Some Ink Tests

[Penguincollector]

1 hour ago, USG said:

 

Fabulous Pics PGS ! 👍😀  More !

I don't have Kikyou, but my Shin-Kai does a similar thing.

Tell me about your glass nib pen.

 

  Funny, Shin-Kai is lower on the same page.  I didn’t see any sheen or outline, but I might try a different angle and lighting. 
 

  The glass pen is a Majohn N8 (I think I wrote Hongdian incorrectly) that I bought either from Amazon or AliExpress. It came with 4 different glass nibs ef-b, and a regular section with an ef nib/feed/collar combo. It’s a good glass pen, but I have neglected it in favor of the Hocoro, which is hands down my favorite modern dip pen. 

[USG]

On 12/5/2025 at 1:15 AM, Penguincollector said:

 

  Funny, Shin-Kai is lower on the same page.  I didn’t see any sheen or outline, but I might try a different angle and lighting. 
 

  The glass pen is a Majohn N8 (I think I wrote Hongdian incorrectly) that I bought either from Amazon or AliExpress. It came with 4 different glass nibs ef-b, and a regular section with an ef nib/feed/collar combo. It’s a good glass pen, but I have neglected it in favor of the Hocoro, which is hands down my favorite modern dip pen. 

 

Shin-Kai sheened more than outlined yesterday...  probably the result of the ink condensing in the feed...

 

 

and China Blue outlined, possibly for the same reasons... 😀

 

 

The full page....

[USG]

On 11/10/2024 at 1:06 PM, Penguincollector said:

@USG, Sailor inks are so paper dependent, both a feature and a bug. 

<snip>

 

I was looking at your Radius pen in your Pen-Ink-Paper thread when I saw the above post you wrote this last year.  Things have improved.... 😀👍

[USG]

Asvine C80<F>  

Taccia Hokusai Koiai (Dark Blue)

Cosmo Snow

 

 

 

 

 

Jinhao X159<F>

Taccia Kurocha  (Dark Brown)

Cosmo Snow

 

 

 

[USG]

Back to the Rotation.....

 

There's a story here.  About a year ago, I was playing with glitter and one of the glitter inks I made was Iroshizuku Tsuyu-Kusa + Silver glitter.  I put it in my standard test pen, a Jinhao X159, played around with it for a while and then moved on.

 

A few days ago, @Penguincollector posted some really great pics and among them was some shots of shimmer inks (Link) and it got me thinking about that pen.

 

So today I went hunting for the glitter pen. I found it sitting in a cup in another room.  I uncapped it to see if it would write. It didn't. But it still had lots of glitter ink in it so I syringed a micro drop of water on each side of the feed and one on the tip of the nib and bam, it started writing like its been in constant use, instead of sitting in a pen cup for a year.

Gotta hand it to those Jinhao X159s. 😀👍  My OMAS 360 completely dries out if you look at it the wrong way.

 

@Mechanical posted some very good pics of the Bungubox inks.  They can be seen Here.

 

And it's worth taking a look at @AceNinjas year long water resistance test Here.

 

 

[Penguincollector]

That looks amazing, @USG!

[Mechanical]

21 hours ago, USG said:

So today I went hunting for the glitter pen. I found it sitting in a cup in another room. 

I generally keep my inked pens in active use, but there's always one pen that's "in a cup in another room."  I'm glad to see that this glitter combo came back to life.  And... isn't glitter ink the perfect thing for holiday cards?

 

And another testimony to the economical and well-made  Jinhao X159.

[Ceramicist]

On 12/6/2025 at 3:35 PM, USG said:

Asvine C80<F>  

Taccia Hokusai Koiai (Dark Blue)

Cosmo Snow

 

 

 

 

 

Jinhao X159<F>

Taccia Kurocha  (Dark Brown)

Cosmo Snow

 

 

 

I love that pen. The blue is so sublime.

[USG]

On 12/7/2025 at 4:34 PM, Penguincollector said:

That looks amazing, @USG!

