Flex-Pen Ink Review: "Penbbs - #390 (Guilin)"

[Detman101]

😍
I absolutely adore this ink...
EDIT: Please forgive the numeric error...hehe.

 

[mizgeorge]

Great review - I can't wait for mine to arrive! 

[yazeh]

Great job, Detman... you're on a roll! 

That's a colour that I don't want on my walls!

[LizEF]

Interesting color.  I think I'd like to see this one in person.  Thanks for the review!  Nice to hear about a well-behaved ink that also flows well enough for flex.

[Detman101]

1 hour ago, mizgeorge said:

Great review - I can't wait for mine to arrive! 

Oh you're going to LOVE it...
It is, by far, one of my most favorite inks that I've ever encountered.

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Great job, Detman... you're on a roll! 

That's a colour that I don't want on my walls!

Hehehe, thanks!!

46 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Interesting color.  I think I'd like to see this one in person.  Thanks for the review!  Nice to hear about a well-behaved ink that also flows well enough for flex.

It's beautiful.
It seems to change from pen to pen...though it still retains it's "Dry-writing-but-wet-flowing" properties and it's color-shift property.
In my Penbbs 487 with Blue-Dew flex nib, it's more of a light-reddish-brown when it dries.
It's always just darker in my Opus-88/SODF pen.

[Sinistral1]

Detman101:

 

Where did you get your Opus 88 Demo with the S.O.D.F. Flex nib?

 

Great reviews, by the way!

[Detman101]

1 hour ago, Sinistral1 said:

Detman101:

 

Where did you get your Opus 88 Demo with the S.O.D.F. Flex nib?

 

Great reviews, by the way!

Hey there, thank you!

I got the Opus-88 Demo from the Goldspot Pens store on Ebay when they accepted my offer of $80.
The SODF nib I got from PenRealm, best purchase of my fountain-pen life EVER!
I'd planned to go back for the 1.1 stub-flex nib but have been derailed by replacing electronics in the house ruined by lightning storms lately.

[Sinistral1]

Thanks for the info!

[PithyProlix]

Thank you so much!

 

I might post some pics of Guilin with an EF or F nib and/or dip pen later. I need to choose another pen for it - I had it in a Parker 61, EF nib but it felt really unlubricated, but only on the Muji 'planted tree' paper I usually use for general writing, e.g. note-taking and such.

[PithyProlix]

Here's a page of text with Guilin in my quick cursive hand in a Sailor short/long pocket pen with a 14k fine nib for the first 15 lines. Paper is Logical Air - very off-white (not cream). Photographed with late afternoon, overcast sunlight coming through an open window.

 

For comparison, following Guilin a couple lines each of these inks:

• L'Artisan Pastellier Brun Ours (Pilot 78G B italic nib)
• Herbin Cacao du Bresil (Pilot 78G B italic nib)
• Rohner & Klingner Sepia (Pilot 78G B italic nib)
• TAG Stationery Kyo-iro Stone Road of Gion (#5 dip pen nib)
• TAG Stationery Kyo-no-oto Ochiguriiro (#5 dip pen nib)
• Hebin Lie de The (#5 dip pen nib)

In a fine nib I find Guilin to be very tan and I don't think I've seen another ink like it. To me, it has a very different feel than the comparison inks but perhaps it's closest to Lie de The where it shades lightest (not so much on this sample but what I've seen elsewhere) but, still, Lie de The goes much more towards a chocolate color. It has very slight green undertone, but not enough to get it to a khaki color, and perhaps also an even slighter pink. It's super laid-back, having low contrast with the page while still being very legible - very much my kind of ink for everyday writing. It's under-lubricated but I can manage since, with a light touch, it still flows well enough.

 

 

[Detman101]

21 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Here's a page of text with Guilin in my quick cursive hand in a Sailor short/long pocket pen with a 14k fine nib for the first 15 lines. Paper is Logical Air - very off-white (not cream).

