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  1. white_lotus

    Ink Review: Noodlers Park Red

    This is a mostly hand-written review of the new Noodlers Park Red. The images are iPhone photos. My scans came out "too electric" where the red simply appeared much brighter than it was in reality. So I did not include them. "Perhaps this will become the infamous Park Red with the drawing of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un firing fountain pens at the balloons of Park Sang Hak. While the supreme leader may not be very well behaved, the ink certainly is. It is not like Diamine's Oxblood, it is a cleaner red, but not a bright red. It sits well on the page. For me this is a good quality. Being able to read a full page of written text without burning out your eyeballs is important. Dries well on the inkjet paper. This is a red that I like. My usual colors are blues and blacks and purples. I don't know if it would meet the needs of those making corrections. My guess is it would show up well enough esp. with a medium or broad nib. If you like your reds searingly hot, this ink isn't it. But if you prefer them to be more subdued yet strongly red, you will probably like this ink. I don't know how much of this ink was produced or how long it will be available.
  2. yogalarva

    Maruzen Athena Sepia

    This is another one of those reviews that has been hard for me to write. Not because it didn’t live up to my expectations, but because it exceeded them so far… This ink sample was sent to me by same kind soul as the Tsuki-yo. It’s a very hard ink to get here in the States, and so far I’ve only found one online retailer who carries it (I’ll get to that later). Maruzen Athena ink is sold in Japan and that’s about the extent of what I know about the brand as a whole. I do know that this ink is a deep, rich brown that is dark enough to be a reliable daily user but just interesting enough to set yourself apart from black and blue users. Because it’s so dark there’s not much for shading, but there is a little bit. Otherwise the behavior is everything I could ask for and more - no feathering, little bleeding, great flow, and some really fantastic water resistance. Alright, here’s the only problem with this ink - you can’t really buy it here. The only place I’ve found is Nanami Paper and you can expect to pay roughly $1/mL to get your hands on a bottle of the good stuff. Is it worth it? That is a question only you can answer. To me it definitely is and as soon as I free up some cash I’m going to buy a bottle. I’m sure that if you try really hard you can find a similar color but probably not the wonderful behavior. If you do find a match, please let me know. :-) This ink was provided to me for the review and I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions expressed above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like.
  3. yogalarva

    Kaweco Royal Blue

    This is not an ink that I would ever chose to buy. I got a blue cartridge with my Al Sport and because I was impatient I popped it in right away so I could get writing. I only used half the cartridge before I swapped it out for another color, but I figured I would get in a review first. Royal blue inks are just not appealing to me. Forgetting the fact that there are tons of them out there, the color is kinda blah. Like something you would get out of a Bic and if I wanted that, I would just use one of those. That being said, this was not the worst ink I could ever use. It was well behaved and gave me no problems while writing. I didn’t have any bleeding or feathering, so there’s that. No water resistance, but that’s usually the case with these royal blue inks. In fact, I think sometimes that’s the selling point of them. This ink also played well with all the papers I tried it on and didn’t smear when highlighted. I wish I had more to say about this ink, but it’s just not that complex. Overall, it’s a decent blue ink that’s well behaved, but I don’t think it’s the best out there. For an ink without any special qualities you might as well get the best deal possible, and this ink is roughly $14/30 mL and you can get twice as much Pelikan Royal Blue for the same price, at $12/63 mL. This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like. And a full sheet scan of the review:
  4. yogalarva

    Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu

    Seriously, the names of these Iroshizuku inks will be the death of me. Doesn’t matter how many times I write/type it, I always have to double check the spelling. This ink was given to me as a birthday gift from my mother. Unlike the Shin-ryoku that she got me for Christmas last year, I had specified this color as one that I really wanted. Remember how unimpressed I was with the Pelikan Violet because it had too much red in it? This is a perfect purple ink for me because it’s much more towards the blue side of things. Seriously, I can’t get over how much I love this color. I’m a sucker for jewel tones, and this hits that mark right on. It was also surprisingly water resistant, which is a plus for me since I don’t like to make an ink a “daily user” unless it has at least a bit of water resistance, and I was going to be really sad if this had to be a special occasion only ink. Like pretty much every other Iroshizuku ink I’ve tried, this one behaves wonderfully and gave me no troubles with feathering or bleeding, even on the Field Notes paper. And it didn’t do the weird disappearing act when highlighted that I saw with the Pelikan ink, so that’s a plus. Overall, I really recommend this ink. Then again I might be biased because I think it’s like the most perfect color ever. I also don’t know that I have tried any other inks that come really close in terms of color, so if you know of one that matches and has good behavior and is cheaper than the premium $28/50 mL that we see with Iroshizuku inks, let me know! This ink was given as a gift and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like. Full page scan of the review:
  5. Get your party frocks on folks, it time for Carnival!! By the way, note Wild Strawberry doing her thang with that delicious green sheen!
  6. Dear Friends, Some reviews for you starting with Diamine Silver Fox. Enjoy, and please share your views and comments! Bx
  7. yogalarva

