EFNIR: Lamy Benitoite

[Bo Bo Olson]

Good to know Yazeh, in I had wondered how our results could be so different.

 

One of the things that made ESSR so interesting was on some papers, it changed from a nice blue at the top of the page, to a dark almost back by the time you got done writing at the bottom of the page. Astounding. .

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I really don't care for black inks (BB), or I'd be real tempted to get another bottle of ESSR, just to watch it change.

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I had just replied to someone on a different thread about liking 30ml bottles now, (a mind change)  than 50-60ml, but 20ml is too small. HA! Just goes to show me, I like this ink. The small bottle is still 4/5ths full,  and I'm worried about running out of Benitoite. 

 

Looks like I'll have to load the other two Crystal inks I've not tried.

 

The third Agate a very good shading gray ink, I luckily by mistake, bought two bottles of Agate, in it was the driest ink by far I ever used. Makes 4001 BB look swampy. I was going to put just one drop of glycerine in it, and the second drop fell also. Way too wet. With that second, fresh bottle of Agate in an old MB shoe; then both were just what I wanted, still the driest ink I have but don't feel quite like chalk on a black board dry.

[yazeh]

@Bo Bo Olson If you like IG inks and don't want to invest in huge bottles, besides Diamine Registrars, there are Tintenlabor inks . They can be on the dry side, and come in 30-50 ml bottles. One of the most spectacular one is Goldrausch, that oxidizes from gold, to brown-black. If you pen is a wet noodle, the ink will oxidize to black, almost immediately. However, from the many IG inks I have tested and tried, none is as excellent as Essri on cheap copy paper. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thakns...I do have the two R&K IG inks that I use too little.

I thought of at least one of them, when using Benitoite.

 

Being retired means I often cheap out at the wrong time.

 

I've never heard of Ink the below. Never got around to those Polish IG inks either.

Living in the Golden Age of Inks, with just copper.

 

As soon as I get my last two batches of pens repaired, I can chase inks. Next year.

 

For ages, I had pens bought in live auctions, usually there was one in a live auction lot, that needed repair, whose repair money was spent on more pen, also in the same category. 

Greed is a strange thing.

I've been doing repairs over the last few years, but not as much or many as I should have had repaired.

Getting down to the last dozen. 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Tintenlabor inks

[Bo Bo Olson]

The post above didn't want to let me add below the ink window.

 

But sometimes I do repair pens that are not valuable. So what, it's pretty enough.

Third tier.

I hadn't realized that once, this German Glue company made inks and pens.  I really should try that ink.

[yazeh]

@Bo Bo Olson thanks for the photos. I didn't know UHU made inks.

 @LizEF and me have been doing several reviews. They are good inks for those who want IG inks in small bottles and different base colours, and know the iron content. But IG inks need special cleaning methods, (mainly ascorbic acid powder and ideally a pen jacuzzi (ultrasonic cleaner). So, that's a pain. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

But IG inks need special cleaning methods, (mainly ascorbic acid powder and ideally a pen jacuzzi (ultrasonic cleaner). So, that's a pain. 

Thank you for telling/reminding me of this.

I don't think I did that. Just washed out lots; a few times more than normal.

Off the top of my head I only have R&K Scabiosa and Salix, 4001 BB as IG inks now. I don't know if ES Tanzanite is IG or not.

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I do remember reading a number of years ago, many complaining and or paranoid folks doing intense cleaning routines I didn't and more often. Like after every fill. When I thought that was over done **... having 1950s MB and Pelikan pen instruction sheets saying clean the pen every 3 months. Back when, the normal IG inks of those two companies had to be more intense than today's watered down versions. 

 

**I have mostly piston pens, and don't remember what IG does to rubber sacs. Not much, I think, in IG was common when rubber sacs were common. Back before supersaturated inks came in and ate sacs. Once, some 15 or more years ago, rubber sacs had been expected to last 30-40 years. There were enough people with them on their last legs.     .... I've not come across a thread about sac pens in quite awhile.

 

I just had a rubber sac 1918-mid '30's 0554 Gothic returned with a new sac.  I then put Kon Piki in it, and it failed after one load. Francis said the sac had turned into mush.

 

The nib and the 800 silver dip pen cleaned up fine. The Ideal nib is also not gold marked, but was. So...No One, knew it was gold overlay, and I got it, for not much more, or for what I'd paid for just the inkwell I was after. 

Old Parker's and Watermen are not high in German's collections...on the whole.

 

I had sent that Gothic and another pen (gasket work) off as semi-flex.

 

Mauricio, who deals with superflex pens says it takes a lot of fiddling to get the nib and the feed to sit perfectly. (do read his blog)

Francis did the fiddling. Both pens came back as Wet Noodles. 

 

Could be I thought the few IG inks I had were mild ones, and so didn't go through the whole rigmarole. 

 

That could also been in my subconscious mind, (extra cleaning) why I never got into IG inks more. ... But, Mostly, being too Cheap!!!!

 

I went 5-6 years with minimum ink buying outside which ever Pelikan Edelstein ink I liked. Then with in the last year and a half I've bought @ + - 25 inks. ((And have no idea why I want more.))

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It's been a decade or so since I used our ultrasonic cleaner, on a pen of mine.