Some Ink Tests

[Lithium466]

On 1/1/2026 at 7:12 AM, USG said:

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!!!

 

 

Thank you, and Happy New Year as well! May 2026 bring you fancy trick-displaying inks, and bright white paper that makes all your inks outline!

 

On 12/27/2025 at 2:16 PM, USG said:

 

@lamarax   you've mentioned Kobeha Graphilo (81.4 gsm) before.  I didn't get it because it was a gray colored paper and not white, but I guess I'll have to get some and check it out...

 

I've been writing with the Taccia AO ink since It got it.  I tried it on many different types of paper.  I have it in a Jinhao X159<F>, a Jun Lai 930<M>, and dipped the Pilot 823<M>. 

 

The Pilot 823 had a wetter flow so the ink was a darker color and sheened....

 

Did you try the Graphilo (I can probably send you some, I think I have that somewhere)? And did you settle on an ink for your 823?

I'm foolish and ordered a 823 as well, since the Wing Sung 699 I got somehow came with a piston and not the vacuum filling mechanism.

[Penguincollector]

  Happy New Year, everyone! May you find the currently produced paper of your dreams and may no inks feather upon it. 
 

  I think there’s 36 different inks tested on this sheet. I do have close ups, so if any look interesting, I can upload them into my gallery and post them here. I was trying to find all of my blue-black inks, but some blues found their way onto the page. It’s fun to angle the Hocoro for tiny writing.

 

[Lithium466]

Very nice @Penguincollector!

How is that Krishna Lyrebird pure blue in real life, it looks like a darker PR Lake Placid blue (trying to pick within the inks I have!)?

[Penguincollector]

9 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Very nice @Penguincollector!

How is that Krishna Lyrebird pure blue in real life, it looks like a darker PR Lake Placid blue (trying to pick within the inks I have!)?

  It’s a really pretty blue, it’s more vibrant and a touch darker in real life than Lake Placid blue. I can post some close up pictures and the swatch cards next to each other later.  I can also see what else I have that’s close. 
 

ETA: Whilst I was pulling swatch cards, I realized that I didn’t have one for Lk. Placid Blue, so I made one. They are closer than I thought originally. I would say that the Pure Blue is less saturated in the swatch and a bit drier in writing, but definitely darker.  I will add some photos tonight. 

[Penguincollector]

  So here are the close ups of both the Krishna Pure Blue and PR Lk. Placid Blue for @Lithium466. The swatch paper came out a bit warmer on camera than my eye perceives it. It’s not as white as the Cosmo Snow, but not as creamy as the photo. 
 

 

 

 

  The Lake Placid seems thicker to me, and the Pure more watery, if that makes sense.

[Lithium466]

4 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  So here are the close ups of both the Krishna Pure Blue and PR Lk. Placid Blue for @Lithium466. The swatch paper came out a bit warmer on camera than my eye perceives it. It’s not as white as the Cosmo Snow, but not as creamy as the photo. 
 

 

 

 

  The Lake Placid seems thicker to me, and the Pure more watery, if that makes sense.

Thank you, that is very useful!

[USG]

On 1/3/2026 at 6:50 PM, Penguincollector said:

  Happy New Year, everyone! May you find the currently produced paper of your dreams and may no inks feather upon it. 
 

  I think there’s 36 different inks tested on this sheet. I do have close ups, so if any look interesting, I can upload them into my gallery and post them here. I was trying to find all of my blue-black inks, but some blues found their way onto the page. It’s fun to angle the Hocoro for tiny writing.

 

 

Very nice PGC    

But you know me, post all your close ups....  🙂👍

[USG]

On 1/3/2026 at 6:38 AM, Lithium466 said:

Thank you, and Happy New Year as well! May 2026 bring you fancy trick-displaying inks, and bright white paper that makes all your inks outline!

 

Did you try the Graphilo (I can probably send you some, I think I have that somewhere)? And did you settle on an ink for your 823?

I'm foolish and ordered a 823 as well, since the Wing Sung 699 I got somehow came with a piston and not the vacuum filling mechanism.

 

I'm so far behind the 8 ball in responding..... 

 

I haven't settled on an ink for the 823 yet.  I dipped it in AO but I'm not sure if I want to keep it...  I'm looking for an ink with some pizazz and I'm not sure AO has it.  We'll see.