    Sailor Jentle Epinard

    Part of me really hates reviewing a discontinued ink, because if you fall in love with it, you can’t get it. But, I was sent this ink by a Twitter friend to add to the my next round of epic ink testing and it seemed like a shame not to write a review while it was in my pen, so please forgive me for teasing you with a no longer available ink. This ink another one of those that’s kinda ugly at first, but then you fall for it because it is complex and quite beautiful once you get past the initial color shock. I thought that it was quite similar to Diamine Salamander, but when I look at that review I see that they aren’t really that close in color at all. The similarity is in the fact that they are both green-browns, which doesn’t sound appealing at all but I seem to really enjoy those colors. As you can see, this ink shades nicely. It’s a fairly unoffensive shade of green that I think could be good for everyday use. My only gripe is that it seemed to dry quite quickly on my nib, such that if I paused while writing I would have to go over my first few letters twice to really get the ink flowing again. Otherwise, no troubles with feathering or bleeding. This ink was also somewhat water resistant, which was nice because I would have been very sad to lose my swamp monster doodle forever. It also played nicely on all the papers I tried, though it did smear a bit when highlighted (I make sure to wait a few minutes so that the ink is totally dry before highlighting, sometimes even a full day). At the end of the day, I just can’t recommend this ink because, as I said before, it is discontinued. I managed to find it on Amazon, but otherwise had little luck and to me it seems silly to hunt down discontinued inks, even if you love them. Sure, you can build up a stockpile, but why not find a new favorite ink that’s currently in production? Anyway, after perusing the Swab Shop at Goulet Pens, I think that you could probably find a similar color in either Diamine Evergreen or Noodler’s Sequoia, both of which can be purchased without much fuss and are a good deal cheaper than trying to find the Sailor ink. This ink was provided for the purpose of review and I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like. Full page scan of the review:
  8. yogalarva

    Lamy Coral

    Now that it has gotten properly winter-like where I live, I find myself choosing very bright colors occasionally as a reminder that summer will indeed come again. Once it gets a bit closer to the holidays I’ll pick more reds and greens, but for today it’s hot pink. This ink was released to match the 2014 Neon Coral Safari, and I do think that they are a good pair. Very bright, especially the ink. Similar to other corals and hot pinks, this ink is not something that you would want to write a draft of a novel in, because you would be blind by the end of it. Much better for making corrections to that draft, because you won’t miss them with this color. Other than how ridiculously bright it is, this was a well-behaved ink. Good flow, no bleeding or feathering that I noticed, but sadly no water resistance at all (not that I really expected it). I wish I would have remembered to try this ink on a more cream colored paper, to see if it could subdue the color a bit. Other than super awful office paper, it did work well on pretty much everything I threw at it and didn’t put a fight to being highlighted, though that’s a bit overkill I think. Overall, this is a fun ink but certainly not a necessary purchase. I bought it in cartridges, mostly because I have taken to refilling Lamy carts rather than use the converter, but that’s a story for another day. Lamy carts are pretty large so even though you pay a bit more for them, I think it’s not a bad deal, particularly with this ink that’s more of a novelty. You can also get this ink in bottled form, but I’ve only seen it at Goulet Pens (no affiliation, just happy customer) and Amazon, where it’s like twice the price as at GPC. If you are looking to buy the bottled ink, I would probably recommend Diamine Coral instead, because it’s a better deal unless you really want the Lamy bottle. This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like. Full page scan of the review:
  9. yogalarva