 

For comparison, following Guilin a couple lines each of these inks:

• L'Artisan Pastellier Brun Ours (Pilot 78G B italic nib)
• Herbin Cacao du Bresil (Pilot 78G B italic nib)
• Rohner & Klingner Sepia (Pilot 78G B italic nib)
• TAG Stationery Kyo-iro Stone Road of Gion (#5 dip pen nib)
• TAG Stationery Kyo-no-oto Ochiguriiro (#5 dip pen nib)
• Hebin Lie de The (#5 dip pen nib)

In a fine nib I find Guilin to be very tan and I don't think I've seen another ink like it. To me, it has a very different feel than the comparison inks but perhaps it's closest to the Lie de The where it shades lightest but, still, Lie de The goes much more towards a chocolate color. It has very slight green undertone, but not enough to get it to a khaki color, and perhaps also an even slighter pink. It's super laid-back, having low contrast with the page while still being very legible - very much my kind of ink for everyday writing. It's under-lubricated but I can manage since, with a light touch, it still flows well enough.

 

Ooooooohhhh yes...that's BEAUTIFUL!!!
Guilin is such a wonderful ink...just amazing. 😍
I always get the feeling from it that it is closer to the actual sepia color used way back in the early days of fountain pens.
Maybe it's just me...

[PithyProlix]

18 minutes ago, Detman101 said:

Ooooooohhhh yes...that's BEAUTIFUL!!!
Guilin is such a wonderful ink...just amazing. 😍
I always get the feeling from it that it is closer to the actual sepia color used way back in the early days of fountain pens.
Maybe it's just me...

 

Have another look - I corrected the color a bit - what I posted previously leaned a bit too red.

 

Interesting observation about sepia. Here's an image of Hakase Sepia, made of from cuttlefish ink, which is the 'real' sepia. My example above is a pretty good match for 'Sepia Light' below but not quite as yellow/green leaning. When I use Guilin in a wide dip pen nib the color is much like the dark version of Hakase Sepia. (Image from https://fp-hakase.com/en/works/sepia_ink_dark/).

What are your thoughts about Guilin's lubrication (or lack of lubrication ...)?

 

[yazeh]

@PithyProlixlovely handwriting.... the darker it becomes the more I like it...... 👍

[PithyProlix]

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

@PithyProlixlovely handwriting.... the darker it becomes the more I like it...... 👍

 

I will say 'thank you' to be polite ... but what I'm thinking is "REALLY??? Hmmmm..."  

[PithyProlix]

My wild guess is that Guilin's color is supposed to be like the rock making up the amazing karst topographic forms there.

 

(image from https://www.afar.com/places/yangshuo-guilin)

 

[Detman101]

1 hour ago, PithyProlix said:

 

Have another look - I corrected the color a bit - what I posted previously leaned a bit too red.

 

Interesting observation about sepia. Here's an image of Hakase Sepia, made of from cuttlefish ink, which is the 'real' sepia. My example above is a pretty good match for 'Sepia Light' below but not quite as yellow/green leaning. When I use Guilin in a wide dip pen nib the color is much like the dark version of Hakase Sepia. (Image from https://fp-hakase.com/en/works/sepia_ink_dark/).

What are your thoughts about Guilin's lubrication (or lack of lubrication ...)?

 

Oooh...Guilin DOES look like a dark version of the "Hakase Sepia"!!!!
That's awesome...I nailed it in my estimation of what Guilin was similar to...WOOHOO!!!
Guilin is one of the most unique inks as far as "Lubrication" is concerned.
It functions like the driest of inks, however, it is still VERY fluid and wet (in my flex pen).
It appears to have a VERY high surface tension, but still has a very dense/concentrated/saturated pigmentation to the overall ink.
I am not a pro in chemistry or ink composition but Guilin has the properties of every other "good ink" that I've used prior to finding/discovering Guilin.
 

 

1 hour ago, PithyProlix said:

My wild guess is that Guilin's color is supposed to be like the rock making up the amazing karst topographic forms there.

 

(image from https://www.afar.com/places/yangshuo-guilin)

 

Oh wow...it DOES look like the rock formation there. That pinkish/brownish-Tan color....awesome!!
 

[mizgeorge]

Drums fingers with cross expression...

I want to play with mine and it's nowhere near reaching me. I don't think it's even made it onto a plane yet.

[Detman101]

5 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Drums fingers with cross expression...

I want to play with mine and it's nowhere near reaching me. I don't think it's even made it onto a plane yet.

Oh no...
Here's to hope that it gets moving along soon.
I cannot wait to see what you do with yours when it arrives.