EFNIR: Pelikan Edelstein Moonstone

[LizEF]

31 minutes ago, namrehsnoom said:

Great review of an ink that’s not meant to be used in fine nibs. I personally like Moonstone for its pencil-like colour - but this is an ink to use in wet pens with broader nibs. With the increased saturation it looks much better, and exhibits quite some lovely shading. With fine nibs, there’s too much eye-squinting needed to make out what’s written on the paper…

Thank you!  And yes, exactly.

[fireant]

On 2/8/2022 at 8:08 AM, mizgeorge said:

Thank you @LizEF - I know now never to put this one in a fine dry nib!

 

I really like Moonstone, and use it a lot. It is a bit dry, but in the right pen, with a broad or flex nib and on the right paper, it's a gorgeously complex ink, with all sort of interesting things going on behind the scenes. It's actually one of the very few Edelstein inks I enjoy, and it's fantastic for ink washes. Very satisfying in big splodges too! 

 

This is good to know. I never thought I'd like pale inks-but one time I cleaned out a pen and the ink just wouldn't seem to come completely out. Id had a black ink in it so I just started wrtiting and doodling with it. I really enjoyed the weird experience of using something so diluted. It was like writing with fog. 

 

Would you post a picture of what you've done with this ink?

 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Whoah.  That is one pale ink.

 

And as much as I like gray ink, this is why I only use Diamine Silver Fox as a mixer.  I do have Gris Nuage and Smoke Noir (much darker ink).

 

Thanks for the review!  But now I want cheeseburgers.  😉

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, fireant said:

I really enjoyed the weird experience of using something so diluted. It was like writing with fog. 

This has been my experience with many inks.  A color I don't think I'll like, once I start writing with it, is suddenly interesting.  It's why I recommend setting aside color preferences and trying everything!

[LizEF]

11 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks for the review!  But now I want cheeseburgers.  😉

You're very welcome!  And, you're very welcome!   (Don't forget the bacon!)

[LizEF]

Here's a new "line width" image taken at 100x under a real microscope of one of the lines used to test dry time. The scale marked 330µm is divided into 33µm increments. The black grid is in 100µm increments. For this ink, the line width is roughly 300µm.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

No pictures. Last month to 6 weeks ago I did a test with 6 grays...having forgotten I had Edelstien Moonstone, a seventh.

 

In Lamy often don't sell it's new inks in Germany,at my B&M I broke my price limit and ordered MB Cool Gray, what was once was Oyster Gray.

 

Yesterday, I loaded Moonstone in my semi-nail M P-75.

Today, I loaded my Lamy Studio with the tad springier something 55 or 755 or so nib, B.

On Clairefontaine Triomphe 90g and Oxford Optic 90g.

Both shaded.

MB Cool Gray is a nice readable darker gray...in a B.

Moonstone is a tad darker where it shades, ...sharper...but it's in a M.

 MB Cool Gray, shades more on Oxford Optic, looks a bit better.

On Clairefontaine Triomphe, Moonstone looks that tad better; shading is close but Moonstone is 'sharper'.

 

Both inks are well worth having...if you have good to better papers.

[LizEF]

Thanks for sharing your results, @Bo Bo Olson

[Bo Bo Olson]

Was glad to chip in.

It's great when new inks are as good as hoped.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Forgot to add Diamine Silver Fox is tad more 'gray' then Moonstone, or Cool. I have that in my '38 Vac with a '36 Canadian BB factory stub...is a semi-nail, and does wonderful job with that ink. Nib width makes a big difference to letting an ink shade.

 

Lamy crystal Agate, a gray ..a more gray-gray ink that shades very nicely but is by far the driest ink I've ever used...including 4001 BB. Needs one drop and one drop only!!!   Of Glycerine.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Been a while and I'm forgetful.

I just tried Moonstone yesterday, again, in a modern, double ball EF nibbed Pelikan 200. It was too dry for that narrowness. It was almost as dry as Lamy Agate; not quite but almost. I wrote just a sentence, and emptied that pen. It wasn't worth the fight.

 

I'll put that in a teardrop 200 B. Thanks, Misfit, for reminding me what I want from this ink. 

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

It was too dry for that narrowness. .... I wrote just a sentence, and emptied that pen. It wasn't worth the fight.

Life is too short for unpleasant ink (unless you're reviewing it).  Best wishes finding the right pen/ink combo!

[Penguincollector]

   I’m intrigued by this ink. I feel like my current experience is different from what I have read about in this thread. I use it in a M605 F and it’s great, very legible. I have some greys that are really not, that I enjoy more for art than writing, or adding dark shimmers to. It’s a weird one. The last bottle I bought I swear had shimmer, as does my writing sample from the 2022 Hub, but the current one doesn’t. Maybe my first bottle and the Hub one had a higher concentration of dye and my eyes mistake it for shimmer- I have some astigmatism and a cataract developing that will sometimes cause some weird refractions. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

4 hours ago, LizEF said:

Best wishes finding the right pen/ink combo!

Going to go B or wider.

Dither about an F Wet Noodle. I just cleaned it out...

No, not now have 10 pens inked.

Just did a balance test between standard sized the ex-champ MB 234 1/2 semi-flex KOB and the medium-long new Champ, an MB 264 semi-flex M.

I want to get back down to 7 pens inked, so I can use up more ink.

 

Once it was normal for me to have 17 pens inked, then I got down to 7 pens for a few months....and suddenly I did an Orange Binge, and test the Gray's Splurge, and six bottles of new ink came in, and five more, and I had 35 inked.