Indigraph Pen - Available from Osprey - Use India Inks in a fountain pen

[amberleadavis]

If you are like me, you don't keep India inks in your ink cabinet because India inks can ruin a fountain pen. However, India inks are water proof and amazing for drawing so you may have them with your water colors.  @OspreyPens has become the US distributor for the Indigraph pen which is made for India Inks.

 

As I have mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the Madison .  Review Here.  When I saw that Osprey had this pen, I asked to review it.  At  the time, I thought Osprey made it. The pen is made by Indiagraph and can be purchased directly from them or, if you are in the US, you can buy the pen from Osprey for about $85.  An Architect Grind or Fude nib is an extra $42.  As you know, Osprey sold out of these immediately, but as of posting, the pens are back in stock.  Osprey was kind enough to send me this pen for a review.

 

So enough of the sales stuff.  Since I'm not at my office, I don't have the scans and pictures to show you yet, but I'll include the pictures from Osprey now and I'll add my pictures in the next few days.

 

 

[amberleadavis]

For those of you who care, @essayfaire, this pen will not post.

 

The body is thin and made of aluminum. The instructions are written in little tiny print.  Get out your magnify glasses for the instructions and as of today, the  instructions are not readily available on either website.  (I will be sure to ask Osprey to fix that omission). 

 

For the record, I did start by reading the instructions which say to fill the cap with water.  I dutifully unscrewed the part of the pen with the clip and filled the pen with water.  My diagram will follow, but let's just say this was a mistake. The cap is the other side of the pen, which I discovered when I went to look for the ink water window.

 

 

 

So, I found out that I had filled the body of the pen with water. OOPS.

 

The instructions also tell you to fill the converter (a Schmidt #5) - so I did this instead of dunking the nib into the ink.  OH, the pen thankfully came with some ink to try.  I inked up and wrote 6 pages fuss free.

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

While I mentioned that the pen is thin, what I didn't expect is that it is not uniformly thick.  In fact, the body steps up from the clip area. Then, the cap (which again is not where the clip is), is separated from the body by a single easy to lose ring.  I found that I frequently unscrewed the body instead of the cap.

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Tomorrow, I'm going to put it in my purse and see if it dries out during the day.  I'll  keep you informed.

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting.  How difficult is it to read the fine print to say how to clean the pen?

A couple of years ago I picked up an Osmiroid "India ink" fountain pen at an estate sale, which came with a gadget to pull the nib and feed for thorough cleaning, but have not tried it; I never quite had the guts to do so.  Anymore than having the guts to running India ink through the set of Rapidographs which were my high-school graduation present from my parents (yes, I specifically asked for them) even though a guy I knew (not a student, just a guy who hung out at the campus coffee house when I was in college) kept insisting that Higgins India ink made blacker lines than the Koh-i-Noor ink I used in them (my response was that I used mine mostly for drawing, and liked the grayer color of that ink over the Higgins).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

Ruth, when I saw the pen, I thought of you.  The instructions include diagrams and How Tos for how to clean the pen, change nibs and even GASP what to do when the pen is clogged.  I was considering mixing inks inside the pen to see how I did with it, but I am at home, not my work space.

[amberleadavis]

@inkstainedruth  I found the destructions.  If I were at work, I could create image files, but here this is for now.

destructions.pdf

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting.  Thanks for posting the .pdf link.  

It's odd that it doesn't seem to say whether you need to clean the pen's nib/feed/barrel with something like Rapid-o-Eze, and just says to use ammonia and water (the way people would for any standard FP ink that wasn't an iron gall ink...).

The Osmiroid pen I have is I think upstairs, so I don't remember what the directions specifically say for cleaning (other than how to use the including gadget).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[essayfaire]

15 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

For those of you who care, @essayfaire, this pen will not post.

 

15 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

In fact, the body steps up from the clip area

Thank you, @amberleadavis, for saving me from an ill-conceived impulse buy.  This pen seems to not match well with my custom-best-pen-ever designs on the other thread!

[amberleadavis]

So, I've had it inked up and in my wallet. I've dragged it around Las Vegas in the horrid heat.  It has not dried out and it started up every time.

[essayfaire]

My Kaweco Sports start every time, but I don't enjoy using them.  They are reliable, though! That's why even though they are technically pocket pens, they end up living in the car.  It sounds like you might your Indigraph better!

[amberleadavis]

In 109 F even Kaweco sports dry out.

[essayfaire]

3 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

In 109 F even Kaweco sports dry out.

Huh. They've lasted for me, but maybe because it's more humid here.  Even when my phone warned me it would self-destruct if I didn't move it to a cooler location(which was creepy in and of itself- I don't recall any of my old phones ever indicating it was "too hot" for them), the pens still worked.

[amberleadavis]

On 6/30/2022 at 6:12 PM, essayfaire said:

Huh. They've lasted for me, but maybe because it's more humid here.  Even when my phone warned me it would self-destruct if I didn't move it to a cooler location(which was creepy in and of itself- I don't recall any of my old phones ever indicating it was "too hot" for them), the pens still worked.

 

LOL I have taken my phone an put it in the freezer to cool it down.

[amberleadavis]

 

So this is the little port hole water window.

[amberleadavis]

 

Sorry for the lousy pictures.

[amberleadavis]

 

This picture probably gives you a better indication of the step down I was talking about.  So the little black ring is the divider. You must keep that divider on the correct half of the pen or you don't get to write with the pen, you get this.

 

Also, @essayfaire, you can see that it looks like it should post but it doesn't. I think if it posted it would be badly weighted.,

[amberleadavis]

 

So you can probably see how I filled the wrong end.

[amberleadavis]

6 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

 

 

So you can probably see how I filled the wrong end.

 

I'd like to think I'm the bear, but I am not.

[inkstainedruth]

10 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

 

I'd like to think I'm the bear, but I am not.

They should talk to the rangers at Jasper National Park in Alberta.  The people who live in the Jasper town site are required to use containers for garbage cans that are fairly thick gauge steel, and for which the lids/doors need to be opened with opposable thumbs.  (As opposed to a town in east central PA where the residents all FEED the bears -- to the despair of the PA state game wardens....)

Of course as a result, the bears don't come into the town anymore -- which means the elk DO.  And the one time I was there, years ago, we were warned by the hotel staff not to get too close to the elk because it was rutting season (we were there in late September).  I had no IDEA just how much bigger elk are than deer until I was walking around town late one afternoon, and almost walked into one which had stuck its head over the gate to a fenced in garden halfway across town from the hotel and was having itself a snack....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth