Oaso "5280" Ink From China

[bob_hayden]

Saw this on eBay at about $4 US for 20 ml so I thought I'd take a chance. A couple months later I received some ink in a hard bottle inside a cardboard box. I had been curious about the "5280" designatn in the listing. Last I knew that had been the house brand of a pen shop in Denver ("Mile High City", 1 mile=5280 feet). That ink came from the same palnt in Slovenia that preduced Thornton ink, the current Sheaffer inks, and many others. Were they really shipping it to China for rebottling there? The package had no mentin of "5280" or Slovenia.

 

 

I thought the presentation was pretty classy for cheap ink. Unfortunately all the money was spent on the presentation. Based on the label color, the name of "Midnight Blue" and the sample in the listing I was expecting a fairly dark blue-grey. What I got looked like a mixture of equal parts of 1960s washed out washable blue, 1960s washed out blue-black, and distilled water. The scan has lost most of the blue but the faintness is accurate. The writing experience was very dry and unlubricated. Based on this sample I won't be trying the other colors.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/5280.jpg

[yazeh]

The bottle is indeed nicer than the ink. Thanks for the warning review