Some Ink Tests

[Penguincollector]

  Here’s the verso with my Peacock Blue testing. My closest dupe, Caran d’Ache  Hypnotic Turquoise, isn’t included because I ran out of cartridges and haven’t bought a bottle yet.
 

Edited September 27, 2025 by Penguincollector
Better photo

[Mechanical]

10 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  Thank you, I really like the general ink behavior on this paper. 
    Serenity (Florida). Blue is a perennial favorite for me. It sheens red on so many papers. I also really like the Pilot blue, I love to use it plain in the FA nibs , or with shimmer in the italics , it’s so nice! Do I see a bit of feathering on the Salish Sea Blue, or is it the off focus effect? 

 

Agreed, its general behavior, touch, tooth, and appearance is very nice for fountain pen use.  We don't get the wonder ink fireworks... that's my only complaint. 

 

Yes, the Salish did feather! 

[Mechanical]

11 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

Here’s the verso with my Peacock Blue testing. My closest dupe, Caran d’Ache  Hypnotic Turquoise, isn’t included because I ran out of cartridges and haven’t bought a bottle yet.

 

Such nice colors.  The closest ink I have in this spectrum is, from memory, Iroshizuku Ama Iro. 

 

That Skrip Peacock Blue has a well-balanced shading from light to dark. I can see why you like it.

[Penguincollector]

22 minutes ago, Mechanical said:

 

Such nice colors.  The closest ink I have in this spectrum is, from memory, Iroshizuku Ama Iro. 

 

That Skrip Peacock Blue has a well-balanced shading from light to dark. I can see why you like it.

 

  Ama-Iro is a gorgeous ink. I thought about including it, but it was too far back in the ink cabinet and it was late enough that I didn’t want to start making a racket. I think I will continue this ink comparison on other papers and see what happens. So far, it’s been a close, but no cigar situation. 
 

[USG]

You guys are doing a fantastic job... I'll have more comments tomorrow...

 

In the meantime, I was inspired by PGC's turquoise inks....  but what I found was that my turquoise inks had "matured" (thank you LTM for the term) in the pens to the colors below.  About 1/2 way down I switched to a dry Kaigelu Long Blade nib in a dip pen holder for some out of the bottle colors.  (Closeups to follow)

 

 

Close Ups:  The forum is very slow tonight and I can't get all the pics uploaded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TSherbs]

This is a great thread. Thanks for doing it.

[USG]

So I was looking for an ink that I could substitute for Platinum Blue Black.

(All 3 pens have been recently filled)

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

 

This is Platinum BB from my wet 30 year old Celluloid 3776 <C>

 

Sailor Illinois seems to split the difference between the two

 

 

This is Platinum BB from a dry 6 Month old 3776 <B>

 

 

 

 

 

[USG]

Nib Experiments on Canopus paper:  (Enlarge to see differences)

 

Robert Oster Bishop to King

 

Long Blade nib

 

Medium  nib

 

Broad nib

 

Bungubox First Love:

 

Long Blade Nib

 

Medium nib

 

Broad nib

 

Alternative similar looking ink (sorta kinda)

[USG]

On 9/24/2025 at 4:08 PM, Lithium466 said:

Some inks on Canopus (thanks to @USG ), terrible pictures 😕

 

PR Dakota red looks very nice on that paper. It's quite similar to Waterman red, but with better flow and lubrication, and more saturated. Some dark shading, which I usually don't like with reds, but on that paper it works nicely IMO.

Lamy black looks as good as it can, too.

 

 

Blue inks looks pretty terrible. Taccia Ruri is attempting to sheen. Pilot blue is lifeless.

 

 

Diamine Apple Glory doesn't look very glorious (yes I had to make that bad pun), neither does Diamine BV.

 

 

R&K Königsblau looks like all the other methyl blue based inks, lively at first and dull and faded after some time. Picture is an intermediate state. Noir Abyssal looks good enough in that concentrated form, but doesn't really dry fully. This was an old cartridge, half dried out. I'm not too sure about that black, I guess if you like shading black (in its non concentrated form), it flows well enough and the lubrication is pretty good too. Platinum black is just an ordinary black.

 

 

Since I was pleasantly surprised with PR DR on Canopus, I tried Diamine orange, I like it:

 

 

Octopus fluids Goblin is almost sheenless, for a super sheener 😕 

 

So far mixed feelings on Canopus. Texture is mostly pleasant, Red/oranges and black inks look very good IMO, compared to Iroful and TRS52. Blue and green look atrocious, and I'm surprised because that's not at all what @Mechanical got as results; I know my pictures are terrible, but even IRL these inks don't look good there. I did with the work pens I had inked, so mostly EF/F nibs (a friend once gifted me a Pilot MR in medium, according to her the only way I'd be able to see the colour of the inks), except for OF Goblin that I put in a wet Pilot Falcon, looking for sheen... Now looking for pairing recommendations for blue inks.

 

 

 

 

 Hey LTM

You got some very good colors despite your EF nibs....

For some reason your blues didn't come out that well.  I don't know why that should be.  The red and orange was good.

 

I'd rank Canopus behind my top 3.  It's better than most of the other papers that suffered from feathering.  It doesn't show nuances like Cosmo Snow or Iroful or Tomoe River-S but it's next in line.  It doesn't spread like b7, which actually showed more nuances.

 

I don't know about you guys but I find it difficult to post with these horrendously long loading times.....

[USG]

A couple of "Look Alikes"

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

On 9/30/2025 at 11:37 AM, USG said:

 

 Hey LTM

You got some very good colors despite your EF nibs....

For some reason your blues didn't come out that well.  I don't know why that should be.  The red and orange was good.

 

I'd rank Canopus behind my top 3.  It's better than most of the other papers that suffered from feathering.  It doesn't show nuances like Cosmo Snow or Iroful or Tomoe River-S but it's next in line.  It doesn't spread like b7, which actually showed more nuances.

 

I don't know about you guys but I find it difficult to post with these horrendously long loading times.....

 

Agreed on the long load times or no load at all.

Also agreed on your Canopus comments. For some reason it reminds me of Fabriano Ecoqua, at least the 90gsm I have here at the moment.

 

More terrible pictures:

 

 

And some on Fabriano paper:

 

 

6 hours ago, USG said:

A couple of "Look Alikes"

 

 

 

 

 

You're getting miracles with that Diamine China blue! Must be "matured to perfection"

Also, how's the RO BTK? I read it starts purple then becomes blue...like some of the methyl blue inks, and also that it's pretty dry (also like many of the methyl blue inks). Is it just RO's version of WSB?

[inkstainedruth]

@USG Interesting.  Your test of Bishop to King doesn't seem to have gone quite as "purple" as what I've experienced.  

I'm wondering if the difference is the paper or that sometimes photos don't show quite as "true" a color as you might expect.  I ran into that issue a few years ago when I ordered a couple of pens, including the Sailor 1911S Loch Ness Monster pen.  The promo photos I saw made it look blue grey -- but when I got the pen in the mail I honestly thought they'd packed the wrong pen by accident, since it's actually more of a dark teal blue.  So took a photo on my phone to send back to the vendor, and then was going, "Dang!  The photo *I* took makes it look blue-grey, TOO!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

On 10/2/2025 at 5:59 AM, Lithium466 said:

You're getting miracles with that Diamine China blue! Must be "matured to perfection"

Also, how's the RO BTK? I read it starts purple then becomes blue...like some of the methyl blue inks, and also that it's pretty dry (also like many of the methyl blue inks). Is it just RO's version of WSB?

 

You're right, that looks like some mighty "matured" China Blue...  So I retook the pics with minimal processing.

 

These are big pics so click to enlarge and then open the link in a new tab for the largest version:

 

This a crop from the full page pic.  

By eye, Bishop to King and China Blue look more like how Hawaii came out.

 

Here the inks in question look better, but I lost definition and it threw the other colors off.

 

I checked again... Bishop to King goes down dark like Waterman blue when it's wet and then turns grayish-lavender.

 

China Blue from the Pilot 743 <SM> is on the dark side because the Medium Pilot nib is very wet.  It didn't matter much to me because the Jinhao <F>with the BtK is also pretty wet.

 

I have CB in a dryer Jinhao X159 and it looks more like what we'd expect from that ink but the bottom line is that's the best my cell phone camera can do with LED lighting.

