Some Ink Tests

October 29

22 hours ago, USG said:

Instead of grinding the FA you could scissor the tines and reduce the flow. I did that with the flex nibs and it had the effect of giving me a much finer line. The Magna Carta is a strange pen, You have to use a very light hand or it's too wet and writes too wide. I'm using Waterman Inspired blue which is one of the dryest inks around, according to InesF ink chart, to slow down the flow and it's still very wet. The Pilot 743 FA is pretty fine but not so with the 743FA wihich is a lot softer. The finest nib I have is on the Moonman Ti200.... btw, did you get yours working?

Reducing the ink flow would remove the one thing I like about that #10 FA 😂

I have a 743 FA as well, one of these pens that I only inked once.

So now the Magna Carta has been removed from my list. Thank you for saving me money!

And I did get the Ti200 up and running well now, nib ground to EFish (boy that tipping material was soft), and I really like it. I'd like a gold nib for a tiny bit less nailness, but the gold option is way overpriced and it's using a different nib than the Wing Sungs. I'm waiting for a Hero 100 nib to see if it will fit (doesn't look like I'll ever get it), and if it doesn't there's the Parker 51 option.

4 hours ago, USG said:

https://a.co/d/5zdu9IX <--- This is what I ordered.

You guys are not at fault. I was aware of the paper and would have tried it anyway. But I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Fabriano changed their formulation.

I had been reading all the rave reviews online and on Amazon and was expecting a Canopus like paper. 'Spoiled I was', because even though Canopus did not live up to it's hype, and was not on the level of Cosmo Snow or Iroful, it turned out to be pretty decent paper, which for me means a nice surface, nuances, and NO feathering or woolly lines. Primarily, NO feathering. There's no reason to have to deal with feathering when Tomoe River-S is around and relatively inexpensive.

I've posted examples of feathering from 3 types of Kokuyo (but NOT Kokuyo KB), APPICA, Maruman, Stalogy, Mnemosyne and others. Life paper wasn't horrible but it was yellow. OPTIK was OK and reminded me of Clairefontaine and Rhodia; relatively 'nuanceless'. I had a brief fling with Sugar Cane paper a couple of years ago when I found 3 notebooks in an unopened bag from 'Staples'. I liked the concept but the paper wasn't up to the task and drifted off into obscurity.

I'm sorry that what you got is absolutely awful. I think what I have is the Ecoqua "plus", with, according to the Amazon listing:

(90gsm) Bioprima white paper

which is not smooth, produces skinny lines, doesn't feather, and with minimal show through (and no bleed through with the homeopathic ink doses delivered by my pens, obviously).

If you want, I can send you some so you can see if you like it?

October 29

5 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

I'm sorry that what you got is absolutely awful. I think what I have is the Ecoqua "plus", with, according to the Amazon listing:

(90gsm) Bioprima white paper

I owe you some responses but for the time being:

I checked Amazon: This is what I ordered

STAPLE BOUND PADS

A4: 21 x 29,7 cm / 8.3 x 11.7 in
A5: 14,8 x 21 cm / 5.8 x 8.3 in
4 different internal layouts:
5 mm squared, lined, blank and dotted
40 internal sheets of 90 g/m2 Bioprima paper (80 pages)
Silver staple bound, 3 staples for the bigger size with more resistance
Sirio Denim cover 290 g/m2
Shrink wrapping on group of 5 with recap label outside
Sales unit: 1 notebook

October 30

Fabriano Paper Day Two:

CLICK TO ENLARGE FOR DETAILS

October 30

18 hours ago, USG said:

I owe you some responses but for the time being:

I checked Amazon: This is what I ordered

STAPLE BOUND PADS

A4: 21 x 29,7 cm / 8.3 x 11.7 in

A5: 14,8 x 21 cm / 5.8 x 8.3 in

4 different internal layouts:

5 mm squared, lined, blank and dotted

40 internal sheets of 90 g/m2 Bioprima paper (80 pages)

Silver staple bound, 3 staples for the bigger size with more resistance

Sirio Denim cover 290 g/m2

Shrink wrapping on group of 5 with recap label outside

Sales unit: 1 notebook

If it's advertised as being the same, then it's worse than I thought (or some Amazon inaccuracies?)... What you're showing seems to have nothing in common with the paper I have

October 30

15 minutes ago, Lithium466 said:

If it's advertised as being the same, then it's worse than I thought (or some Amazon inaccuracies?)... What you're showing seems to have nothing in common with the paper I have

Perhaps they changed the formulation as was suggested. I remember that Transitional TR displayed some feathering.