 

Aw shucks, PGC ☺️

 

14 hours ago, Mechanical said:

I generally keep my inked pens in active use, but there's always one pen that's "in a cup in another room."  I'm glad to see that this glitter combo came back to life.  And... isn't glitter ink the perfect thing for holiday cards?

 

And another testimony to the economical and well-made  Jinhao X159.

 

The X159 never cease to impress me. 👍😀

 

5 hours ago, Ceramicist said:

I love that pen. The blue is so sublime.

 

Thank you Ceramicist. 👍😀  I really like the Asvine C80 pens.

They have a special feel all their own.  

 

[USG]

Here is the ubiquitous Wing Sung-Yongsheng 699.  

 

My post in the 'Blue Pen Club' got me remembering how I came to have this pen.

 

Sometime near the end of '22 or the beginning of '23 I noticed that the Fab @Penguincollector posted a pic of this pen in 'What Pens Are You Using'.  Being extremely influenceable and a copycat, I had to have one.  I found it on ebay and ordered it. By Feb '23 it was mine.  It was a Vac pen, but what I really wanted back then, was a piston version.  Later, I found out, that the piston version was exactly what PGC had pictured, and if I remember correctly (which is a feat unto itself), PGC wanted the Vac version and somehow ended up with the piston version, just the opposite of what I wanted.

 

Anyway, the Vac version turned out to be fine, especially because the section could be unscrewed from the barrel for cleaning or eyedropping.  That's right Pilot 823<M>, I'm going to complain about you, again.  It's beyond me why Pilot would ruin a perfectly good Vac pen by gluing the section to the barrel so it can't be unscrewed, unlike every other Vac pen that can,  except for maybe a particular clipless hybrid.

 

Because the section could be unscrewed and the pen cleaned easily, it has been filled with many different inks, unlike my, relegated to 'dip only' 823, which turned out to be such a pain in the @rse to get the ink out of the feed after dipping that it remains unfilled until I can find a forever ink for it.  Faced with that dilemma, I bought a 743<SM> so I could hunt for a suitable ink for the 823, that I bought because @Mechanical posted a pic of his.  That solution was short lived because while I was testing various inks for the 823, the last ink I tried, Diamine China Blue, turned out to be an "Outlining ink" and has now taken up residence in the 743.

 

 

In March of this year I added an Architect nib to the 699. This is what it looks like with Sailor States Illinois ink.

 

 

[Mechanical]

On 12/9/2025 at 9:23 AM, USG said:

I added an Architect nib to the 699.

USG, where did you get your architect nib?  Or did you have the original nib ground to suit?  

[Penguincollector]

@Mechanical, I think they take JoWo #6 nibs and Kaigelu nibs, but I don’t know what size. I haven’t tried to replace mine, but I remember reading about it on the fountain pen subreddit. 

[USG]

2 hours ago, Mechanical said:

USG, where did you get your architect nib?  Or did you have the original nib ground to suit?  

 

I had a Kaigelu LB on it for a while but swapped it for a FPR Architect which is more to the point. 😁  The LB is now on my Majohn C5 eyedropper and the Wing Sung nib is on a dip pen.

 

While I was ordering on FPR, I picked up an Italic nib which joined my FPR flex nibs on Jinhao 9016s.

 

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

@Mechanical, I think they take JoWo #6 nibs and Kaigelu nibs, but I don’t know what size. I haven’t tried to replace mine, but I remember reading about it on the fountain pen subreddit. 

 

Of course @Penguincollector is right. 😀👍 

They take #6 nibs.  So any of the #6 nibs on FPR and most of the Chinese nibs are going to fit.

 

[Mechanical]

@USG and @Penguincollector, thank you!

 

The stock nib on my Wingsung 699 is probably its weakest link, and I'd love to get something a bit nicer. You're making me think about one of those FPR #6 EF Ultra Flex nibs.... Those look so fun...

[USG]

12 hours ago, Mechanical said:

@USG and @Penguincollector, thank you!

 

The stock nib on my Wingsung 699 is probably its weakest link, and I'd love to get something a bit nicer. You're making me think about one of those FPR #6 EF Ultra Flex nibs.... Those look so fun...

 

Go for it!  A while back, as a project, I made 4 Ultra Flex pens with those nibs using Jinhao 9016 bodies.  It was a lot of fun.

 

 I found they all needed different degrees of tuning to get them to write the way I wanted. 

 

😱....  If you like projects, you could make a party out of it, and buy the 3 pack (which gives you free shipping) and 1 or 2 Jinhao 9016s to use as tuning test beds, for hours of Frankenpen fun.  😁

 

 

[Lithium466]

On 12/9/2025 at 10:23 AM, USG said:

Here is the ubiquitous Wing Sung-Yongsheng 699.  

 

My post in the 'Blue Pen Club' got me remembering how I came to have this pen.

 

Sometime near the end of '22 or the beginning of '23 I noticed that the Fab @Penguincollector posted a pic of this pen in 'What Pens Are You Using'.  Being extremely influenceable and a copycat, I had to have one.  I found it on ebay and ordered it. By Feb '23 it was mine.  It was a Vac pen, but what I really wanted back then, was a piston version.  Later, I found out, that the piston version was exactly what PGC had pictured, and if I remember correctly (which is a feat unto itself), PGC wanted the Vac version and somehow ended up with the piston version, just the opposite of what I wanted.

 

Anyway, the Vac version turned out to be fine, especially because the section could be unscrewed from the barrel for cleaning or eyedropping.  That's right Pilot 823<M>, I'm going to complain about you, again.  It's beyond me why Pilot would ruin a perfectly good Vac pen by gluing the section to the barrel so it can't be unscrewed, unlike every other Vac pen that can,  except for maybe a particular clipless hybrid.

 

Because the section could be unscrewed and the pen cleaned easily, it has been filled with many different inks, unlike my, relegated to 'dip only' 823, which turned out to be such a pain in the @rse to get the ink out of the feed after dipping that it remains unfilled until I can find a forever ink for it.  Faced with that dilemma, I bought a 743<SM> so I could hunt for a suitable ink for the 823, that I bought because @Mechanical posted a pic of his.  That solution was short lived because while I was testing various inks for the 823, the last ink I tried, Diamine China Blue, turned out to be an "Outlining ink" and has now taken up residence in the 743.

 

 

In March of this year I added an Architect nib to the 699. This is what it looks like with Sailor States Illinois ink.

 

 

I didn't have one but soon I will, if for a brief moment in time the courier planets align

[Ceramicist]

2 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

f for a brief moment in time the courier planets align

I love this! It seems as if they're all in retrograde!

[USG]

Let's make some Notebooks

 

[USG]

Ink Musings Today:

 

 

 

 

These inks have been in the pens for a long time and have darkened except the Edelstein Sapphire below.

 

 

 

 

I'm in the process of changing the ink color in the M600.  Penman Mocha has been in this pen since I bought it, a really long time ago.  I wrote it dry and filled it with water to dissolve out some of the latent ink residue. 

 

Athol Violet has been in the pen since Oct 31 and has darkened quite a bit.

 

This is a 2nd V800 and this ink has only been in it for a few days

 

Diamine Sapphire Blue has been used the following 2 pens for years

 

 

 

Slow drying, smudged

 

Also slow drying and smudged

 

 

[Penguincollector]

So I meant to post these yesterday for @InkyProf and @USG, but time got away from me and some of my pictures needed retaking. I still have to format some, but I wanted to at least start with them. 
 

Here’s my favorite paper for sheen, MUJI Double Wire B6 Notebook Plain:

 

Both Double Wire and High Quality below are pretty good at handling ink:

 

The Planting Tree (from Indonesia) didn’t do so well: