Everflo Blue-Black

[carpedavid]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PYw92neEA7o/TSu6arOrTSI/AAAAAAAAAOs/EJdc8T6BSMI/s1600/everflo+blue-black.jpg

 

After I've finished writing an ink review, I'm left with anywhere from four to six pens lying around with several milliliters of ink still in them. Typically, I empty the pens back into the ink bottle they came from, in order to save the ink for later. Occasionally, I like an ink enough that it stays in the pen I used to test it until I'm distracted by the next wonderful ink to cross my desk. More rarely, I'll be so crazy about an ink that it takes up near-permanent residence in my ink rotation: Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng, Diamine Imperial Purple, J. Herbin 1670. Everflo Blue-Black, on the other hand, is the first ink that went right down the drain.

 

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Everflo is a new line of ink introduced by the Gate City Pen and Ink Company, a partnership established in 2010 between well-respected nibmeister Richard Binder and Jim Baer. Their stated purpose is to build vintage-style, handmade pens, and to offer ink with vintage behavior to match. However, I'd bet my trusty Lamy Safari that Everflo is actually produced by Noodler's Inks for Gate City. The bottles, caps, and even boxes are exactly the same as Noodler's Ink – even down to the marks on the bottom of the bottles.

 

The identity of the ink manufacturer is irrelevant, though, since, in my estimation, no one should want to claim credit for it. It is the singularly worst-behaving ink that I've ever had the displeasure of putting in a pen.

 

The color is probably the best quality of this ink. While named "blue-black," it is different than a traditional blue-black. This ink is a lovely, dark, saturated blue-green that develops a hint of black when used in a wet writing pen. In a dry writing pen, like the trusty Lamy Safari that I just put on the line, the "black" part of the blue-black is lost, but it nevertheless remains a lovely dark teal. It provides for moderate shading, though this is most evident in a wet writer. In a dry writer, it is much more consistent.

 

I also give the ink credit for being well-lubricated. It does help the pen glide nicely across the page. It's too bad that the interaction with said page is where things go all pear-shaped.

 

When I first got this ink, I decided to load it into my Pilot Falcon with a soft-medium nib. It is one of my wettest writers, and when I put ink to paper, I thought that it might be the culprit for the heavy feathering, significant show-though, and noticeable bleed-through that plagued every paper I tried. However, even when I switched to my Lamy Safari with an EF nib, the problems remained.

 

I tested with both pens on Rhodia, Moleskine, and Ecosystem paper. Rhodia was the best behaved, as expected, with no feathering as a result of either pen. However, I noticed significant show-through with both pens. I also noticed significant bleed-through with my Noodler's Creaper flex nib pen, and with my Pilot Parallel calligraphy pens. Even a fine line took upwards of twenty seconds to dry.

 

Moleskine was, by far, the worst performer. Both pens made a mess of the paper – with extreme amounts of feathering and show-through, and significant bleed-through. Drying time with the Safari was in the twelve to fifteen second range. The absorbent paper of the Ecosystem notebook reduced the drying time to five seconds, which is manageable, but suffered from noticeable feathering and show-through, and even a bit of bleed-through from both pens.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PYw92neEA7o/TSu6jmYGgdI/AAAAAAAAAOw/IIEMygjo4j0/s1600/everflo+blue-black+water+test.jpg

 

Water resistance is intentionally absent, as Everflo inks are designed to be washable. The smear test, in which I ran a wet finger across the page, left an illegible blue streak. The drip test, in which I let a drop of water sit for a minute before blotting it, raised nearly all of the ink from the page. The soak test, in which I run the paper under a stream of water, was quite effective in eliminating almost any trace of the ink. Pleasantly, the ink washed right out of my pens, as well, leaving no trace behind.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PYw92neEA7o/TSu9GLGUEBI/AAAAAAAAAO4/-qPbZW6OxoY/s1600/everflo+blue+black+bottle.jpg

 

As mentioned earlier, Everflo comes in bottles that are suspiciously identical to those used by Noodler's. They're also filled nearly to the brim, just like Noodler's. They're also about as unlikely to grace the top of your desk, just like Noodler's. They do an admirable job of keeping the ink in the bottle, though, which is precisely where this particular one should stay.

 

I can't, in good conscience, recommend this ink to anyone. It's a lovely color, to be sure, and it provides a nice level of lubrication to even the narrowest of pen nibs. But that's about all. There are hundreds of much better behaved inks out there that are just as lovely, and each one of them deserves more attention than this one. I'm hoping I get better results from the bottle of Everflo Orchid I ordered at the same time, but I'm not feeling optimistic.

 

Review Notes: I used a Pilot Falcon with a gold SM nib and a Lamy Safari with a steel EF nib for the fine lines. I used a Noodler's Creaper with flex nib for the flex samples. For the wide strokes, I used Pilot Parallel 6.0mm and 3.8mm pens with steel nibs. The paper is Rhodia 80gsm.

