Jump to content

Robert Oster ‘Cities of America’ series: Chicago


A Smug Dill

Recommended Posts

My bottle of Robert Oster Chicago ink in the ‘Cities of America’ series just came in this morning. The colour makes me think of it as a slightly darker and greener-leaning Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun, of which a 50ml bottle also arrived today in the same parcel; but this ink's flow is rather drier in a properly (converter-)filled pen. Probably not the best ink for a nib that offers a lot of kinaesthetic feedback; but, on the whole, I like it.

 

large.482058966_RobertOsterChicagoinkreviewsheet-overview.jpg.7f879fde499eb6eadc370ee5c1426e92.jpg

 

large.275253354_RobertOsterChicagoinkreview-shading.jpg.07f0a5ea154da70d1ff71c09cc553e6b.jpg

 

large.1654924357_RobertOsterChicagoinkreview-dryingtimeandwaterresistance.jpg.17f395a51905ebc8085b9255ac488e8b.jpg

 

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 18
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • yazeh

    5

  • A Smug Dill

    4

  • lapis

    2

  • LizEF

    2

Top Posters In This Topic

Thanks for the review.  :thumbup:  This looks like a truly nice colour. I recently saw a Nick Stewart style drawing with this ink... looked truly lovely. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the introduction (to me) of a "new" series. Inks named after cities and other localities (like Super5's etc.) have always fascinated me but this one is too green for me. At least for the time being, I think I'll stick to fuyu-syogun, even although it's lighter.

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@A Smug DillI saw another writing sample of this it looked like a pale blue black. Yours seems to have a lot of green in it...  intriguing how an ink can change personality...  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, yazeh said:

@A Smug DillI saw another writing sample of this it looked like a pale blue black. Yours seems to have a lot of green in it...  intriguing how an ink can change personality...  

@Matthew TWP @namrehsnoom and others use different papers in their review, showing how different papers change the appearance of an ink, aside from other variables like light and camera settings. Thus it comes as no surprise that an ink may look different on different people's photographs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, JulieParadise said:

@Matthew TWP @namrehsnoom and others use different papers in their review, showing how different papers change the appearance of an ink, aside from other variables like light and camera settings. Thus it comes as no surprise that an ink may look different on different people's photographs.

🙏 :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you @A Smug Dill for another excellent and comprehensive review. If I didn't already have it, I'd want to get it on the strength of this!

 

I think the 'other' samples @yazeh may be referring to is mine, which I have to admit do look a bit different, but that could be partly to do with photographic conditions. 

 

This is written/drawn with an old Kaweco Kadett 55 (very wet pen) on TR52g

 

large.inkguess80b.jpg.859d7c2dc2905d88daacf7a58b1c4c2a.jpg

 

large.inkguess80c.jpg.7df3208773fdef9adb0b6aea80a802e5.jpg

and is definitely more blue than green, which is interesting - I must try it on some different papers.

 

I also did a wishy wash with it (on 300gsm cold press Bockingford):

 

large.inkguess80d.jpg.d973a945475aaf5ab87db2a26cccbf6b.jpg

 

As new inks go, I like it very much indeed. It is slightly on the drier side, but nothing like as dry as others I have in the same spectrum. I suspect I'm going to use it a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for an excellent display of this ink. I was curious about it - looks like another for the want list - my kind of color. 

 

I lived in Chicago for a short time and I was struggling to understand the association between the color and the city. Now that I have had a good look at it I suspect the connection might be the color of the Chicago River. 

My pens for sale: https://www.facebook.com/jaiyen.pens  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, JulieParadise said:

… how different papers change the appearance of an ink,

 

I have a habit of removing the edge-glued stack of stubs from each Rhodia DotPad No.16 (i.e. A5-sized) 80g/m² pad once I've used up all the perforated pages, and keeping the stubs around as scrap paper. I think I found one stack last night from an older stock Rhodia DotPad, and the Sailor Lecoule pen — still on the same fill of this ink — seems to write a little darker and less green on it.

 

I know the paper in (black-covered) Rhodia DotPads I got from Cult Pens mid-2020 behave somewhat differently from that in (orange-covered) pads I got from Amazon AU not even 12 months before that; the texture and the sizing/coating are different. It's not a case of orange-covered pads versus black-covered pads, either; I ordered an orange-covered pad from Cult Pens, once I'd gotten over the unpleasant surprise, just to confirm.

 

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

I know the paper in (black-covered) Rhodia DotPads I got from Cult Pens mid-2020 behave somewhat differently from that in (orange-covered) pads I got from Amazon AU not even 12 months before that; the texture and the sizing/coating are different. It's not a case of orange-covered pads versus black-covered pads, either; I ordered an orange-covered pad from Cult Pens, once I'd gotten over the unpleasant surprise, just to confirm.

:( Guess I'd better save my partially-used pad for reviews.  I've got most of one (that I'm using now for reviews) and a partial one that I've been using for years for whatever comes up.  If they've changed, that'll impact my reviews when I have to switch to new ones. :(  Maybe I'll save all my Rhodia, and cut my A4 pages in half to make A5s...

 

23 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

I have a habit of removing the edge-glued stack of stubs from each Rhodia DotPad No.16 (i.e. A5-sized) 80g/m² pad once I've used up all the perforated pages, and keeping the stubs around as scrap paper.

Meanwhile, I find it slightly disturbing that we both do this!  :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

I think I found one stack last night from an older stock Rhodia DotPad, and the Sailor Lecoule pen — still on the same fill of this ink — seems to write a little darker and less green on it.

 

Hmmm … or maybe somehow the ink flow in the same pen got wetter a several hours later, towards the end of the same converter fill, resulting in darker and less green-leaning ink marks even on the same sheet of paper. The pen was cleaned and dried weeks ago, and so it would (or should) not be a case of remnants of moisture in the feed diluting the ink while I was writing the body of the ink review.

 

large.676726821_RobertOsterChicagoinkflowgotwetterdarkerthenextday.jpg.dabe1d077dbd863e156a431fa0189b38.jpg

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, yazeh said:

@A Smug DillI saw another writing sample of this it looked like a pale blue black. Yours seems to have a lot of green in it...  intriguing how an ink can change personality...  

12 hours ago, lapis said:

At least for the time being, I think I'll stick to fuyu-syogun, even although it's lighter.

 

Here you go.

large.64349356_PilotIroshizukuFuyu-syogunvsRobertOsterChicago-close-up.jpg.97055551eab804e14ce9e49f8efa00bb.jpglarge.1879926013_PilotIroshizukuFuyu-syogunvsRobertOsterChicago-overview.jpg.57fb6d0dc4d634d15570c4197077794c.jpg

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another great review.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a beautiful color and a very nicely done review. I'm going to have to track this one down, I think. I've been trying to avoid all of the Robert Oster inks... thinking that once I get started, I'll start trying to collect them all, and they seem endless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Here you go. ....

 

Excellent comparison! Thanks a lot!!

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...