Troublemaker Inks: Simoun And Doña Victorina

[txomsy]

Here is a quick mini-review of two Troublemaker Inks.

 

In summary, they behave well, but in my case at least, I couldn't get the color variations shown on the web page. Maybe it was the nib (fine) or the paper (cheap copy paper), or both.

 

 

The two inks came wrapped in paper, tied with rope, in plastic bottles with a sticker on the cap that identifies the ink.

 

A nice touch was that the bottles were covered with a thin plastic film before closing the cap so that no ink is lost during transport. A neat idea, I think.

 

 

I ordered the wet version of Doña Victorina and the standard version of Simoun (if I remember well). I expected more color variation and sheen, but the ones I got did not show it immediately (see update in next message below).

 

 

The inks dry in a little more than 5 seconds, as can be seen since only the last letter is smeared (so the ones written shortly before were already dry when I passed my finger.

 

 

There is a minimal show-through on this paper, more in the case of Doña Victorina. I got a similar behaviour on better Miquelrius paper (I had a small A7 notebook at hand and tried it).

 

Feathering was minimal. There is some on the wettest cotton swab of Doña Victorina, but none with Simoun.

 

 

 

The inks are certainly not water resistant, and do actually wash clean with water, so if you want an ink easy to clean, these are the ones.

 

I do love the blue colour of Simoun, but that is a matter of taste. I left a drop fall on the Simoun sheet to see what happens. Once it dried, there is some sheen on the borders, but not much that I can appreciate.

 

Both of them have a certain degree of shading.

 

Sorry for the terse descriptions and sloppy pictures, I am short on time.

Edited May 18, 2019 by txomsy

[txomsy]

After cleaning the pen, and as one may expect from the water drop test, I can confirm that the ink is very easy to clean. Both inks seem to be very saturated (required several flushes to come out clear, and the first flush looked like raw ink directly from the bottle), but after thoroughly flushing, they cleared completely leaving no trace. For a reddish ink like Doña Victorina, that is quite an achievement from my point of view.

 

I can also confirm that there is some border sheen clearly visible on the most wet swabs and specially on the dried Simoun drop. So perhaps I should have ordered a drier version of the inks so they are more concentrated (or can be written more concentrated).

 

On the Simoun drop border, the sheen is certainly really beautiful, and reddish, reminding me a bit of Skull & Roses or Nitrogen, only with a lighter blue main color. Now that it is fully dry, Doña Victorina is acquiring also sheen and getting a bit darker.

 

That's odd. When I first laid out the text, Doña Victorina seemed washed out and clearer, pastel or water-colour like. As it dries, it is getting darker with more and more character. Something similar seems to be happening to Simoun which seems to display more sheen with time. Or may be it is the change in lighting of twilight. But if this goes on as it does for now, maybe by tomorrow I will have an altogether different opinion on both inks.

 

I must confess that right now I am changing from non-plussed to really gladly surprised and appreciating. It's the first time I see any ink behave this way. I may finally fall in love with them...

 

I will try to update this post in the future with further experiences as I start using them more frequently.

Edited May 18, 2019 by txomsy

[txomsy]

I'm uploading now some better resolution scans. In these you can see the small feathering with Doña Victorina wet, and the lack of it with Simoun standard. The sheen in the borders that is more apparent now can be "guessed" by the different tonality although one would need a good picture on different angle light to appreciate it (these were taken with a scanner). It seems to be more evident in Doña Victorina, although it is mostly appreciable in the Simoun drop of ink.

 

 

 

And on the reverse

 

 

Where you can see that show-through is minimal, I can appreciate it live, but not at the scan, where only the most dense swab (6x) shows through clearly.

 

 

Here you can appreciate the tiny bit of feathering in copy paper,

 

 

Drying time

 

Water resistance

 

 

And cotton swabs. You can see the darker border where sheen is appearing, as well as better appreciate the shading.

[txomsy]

And for Simoun:

 

 

On the reverse, there is even less show through, only where a full drop of ink was laid can you appreciate it in the scan.

