Some Ink Tests

[Penguincollector]

Here’s how Double Ring did with a swatch of different inks: 

[InkyProf]

Thanks, @Penguincollector! Those do seem worth trying, for sure. (And Troublemaker Abalone grabs me too!) 

[Ceramicist]

@PenguincollectorGreat pen/ink/paper comparisons! Thank you!

[Penguincollector]

3 hours ago, InkyProf said:

Thanks, @Penguincollector! Those do seem worth trying, for sure. (And Troublemaker Abalone grabs me too!) 

  Abalone is wonderful,  a very paper dependent, DRY chroma shader. I suggest using it in your wettest pen. 
 

3 hours ago, Ceramicist said:

@PenguincollectorGreat pen/ink/paper comparisons! Thank you!

 

  Thank you! These ink tests are fun. The difficult part is getting good pictures, especially this time of year. 

[InkyProf]

53 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

I suggest using it in your wettest pen

 

Noted! I have a couple in mind already. Now to see if I can find the ink! Vanness only has samples...

[USG]

18 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

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:

 

 

 

 

Fantastic PGC 😀👍👍👍  Fabulous !  You got great colors....😀👍

 

18 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

Here’s how Double Ring did with a swatch of different inks: 

 

Very NIce PGC !!!  👍😀

What's the blue ink on the left?

Those are interesting results. 

It looks like you got better action with Fabriano than Iroful.  

[USG]

On 12/16/2025 at 5:34 AM, Lithium466 said:

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

 

Way to go LTM !!!  Which nib did you get?

[USG]

Got a new Ink.  Taccia AO.  So far it's a light blue ink that made me think of one of the washable blue inks.  Hopefully it will darken in the pen.

 

  

The color is more washable blue than how it shows here

 

[inkstainedruth]

Is that sheen or shimmer I'm seeing for AO Blue?  Or both?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Oh yeah, like I REALLY need another blue ink.... 

[Penguincollector]

3 hours ago, USG said:

What's the blue ink on the left?

 The inks on all of those paper strips are the same: L to R: Sailor Yurameku Kyokkou,  a Chinese blue that I have spaced on the translation,(but washable blue type) Sailor Dipton Blue Flame, and Diamine/Cult Pens Platinum Jubilee.

[Penguincollector]

  @USG, Ao for me is a pretty dark royal blue with a lot of sheen that’s either red or pink- have to check my swatch book.

[USG]

2 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  @USG, Ao for me is a pretty dark royal blue with a lot of sheen that’s either red or pink- have to check my swatch book.

 

I've come to realize that these inks are not 100% standardized and vary from batch to batch.  IIRC your Quasar is a light color and mine is very dark.  InkyProf's Verrerie blue was much lighter than mine, which is very dark.

I'll either put this ink in a wet pen or adjust the nib on the Jinhao X159<F> for more flow, or both.  As of right now, light pressure on the Jihhao gives me a line that looks like Quink washable blue.  More pressure darkens up the line and I get some rudimentary sheening that  looks like outlining.

 

5 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Is that sheen or shimmer I'm seeing for AO Blue?  Or both?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Oh yeah, like I REALLY need another blue ink.... 

 

Hi ISR,

In a sufficient concentration, it starts to shade and sheen as in the above pics.  It doesn't have any shimmer.  I'll know more tomorrow when I give it a better workout.

[Lithium466]

9 hours ago, USG said:

 

Way to go LTM !!!  Which nib did you get?

The one that was easily available to me  A regular Fine. 
 

10 hours ago, USG said:

Got a new Ink.  Taccia AO.  So far it's a light blue ink that made me think of one of the washable blue inks.  Hopefully it will darken in the pen.  

The color is more washable blue than how it shows here

 

 

Blasphemy! 😱

Ok this is weird. Are inks becoming more washed out? Did you get a Monday or a Friday bottle? My Taccia Ao has nothing to do with a washable blue...but my latest bottle of Aurora black could be named grey.

 

[USG]

6 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

The one that was easily available to me  A regular Fine. 
 

 

 

Blasphemy! 😱

Ok this is weird. Are inks becoming more washed out? Did you get a Monday or a Friday bottle? My Taccia Ao has nothing to do with a washable blue...but my latest bottle of Aurora black could be named grey.

 

Sorry to hear about your Aurora black.  My Aurora has been the blackest of blacks through many bottles over the years.

I’m not sure what’s going on.  Ingredients become unavailable and formulas change.  Batches come out differently and Quality control from batch to batch isn’t consistent.  
 

The thing is, we only notice the extreme mismatches, so the manufacturers just bottle up and sell everything they make because no one returns a bottle of ink.

 

This is not a recent thing.  My first experience with this  phenomena was with Parker Penman Sapphire.  No way was the ink in the bottle I bought from the second issue, anything like the rave reviews I was reading about.  As a result, it wasn’t a favorite, which is why I have some left.  The Penman Mocha, otoh, was consistent and I went through a few bottles without incident.

 

This inconsistent Quality control from batch is not limited to inks.  I recently posted the results from a new notebook of Fabriano Ecoqua paper, shipped from Fabriano in Italy, that was markedly different from how the same paper behaved with PGC and InkP.  I wonder if it deserves a retest with a different example.  
 

On the paper front, I’m waiting for the price to come down on Canopus paper, like it did with Yu-Sari.  In one post, LizEF wondered if it would make it to full production.  

 

We’ll see how this AO shakes out later today.

[inkstainedruth]

15 hours ago, USG said:

In a sufficient concentration, it starts to shade and sheen as in the above pics.  It doesn't have any shimmer.  I'll know more tomorrow when I give it a better workout.

Thanks for the information.  It was a bit hard to tell which (or both) on my screen.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

@InkyProf mentioned Life paper the other day so I thought I'd break out the Life Notebook I made and run some ink tests.

The Life paper was able to pick up various amounts of shading and sheen but the yellow color distorts ink shades and if it wasn't for the sheen, a lot of the dark inks look similar.

 

 

Dipped the Pilot 823<M>

 

And filled the Jinhao X159<F>

 

The paper didn't do well with a couple of Iroshizuku inks

 

 

But seemed OK here

 

I wrote out the Capri blue in the Sonnet and refilled it, but it's still writing many shades darker than it should.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

On 12/19/2025 at 7:31 PM, USG said:

Sorry to hear about your Aurora black.  My Aurora has been the blackest of blacks through many bottles over the years.

I’m not sure what’s going on.  Ingredients become unavailable and formulas change.  Batches come out differently and Quality control from batch to batch isn’t consistent.  
 

The thing is, we only notice the extreme mismatches, so the manufacturers just bottle up and sell everything they make because no one returns a bottle of ink.

 

This is not a recent thing.  My first experience with this  phenomena was with Parker Penman Sapphire.  No way was the ink in the bottle I bought from the second issue, anything like the rave reviews I was reading about.  As a result, it wasn’t a favorite, which is why I have some left.  The Penman Mocha, otoh, was consistent and I went through a few bottles without incident.

 

This inconsistent Quality control from batch is not limited to inks.  I recently posted the results from a new notebook of Fabriano Ecoqua paper, shipped from Fabriano in Italy, that was markedly different from how the same paper behaved with PGC and InkP.  I wonder if it deserves a retest with a different example.  
 

On the paper front, I’m waiting for the price to come down on Canopus paper, like it did with Yu-Sari.  In one post, LizEF wondered if it would make it to full production.  

 

We’ll see how this AO shakes out later today.

I can't remember, did you already show that Penman Sapphire?

Fabriano, I can send some if you want.

As for Canopus, I hope it will make it to a "fuller production". Yu-Sari came down in price and I hesitated too long and now of course it's not available (to me) anymore.

 

On the ink topic, I wonder how storage condition could contribute. There was a discussion in a local group on buying ink during the winter, when it can freeze. So if you're lucky and the bottle doesn't break (all you have to do is to buy Jinhao inks for ex, my 3001 bottle came 2/3rd full only), what about the ink once it thawed? Is it like frozen food? I'm sure these are silly questions 😇

[USG]

15 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

can't remember, did you already show that Penman Sapphire?

 

This was way back when,  I forgot the year.... The first release of the Penman inks sold out fast.  I bought the 2nd.

