Birmingham – Duquesne Incline Station Red

January 8, 2018

Birmingham – Duquesne Incline Station Red

Been feeling under the weather for a few weeks, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors at the time of writing) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

Duquesne Incline Station Red is a darker red that leans on the brown side. One could describe it as a brick red, though, given the variety of bricks, that description might not help. The closest ink I had was FC Urushi Red, which is a little darker and less orange, but has a similar level of saturation. More well-known comparisons included Ancient Copper (much more brown/orange), Oku Yama (much more maroon/purple), and Oxblood (darker, less orange). The color composition is relatively simple (single-dye, as far as I can tell), and it doesn’t exhibit any particularly interesting behavior; neither pooling nor washing the ink changes its hue, only darkening/lightening along the same axis. The ink is not particularly saturated—in a drier fine nib (like the one I used) the line comes out rather pale and water, while in a broader nib you get to see more of its true tones with nice shading. The ink is also on the drier side, which contributes to the effect. Paired with my already-dry fine nib, the writing experience was less smooth than I prefer; with the wetter broad stub, writing felt fine. For those who like the color, I suggest wetter nibs and nicer papers, to show off the ink’s nice shading. Personally, its appearance in the fine nib wasn’t impressive, and the color, though not unattractive, didn’t particularly interest me. I think I would have liked this color were it just a bit richer and darker, and more pleasant on the nib, but as it is, I was dissatisfied.

Flow/Lubrication: Low

Shading: Moderate-High

Sheen: None

Water Resistance: Zilch

The following sample was done with a PenBBS 308 (Fine) and a Franklin Christoph 65 (Broad Stub) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Kuretake Menso brush (Small). Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: The scan is mostly accurate, especially for the big smear and writing. The wash in the doodle is more of a peachy pink , but the rest of it is fine as well. For the comparisons, only Morinda came out looking completely off; the other four are reasonable.

Scan:

Photo: No photo this time. My phone isn’t cooperating with my computer and I’m having trouble transferring files.

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

Diamine Ancient Copper, Rohrer & Klingner Morinda, Franklin Christoph Urushi Red, Sailor Oku Yama, Diamine Oxblood

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Sandra Cisneros’s “My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn”

Maruman Mnemosyne (sorry about the out-of-focus corner):

Tsubame Fool’s University:

Franklin-Christoph:

January 9, 2018

Always interesting. I haven't tried this one.

So far all the Birmingham inks I have tried have been wet.

January 9, 2018

I'm ~10 inks into the samples and most of them have been at least average in wetness. This one and Walnut St. Brown felt noticeably drier to me than the rest. I did review them both with a drier pen for the fine nib--I tried to factor that in to my expectations, but it could have something to do with it nonetheless.

January 9, 2018

Not the color I would have picked to be named for one of Pittsburgh's Incline (the cars on at least one of them are more of a fire engine red).

The shading looks awesome. But this is not, I think, a color for me (on my screen, it looks more like a salmon pink color than brick red, and in fact looks quite a bit like Noodler's Empire Red and De Atramentis Document Red). So I can pass on this one.

Thanks for the review. Inks that I don't want are WAAAY better for my wallet than inks where the review make me go "OOOOH -- WAAAANT...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

January 9, 2018

As it's named after the Station, and not the actual cars, I think the intention was to replicate the brick of the station building. Based on photos it certainly does not capture the vivid red of the cars themselves, that's for sure. As far as its brick-ish-ness, I think the hue can accurately be described as... somewhere in the brick family, but on the pale, less-saturated side. Salmon pink is actually a good description of the ink when it's washed with water, though, so what you see is probably not far off from what I see.

January 9, 2018

Thanks again for a beautiful review!

January 9, 2018

As it's named after the Station, and not the actual cars, I think the intention was to replicate the brick of the station building. Based on photos it certainly does not capture the vivid red of the cars themselves, that's for sure. As far as its brick-ish-ness, I think the hue can accurately be described as... somewhere in the brick family, but on the pale, less-saturated side. Salmon pink is actually a good description of the ink when it's washed with water, though, so what you see is probably not far off from what I see.

Thanks for the info.

Oh, and in case it hasn't been said -- your artwork is AWESOME! Really shows off the inks well.

It's just that some of the colors don't wow me (OTOH, you have made me want to spend money on some of the other Birmingham colors.... )

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

January 10, 2018

Based on their inks that I've tried myself as well as your reviews, it seems like whatever inspires an ink or ink name, BPC puts their own dark industrial twist on the color, making it more muted and smoky, and mysterious. So I wouldn't be surprised if they did think of a red but had to make it into a washed out "not quite red" kind of red, far from clean saturated colors, to go along with their philosophy. The only ink of theirs that I've tried that seems to fall outside this description is Truss Blue. It's such a clean bright blue, I'm continuously surprised it's part of the same ink line.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Intensity

January 10, 2018

Of the ones I have tried so far, the Andy Warhol Pop Art Purple is also bright.

We'll see about Mr. Rogers' sweater...

January 10, 2018

Based on their inks that I've tried myself as well as your reviews, it seems like whatever inspires an ink or ink name, BPC puts their own dark industrial twist on the color, making it more muted and smoky, and mysterious. So I wouldn't be surprised if they did think of a red but had to make it into a washed out "not quite red" kind of red, far from clean saturated colors, to go along with their philosophy. The only ink of theirs that I've tried that seems to fall outside this description is Truss Blue. It's such a clean bright blue, I'm continuously surprised it's part of the same ink line.

Truss Blue, which I have a sample of, is really not quite the same color of the bridge it's named after: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Smithfield_Bridge_%289378991793%29.jpg/1200px-Smithfield_Bridge_%289378991793%29.jpg

OTOH, it is, as you say a really nice bright blue.... Right now I have it in one of my Parker 61s (just refilled it this morning).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth