Penbbs #224 Tolstoy

[crahptacular]

PenBBS #224 Tolstoy

 

Tolstoy is part of the Season 14 lineup of PenBBS inks. PenBBS has quite a few inks inspired by actual people—28 at time of writing—which have separate designations for national icons and (international) historical figures. Thematically speaking, I think these are pretty interesting, with the downside that the ink name gives very little indication of what color to expect. I used up my sample of this ink with two pens, one in extra-fine and one in broad italic. I found this ink pleasant to write with, both in terms of appearance and behavior.

 

The ink is a dirty green with a substantial amount of yellow. I think the color is quite close to R&K Alt-Goldgrun; I don’t personally have Alt-Goldgrun, but I have a writing sample of it which I wrote side-by-side with, and the two colors were quite similar (almost indistinguishable in certain lighting). Upon close inspection, Tolstoy is slightly lighter and a touch more on the green side than the gold. The color is not particularly dark, but even in an EF nib it’s perfectly legible without causing eye strain. Based on the color, I expected somewhat more dramatic shading than what I actually got; the color was relatively uniform on all the papers except TR. All told, this isn’t a color I’m a big fan of, but I did find it interesting. Based on this ink, I’ll probably grab a sample of Alt-Goldgrun in the future, as the writing sample I have is the slightest bit more appealing to me than Tolstoy (but as I said, the two are nearly identical if you’re not looking minutely).

 

Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Moderate-Low (except on TR, where it shades nicely)

Sheen: None visible

Water Resistance: Very little

Other notes: Due to some poor planning, I didn’t have enough ink left for a watercolor doodle, so I settled for a sketch instead. Apologies to those interested in water washes! For the same reason, I couldn’t do any flex writing with a dip nib or the ink splash.

 

The following sample was done with a Delike Moonman* (Extra Fine) and a Franklin Christoph 28 (Broad Cursive Italic) on Tomoe River (52gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with the EF nib.

 

*not sure if this is actually the name of the pen; the listing called it “Moonman” and the nib is branded Delike, so I took a guess

 

Bad Scanner Disclaimer: The photo is quite accurate, apart from the shadow on the bottom left portion, but fortunately there’s not much to see there anyway. The scan is okay up until the ink comparisons, which are mostly inaccurate (although the big smear of Tolstoy is okay). I would rely on the scan for the top half (because the photo lighting was so poor), but definitely use the photo when you look at the ink comparisons.

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

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

Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-Rin, Kyo no Oto Kokeiro, Robert Oster Jade, Sailor Tokiwa-Matsu, Kyo no Oto Yamabukiiro

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction), from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[OCArt]

Great review and nice to read a bit of Tolstoy again. Love your drawing, not too keen on the ink color.

[cleosmama]

Great review. I love the drawing of Tolstoy, too.

[ehemem]

To draw with, yes.

To write with, no.

[Intensity]

Excellent, as usual!

 

I actually quite like the ink color in the photograph. Interestingly, normally I love teals and cyans in every other application, but lately getting into fountain pen inks, I realized that I'm not a huge fan of dark green-teal-blue-blacks (though I do really like turquoise-leaning medium blues). And on the other hand, I'm normally not interested in murky greens in all other applications, but I find them highly attractive in ink form. I.e. for example I'd prefer my pen to be teal or cyan, not murky green. But I like this ink and others like Sailor's Tokiwa-Matsu. Odd!

Edited October 26, 2017 by Intensity

[crahptacular]

@Intensity

I can understand where you're coming from. My taste in ink colors doesn't always agree with my taste in colors elsewhere. I'm usually not a fan of oranges, but there are many beautiful orange inks I enjoy. Then again, the application gives context to which colors you prefer as well. There are colors I would write with but I wouldn't wear, or colors I would wear but wouldn't paint the walls with, etc. so it's not too surprising that different colors appeal to you in different situations.

 

This one falls in the category of colors I didn't think I'd like, but was pleasantly surprised by.

Edited October 26, 2017 by crahptacular

[Honeybadgers]

Ho-ly (bleep) I need this ink.

 

This is like alt goldgrun and citrus black had a baby.

[EBGBs]

Woah! I love it too. It seems to go between olive and lime effortlessly. Really cool

Gonna have to (try to) find a bottle of it now!

[namrehsnoom]

Great review, thanks. And I quite like the colour - a beautiful olive-green.