    Rohrer And Klingner Helianthus

    This is an ink that I got a little while back as part of Ink Drop and I finally just had to force myself to use it. I am overall not super fond of very light colored inks like this because I don’t see much of a use for them in my daily life. Something interesting to note - the color that you see here is not the color that it had going down. When I was writing it was very light and I wasn’t exaggerating when I said that I was losing my place in the middle of a word. I wrote this review on Oct 7 and it’s now the 12th, so within the past five days the color darkened enough to make it much easier to read. In fact, it doesn’t even look that yellow anymore. Much more of an orange-yellow or “mac n cheese” color to me. As not crazy as I am about the color itself, this was not the worst ink to write with. It had good flow, even from the Lamy 1.1 which is a normally very dry nib. I didn’t notice any problems with feathering or bleeding either and it behaved on a cheap index card and under a highlighter. Water resistance was flat out not there at all, but I’m not surprised by that. It’s a bit of a bummer though, because I drew what I thought was a nice flower for that soak test… Overall, I think that this is not the worst possible yellowish ink you could buy. I never want to use it again (especially not when compared to the beauty that is Apache Sunset) but that’s a personal preference. I would say that if you need a yellow ink for artsy stuff or for CMYK color mixing, this is a good choice since R&K inks tend to be pretty cheap, at ~$12/50 mL. This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like. Full page review scan:
  10. Here's an attractive pink(ish) ink from Diamine Akkerman, courtesy amberleadavis! http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/163/6k6v.jpg
  11. http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_665.jpg
  12. yogalarva

    Organics Studio Edgar Allen Poe

    I’m trying out a new format for doing ink reviews. I like this because I feel like it’s a bit more thorough and well organized, without losing individuality. Let me know what you think… Don’t worry if some of that is too small to read, I’ll be posting close ups of each section. This is another ink that falls in the category of “like, but don’t love.” The color definitely looks like a washed out Black Swan in English Roses, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If I had to choose between the two, I would actually take this one because it’s slightly less morbid. I also enjoy the additional shading that you get because it’s not as saturated of a color. Flow was not awful, but not great either. I suspect it’s because of the separation issues I observed in my sample - there is definitely particulate matter coating the sides of the vial. I don’t want to suggest that this is a widespread problem with this ink since I have only seen my one sample, but it is something to watch out for. Water resistance was okay. In the soak test you can definitely still see what was written, but the drip test was a little less clear. I would still trust my daily writings to this ink, because it seems that it will at least leave behind something for you to have later if your paper gets wet. It also played very well with all the papers I tried it on. The Miquelruis notebook I used for the body of the review has very smooth paper but seems prone to bleeding and I did not see any on the back of the page. The cheap paper (from a little notepad I have) is notorious for feathering and I see none there as well. It also highlighted well and, of course, was a delight on Tomoe River paper. Overall, this is a nice ink that might have some flow issues, depending on how consistently the dye stays in suspension and how wet your pen is. Otherwise it performed well and would be a good candidate if you have to do a lot of writing on sub-optimal paper. The ink is not too expensive, at ~$14/55 mL and I’m a sucker for supporting fledgling business ventures, so there’s that. Let me know how you feel about this review style. Better, worse, too much going on, something you would like to see added? I figure I’ll play around with it for a while, tweak a few things, and eventually find a good default. This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like.
  13. yogalarva

    Private Reserve Sepia

    I mentioned in my last ink review that I am looking for a nice ink that comes in standard international carts and this is another contender in that quest. I love the color, but I’m not super excited about some of the other behavior here. This is one of those colors that is so strange and ugly that it’s beautiful, likeDiamine Salamander. It shades like crazy, which is really fun. I also didn’t notice any troubles with bleeding or feathering even on cheaper papers, so that’s always a nice change. I also think that this color better embodies the label “sepia” than some others I’ve seen, since I see sepia as being a golden brown vs a chocolate brown. What kills me about this ink is that it has zero water resistance and it seemed to be pretty dry, even in the normally wet medium nib on my Vac 700. I’ve also heard that it is not the easiest ink to clean out of a pen, but since I still have it inked up I can’t comment on that yet. Overall, I would recommend this ink based on the color, but probably only in wetter pens to combat the low flow. And if you want something waterproof, you’ll need to keep looking. Like all PR inks it runs pretty cheap, at ~$11/66 mL here in the States or a bit less than fifty cents a cart, so the price is very good for a conventional ink. If I do ever get that Al-Sport (the whole reason I’m looking for nice cartridges) you can bet I’ll keep a couple of these carts around. :-) This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated in any way for this review. All opinions expressed above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like.
  14. yogalarva