 

I thought I'd get around having to clean the 823 by buying a 743 with the same nib and testing inks in that, but Diamine China Blue (an outlining ink) took up residence and put the kibosh on that plan. 🤷‍♂️

 

 

[Penguincollector]

2 hours ago, USG said:

 

Very nice PGC    

But you know me, post all your close ups....  🙂👍

  I will start getting them ready. There’s sooo many.

[Lithium466]

On 1/3/2026 at 12:38 PM, Lithium466 said:

since the Wing Sung 699 I got somehow came with a piston and not the vacuum filling mechanism.

Update, the seller sent me a vacuum filling "body", which at 17g (compared to 8 for the piston filling unit that is similar to the WS 629) is enough to shift the perception of the pen from "cheap plastic thing" to "Pilot Custom 822".

Alas, while I was expecting "click - woosh - half the ink bottle is gone", all I'm getting are ridiculous little fizz of disappointment, that thing is only filling by 3 drops and a half each time, which are not enough to justify having to unscrew that blind cap every time you want to write for a while. Back to the piston filler it is! It's a nice pen apart from that, well tuned nib as well. And since it's blue, I inked it with Diamine Presidential blue.

[USG]

7 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Update, the seller sent me a vacuum filling "body", which at 17g (compared to 8 for the piston filling unit that is similar to the WS 629) is enough to shift the perception of the pen from "cheap plastic thing" to "Pilot Custom 822".

Alas, while I was expecting "click - woosh - half the ink bottle is gone", all I'm getting are ridiculous little fizz of disappointment, that thing is only filling by 3 drops and a half each time, which are not enough to justify having to unscrew that blind cap every time you want to write for a while. Back to the piston filler it is! It's a nice pen apart from that, well tuned nib as well. And since it's blue, I inked it with Diamine Presidential blue.

 

Hiya LTM

 

I see you sent some Edelstein orange ink to Yazzy... would love to hear your evaluation of that ink...😀

 

RE the 699:

 

When I first got my 699 (after I saw PGC's), I didn't want to load a lot of ink because I anticipated a fair amount of ink trials until I found something I liked, so I unscrewed the section and eye droppered ink into it.  When I finally landed on Sailor Illinois, I still didn't want to fill it as much as a Vac system can draw into the pen, so I eye droppered it about 1/3 full and have been topping off the ink that way ever since because I'm always on the verge of changing inks.  You could do the same and retain the 'feel' of an 823 you get from the weight of the Vac body and enjoy using the ink valve.  

[As an aside, a while back I replaced the nib with an FPR architect nib and am using the original <M> nib in a dip pen holder.]

 

Diamine Presidential blue:  I have that ink, thanks for reminding me about it.  😀👍

[USG]

@Lithium466 Wow, I forgot how dry this ink is..... dry, dry, dry.....

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

2 hours ago, USG said:

 

Hiya LTM

 

I see you sent some Edelstein orange ink to Yazzy... would love to hear your evaluation of that ink...😀

 

That's going to be quick: absolutely terrible. My bottle had floaties and it's gone, a friend had a bottle without floaties so I got some ink from his bottle... Feathering bonanza, negative lubrication of that is even possible, and the color... Doesn't event do anything like Rose Quartz was doing. Some hubs had other inks instead and I wish my hub would have been part of the "unlucky" hubs, so I would have gotten something else than that sorry loser of a bottle   But at least I can be grateful to have been able to scratch that itch and experiment the 2025 ink.

 

2 hours ago, USG said:

RE the 699:

 

When I first got my 699 (after I saw PGC's), I didn't want to load a lot of ink because I anticipated a fair amount of ink trials until I found something I liked, so I unscrewed the section and eye droppered ink into it.  When I finally landed on Sailor Illinois, I still didn't want to fill it as much as a Vac system can draw into the pen, so I eye droppered it about 1/3 full and have been topping off the ink that way ever since because I'm always on the verge of changing inks.  You could do the same and retain the 'feel' of an 823 you get from the weight of the Vac body and enjoy using the ink valve.  

[As an aside, a while back I replaced the nib with an FPR architect nib and am using the original <M> nib in a dip pen holder.]

 

Diamine Presidential blue:  I have that ink, thanks for reminding me about it.  😀👍

 

Great idea, I will do that instead! 

DPB is a very... Presidential ink, maybe in a 20th century meaning. Calm, quiet presence, not flashy but with some subdued charisma.

[Lithium466]

25 minutes ago, USG said:

@Lithium466 Wow, I forgot how dry this ink is..... dry, dry, dry.....

 

 

 

 

 

Really? It didn't strike me as particularly dry. Average lubrication and flow for me, maybe they "improved" the formula? I got the bottle recently.

[USG]

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

 

That's going to be quick: absolutely terrible. My bottle had floaties and it's gone, a friend had a bottle without floaties so I got some ink from his bottle... Feathering bonanza, negative lubrication of that is even possible, and the color... Doesn't event do anything like Rose Quartz was doing. Some hubs had other inks instead and I wish my hub would have been part of the "unlucky" hubs, so I would have gotten something else than that sorry loser of a bottle   But at least I can be grateful to have been able to scratch that itch and experiment the 2025 ink.

 

 

Great idea, I will do that instead! 

DPB is a very... Presidential ink, maybe in a 20th century meaning. Calm, quiet presence, not flashy but with some subdued charisma.

 

Oh boy, the dreaded floaties!!!   Precipitate or mold?

I have a couple of ideas to increase the suction on your 699.  Obviously air is getting around the washer... so

• maybe a new washer
• if you grease the barrel, might help with the old washer

[USG]

8 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

 

Really? It didn't strike me as particularly dry. Average lubrication and flow for me, maybe they "improved" the formula? I got the bottle recently.

 

Could be, my bottle of Presidential Blue is years old.  Could also be that I've become used to some of the wetter inks I've been using.

 

Btw, another Vac pen I eyedropper is the Asvine V126, because the nib won't fit into the little Colorverse ink bottle....  Something I can't do with my Pilot 823 because Pilot, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to make the section non-removable.

 

 

[USG]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

11 hours ago, USG said:

 

Oh boy, the dreaded floaties!!!   Precipitate or mold?

I have a couple of ideas to increase the suction on your 699.  Obviously air is getting around the washer... so

• maybe a new washer
• if you grease the barrel, might help with the old washer

Just some kind of flakes floating, so I'm not sure. It didn't look very normal to me for such an unsaturated ink, and it wasn't worth trying to filter it or try something anyway 🙃

 

For the 699, I did grease it when it arrived, but once I run it dry (will not be long) I'll do a better job cleaning and regreasing to see if the situation can be improved.

 

5 hours ago, USG said:

 

Could be, my bottle of Presidential Blue is years old.  Could also be that I've become used to some of the wetter inks I've been using.

 

Btw, another Vac pen I eyedropper is the Asvine V126, because the nib won't fit into the little Colorverse ink bottle....  Something I can't do with my Pilot 823 because Pilot, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to make the section non-removable.

 

 

 

Your DPB doesn't look very presidential...but then it's probably the comparison to Colorverse Supernova!

 

I thought the 823 had a removable section, did they change that to prevent cracking, or people getting into it? I still can't come up with an ink idea for my upcoming 823.

Do you have a Lamy 2000?

[USG]

44 minutes ago, Lithium466 said:

Your DPB doesn't look very presidential...but then it's probably the comparison to Colorverse Supernova!

 

I thought the 823 had a removable section, did they change that to prevent cracking, or people getting into it? I still can't come up with an ink idea for my upcoming 823.

Do you have a Lamy 2000?

 

I'll test the DPB some more tomorrow.

 

Older 823s had removable sections.  Newer ones don't. They had it right the first time.

 

Let me know what ink you decide on.  I still can't decide what to fill it with because without being able to remove the section, the only way to properly clean it or change ink colors is from the rear.  Good luck trying to flush the section with the Vac system.

 

Yes, LTM, I have a Lamy 2K. 🤪  I used it for the writing sample.  😜

 

 

Here's a pic of the 2K from my 2nd album showing the OM nib.

 

 

[Penguincollector]

On 1/7/2026 at 10:07 AM, USG said:

I see you sent some Edelstein orange ink to Yazzy... would love to hear your evaluation of that ink...😀

  My evaluation of it is that it makes an excellent base for a Golden Beryl Dupe mixed with Smoky Quartz, a bright yellow ink (13:6:10), and a gold shimmer additive (.1 mL per mL of ink) but otherwise Sailor orange inks are so much nicer. Achat is very dry and barely legible. No floaties to report.