[USG]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

@USG Interesting.  Your test of Bishop to King doesn't seem to have gone quite as "purple" as what I've experienced.  

I'm wondering if the difference is the paper or that sometimes photos don't show quite as "true" a color as you might expect.  I ran into that issue a few years ago when I ordered a couple of pens, including the Sailor 1911S Loch Ness Monster pen.  The promo photos I saw made it look blue grey -- but when I got the pen in the mail I honestly thought they'd packed the wrong pen by accident, since it's actually more of a dark teal blue.  So took a photo on my phone to send back to the vendor, and then was going, "Dang!  The photo *I* took makes it look blue-grey, TOO!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Hi ISR 😀

 

Part of the situation is that the Jinaho X159 <F> with the Bishop to King lies in the wetness of the Jinhao's nib, but I did see a color change.  It went from something like Waterman blue to a lighter grayish lavender, sorta the way the Hawaii came out.  I went back and took a pic of the ink when it was wet and then after a few minutes. The dried ink looked lighter than the wet ink but not as light as the sample from the other day, so there's going to be further lightening...

CLIKCK TO ENLARGE

 

And here they are with a white background

 

It actually looks a little lighter than the pic shows, but you can see the color change in the enlarged pics.  Also note the heavy flow from the Jinaho's nib.  A dryer nib would look very different. 

 

Here's BtK from my Kaigelu LB dip pen

[USG]

On 10/2/2025 at 5:59 AM, Lithium466 said:

 

Agreed on the long load times or no load at all.

Also agreed on your Canopus comments. For some reason it reminds me of Fabriano Ecoqua, at least the 90gsm I have here at the moment.

 

More terrible pictures:

 

 

And some on Fabriano paper:

 

 

 

You're getting miracles with that Diamine China blue! Must be "matured to perfection"

Also, how's the RO BTK? I read it starts purple then becomes blue...like some of the methyl blue inks, and also that it's pretty dry (also like many of the methyl blue inks). Is it just RO's version of WSB?

 

These are your best colors yet.  Bright and clear with good definition.  At first glance the Canopus looks like it captured the colors better, but it's hard to tell because the Fabriano pics are a little darker.

 

Of course BSB is a standout but so is FC Turquoise.  What I've come to realize is that the dark blues tend to look similar while the light blues and turquoise shades have the best color separations.

 

Now I want to introduce you to this bad boy:  Smells like paint and coated the inside of the bottle with this un-ink like color.  Bungubox 'First Love'.  The strangest Ink I have.

 

 

 

 

[Mechanical]

11 minutes ago, USG said:

Now I want to introduce you to this bad boy:  Smells like paint and coated the inside of the bottle this un-ink like color.

Bungubox 'First Love'. 

 

Well, this is going to be a very blue ink, USG.  Will you load it into a fountain pen?  It does make me a little nervous.

[inkstainedruth]

4 hours ago, USG said:

 

You're right, that looks like some mighty "matured" China Blue...  So I retook the pics with minimal processing.

 

These are big pics so click to enlarge and then open the link in a new tab for the largest version:

 

This a crop from the full page pic.  

By eye, Bishop to King and China Blue look more like how Hawaii came out.

 

Here the inks in question look better, but I lost definition and it threw the other colors off.

 

I checked again... Bishop to King goes down darl like Waterman blue when it's wet and then turns grayish-lavender.

My bottle of Bishop to King goes down as more of a turquoise blue.  I should (at some point) try it on various papers and maybe take a video on my phone of the color shift as it dries and also maybe do that on various brands of paper.  

In my copious amounts of free time, of course.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

On 10/2/2025 at 3:04 PM, Mechanical said:

 

Well, this is going to be a very blue ink, USG.  Will you load it into a fountain pen?  It does make me a little nervous.

I have it in one of my Jinhao X159s <F> point.  I’d say it was somewhere in the turquoise family.  But I just got it so that’s an early impression.

 

On 10/2/2025 at 6:23 PM, inkstainedruth said:

My bottle of Bishop to King goes down as more of a turquoise blue.  I should (at some point) try it on various papers and maybe take a video on my phone of the color shift as it dries and also maybe do that on various brands of paper.  

In my copious amounts of free time, of course.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Hi ISR

I’d chalk it up to batch variations. There’s no way the ink I have is even remotely turquoise when wet, dry or otherwise.  it’s very close to China Blue and in the same family as Sailor Hawaii, which is why I have them together.
 

Why not try what I did.  (I know you know how to take a cellphone pic, but if you do it the same way I did we will have something that’s comparable.)
 

-Write the name of the ink so you can set the zoom to fill the screen horizontally 
-With your cell phone camera all zoomed in, ahead of time, put the phone down 

-Write the name of the ink again, so it’s wet this time, holding the phone horizontally with your elbows on the desk or locked to your sides to steady it, make sure the writing fills the screen, and take a pic.

-Wait until it dries and take another pic.

 

With elbows on the desk, holding the phone horizontally with 2 hands, steadies the phone, puts the screen right in front of you, gives you a repeatable distance to the target that’s  out of the shadow from your light source, and puts your right thumb on the button that snaps the pic.   😀👍. Easy Peasy 👍

 

I’m doing this on an iPad so I hope it comes out….🤷‍♂️

Btw, What lighting are you using?  I’m using an LED desk lamp.  Lighting can make a bigger difference than  paper.

 

i have 3 different LED lamps, 2 halogens, and the same fluorescent that @Penguincollector has.  My preference ATM is for the LED.

[inkstainedruth]

Usually when I'm taking photos of pens I'm doing it outside on my front porch in ambient (and generally bright) sunlight.  I have big trees in my yard (especially in the front) and don't get a lot of light coming in from the west, even in the late afternoon.  

The irony, of course, being that several of the trees are ones WE planted.  Honestly, they were all small when we got them (the three magnolia trees came from various years of "Great Plant Auction" events that were fundraisers for Phipps Conservatory -- and the first one is now almost above the roof of our house (and we have an old house with high ceilings -- even in the attic).

But it's interesting that you say that Robert Oster has "batch variations".  I would expect that from Noodler's -- Nathan Tardif calls it a "feature" -- but had been under the impression that RO was a big enough company to have more QC.  And I seem to have ended up with three different bottles of Bishop to King: misplaced the first one, so ordered a second one; then found a partial bottle in the "freebie" basket at a pen club meeting a while back and thought it was the missing one, so grabbed it.  Then the first bottle turned up.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

4 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Usually when I'm taking photos of pens I'm doing it outside on my front porch in ambient (and generally bright) sunlight.  I have big trees in my yard (especially in the front) and don't get a lot of light coming in from the west, even in the late afternoon.  

The irony, of course, being that several of the trees are ones WE planted.  Honestly, they were all small when we got them (the three magnolia trees came from various years of "Great Plant Auction" events that were fundraisers for Phipps Conservatory -- and the first one is now almost above the roof of our house (and we have an old house with high ceilings -- even in the attic).

But it's interesting that you say that Robert Oster has "batch variations".  I would expect that from Noodler's -- Nathan Tardif calls it a "feature" -- but had been under the impression that RO was a big enough company to have more QC.  And I seem to have ended up with three different bottles of Bishop to King: misplaced the first one, so ordered a second one; then found a partial bottle in the "freebie" basket at a pen club meeting a while back and thought it was the missing one, so grabbed it.  Then the first bottle turned up.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Just a quick update....  I'm only suggesting batch variations, but I have an anecdote to go with it.  I bought the Ruby, Green, Mocha and Sapphire Parker Penman colors in their second release from Fountain Pen Hospital.  I had read all the glowing reports on how the Sapphire ink was the blue to end all blues.  How is was a "pure" blue. But when I filled my Doufold with it I was completely non-plussed.  It was a dark tealish blue ink that didn't do anything for me.  You could tell it was a concentrated turquoise ink when you washed it out of your pen.  I Didn't care for it and I didn't use it, which is why I still have 1/2 a bottle left 29 years later.  In fact I didn't like any of their colors except the Mocha and have a lot of them left, except the green, which I never used but completely evaporated in the back of an ink drawer.

 

Anyway, my point is variations in quality can happen.

 

 

 

Still has it's red sheen....😀👍