    Kaweco Summer Purple

    Recently I’ve started looking for an ink that is available in standard international cartridges and is a color I like and has some amount of water resistance (this really is a necessity for an ink to be a daily user for me). Why? Well, I really love the look of the Kaweco Al-Sport, but it takes carts only and I have no interest in refilling. Anyway, I digress… I like this ink. I don’t love it, but I like it. Reminds me a bit of R&K Scabiosa with that dusty shade of purple. Conservative while still being interesting, I think this would be a definite contender as something I could use in cartridges. Behavior was good, though it initially seemed a bit dry in my Lamy 2k. I think that was just because I wasn’t paying attention to keeping things on the sweet spot, because when I went to write this review it was fine. I didn’t notice any feathering or bleeding and, as you can see, it does exhibit quite a bit of water resistance. As a purple ink, I would recommend doing some other looking around. It’s not the most exciting ink out there, and Kaweco bottled ink is kinda pricey as inks go, at ~$14/30 mL. The cartridges are about $0.50 each, which I think is more or less the standard and we all know that carts are not the most economical thing anyway. However, as a well behaved ink that is at least partially water resistant and available ink standard international cartridges, I do recommend this ink and it will go on my short list if I ever do get around to getting that Al-Sport. :-) This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions expressed above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like.
  15. Dumatborlon

    De Atramentis Fuchsia

    As long as I am on a roll, let me present you another gorgeous ink. I’ll stay with Dr. Jansen’s Tintenmanufaktur for the moment and will be writing about De Atramentis ‘Fuchsia’ and as before, I’ll ramble a bit in text form in addition to my handwriting, so that it can be more easily found in the search. This is one of the samples from the random ink samples pack that I ordered from the Goulet Pen Corporation, and I’m very glad that I did include that. ) http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGq+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00012.jpeg The review was written on Steinbeis Vision Classic White recycling paper with an Online ‘Campus’ pen with a medium nib. The ink performs really well in this pen, but I can’t say how it would work in a finer nib, as I have no spare pens for this test. Also, I can’t really say anything about how it would perform on better paper, since I don’t have any. I’ll stay with the recycling paper for now, since I have a consistent supply of that (as opposed to the generic copy paper that is bought here which is never twice the same maker). Whereas the paper certainly might not be the best choice for fountain pen use in general, the ink has no problem with it and just performs as awesomely as on anything else that I could get my hand on so far. This is one of the most well-behaved inks that I have laid my hands on so far. As usual, scanning fountain pen ink is a bit hit-or-miss. This scanner seems to be quite well-behaved and gets quite close to the colour as on paper. ‘Fuchsia’ seems to be the most accurate description of the colour as you can get. Circumscribing it I’d say it’s darker than pink, but brighter than purple. In German, I’d call it ‘hellviolett’, or at least somewhere in the general vicinity. I have almost no colours in that range at my disposal, so I cannot really put that many comparisons on the page. The closest I got is Pelikan’s 4001 ‘violett’, which is much darker and a little bluer. ‘Fuchsia’ tends much more towards the red and has little blue in comparison. The ink flows quite wetly in this medium nib and offers stellar performance. I’ve encountered no skipping or other kinds of problems whatsoever until now. It even works quite well on paper that was mutilated by passing a laser printer multiple times—a combination which almost guarantees skipping and grief in almost every pen/ink combination that I know, with only very few exceptions. But ‘Fuchsia’ seems to swallow even that, but I assume that the broader nib plays a significant part in that. I don’t believe that my fine Waterman nib would give the same result on this front. Still, a very good result. I’m no expert at shading; of all the fountain pen jargon flying around in these forums this is the most elusive to me. All I can offer is that the ink looks vivid to me, as opposed to ‘flat’ colours like black. Judge for yourself. ) Drying time is very quick; on some papers it dries almost instantaneously, on the recycling paper a bit slower, but still rather quickly. I’d love to have some more ink-resistant paper handy, as I just love watching ink dry on the paper and observing how it changes as it dries, but I can’t have all. At least for now; now that I opened Pandora’s box this is something that is very likely to change in the near future. What else is there to say? Water resistance is rather poor, but then again, this is true for most inks. On the other hand, it doesn’t disappear completely but leaves a much brighter magenta. In this regard, it behaves similarily to Mahatma Gandhi. It does tend to smear a little bit even when dry, though, at least when one is cursed with wet fingers like myself. On the plus side, cooperation with text markers is perfect. There is some degree of bleedthrough, as with Mahatma Gandhi: http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGp+sk;%E2%99%80;summaprada;ppm-00011.jpeg I didn’t notice much feathering. Here’s a high-resolution piece of the writeup: This is a rather absorbing paper and still not much feathering. http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGp+sk;%E2%99%80;summaprada;ppm-00010.jpeg When I first put it to use, the colour was considerably lighter and almost approached magenta. Most likely this was because of residual water in the pen from the flushing; I’ve included that scan nonetheless, at the very least you get an idea how the ink will behave when diluted. http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGp+sk;%E2%99%80;summaprada;ppm-00007.jpeg As to combining this colour with others: As you can see in my writeup, I’ve paired it with ‘De Atramentis Mahatma Gandhi’ (dark yellow) and ‘Monteverde turquoise’ and I think they click together very well. As it stands, this particular colour is an unexpected, but all the more welcome new member of my colour lineup, or at least it will be so once I get around to buying a full bottle of it. Unless I find an even better ink in that general direction, this will definitely happen soon. This is the second De Atramentis ink that I’ve been testing and so far I’ve been very impressed with their work. Unfortunately that means that I will have to buy more of their ink, but that’s a sacrifice that I’m more than willing to make.
  16. Dumatborlon

    Delta Yellow

    [TL;DR: Too bright to be of much use; difficult/awful performance on most papers; very nice hue; I am ambivalent about it.] Here’s another yellow ink, maybe the purest yellow ink there is. I’m talking about ‘Delta Yellow’, of course. Before I start talking, let’s have a quick look at it: http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGr+sk;%E2%98%89;summaprada;jpeg-01136.jpeg Boy, this ink is BRIGHT! ‘Which glasses do I need to read YELLOW?’, my middle school teacher used to sigh in exasperation whenever someone wrote in yellow crayon (yes, some of us thought it was a good idea at that time―and to be host, just that sigh alone was worth it ^^). After so much time, I finally get what he meant: This ink is all but illegible. No matter what paper you’re using, it is so bright that you have to get real close to the page to be able to decipher what’s written there. From more than a few inches away, all you see are yellow scribbles. The scans and the photograph are lying: The markings all but glow on the page, which of course cannot be conveyed by an image. The ink is much brighter I.R.L. than on both of the images. And I thought that scanning ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ was difficult… http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGq+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00013.jpeg The colour is the essence of yellowness. The colour does not lean to either green nor orange, as most yellows tend to do. It’s a very pure, primary yellow. This at least becomes quite clear from the scans. Because of this, the colour is practically meant to be paired to other primary colours. You might have noticed that I like to colour-code whatever I am writing. The other two colours on the scan are Parker Quink royal blue (washable) and Montblanc rouge. I think Waterman red would work even better alongside this yellow. But as already said: This ink really pairs well, also with more difficult colours like Noodler’s Polar brown, but see for yourself: http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGr+sk;%E2%98%89;summaprada;ppm-00015.jpeg Other than that, it’s a very difficult ink. I’ve used it in an Online ‘College’ pen with a medium, which probably was one of the worst choices that I could make, but that was the pen that just happened to need refilling. In hindsight, I should have known: That particular pen is prone to skipping and poor flow, the only ink that really worked with it so far was Montblanc rouge (you can still see the stains of that colour in the photographs). In my opinion, this colour really needs the wettest-flowing pen with the broadest nib that you can find. As soon as the current charge in my Safari is used up, I’ll redo the review with that one, that will be a fairer comparison. The more technical stuff will be somewhat biased because of this. Well, at least in this pen, the ink is extremely dry and just a pain to write with. If it starts up at all, it almost requires force to keep a flow going and is almost as if writing with a ballpoint pen. A day later, presumably as the feed is now finally saturated or whatever, the situation has somewhat improved. Given the right paper, it writes much more wetly. As long as the line is still drying, you can even see what you are writing. After that, you almost need special equipment, see below. ) Don’t use absorbent paper with this ink! It will make you really hate it. This ink is meant for good paper, which unfortunately I don’t have. Yet. Surprisingly enough, the University-issued notepads perform reasonably well with this ink. But with crappier paper, this ink will bite you. Seriously, don’t do it! Surprisingly enough, the ink does seem to shade to some degree. It is so bright that it’s really difficult to tell; since the colour on the scan is a little darker than on paper, one can see some shading, especially on the high-resolution scan. On the plus side, there does not seem to be any feathering. There is some bleedthrough, though. But it’s yellow, so it’s unlikely to be as annoying as with, say, a brown ink. http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGq+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00014.jpeg Here’s another close-up of the shading, done on somewhat glossy paper: http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGr+sk;%E2%98%89;summaprada;ppm-00022b.jpeg As usual, the hand-written review is on a Steinbeis Classic White recycling paper, which is a poor choice. That paper is almost off-white (which is what I like about it), but of course that makes the already poor contrast even poorer. If I had some bright-white paper, I’d compare to that. On the recycling paper, the scribbles are all but illegible. Don’t even consider using a tinted paper. The ink is not very saturated and all but vanishes on brown, orange, red and green paper. On deep blue, you can still see it, about as well as on white paper (which is to say: not very much). I’ve tried scanning that, but it’s pointleß. As expected, there is no water resistance. An eight minute drop test removed all traces of the ink from the paper. On the up side, once dry it does not tend to smear. It dries rather quickly. So what to make of it? As opposed to De Atramentis’s Mahatma Gandhi, which is dark enough to be actually used, Delta Giallo is so bright that it’s more of a novelty ink than anything else. It’s too bright and unsaturated for use as a highlighting ink, and way too bright for headlines. It does not light up in blacklight; in fact, it remains invisible even there. Curiously, on the photograph that I took, the yellow line went pitch black, see below. So maybe it will make a good semi-secret ink. http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EGr+sk;%E2%98%89;summaprada;jpeg-01140.jpeg Also, it looks to be just perfect for a demonstrator pen; it already looks very nice in the semi-transparent grip section of my ‘College’ pen, but it should look absolutely gorgeous in a fully transparent pen. In conclusion, I certainly like the colour. As already said: It’s the essence of yellowness, a very nice colour. But I can’t see any good way to use it. I will try to use it in a more properly behaved pen and see if that changes anything, but until then I don’t think I will keep using this ink. I still have half a vial left, so if anyone wants to see the ink on paper, just drop me your address and I’ll send you a postcard or something. It’d be a funny experiment to write the address itself in this colour, but I have a feeling that the postman will hunt and murder me if I do so. ;o) Thanks for making it this far; I know I always write too much. ^^ Zefon Edit: Shading close-up
  17. http://www.fp-ink.info/colorcard/2.png As always, light resistance will follow in about one month, images will be replaced:
  18. S-K

