Pelikan Edelstein - General Opinions?

[inkstainedruth]

 

OK, I really don't know what to make of that. Kon-Peki is also the only Iroshizuku that I've tried, and I found it among the best-behaved inks that I've ever used. It doesn't have any exotic properties, but it works well in just about every pen. (In fact, I can't even remember hearing about anybody else having any bad experience with Iroshizuku before now.)

 

I've had bad experiences with some Iroshizuku inks. But I love Kon-peki, Yama-budo, Yama-guri, and Take-sumi -- and think that Tsuyu-kusa is underrated.

As for the Edelstein inks? It depends. I would never want to be without Edelstein Tanzanite (I prefer it over Iroshizuku Shin-kai). And while it's almost the same color as Diamine Havasu Turquoise, there is just something about how Edelstein Topaz behaves -- even though it's WAAAY more expensive. I have some of the Ink of the Year ones (from various Pelikan Hubs: love Smoky Quartz (but then I like sepia leaning browns to begin with), really like Amethyst, and rather like Olivine; Aquamarine, OTOH, is a "meh" color (although similar to the old Darkening Absinthe IG ink made by FPN member Pharmacist a few years ago).

Most of the rest of the standard Edelstein line? They don't wow me. But I could say that about a lot of different brands of ink -- I like some and would never want to be without a bottle in my stash, but other colors you couldn't pay me enough to use.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Mercian]

On 5/20/2019 at 3:19 AM, tonybelding said:

Those of you who've been using Edelstein, what do you like about them?

 

I have owned a Pelikan M205 since 2013, and so I was keen to try out Edelstein inks in it, but I got put off most of them by the general sense of 'disappointment' in this community back then over the fact that they are not super-saturated (like e.g. Parker's 'Penman' inks were).
That said, I did eventually buy a bottle of Topaz after reading Sandy1's enthusiastic review of it. It is, undoubtedly, lovely stuff, but I'm a peerless curmudgeon, so I usually think that it's a bit too 'cheerful' for me
Later, I bought a bottle of Tanzanite - which is very 'professional', but also has lovely shading and hints of red sheen. And I also tried a sample of Sapphire. Its colour seems to me to be 4001 Königsblau plus nur ein hauch of 4001 Violett. I like it.

Now, last year I finally bought myself the M805 that I had wanted for years and years, and also a load of different Edelsteins to go with it.

My M805 has a nib that is marked 'F', but it is a 'firehose' of a nib/feed. If I use Topaz in that pen, its shading and sheening is so lovely that it even cheers me up!
When I run Edelstein inks through the M805 they shade beautifully, and some of them sheen too.
The result is writing whose appearance proclaims 'this can only have been written with a fountain pen'. I find the combination of Edelstein ink and a Souverän nib/feed to be just delightful 😀 And e.g. the Sapphire seems to look 'richer' from my M805 than it does from my M205 (although that may be because the 'F' nib on my M205 is far more of an 'F' than is the 'F' nib on my M805).

All that said, I do feel honour-bound to add that Edelsteins are the only inks that I have restricted to the manufacturer's own brand of pen.
I have never used any of my Edelsteins in a pen that is not a Pelikan piston-filler. Pelikan's pens are 'gushy', and so these inks write 'dry'. I remember reading somewhere that the Edelstein inks contain a lubricant for the pistons of Pelikan's M-series pens, so the two seem to be an ideal combination.
I am very conscious of the fact that they have been developed to work well in what are very 'gushy' pens - and the Aquamarine even feels a bit 'dry' under the nib when I am using it in my M805 😯 I cannot imagine that it would be at all pleasant to try to use Edelstein Aquamarine in a LAMY Safari with a fine nib, or in a Parker 45 or "51".

My advice to people considering an Edelstein ink is: I think that you should only use it in a pen that writes 'wet'.
If you have one of those, and you like shading, I think that you will like Edelstein inks.
But, if you only have pens that write 'dry', I suspect that you might find Edelstein inks to be 'disappointing'.

[bunnspecial]

Old thread I know, but I bought my first bottle of Edelstein-Sapphire-in 2012 and have in the past year beefed them up. I think I'm up to a half dozen or so now.

Back in 2012, I didn't know what shading was, but knew that the Sapphire did it.

 

Now that I'm a big more conscious of it, I regard the Edelstein inks as some of the best shading inks out there. They like a wet pen, and in general I find they get along well with the German pens I have(Pelikan, Lamy, Montblanc).

 

Many of them are interesting and what I call a "deep" ink with different hues and colors that pop out as they shade. Wet nibs-especially broad ones-are especially beneficial in this since they can leave pools of ink that on good paper can bring out any sheen that might be hiding in an ink.

 

Edelstein inks are not every day inks for me, but I generally enjoy them when I use them.

BTW, back in 2011/2012 when they were new to the market, I think a lot of folks didn't know what to make of them or even expect when reviews were scarce and a lot of folks weren't willing to then spend the ~$20/bottle(IIRC) for them.

 

IMO, the whole gemstone name thing is getting a bit overplayed, but these are very different from other gemstone-named inks like Penman and Lamy Crystal since the latter tend toward high saturation and that's definitely not the name of the game with Edelstein.

