy to use ink that offers wonderful complexity on the page. Good stuff.

[inkstainedruth]

Sadly, when I was putting an order together last week for Vanness Pens, they were OOS for samples. Guess I'm going to have to wait till the fall with fingers crossed that there will be a Pelikan Hub....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TheDutchGuy]

On some kinds of paper, this ink looks remarkably like a pencil.

Edited May 13, 2020 by TheDutchGuy

[Quadratus]

I have now received my bottle of Moonstone and tested it with different nibs. As greys tend to be lighter on the page, I most recently used a broad 21K Sailor nib. While the ink has the usual excellent Pelikan Edelstein qualities of great flow and shading, it is simply too light (for me) as a writing ink. I expect it will please people who use the ink for drawing or sketching. In some ways, it seems to me to have the same drawbacks as the Edelstein Amber: both inks are well made and striking in colours but both are too faint on the page to be usable for daily writing. So the bottle will join my collection of the Edelstein inks of the year but won't see much use.

 

On the other hand, I look forward to seeing if Pelikan produces a matching pen. An M600 in silver/Moonstone colours would be wonderful!

[Intensity]

Quadratus: you might like Graf von Faber-Castell Stone Grey. It's a neutral gray with high shading potential, but it's always very legible, and can shade to off-black in wet pens. I have been diluting it with water lately to get a lighter hue, which to me looks similar to writing samples of Moonstone in this thread. Stone Grey is kind of dirty-pink-purple tinted while wet and dries to pretty neutral, clean gray.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Intensity

[TheDutchGuy]

...it is simply too light (for me) as a writing ink ... too faint on the page to be usable for daily writing...

 

It’s remarkable how inks and pens can be perceived in different ways. I currently have Moonstone in a Pelikan M800 F and a Visconti Homo Sapiens Midi F. In both pens, on Rhodia and Oxford paper, the result is very very similar to a pencil. Someone actually even asked me if I’d been writing with a pencil!

 

Two things I’ve noticed about Moonstone:

(1) the ink really shows its magic on Tomoe!

(2) a negative: where two lines cross each other, the ink tends to ‘pool’ and sometimes this leads to loops closing up. Hence this ink might be a challenge for those who write small or require great precision. This ‘pooling’ effect isn’t subtle when compared to inks like Sailor kiwaguro or Blackstone Sydney Harbour Blue; it’s quite noticeable.

Edited May 16, 2020 by TheDutchGuy

[Quadratus]

Intensity

Thank you for the recommendation to try GvFC Stone Grey. It would be nice to find a good grey ink. In the past, I have tried Mont Blanc Oyster grey, Iroshizuku Kiri-Same and Fuyu-Syogun: all three are good inks, but still don't make enough impression on the page. Probably the problem is with me: I like a strong colour on the page and usually write in deep blues like Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, Diamine Majestic Blue or Sailor Minatojima Island Blue; alternatively the wonderful deep dark blue Sailor Kano Cho; or deep sepia browns, like Edelstein Smoky Quartz. So perhaps I just prefer a "deeper" ink.

But I shall try a sample of GvFC Stone Grey, so thank you for the suggestion!

[inkstainedruth]

Quadratus, another ink to have a look at is Diamine Earl Grey. It may be dark enough for what you want.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intensity]

Intensity

Thank you for the recommendation to try GvFC Stone Grey. It would be nice to find a good grey ink. In the past, I have tried Mont Blanc Oyster grey, Iroshizuku Kiri-Same and Fuyu-Syogun: all three are good inks, but still don't make enough impression on the page. Probably the problem is with me: I like a strong colour on the page and usually write in deep blues like Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, Diamine Majestic Blue or Sailor Minatojima Island Blue; alternatively the wonderful deep dark blue Sailor Kano Cho; or deep sepia browns, like Edelstein Smoky Quartz. So perhaps I just prefer a "deeper" ink.

But I shall try a sample of GvFC Stone Grey, so thank you for the suggestion!

 

The three you have tried are definitely on the pale side unless used with wet writers. Stone Grey is significantly darker, while still being easy to flush out and mild on pens.