    J Herbin’S Rouge Opera

    J HERBIN’S ROUGE OPERA J Herbin’s Rouge Opera. Bottled ink. 30 ml. 695 Rs. Bought from Pen’s Avenue, a good resource for imported inks in India. Bottle - As usual, simple design, stable square bottom, functional. COLOR As with all J herbin’s inks, here also a theme is there - a Red fan ( or is it so?) So, what’s the connection between this ink and a fan? Indicates fast drying property of the ink? Or my imagination going very wild? Any way I have to say this as the very impotant property of the ink, compared to other J Herbin’s products. See that color, some thing in between real Red and Rose, with no trace of Yellow involved. What lacks here is that brightness or sheen. Though color is not very impressive, there are also no “ hate fators” involved here. COLOR ON A GUAZE COLOR ANALYSIS SWAB TO ANALYZE… The component colors are more Red, least Green and Blue in between. More and more Red.. See the color wheel, it’s in between Pink and Red, but more towards Red. I think I would like this color more if that darkness involved is little lesser and brightness is little more. FROM RIGHT TO LEFT- DILUTED IN WATER WITH INCREASING CONCENTRATIONS. ONE BASIC LINE WITH TWO PASSES. Can you see a trend here? The color of the ink does not change as expected with number of passes increases. See the diluted samples also. The last two samples though differ in concentrations, have more or less the same color. It seems that the dye used in this ink exhibits a phenomenon called as “Ceiling effect”, that is after some particular concentration, the color of the dye do not change dramatically. ONE MORE “PASSES” SAMPLE. ( Regarding dyes, some dyes have the property of showing up different shades of colors or different colors at different concentrations. For example, the die used for making Turquoise blue exhibits Greenish Blue Black color at higher concentrations. Some dyes do not show up even another shade of same color) See that this property is certainly not desirable for artists who want to get different shade having more depth, by drawing over and over. For Writers, this does n’t matter. COLOR ON PAPER WITH FINE NIB WITH MEDIUM NIB WIH BROAD NIB PROPERTIES IN PEN WITH CAMLIN TRINITY FINE NIB WITH LAMY MEDIUM NIB WITH KIM CI NIB COMPARED TO TWO OTHER WELL FLOWING INKS, CHELPARK CRIMSON VIOLET AND BRIL TURQUOISE BLUE. Same pens with fine nib, same paper. No noticeable difference in flow was found. The thickness of lines got are comparable. Same inks again compared, same paper. But this time Medium stub nib used. See that rouge Opera writes thinner when compared to other well flowing inks. DIRECTLY COMPARED TO THE MOST WELL FLOWING INK, BRIL TURQOIUSE BLUE. The ink have a reasonable flow in most of the pens, and the dry nature may get un noticed, till one tries a pen with a drier flow. I was comfortable with this ink, till I started using a Wing sung, which had comparatively lesser flow- But I was using Wingsung with many inks earlier. I would like to see some more flow to this ink, instead of trying to increase the flow of pen. So I consider this as a moderatly flowing ink, having Medium saturation( There is no point in increasing saturation), and lubrication also on moderate side- especially in drier pens, when flow reduces nib shows its tooth out. SEE THAT FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES THIS IS NOT A DRY WRITING INK. INFERANCE The ink is well behaved in almost all pens , except when flow is low. It can be attributed as problem of pen also. Otherwise there are no compatibility problems in a variety of eye droppers, piston fillers and c/c used. Also no ink staining, no nib creeps. Nothing to complain. PROPERTIES ON PAPER What’s Bad on pen is Good on paper. Drying Probably a very important property of this ink. Dries in less than 5 seconds in most of the papers and probably in 1 or 2 seconds in some papers. Very impressive. A SMOOTH SMUDGABILITY ( Am I using the word correct) will be well appreciated by Artists. FEATHERING This is another good point about this ink. NO FEATHERING IN ALMOST ALL PAPER S- Even lowest quality papers! BLEEDING This is a very very cheap paper- even in this paper only a little ghosting only seen. Not a problem with average quality papers. SHADING There is no shading. WATER RESISTANCE Shown under flowing water for 10 seconds in 1 hr after writing. Sample just wetted with water. There is NO WATER RESISTANCE. Thanks SK
  19. J HERBIN LARMES DE CASSIS ( My first ink review, Suggestions highly appreciated) Ink reviewed here from an Indian point of view. I do not think that there are so many Indians using high quality note books or papers regularly. I am not. Went to one paper mart and asked for the highest quality paper, and he suggested JK Excel Bond paper. So my review goes like this. Brought this bottled ink from PensAvenue – As usual -happy customer, no affiliation- ( I should be happy, as this ink not available elsewhere). For 30 ml- 695 Rs. As a lover of Blue shades,I was thinking of a nice violet color, but frankly I was little unhappy initially. What color is this? Violet – definitely NO Pink – But I would like to call some other color as Pink. Then what ? A bottle of Pink ink was lying there just like that… then J Herbin wanted to fill a Hero pen with some Black ink already in the it, and spoilt the whole ink in the bottle..? Any way after filling in few pens I have started writing in my work sheets. After 3-4 days, the following points were observed. Now I am more using pens filled with this ink than others. If the color were pure Pink, I would have stopped using this long before, especially in my work place. If it were pure Pink, it wouldn’t be as legible as this. My friends were appreciating this color. If it were pure Pink, they would have considered this as more feminine color. These are not just excuses for wasting money on inks, I am really appreciating the color. So What color is this ? This is the swab to analyze.. This picture shows a Pink in the darker side. Strongest component is Red, least is Green and Blue in between. A simple chromatography shows Blue and Red components of this ink. This is how it appears in a bottle diluted with water…. More violetish…. Diluted ink also show almost the same color components, the darkness is reduced.. I have to say that the mother nature also shows few examples for Larmess De Cassis! Color components of the above flower. COLOR ON PAPERS FINE NIB, A 4 PAPER FINE NIB, JK EXCEL BOND MEDIUM NIB, A4 MEDIUM NIB, BOND BROAD NIB, A4 BROAD NIB, BOND. VARIOUS WIDTHS, ARUL SCRIPT NIBS. THIS IS DEFENITLY A FLOWERY COLOR….. COLOR PROPERTIES OF THIS INK The itself is having a slight variation in color according to the tip size and flow of the pen. Here the Fine tipped nib was that of Camlin Trinity, which was having high flow and medium tipped was Lamy Safari with only moderate flow. 2. Shading is there theoretically …. when writing with a CI nib, there is much contrast between horizondal stroke and vertical strokes. As the flow of the pen increases, these contrast tends to disappear. The slight shading we are getting in Lamy with moderate flow in not seen even in Broad tip when flow is increased. FOR ALL PRACTICAL PURPOSES I CONSIDER THIS INK AS NON SHADING. 3. Saturation - I consider this as medium one. Defenitly not a thick ink. PROPERTIES IN PEN On seeing the color, first I remembered about PR Shell Pink, which have given me a tough time with flow with a pen. But, here no concerns, it’s flowing well without hiccups. In a variety of pens, Convertor, Piston fill, Direct fill with a variety of nibs, ink have performed well. No nib creeps. Ink staining… Very happy here. PROPERTIES ON PAPER Welll, my predominant writing involves cheap quality papers… ball pen quality and ball point friendly papers. Sorry, Larmes De Cassis, You have go through a rough time. I have to say that this ink was well behaved in almost all papers except the cheeeapest news print like papers, where only it shows feathering and bleeding. BLEEDING Cheapest paper A4 paper. FEATHERING Feathering, Cheapest paper. Feathering, A4 paper. FOR THESE FEATHERING, I CAN BLAME ONLY THE PAPERS AND NOT THE INK. DRYING. Theoretically it takes around 10 seconds to dry. But there are no practical issues here. While writing I considered this as a fast drying item, but was surprised with the test. I was expecting this to dry in 5 sec or so. WASH RESISTANCE This in the area were this ink shows its weakness. Can be fully washed out! See the under lying blue dye, the red component washed out entirely- The ink is made of atleast two dye components. Thanks SK.
  20. bardiir

    Noodler's Mandalay Maroon

    http://www.fp-ink.info/colorcard/536.png As always, light resistance will follow in about one month, images will be replaced:
  21. bardiir

    Noodler's Purple Heart

    http://www.fp-ink.info/colorcard/132.png As always, light resistance will follow in about one month, images will be replaced:
  22. yogalarva

    Organics Studio Gregor Mendel

    Alright, this is an ink that I meant to review long ago and then because of some sad tech confusion it didn’t happen. But, now it’s ready, perhaps a bit too late. Yesterday there was a post on the Organics Studio Facebook page saying that they are discontinuing Gregor Mendel, so all that’s left is what’s out there… This ink is really neat. It’s colored using chlorophyll, which is the same thing that makes plants green. It’s also a pigmented ink, which makes it very water resistant, as you can see above. On the other hand, this is a far less saturated ink than some other modern ones, but I still find it readable enough for daily use, especially if you are using it in a broad or stub nib. Flow was good, it was easy to clean, and I really can’t think of a single downside to this ink. It even smells good, with a slight minty scent that’s a refreshing change from the chemical-y smell we are all probably familiar with at this point. Like I said, this ink is now available in pretty limited quantities, so I would say that if you want it, get it now. I can’t quite decide if I would use it enough to justify buying a full bottle or not, but I’m sure that if I wait a few more days the decision will probably make itself for me. This ink was purchased with my own money and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions expressed above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you wish.
  23. These are my first ink reviews so I'd like to hear all suggestions how to improve them. I've got quite some inks in my collection already (most of them are samples but it's a start) and I will review some more in the future.
  24. bardiir

    Noodler's Burma Road Brown

    http://www.fp-ink.info/colorcard/503.png Diamine Salamander is pretty close: http://www.fp-ink.info/colorcard/135.png Light resistance data will follow sometime later (images will be replaced)
  25. Indexed in fp-ink.info: http://www.fp-ink.info/colorcard/559.png Light fastness and nibcreep do take a while for measurement so they will be added here (picture replaced) later.





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