Had I realized how bad it was I never would have made it into a twin ring notebook. Anyway, I'm going to keep testing for a few more pages and see what turns up. It was fine with Mrs. Stewart's Laundry Bluing, which, btw, 'matured' into a deeper color.

October 31

23 hours ago, USG said:

Perhaps they changed the formulation as was suggested. I remember that Transitional TR displayed some feathering.

Had I realized how bad it was I never would have made it into a twin ring notebook. Anyway, I'm going to keep testing for a few more pages and see what turns up. It was fine with Mrs. Stewart's Laundry Bluing, which, btw, 'matured' into a deeper color.

So I went back to my Fabriano notebook (which had been stolen by a rude family member 😂) and it says 85gsm not 90.

What you're showing almost looks like uncoated paper, or very lightly coated "inkjet" paper, in comparison.

October 31

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

So I went back to my Fabriano notebook (which had been stolen by a rude family member 😂) and it says 85gsm not 90.

What you're showing almost looks like uncoated paper, or very lightly coated "inkjet" paper, in comparison.

My Fabriano is the 90gsm version.

I have discovered that with a careful choice of inks and pens, the feathering can be avoided. This, of course, doesn't make this 'ink & pen' restricted paper any more useful to me than any of the previous rejects.

In the meantime, I have found inks that don't cause feathering on Fabriano paper. Results to follow.

October 31

Fabriano writing samples that do not Feather:

CLICK TO ENLARGE AND SCROLL THROUGH

October 31

On 10/30/2025 at 11:00 AM, USG said:

Hmm, that Nioi-sumire is quite fetching, isn't it?

So. I guess this feathers with a lot of inks, but the inks that work can look pretty nice and give good effects. Now to find that 85 gsm version...

October 31

4 hours ago, Mechanical said:

Hmm, that Nioi-sumire is quite fetching, isn't it?

So. I guess this feathers with a lot of inks, but the inks that work can look pretty nice and give good effects. Now to find that 85 gsm version...

I'm not crazy about what Fabriano does to the colors. Something gets lost in the translation.... Check out Monteverde Capri Blue from a Parker Sonnet on Cosmo Snow and then on Fabriano....

Why are you looking for the 85gsm version?

October 31

On 10/28/2025 at 6:26 AM, Lithium466 said:

Athol violet is nice but lacks lubrication. It isn't erasable, and it seemed to me (perhaps erroneously) that Diamine tried to stray away from their usual dies or formulations. You'd need a wet pen to get the most of it. Oh and it comes in a huge 75mL bottle

Sometimes can't resist. Every so often you mention an ink I end up buying it. It must have been the 'name'. 🤪

Anyway, Athol delivered today.... and you were right, the bottle is as big as a hand grenade, and heavy....

I wasn't sure if I'm keeping this ink in the V800 so I unscrewed the barrel, eye dropper-ed some ink into the section and put it back together.

Here are the initial writing samples.

Pen is Asvine V800<F>

CLICK TO ENLARGE, SCROLL THROUGH TO SEE DETAILS

November 1

2 hours ago, USG said:

Why are you looking for the 85gsm version?

With some inks you're getting some nice effects on the Fabriano.... and maybe that would be even more better with the same weight that Lithium was using.

But as you know, the results with pens, inks, and papers can be so elusive. Like with the Bungubox First Love (Dye based) ink I'm trying out now, I just love it on the TR52 in my Hobonichi planner. On Cosmo Snow, b7, and Ironful papers.... it feathers. Maybe I need to try it with a drier pen!

November 1

2 hours ago, Mechanical said:

With some inks you're getting some nice effects on the Fabriano.... and maybe that would be even more better with the same weight that Lithium was using.

But as you know, the results with pens, inks, and papers can be so elusive. Like with the Bungubox First Love (Dye based) ink I'm trying out now, I just love it on the TR52 in my Hobonichi planner. On Cosmo Snow, b7, and Ironful papers.... it feathers. Maybe I need to try it with a drier pen!

Gee, I thought LTM was using the 90gsm version????

Please post pics of First Love feathering on Cosmo Snow, b7, amd Iroful.

November 1

Here’s my version of Fabriano EcoQua from 2023 with a variety of inks in untipped italic pens:

November 1

5 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

Here’s my version of Fabriano EcoQua from 2023 with a variety of inks in untipped italic pens:

Very nice work PGC. You got some really good line variation. Why didn't you post close ups before? They're very nice.

I also found inks and pens that didn't feather on Fabriano paper: They were mostly Sailor inks and 'dry' pens.

Inks that feathered tended to be more concentrated and the pens that feathered tended to be wet.

For example, your version of Lady Emerald looks like a less concentrated, dryer version than mine.

The biggest failure was the wet Magna Carta Mag 600

The same ink from a not so wet JInhao X159 shows only minimal feathering.

Who knows... it could be that the manufacturer changed the formulation of the paper. 🤷‍♂️

November 1

10 hours ago, USG said:

Sometimes can't resist. Every so often you mention an ink I end up buying it. It must have been the 'name'. 🤪

Anyway, Athol delivered today.... and you were right, the bottle is as big as a hand grenade, and heavy....

I wasn't sure if I'm keeping this ink in the V800 so I unscrewed the barrel, eye dropper-ed some ink into the section and put it back together.

Here are the initial writing samples.

Pen is Asvine V800<F>

CLICK TO ENLARGE, SCROLL THROUGH TO SEE DETAILS

You have been much more successful than I was! What do you think of the ink?

10 hours ago, Mechanical said:

With some inks you're getting some nice effects on the Fabriano.... and maybe that would be even more better with the same weight that Lithium was using.

But as you know, the results with pens, inks, and papers can be so elusive. Like with the Bungubox First Love (Dye based) ink I'm trying out now, I just love it on the TR52 in my Hobonichi planner. On Cosmo Snow, b7, and Ironful papers.... it feathers. Maybe I need to try it with a drier pen!

Some feathering on Iroful 😱 What!

7 hours ago, USG said:

Gee, I thought LTM was using the 90gsm version????

My bad. It's 85gsm but the notebook is 90 pages 🤦‍♂️

I went back to the art store I had bought mine, and it's been replaced by a nice double assortment of Clairefontaine (they had one of each before). So maybe Fabriano didn't sell much (it stayed for long enough to end up being discounted) or they couldn't get it anymore. Teenager behind the counter couldn't tell me if they were going to get some more or not, and why.

5 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

Here’s my version of Fabriano EcoQua from 2023 with a variety of inks in untipped italic pens:

Very nice. That Tesla coil! Lady Emerald looks a bit depressed though?

Sheaffer Peacock 👍

November 1

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

You have been much more successful than I was! What do you think of the ink?

It seems to be a nice ink but I'm using it out of an Asvine V800 with a smooth wet #8 <WESTERN F> nib. I haven't noticed a lack of lubrication yet, but it might be because of the nib. I urge you to try an Asvine C80 <F>. It's really nice! I have both the F and EF nibs and there's no comparison. The F are superior to the EF which have a nail like feeling with some feedback.

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

My bad. It's 85gsm but the notebook is 90 pages 🤦‍♂️

I went back to the art store I had bought mine, and it's been replaced by a nice double assortment of Clairefontaine (they had one of each before). So maybe Fabriano didn't sell much (it stayed for long enough to end up being discounted) or they couldn't get it anymore. Teenager behind the counter couldn't tell me if they were going to get some more or not, and why.

From the back cover

From the back of the last page

November 1

The Lady Emerald pen ran out of ink shortly after I wrote that, so that was the culprit. The pens were all part of the pen club’s ink testing program, which we use very inexpensive pens for in case they walk away, which has happened in the past. They tend to be on the dry side. I was having some fun with the inks before cleaning them out until the next time we use them for an event. Once my desk is clear of them, I can try some wet pens and see how they hold up on the Fabriano. I rarely use a wet pen/wet ink combo though, my handwriting isn’t legible enough for that.

November 1

15 hours ago, USG said:

Please post pics of First Love feathering on Cosmo Snow, b7, amd Iroful.

Here's a close-up of Bungubox First Love (Dye) on Cosmo Snow, written with a Parker 21 <F>:

click to expand->

I dunno, is this Parker 21 just really wet?

Here's the same on b7:

click to expand->

And more of the same on Iroful:

click to expand->

I enjoy this color quite a lot -- it really stands out and shades nicely -- but I may try it either n a drier pen or with an EF nib.

Edited November 1 by Mechanical
nudge to expand the sample pictures...

November 1

4 hours ago, Mechanical said:

Here's a close-up of Bungubox First Love (Dye) on Cosmo Snow, written with a Parker 21 <F>:

click to expand->

I dunno, is this Parker 21 just really wet?

Here's the same on b7:

click to expand->

And more of the same on Iroful:

click to expand->

I enjoy this color quite a lot -- it really stands out and shades nicely -- but I may try it either n a drier pen or with an EF nib.

Holy Feathers MCLman.... that's definitely feathering. 😀👍

I've previously commented that since being discontinued some of the batches of Cosmo Snow that are left over aren't as good as the original stuff. I have encountered similar anomalies but when I wrote on a different part of the same paper, or another sheet, the feathering was not consistently reproduced.

How accurate i your color representation? Mine looks darker and less turquoise.

I've never had a problem with Iroful 🤷‍♂️

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