 

15 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Fabriano, I can send some if you want.

 

I bought a small Fabriano notebook on Amazon, cut it apart and made one of my twin ring notebooks.  I had high hopes but the paper feathered with a lot of inks.

 

15 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

As for Canopus, I hope it will make it to a "fuller production". Yu-Sari came down in price and I hesitated too long and now of course it's not available (to me) anymore.

 

Canopus turned out to be OK, which is more than I can say about Yu-Sari, which suffers from slipping and skipping.  I haven't used up the 30 pages I bought in Jan.

 

15 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

On the ink topic, I wonder how storage condition could contribute. There was a discussion in a local group on buying ink during the winter, when it can freeze. So if you're lucky and the bottle doesn't break (all you have to do is to buy Jinhao inks for ex, my 3001 bottle came 2/3rd full only), what about the ink once it thawed? Is it like frozen food? I'm sure these are silly questions 😇

 

I wonder how cold it would have to be to freeze a bottle of ink?  I don't know if there is anything in ink that would be hurt by freezing, except the glass bottle.  I think if there was a problem we would have heard about it by now.  🤷‍♂️

 

So on another topic, did you get the gold nib for your 601?  I'm curious to see how that worked out.

 

Pens:  This has been an incredible year for Chinese pens.  I ended up with a bunch of Asvines, Majohns, Jinhaos, WingSung/YongSheng/JunLais, and the big Jun Lai 930, which I initially got with a F nib, but it turned out to be too fine for a pen of that size, so I replaced it with a M.

 

The sleeper of the year turned out to be an eye dropper Majohn C4 that came to life with a Kaigelu Long Blade nib after sitting around since Feb. '23.

 

[Mechanical]

On 12/19/2025 at 12:45 AM, USG said:

Got a new Ink.  Taccia AO.  So far it's a light blue ink that made me think of one of the washable blue inks.  Hopefully it will darken in the pen.

I'm fond of Quink Washable Blue ink and I can see that the Taccia Ao is also to my taste.  In a wet pen, the Quink comes out more saturated and that might be the case with the Taccia as well.  I think it's a matter of laying down more ink per inch and, thus, more dye per inch.

 

10 hours ago, USG said:

Pens:  This has been an incredible year for Chinese pens. 

That Junlai 930 is a terrific pen.  It's one of the stars of the year for me as well.  I'm still using the <F> nib I got originally; I'm just learning to write larger with it. :-)  My absolute favorite pen acquisition of the year is the Pilot Custom 823: it holds a lot of ink, has a wonderful nib, feels good in my hand, and  the transparent body tells me how much ink is left.  And I like the "safety valve" closure when the piston cap is screwed down.

[USG]

11 hours ago, Mechanical said:

'm fond of Quink Washable Blue ink and I can see that the Taccia Ao is also to my taste.  In a wet pen, the Quink comes out more saturated and that might be the case with the Taccia as well.  I think it's a matter of laying down more ink per inch and, thus, more dye per inch.

 

Hi MCL

You could be right.  A heavier flow should result in a darker color.

 

To test that, I dipped my 823 in it to see what happens in a pen with a heavier flow.  Good news, it was darker and developed a sheen in the areas where the shading was darker.  Still not sure if it's the right ink for the 823.

 

 

Unfortunately, the shading and sheen didn't come out on Clairefontaine.

 

 

11 hours ago, Mechanical said:

That Junlai 930 is a terrific pen.  It's one of the stars of the year for me as well.  I'm still using the <F> nib I got originally; I'm just learning to write larger with it. :-)  My absolute favorite pen acquisition of the year is the Pilot Custom 823: it holds a lot of ink, has a wonderful nib, feels good in my hand, and  the transparent body tells me how much ink is left.  And I like the "safety valve" closure when the piston cap is screwed down.

 

The 930 is indeed the best pen to come out of China this year.  What ink do you have in yours?  I had mine dipped in Diamine China Blue (which 'outlines') but now I'm trying AO.  I'm also considering First Love Dye which, which as you know, is another nice blue ink.

 

I completely agree with you about the 823. It's right up there as a favorite pen.... if only I could settle on an ink for it. 🤷‍♂️ 🤓