Some Ink Tests

[sebastel23]

yes, it's a scan. Epson V600, using Epson's scanner software on Windows 11.

 

43 minutes ago, USG said:

I especially like the 'SU'.

 

i think i understand 😄

while the SU renders a nice and lively line, the nib is a bit demanding regarding angle and twist.

on the other hand, the WA is extremely forgiving with how it touches the paper, but the resulting lines are fairly even.

that's why i think they make a nice "minimal set" - one for easy writing, one for beautiful results. most of the time, i'm quite sloppy with my writing, so the WA is very welcome. but then, i sometimes enjoy to explore what you can do with speciality nibs, that's when the SU shines. both are favourites.

[USG]

Three Asvine pens with Three similar ink colors:

 

 

 

[USG]

Asvine C80s....  I really like these pens.

 

Snakes from Amazon

Brown

Blue

[USG]

I'm going to start to look at the b7 Natural Paper from Nippon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some nice "Outlining"

A little "Outlining" here too

 

 

[USG]

Testing the b7 Natural paper some more:

 

3 dual shaders that have a green component, 

Hawaii, if you look closely at the the ink squiggle you can see a hint of green and some 'Haloing'

 

Nekoyanagi, nada

Fuji shaded a little, no green

Nadeshiko looked very bright and was trying to shade

Platinum Blue Black shaded nicely

b7 paper didn't get along with Ajisai from a Pilot 742 FA

 

Ajisai on Bank paper

Bank paper:  Fuji looks green instead of gray. 

Bank Paper Highlights tomorrow.

[USG]

The rest of the b7 paper

 

 

A few close ups

 

 

 

 

 

[USG]

Bank Paper continued:  There were some strange color changes

 

 

Topaz got a little wooly?

Platinum BB was nice and clean

This was unusual.  Waterman Blue took on a gold sheen and a rust colored shading

Taccia Ruri always looks good

Sailor #742 Blue took on a greenish tint

Normally a gold sheen, Bilberry tilted toward green

Yamabuki almost "outlined"

Lilac gray Fuji went completely green which is it's dual shading color...

Souboku shaded less than usual

Illinois also took on a green tinge if you look closely, do you see it?

[USG]

 

This new Quasar didn't smear after drying like a sample did a couple of years ago.

 

 

KSLV-II shades and sheens

 

 

Fuji is a champion shader

 

 

3D look after drying

 

Michigan is not this teal

 

 

 

Sailor Manyo Konagi is always a pleaser....

 

 

Nioi-Sumire Does a similar thing

 

 

MIssissippi has sheening and shading potential

[TSherbs]

The various effects of the paper changes can be dramatic. 

[USG]

On 8/11/2025 at 8:26 AM, TSherbs said:

The various effects of the paper changes can be dramatic. 

 

Yes... I'm always looking for paper that shows ink nuances well.  Yamamoto is due to release a new paper on the 29th called Canopus.  It's a high contrast paper, that is supposed to replace the discontinued Cosmo Air line.  Should be interesting.  I'm hoping it's a 'white' paper like Cosmo Snow and not off white like Iroful or Yu-Sari.

[USG]

Page started on 8/4, finished tonight

 

 

[TSherbs]

4 hours ago, USG said:

 

Yes... I'm always looking for paper that shows ink nuances well.  Yamamoto is due to release a new paper on the 29th called Canopus.  It's a high contrast paper, that is supposed to replace the discontinued Cosmo Air line.  Should be interesting.  I'm hoping it's a 'white' paper like Cosmo Snow and not off white like Iroful or Yu-Sari.

 

Interesting news!

[USG]

Revisiting b7 Paper:

 

 

 

Some Close Ups

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

Thank you for all the pictures! That vintage Aurora black is wild, and you're making me want to use my Lamy pens.

B7 paper? Meh, or with dryer/finer nibs? I see some slight feathering and/or spread there with perhaps the wettest, or more "matured" inks?

[Mechanical]

USG thanks, as usual, for your patient work with these inks and papers. I continue to be impressed by that Sailor Ink Studio #973.  It's a solid brown and, at least on some papers, it knows how to sheen. 

 

I find that b7 is fairly absorbant and that quality sometimes works against sheening -- but you're getting some pretty good results here.

[USG]

On 8/19/2025 at 6:27 AM, Lithium466 said:

Thank you for all the pictures! That vintage Aurora black is wild, and you're making me want to use my Lamy pens.

B7 paper? Meh, or with dryer/finer nibs? I see some slight feathering and/or spread there with perhaps the wettest, or more "matured" inks?

 

I agree with your assessment of b7 paper in that there is a slight spreading, and feathering with the wettest and "matured" inks <-- I really like that phrase "matured" inks. 😃 (You're always good at turning a phrase.😃👍 ) It accurately captures the ink in most of my pens.

 

On another note, I wanted to run this by you.  When I usually refill an almost empty converter, the first thing I do is screw the piston up a little to clear the lumen of the converter of any residual ink that might be there and then take the converter out of the pen.  I found if I didn't do that, more often than not, a blob of ink would remain in the opening and get in the way of my syringe.