 

Retailer Note: In the USA, Everflo is currently available only from Richard Binder's website and the Goulet Pen Company, where I ordered my bottles. You shouldn't hold this ink against them – Brian Goulet is a great retailer who loves fountain pens and loves his customers even more. He's always great to work with and puts in extra effort to make sure all of his orders ship on time and arrive in good condition. Them, I'll recommend.

[watch_art]

Can I buy yours? Or trade some art for it? I agree with your review 100%, but diluted about 30%, dry time is MUCH better, and doesn't smear or show through as bad. At about 30% dilution it loses too much of that nice dark blue color, but like I said, performs MUCH better. I can't use it at school (already spilled some coffee on my gradebook and lost a page of grades - DOH! - BSB at school from NOW ON) but I like it to draw with a LOT.

 

thanks!

[anaximander]

I wasn't thrilled with this ink either, but not for the reasons stated above. I thought the ink's behavior was ok, but didn't like the color, which doesn't seem much like blue-black at all to me, but more dark teal.

[GouletPens]

Thanks for a very thorough and honest review. As always, your writing blows me away and it would be a pleasure to see you write with any ink!

 

Everflo in general has had some mixed reviews, and I appreciate your consideration for me in the last paragraph there. After all, I'm simply a proprietor and I view it as my duty to simply offer the ink if anyone wants it.

[TWRDO]

I always love seeing your reviews!

 

I'm still not sure I'd call it a true blue-black, but it is still a very nice color. It's too bad it misbehaves so badly on paper.

[IWantThat]

I love this color and really don't care what it's called. I may try it, because I'm game for trying something that others don't care for to see if it works in my pens. At the very least, call me curious

[kwpalzang]

Your calligraphy is amazing, a pleasant surprise that took my breath away upon switching tabs (mozilla firefox ) Anyways, thanks for the review...... we can't always have good ones, right?

[Bronze]

Brutal review - nice writing!

[USMCMom]

I know that color can be a bit deceiving viewed on a computer, but across my monitor ... this is a beautiful color! An ink that is waterproof for me, isn't that important. Color is and Everflo Blue-Black looks awfully good. i wonder if it's a rich looking on paper, in person.

[watch_art]

on good paper this stuff is sexy nice. that's why i like it and wanted more. but the dry time is restrictive. so i diluted mine a little bit and it made a world of difference. it also doesn't smear as bad anymore. great stuff!!

[Ladynib302]

Noticed on some bottles of the Everflow ink at the Philadelphia Pen Show this past weekend that the words "new formula or formulation" were included on the ink. Would Richard, Jim or Brian Goulet possibly be able to address the alterations made and how the original versus "new" formula is expected to behave?

 

Purchased India Green and the orchid colored inks in Everflow; both are knock-dead beautiful colors; the India Green writes like a charm in Roger Cromwell's PenScapes Token pen with 18K fine to medium nib; the orchid writes beautifully in a slim targa with a fine nib. Bagasse/Ecosystem paper handles these two colors well; also, the "cheap" paper from the hotel telephone pads. Did notice that the blue (or blue black) , which was used to fill a vintage pen at the show (by a vendor when testing out the pen), wrote with beautiful color on Rhodia paper without bleed-through; the drying time did, however, seem lengthy and was aided by blotting; as a result, the question was raised about the original versus new formulation and the meaning of this? We were not sure whether the lengthy drying issue was more related to the paper characteristics or to the ink? Again, however, compliments to Gate City for the gorgeous colors, including the blue-black. I would most certainly elect to use these colors and hope to find the best combinations of inks and papers to do so.

Edited January 29, 2011 by Ladynib302

[watch_art]

The thing i noticed about dry times, was that even after it looked dry, and sat, untouched, for 10, 20, 30 minutes or so, on CF papers, was that it would still smear. Maybe all the pigment or dye is so concentrated that it just sits on top of the paper as a sort of particulate (is that the right word?) Diluting it, for me, made all the difference between this being a novelty ink, and something I could actually use at school (as long as coffee stays away!)

[corniche]

on good paper this stuff is sexy nice. that's why i like it and wanted more..."

 

Yes. I really like the look of EFbb- it looks a lot like Waterman blue-black before it changes color.

 

- Sean

[sjs]

For those who diluted this ink to prevent smearing and lower the drying time, could you advise on the approximate proportions you used?

 

This ink is so slow drying it's impossible for me to use.

[watch_art]

like I said, about 30%. but I think 20% would look better, and still dry quicker than stock. I'd start with 10 or 15%, and then go from there. THat way you get a color and a dry time you can live with.

[framebaer]

Okay, so a couple points.

1) Yes it was a brutal, and subjective, review. I would note that the OP used very wet pens on either Moleskin( notoriously bad Fountain pen paper! Most folks won't even use the stuff), or very cheap thin recycled paper. I myself have used MUCH WORSE inks in terms of feathering/ bleed through. His conclusions about use on better paper was fine except slow, a common conclusion which we are addressing.

