EFNIR: Pilot Mixable Colour Turquoise

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Pilot Mixable Colour Turquoise

This is review #273 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This is close to the standard turquoise, but with a slight difference that I can't describe, but that I like.

As with my other cartridges from this pack, a bit had evaporated, so I added a few drops of distilled water to top off the cartridge to where the disc was.  This ink feathered in the dot grid pages of my 2024 Hobonichi Techo A6!  That should be the same as the daily pages (which have not feathered) and should be the new/current Tomoe River paper!  Also feathered a little on Rhodia and Rhodia premium. (After finishing the review, I topped off the cartridge with water - it's now about 1 part water to 3 parts ink - and moved it to an EF Kakuno. Handled dilution very well, behaves much better diluted - no feathering noticed.  Still takes eternity to dry.)

Cleaning was quick and easy with plain water.  The microscope slide was dullsville.

(Erratum: "I" should be "It".)

Zoomed in photo (Text is a little too green.)

Screenshot (Color is pretty close. This is closest to what my eyes see.)

Scan of Completed Review (Text is slightly too green.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Color isn't too far off; my eyes don't see that "glow" around the text. :))

Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 324µm. With 273 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.)

Other (Ink is diluted to about 1 part water to 3 parts ink. Pen was Pilot Kakuno EF. Done for InesF's Monthly Ink Challenge.)

Previous Review: KWZ El Dorado.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[I-am-not-really-here]

Odd, but nothing that you show looks Turquoise to me.  It's all ballpoint-y ickiness.

 

Thanks for the review!

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Odd, but nothing that you show looks Turquoise to me.  It's all ballpoint-y ickiness.

Sometimes the cameras just don't like a color.  Also, I'm finding that one of my monitors makes everything lean green and the other leans blue.  Heaven knows what everyone else's monitors / screens are doing...  It's strange how some colors come out perfect and others all wrong.  This does look turquoise on my monitors, though.

 

If you have one of the basic turquoises (Waterman, Pelikan 4001, Sheaffer, Lamy), this is not that different from those.  It might be a little more blue than they are, but it's still turquoise. (FWIW)

 

8 minutes ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Thanks for the review!

You're very welcome!

[yazeh]

Excellant riview @LizEF  

Despite it being another Pilot Mixable cartridge (inward groan ) it didn't affect my desire to know more about our 3 heroes and Vika.

I'm not sure, if I agree with the quote, maybe I need to get older

 

Looking forward to next week and new adventures

 

[LizEF]

15 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Excellant riview @LizEF  

Thanks!

 

16 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Despite it being another Pilot Mixable cartridge (inward groan )

Sorry.  I'm trying to chug my way through them before they evaporate entirely!  (In other words, pre-apologies as there will be more - about every 4th review or so.)

 

17 minutes ago, yazeh said:

...it didn't affect my desire to know more about our 3 heroes and Vika.

Thank you!

 

17 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I'm not sure, if I agree with the quote, maybe I need to get older

Yeah, I imagine a lot of us won't agree with that quote.  It seems like one for a few generations ago, not so much anymore.

 

18 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Looking forward to next week and new adventures

Thanks!

[Sailor Kenshin]

First, @LizEF, a huge heartfelt thanks! For making Tuesdays special.  💝

 

Random thoughts: love the story turn, the sketch, AND turquoise inks. I think I even have the Pilot, not to mention Lamy, Sheaffer, and some of the other comparisons.

 

Eerie background moans...perfect for the story.

 

Some turquoise inks do have a little je ne sais quoi, like Iro Ku Jaku.  I'll have to try this one soon and see how je ne it is.

 

Write about home?  Seems like I always do, even when it's a sci-fant novel.  😺

[Paul-in-SF]

This thread is treading on sensitive ground -- what is turquoise? The eponymous stones come in a wide array of colors, from mostly-blue to mostly-green, so that's no help. I think it's a term of art, that is unfixed except in individual opinions.

 

Like mine -- my opinion is that many inks that are sold as turquoise don't have enough green in them, and many of them are better described as "light blue." (Not speaking to this particular ink, nor to any of the ones described as "basic turquoises.") I wonder sometimes whether the title is even useful. 

[LizEF]

43 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

First, @LizEF, a huge heartfelt thanks! For making Tuesdays special.  💝

You're most welcome!

 

43 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Random thoughts: love the story turn, the sketch, AND turquoise inks. I think I even have the Pilot, not to mention Lamy, Sheaffer, and some of the other comparisons.

Thanks!

 

43 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Eerie background moans...perfect for the story.

Serendipity!

 

43 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Some turquoise inks do have a little je ne sais quoi, like Iro Ku Jaku.  I'll have to try this one soon and see how je ne it is.

 

53 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Write about home?  Seems like I always do, even when it's a sci-fant novel.  😺

[LizEF]

47 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

This thread is treading on sensitive ground -- what is turquoise? The eponymous stones come in a wide array of colors, from mostly-blue to mostly-green, so that's no help. I think it's a term of art, that is unfixed except in individual opinions.

In this case, and in the (future posting) case of Pelikan 4001 Turquoise, it's the color none of my cameras like very much.

 

48 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Like mine -- my opinion is that many inks that are sold as turquoise don't have enough green in them, and many of them are better described as "light blue." (Not speaking to this particular ink, nor to any of the ones described as "basic turquoises.") I wonder sometimes whether the title is even useful. 