[N1003U]

Thanks Mercian and bunnspecial, for reviving this thread. I have been using a lot of Edelstein inks lately, and I enjoyed browsing back through the thread. The inks the Edelstein price range in my regular rotation are mostly either Edelstein or Iroshizuku inks (one being a bit more expensive than the other, depending on which continent I buy it on). I enjoy both brands.

 

I go along with the consensus (not sure if it is minority or majority consensus, but I see it repeated here multiple times) that, comparing Edelstein and Iroshizuku, the Edelsteins seems to be a bit less saturated and they shade more than the Iroshizukus, but that doesn't imply they are not bright and cannot be quite dense. The Edelstein colors are for me, for the most part, quite pleasant. (NB: I can't speak to permanence, but if it is an issue, to me, that is what pigmented or other dedicated archival inks are for. I rather hope most of what I write is not all that permanent.)

 

Interestingly, as I look at my current inventory, I have a few pairs of similar colors between Edelstein and Iroshizuku:

 

• Smoky Quartz/Tsukushi (medium brown)
• Tanzanite/Shin-kai (blue-black)
• Aquamarine/Ku-jaku (teal)
• Topaz/Kon-peki (bright blue)
• Adventurine/Shin-ryoku (medium green)
• Madarin/Yu-yake (orange, both of which I dislike roughly equally, but are probably great if one likes orange in general)

 

For these six examples, I find the colors are somewhat similar, but the Edelsteins are generally a bit less saturated and have more shading, all else (pen, nib, paper) equal. They are all lovely inks, and which I like better is often a matter of the mood I am in.

 

It the "all else equal" is also an important qualifier here, as these inks of course do different things in different pens, depending on line width, flow, paper properties, etc.

 

If I were to downgrade the Edelsteins significantly on anything, it would be the bottle design. I find the Edelstein bottles to be attractive sitting on my desk, but 1.) they don't sit on my desk all that often, and 2.) they are, for my usage habits, compared to other ink bottles in my inventory, below average in terms of practicalness. If I am using a pen with a big nib, and the bottle is not over half full, I am likely to have to syringe/eye-dropper ink into another vessel in order to fill the pen.

 

 

[bunnspecial]

I have only recently gotten into Iroshizoku and have 4 bottles(not including the 15mL bottle of Take-Sumi someone on here gave me when I bought a bunch of other ink from him).

 

I do agree with your Adventurine/Shin-Ryoku equivalents, although I find Shin-Ryoku just a bit darker in a pleasant way.

 

Topaz is one that really hasn't appealed to me. I was expecting just a bright blue, but to me it's more along the lines of Waterman South Seas Blue, or whatever the heck they call it now. Kon-Peki to me really is more of a true blue, just on the brighter end of it.

 

Here are my cards with another ink that I think is closer to Kon-Peki

 

 

BTW, I have Mandarin but have not found any particular use for it.

 

 

[N1003U]

10 minutes ago, bunnspecial said:

I have only recently gotten into Iroshizoku and have 4 bottles(not including the 15mL bottle of Take-Sumi someone on here gave me when I bought a bunch of other ink from him).

 

I do agree with your Adventurine/Shin-Ryoku equivalents, although I find Shin-Ryoku just a bit darker in a pleasant way.

 

Topaz is one that really hasn't appealed to me. I was expecting just a bright blue, but to me it's more along the lines of Waterman South Seas Blue, or whatever the heck they call it now. Kon-Peki to me really is more of a true blue, just on the brighter end of it.

 

Here are my cards with another ink that I think is closer to Kon-Peki

 

 

BTW, I have Mandarin but have not found any particular use for it.

 

 

 

Thanks for the thoughts. I agree on the Shin-ryoku; it is more saturated, and I see a very slight but definite blue tone in Shin-ryoku compared to Adventurine (which I think can be seen along the bottom edge of the header bar of the card above, but all things considered, they don't seem all that far apart.

 

Yea, Topaz seems more of a Turquoise, while I see Kon-peki as more of a bright cerulean blue, but when the Topaz goes on heavy, it starts to look a bit more like Kon-peki to my eye. BMW Blue from Montblanc is a lovely color, but it seems now to be getting hard to find.

 

I really thought I was going to like orange inks when I first discovered them, but for me except for an occasional highlight word, oranges are too difficult for me to read when used for bigger blocks of text.

[bunnspecial]

2 hours ago, N1003U said:

BMW Blue from Montblanc is a lovely color, but it seems now to be getting hard to find.

 

I bought a bottle of the BMW Blue from the classifieds here. I was buying a pen from the same seller, and decided to tack it on.

 

I was surprised enough by how much I liked it, especially since a lot of the swabs out there on the internet, IMO, don't really do it justice. In a wetter writing pen it definitely is a deeper blue, but shades out to a turquoise color. I just emptied a fill of it yesterday so it's probably out of circulation for me for a while, but it had been my primary ink for a couple of weeks. I find it much more useable-for my taste at least-as an every day primary ink than Topas.