 

 

Practically no feathering and sheen starting to become apparent:

 

 

Similar drying times:

 

Water resistance: Doña Victorina cleared even better despite being reddish, but this is not bad at all. Obviously none of them has any water resistance.

 

 

 

And clearly, Simoun has no visible feathering, maybe because it is not as wet.

 

The swab tests, starting at 6 passes and having one less on each swash as you go down:

 

 

Here, the sheen is becoming clearly more apparent on the border of the drop, and not as much on the swashes.

[carlos.q]

Oh yes! These pictures are a lot better. Thank you for this review.

[txomsy]

Actually, now I look again at the scans, the sheen is apparent at the border with the change in color. Maybe it was my choice of a fine nib.

 

Now, next morning, and with cloudy daylight, the sheen is more apparent, more so in Simoun, but it is there. Subtle. It is almost like if there were very tiny speckles spread throughout. Interesting. I'll have to wait for the sun to fully come out to really appreciate it.

 

So, it is not so strong as Skulls & Roses or OS Nitrogen; thus, if you do not like aggressive sheen like that from those inks, these provide a subtle sheen that gives the colors an interesting touch. I guess I possibly was already spoiled by those two inks and was maybe expecting too much from these.

[inkstainedruth]

The color for Doña Victoria is odd. Is it really as flat and chalky-looking as it appears on my screen? The feathering might not be enough to annoy me normally -- but in conjunction with the weird color? And the complete lack of water resistance? I think I'll pass.

Simoun is more interesting -- especially since it's got that edge shading/crispness/darker line that some people call haloing. But I now have a number of inks that are a similar color already....

Thanks for the review, though -- I wasn't familiar with this brand.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mechayoshi]

I have Blue guitar in moderate wetness and Simoun. They are likely he same inks except Simoun is extra saturated for the sheen I guess. My issue is that it can dry out on the nib a little quick for my taste and while the pink is pretty I find myself just enjoying the pretty blue color.

[txomsy]

The Doña Victorina ink I got did indeed look chalky. After one day, less so. But it was the wet one, likely a drier version will feather less and will have more body and haloing.

 

We had very cloudy weather this weekend. I have try to again with a wetter pen, broader nib and in better sunlight.

[Jan2016]

Thank you for the review! Didn´t hear about this brand before, so it is always nice to get to know some new stuff.

[Gloucesterman]

Thank you for the review! Didn´t hear about this brand before, so it is always nice to get to know some new stuff.

Ditto about introducing a new source to accept my money :-)))

 

Actually, they do look like a very interesting opportunity to explore new colors.

 

Thanks for the review.

[txomsy]

It is a relatively new brand, little known yet.

 

As the bottle says the ink is made in the Philippines, originally designed by and for members of the "Fountain Pen Network - Phillippines" user group. The ink has very good prices, with 60ml being about 12 USD postage included. That, for a hand made ink is very good price from my point of view. They have some premium inks at somewhat higher prices, but still very affordable.

[txomsy]

I have Blue guitar in moderate wetness and Simoun. They are likely he same inks except Simoun is extra saturated for the sheen I guess. My issue is that it can dry out on the nib a little quick for my taste and while the pink is pretty I find myself just enjoying the pretty blue color.

Thanks, that was one of the next inks I was thinking of ordering. Knowing this, I can choose a different color (there are so many nice colors to choose from...).

[XYZZY]

Huh. Their website only shows one picture of Simoun, a swab that's about 90% pink sheen, so I had assumed it would be a sheen monster like OS Nitrogen. Their description doesn't help, it reminds me of the J Peterman catalog jokes on Seinfeld.

 

Your experience makes me interested in the ink.

Edited May 20, 2019 by XYZZY

[txomsy]

Some time later, I can confirm that Simoun is actually a sheen monster, maybe not as much as OS Nitrogen, but, on good paper, it is really nice. I was doing some practice on Lucas' bast arda using a sheet of transparent paper when I took this picture. You can see it does indeed sheen!

 

[langere]

Thanks for following up after these months! Very interesting inks.

 

Erick

[DrDebG]

Wow! Beautiful! Thank you for the follow up!

[Joe124013]

Wow that's impressive. Gonna have to pick up some of these when they selling them again.