 

So in attempting to refill an almost empty converter on my MoonMan TI 200 with #743 blue,  I screwed the piston upward, not remembering that the section on the TI 200 holds almost a full converter of ink, and all that ink ran out and got all over my hand.  I rinsed it right off and while the blue was gone, a very hard to remove red stain persisted.  I didn't realize that #743 had a waterproof red component.  Did you ever notice a red component in #743?

 

 

On 8/19/2025 at 1:14 PM, Mechanical said:

USG thanks, as usual, for your patient work with these inks and papers. I continue to be impressed by that Sailor Ink Studio #973.  It's a solid brown and, at least on some papers, it knows how to sheen. 

 

I find that b7 is fairly absorbant and that quality sometimes works against sheening -- but you're getting some pretty good results here.

 

I've tried a lot of browns and #973 is my favorite brown.  It has a great color range and turning into a very robust dark brown after it's been in a pen for a while, not to mention the gold sheen.

 

I find b7 paper strange because as I write, ink tends to pool on the surface, more than with other papers, and then it spreads out a bit as it dries.  It's able to pick up "outlining" which only Cosmo Snow and Iroful have been able to consistently do.  It's also subject to finger oils like Cosmo Snow and Iroful and will produce ink resistant spots where you've touched the paper.

 

Regarfding sheening, I've had some pretty good results so far.  Out of curiosity, what inks have you experienced that had diminished sheening on b7?

 

The most interesting sheen was from Asa-Gao in my Namiki Shogun<F>, which tends to feather on inferior paper.  In this case it spread out to maybe 3X it's line width but didn't feather materially. 

[USG]

Revisiting Yu-Sari paper 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FPR Architect nib

 

I like this ink but it's still sticky after a day or two

 

 

 

Souboku didn't shade much here

 

 

 

 

 

 

with sheen

without sheen

 

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

On 8/21/2025 at 7:39 AM, USG said:

 

So in attempting to refill an almost empty converter on my MoonMan TI 200 with #743 blue,  I screwed the piston upward, not remembering that the section on the TI 200 holds almost a full converter of ink, and all that ink ran out and got all over my hand.  I rinsed it right off and while the blue was gone, a very hard to remove red stain persisted.  I didn't realize that #743 had a waterproof red component.  Did you ever notice a red component in #743?

 

 

I find b7 paper strange because as I write, ink tends to pool on the surface, more than with other papers, and then it spreads out a bit as it dries.  It's able to pick up "outlining" which only Cosmo Snow and Iroful have been able to consistently do.  It's also subject to finger oils like Cosmo Snow and Iroful and will produce ink resistant spots where you've touched the paper.

I think I remember this with #743, as well as in some other blurple blue inks (like GvFC Lapis Lazuli) but for good measure I have #443 and #743 lined up for retest  It seems most of the "intersesting" blues have either some pink/red component, or some turquoise, or both.

@Penguincollector created a very interesting mix with some PR inks to recreate something close to the Colorverse FP day limited edition, using both some teal leaning and purple leaning blues as a base.

 

(currently have way too many pens inked in black in an attempt to find my favourite black)

 

 

Regarding what you are describing with b7 paper, I noticed that with some other papers, and I hate it. You write, think "all is good nice lines" and then a few minutes later thickly spread lines? Yuck. My probably worst offender is some Tsubame Airmail paper...it's a pencil or maybe ballpoint paper.

I also vaguely remember some paper about ink spreading and the effect of pH, where some high pH inks would do better. But then some low pH inks are known for thin lines so there's more to it.

[USG]

Other Pics of Yama-Budo:  Looking back over some recent cell phone pics I found these

 

This was the original pic

 

When I lightened the color of the paper I lost some of the definition of the shimmer

 

Here is Yama-Budo on b7 paper

 

This reject pic of Yama-Budo on Cosmo Snow paper had some water droplets fall on it

 

Now here's Yama-Budo on Tomoe River-S.  These 2 examples were taken together on the same piece of paper.  I wanted to show how the ink had darkened in the pen but the nib had dried from being uncapped, so I put a small drop of water on the feed to get it started.  The result was the lighter color on the top pic.

 

I'm throwing this in because it's a version of Kon-Peki you don't ordinarily see.  @inkstainedruth

[USG]

Hi Gang 😁

I could only look at pics of  MCL's Pilot 823 for so long before joining the 823 Club.👍😀 

  I really like the smooth Medium nib.👍

Now I have to find a suitable ink. 

 

I initially wanted Platinum Blue Black but I was hesitant because of the metal rod.  I have Pilot Blue Black and that's a contender but I wanted something with a little more pizazz, so atm I have it provisionally dipped it into Sailor States Illinois.  The thing I don't like about this Vac filler is that you can't remove the section to wash it out after dip testing inks.   Other ink Suggestions?

 

 

 

 

Here are the two inks together, looking kinda similar

 

Now close ups....

 

 

I'm also considering Mississippi

 

@Mechanical @Penguincollector@Lithium466@TSherbs@sebastel23@inkstainedruth@RedPie