Yes, I'd have to agree with this.  It's part of the reason my inks database (and online spreadsheet) doesn't have a "Turquoise" option for the "Ink Color" field - I just lump them all in "Blue".  Too hard to decide what's Turquoise, what's Cyan, what's Light Blue or any other shade of Blue, so I just call them all "Blue".  (I do have a separate Blue-Black, but that's probably stupid of me - I do love blue-blacks, though, and try to separate those out, but it's another "where do you draw the line?" situation.)

[yazeh]

4 hours ago, LizEF said:

Sorry.  I'm trying to chug my way through them before they evaporate entirely!  (In other words, pre-apologies as there will be more - about every 4th review or so.)

Don't be. You're doing a great job. I'm just a bit of cranky

 

[LizEF]

4 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Don't be. You're doing a great job. I'm just a bit of cranky

  I could sneak in a nice Noodler's somewhere, maybe something Polar...? 

[yazeh]

3 minutes ago, LizEF said:

  I could sneak in a nice Noodler's somewhere, maybe something Polar...? 

 You know me well 

[LizEF]

20 minutes ago, yazeh said:

 You know me well 

[Paul-in-SF]

5 hours ago, LizEF said:

in the (future posting) case of Pelikan 4001 Turquoise

Looking forward to that. 

[InesF]

Thank you, @LizEF, always a pleasure to read your reviews and this is no exception.

I love this suspense like tension in a story when everybody else seems to know something (staring at our main characters) but our heroes are clueless.   

 

Hmm, I'm not that critical, I would call it turquoise. Maybe a turquoise on the darker side. I love the colour and the shading but I'm a bit disappointed about the feathering (as told elsewhere, before). Turquoise inks are in most cases quite mixable in their standard recipe and do not need to feather at all.

 

What's behind the door? I hope so much, you will tell us next week.  

Six sleepless nights ahead ... 😐 

[LizEF]

16 minutes ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @LizEF, always a pleasure to read your reviews and this is no exception.

You're very welcome.  And thanks!

 

16 minutes ago, InesF said:

I love this suspense like tension in a story when everybody else seems to know something (staring at our main characters) but our heroes are clueless.   

 

16 minutes ago, InesF said:

Hmm, I'm not that critical, I would call it turquoise. Maybe a turquoise on the darker side. I love the colour and the shading but I'm a bit disappointed about the feathering (as told elsewhere, before). Turquoise inks are in most cases quite mixable in their standard recipe and do not need to feather at all.

I think it's probably the high concentration of dye plus whatever makes it really wet and well-lubricated - a perfect storm, so to speak.

 

18 minutes ago, InesF said:

What's behind the door? I hope so much, you will tell us next week.  

 

18 minutes ago, InesF said:

Six sleepless nights ahead ... 😐 

Welcome to my life.  Neighbor has a rooster that wants me up well before dawn, cat wants to stay up late into the night.  My introverted brain struggles to fall asleep at all....  It's starting to take its toll.  I'm wondering how my body would tolerate sleeping from 1400 to 2200 ish.

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Welcome to my life.  Neighbor has a rooster that wants me up well before dawn, cat wants to stay up late into the night. 

I freely admit that the following thought came from the Dark Side of my brain, so caveat lectrix and all that, buut…

 

…have you considered the idea of arranging a nocturnal introduction for said rooster to a certain velvety-black-furred resident of chez Liz…? 😉

 

Wrt inks, how would you say this Pilot elixir compares to Lamy Turquoise?

That was the first ‘turquoise’ ink that I bought, and I still like it.
I do also have a bottle of Pelikan 4001 Turquoise, and although I have found its colour to be pleasing, and similar to that of the Lamy ink, I have found that it spreads/bleeds a bit more than does its competitor from Heidelberg.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Mercian said:

…have you considered the idea of arranging a nocturnal introduction for said rooster to a certain velvety-black-furred resident of chez Liz…? 😉

That and worse. (Sleep deprivation tends to make you emotionally unstable...)

 

1 hour ago, Mercian said:

Wrt inks, how would you say this Pilot elixir compares to Lamy Turquoise?

Lamy is one of the comparison swatches at the start of the video.  It's a little paler, maybe a little less blue.  I'm not sure - I often have a very hard time distinguishing what makes two colors different.  I suspect I'd have to do chroma on both, but I no longer have any Lamy Turquoise.

 

1 hour ago, Mercian said:

I do also have a bottle of Pelikan 4001 Turquoise, and although I have found its colour to be pleasing, and similar to that of the Lamy ink, I have found that it spreads/bleeds a bit more than does its competitor from Heidelberg.

A friend gifted me a 30mL bottle of this, but I only had the cartridge of Lamy.  I think I like Waterman best.  My complaint about Pelikan is that it dries on the threads and flecks fall away when you open the bottle, but they're so small that you don't see them until they're re-wet by accident, so turquoise keeps showing up in the strangest places for the next week after you filled the pen...

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

My complaint about Pelikan is that it dries on the threads and flecks fall away when you open the bottle, but they're so small that you don't see them until they're re-wet by accident, so turquoise keeps showing up in the strangest places for the next week after you filled the pen...

Ooh! Thanks for the heads-up; I shall watch out for that!

[Claes]

@Mercian Re flecks Check your Msgs