 

I liked it enough, though, that I bought two more bottles of it to put back. That's one of the issues with the MB LEs-not only are some of them in small bottles(like this one in 30mL) but when they're gone they're gone. There have been some really lovely colors, and especially on the 30mL bottles if I like one I'll usually end up buying at least one more.

 

I have I think 3 yellow/orange inks in my Rolodex of ink cards(one of the best investments I've made for my ink collection, BTW). They are Mandarin, MB Golden Yellow, and Lamy Bronze. I just can't warm up to them. The Bronze was my most recent purchase-I've started trying to buy the Lamy LEs when they're current because they're priced very close to the standard inks(which themselves are some of the less expensive) and some become "cult classics" like Dark Lilac(and I wish I had that one). Still, though, Bronze was a bit of a disappointment for this year.

[amberleadavis]

On 5/10/2021 at 8:01 AM, bunnspecial said:

I have only recently gotten into Iroshizoku and have 4 bottles(not including the 15mL bottle of Take-Sumi someone on here gave me when I bought a bunch of other ink from him).

 

I do agree with your Adventurine/Shin-Ryoku equivalents, although I find Shin-Ryoku just a bit darker in a pleasant way.

 

Topaz is one that really hasn't appealed to me. I was expecting just a bright blue, but to me it's more along the lines of Waterman South Seas Blue, or whatever the heck they call it now. Kon-Peki to me really is more of a true blue, just on the brighter end of it.

 

Here are my cards with another ink that I think is closer to Kon-Peki

 

 

BTW, I have Mandarin but have not found any particular use for it.

 

 

 

 

That's a great comparison.  You should add those to the Doppelganger thread.

Battle Of The Inks - Doppelgänger Edition

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/278558-battle-of-the-inks-doppelgaenger-edition/

[Detman101]

The Pelikan Edelstein inks were dry dry dry for me.
Always had to mix them with another ink to get them to flow.
Mixed Shin-Ryoku with Aventurine...
Mixed Lie de the with Smoky Quartz...
Usually 50/50 for both.
I've since moved on from using either of those Pelikan-Edelstein inks in my pens...found others that don't require tinkering.
 

[Daneaxe]

I'm wondering whether I should try them out, since I have a couple of pens that are (somewhat) gushers.
Ideal for a sample swap!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pelikan pens are wet nibbed, because the 4001 is the driest of inks, and Edelstein depending on which can be dry to medium...where I'd put MB inks.

So if you are not using a wet nibbed like a Pelikan pen, they could be dry.

Waterman use to make thin nibs so made a wet ink. (Well was once considered wet, some Noodlers users consider Wateramn a dry ink, so that tells you much about many Noodler inks.....super wet.

 

Euro pen companies made their inks to match their nibs not other companies.

 

And it appears from all the Japanese inks being talked about, most of the posters are using narrow nibbed Japanese pens, which would then be dry to start with.......so a dry ink would be dry, dry, and Dry.

 

........so my advice is very simple, get a vintage or semi-vintage Pelikan....better nibs than the fat and blobby modern ones, or a Pelikan 200 a great springy regular flex (called soft by Japanese pen users)  steel nib. IMO the only good nib that Pelikan now makes.

I don't have any Japanese pens nor will I, too narrow...and have enough pens. So I can't say the 200 is better than the Japanese, but it is no worse.

 

Some folks have said Japanese 'soft' nibs are a bit mushy; the 200's nib is not mushy.

Herbin makes great shading inks....which might well be dry for Japanese pen users. The narrower the nib, the less shading it does........

AND one needs out side of TR and 80g Rhoda (I have the 90g) at least a 90g paper, preferably laser for shading.

 

Before Amazon started delivering Japanese inks went for E-70.....now at E-22, which is over my E-20 limit......hell even Aurora has reached my limit of E-20.

So I'll never buy Aurora Black just to have it. My 1/2 bottle of 12 year old  4001 will do just fine and I was lucky to get Aurora Blue when it was cheap. It wasn't all that great a shading ink.

When a E-12 ink is now E-20, inflation is a big problem that is not headline news for some reason.

 

R&K make very good shading inks at now @ E-9....so are still well affordable.

 

Looks like I'll have to go and find out which of the new companies make shading inks.

There's one in Paris and one in Poland that I'd not shown interest in in, I'd still not got my basic 100 Mainland Euro inks.

 

[N1003U]

1 hour ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Before Amazon started delivering Japanese inks went for E-70.....now at E-22, which is over my E-20 limit......hell even Aurora has reached my limit of E-20.

 

The last I looked at one of my local brick and mortars, the Edelsteins are creeping up on E-20-- 18.40.

[Bo Bo Olson]

12 minutes ago, N1003U said:

The last I looked at one of my local brick and mortars, the Edelsteins are creeping up on E-20-- 18.40.

Noticed that too, Olivine and Smoky Quartz cost me 16.50. Luckily I got two of both.

Well I have over 65 bottles of ink, a number of cartridge packs....so soon is coming the time when ..... actually I don't need any more ink.

So coming soon is when they say the new X resembles some other company's old Y in ink reviews.....I'll use my old Y.

 

I got to check out what Herben is going for and stock up before they do an Aurora on me.