 

I find it interesting that the OP calls the ink a high feathering ink and then posts calligraphy at the top of his review that totally negates the conclusion as I see no feathering evident in that work!

 

In fact all the negative opinions of feathering, bleed trough, show through, saturation are NOT documented with visuals, only dry times, smear times, and wash off times ( where the ink performed exactly as designed) are. So less experienced inkophiles are left with only the OP's derogatorily bombastic words for his conclusions.

 

Calling an ink the single worst ink he has ever used is a totally subjective opinion based on his limited tests and frankly is the type of demagoguery not really relevant to a proper ink testing.

 

CarpeDavid: while I am impressed with the style of your calligraphy, I am certainly disappointed in your writing style to convey your negative OPINIONS of our blue-black ink.

 

2) Brian, I love you guy, but use of the word "Honest" , I think, lends a "be all end all" gravitas to the conclusions of the OP. I am not disputing or calling the OP findings misrepresentations BUT they are HIS findings on a particular day with his pens, papers etc. You of all people know that inks behave vastly differently depending on all the factors!

 

3) More importantly: yes those of you at the Phillie show found our India Green and Orchid inks with "new formula" on the labels.

 

In fact we have been listening to all the chatter as well as private reviews from trusted friends as to the negative qualities of our ink. We don't really care about the superlatives as there's nothing to fix there. Slow dry on better papers was certainly the most common issue and we are addressing it with our supplier.

 

We have changed the formulations (Not the colors) to dry faster on all papers, especially the better clay based stuff. As we have reordered the colors we have applied the new formulations to the ink.

Edited January 29, 2011 by framebaer

[Truppi327]

I kinda agree about the pictures of the writing and the opinions of the ink not lining up...

 

When I just looked at the written sample and how wonderful it looked I assumed this was an overall positive review. The main point I got was don't use this ink on crappy paper and allow for a longer dry time on the good stuff. There are many inks that fall into that description and they certainly aren't the worst inks ever. Most of the major problems with the ink seemed to be solved by using better paper and applying some patience. Or dilute it like watch_art if it really bugs you.

 

Thanks for the pretty pictures.

Edited January 29, 2011 by Truppi327

[sjs]

[...] negative OPINIONS of our blue-black ink.

 

Oh, it's all subjective?

 

Hey, here's an opinion: I bought four bottles of this stuff the first day it was available because it was very specifically advertised as "quick drying." I suppose if you're measuring in geological time it's true, but otherwise it's just fantasy.

[carpedavid]

Jim,

 

I'm glad to hear that you're working on reformulating the ink to behave better. If you'd be willing to provide a sample of the new formulation once it's available, I'd be happy to create a new review from it.

 

To clarify a couple of items in your comment:

 

I would note that the OP used very wet pens on either Moleskin( notoriously bad Fountain pen paper! Most folks won't even use the stuff), or very cheap thin recycled paper.

 

To be clear, I used both wet and dry writing pens on a matrix of paper: Rhodia, Moleskine, Ecosystem. Rhodia, as is to be expected, did not exhibit feathering, which is why I use it consistently across all of my reviews for the visual example. Moleskine paper is notoriously inconsistent, yes. However, there are a great many Moleskine users out there, and they're all just as interested in seeing how an ink is going to work for them as are the Rhodia users. I'll note that there are a number of inks that do perform perfectly well on Moleskine paper. Ecosystem I find to be an excellent example of an absorbent paper - it represents the experiences of a significant number of people who are writing on standard office paper with their pens on a day to day basis.

 

I find it interesting that the OP calls the ink a high feathering ink and then posts calligraphy at the top of his review that totally negates the conclusion as I see no feathering evident in that work!

 

See my note above regarding my expectations of feathering on Rhodia.

 

Calling an ink the single worst ink he has ever used is a totally subjective opinion based on his limited tests and frankly is the type of demagoguery not really relevant to a proper ink testing.

 

To provide context, in 2010, I published 29 ink reviews that covered a variety of manufacturers (all of which are available here on the FPN or on my blog), and I have a significant number of other inks that I have tested but have not yet written reviews for. Largely, they fall into two categories: those that engineered to perform well on cheap or absorbent papers (like many Noodler's inks) but which take forever to dry on the more expensive, coated papers; and those that feather terribly on absorbent paper, but which dry quickly and look great on coated paper (like many J. Herbin inks). Some inks manage to split the difference, like Diamine.

 

EVERFLO Blue Black does neither. It is why I cannot recommend it to any group - in each combination of paper and pen that I tried, it had one or more criteria for which it performed poorly. It is not demagoguery to state that it is single worst ink I have ever used. It IS the single worst ink I have ever used, qualitatively. Out of my collection, it is the one that performs the least well - hence the word "worst."

 

Much luck in working on the reformulation - the more great ink out there, the better!

[watch_art]

carpe david: i'd still REAALLLY like your ink. the more i get, the more i can give to my kids at school. i'll dilute it a little first so they can use it in class, and warn them about waterproofness, but free ink is good ink! and the kids will love it!