EFNIR: Collection Traced Xing

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Collection Traced Xing

This is review #374 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This ink from China was gifted to me by a generous FPNer. My apologies for not including the Chinese name of this ink-my database language doesn't support double-byte characters, nor do I know how to write them properly. Please see my inks spreadsheet which now has a tab with both the Chinese and English ink names. This is a chroma-shading ink. Since this attribute can be less stable over time, I'm reviewing all of them out of sequence.

In the inset on the swatch card (the CRENA paper), I see blue and pink as well as a richer green. My swatch card turned the base color into a boring pale green. I don't really have any inks to compare with this.

Cleaning was ridiculously quick and easy.

Zoomed in photo (Color is off in a way I don't know how to describe.)

Screenshot (Text is too dark and maybe not saturated enough.)

Scan of Completed Review (Color is almost perfect! Go by this image.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Colors are fairly close, but as usual, the image looks blotchy where my eyes can't see that.)

Line width (Roughly 313µm. The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. With 374 inks measured, the average line width is 299µm.) (Perhaps it's not as dry as I thought, given this is a wider-than-average line width.)

Swatch card comparison (Xing is fairly close, but you can't see the pink in the mini CRENA swatch card. The other three are too saturated and too dark)

Microscope image (100x. The blue and green are a little too saturated, but this was the ink: mostly a sea of green, some blue washes, and spots of pink-purple.)

Microscope image (400x. Most of the slide was pale green, with areas of pale blue and dots of pinkish purple, but this thing formed by Saturday. Colors are close to what I saw.)

Alternate Papers (All colors are fairly close to reality!)

Previous Review: Yunjingtang Daydreaming of a Beauty.

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. Or read Part 8: The Ice Fields Adventure.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Awesome.  The second micro is a particle accelerator, with Caspar The Friendly Ghost in there.  Of course there's growling and moaning… 

 

I almost like the base color.  Almost.

 

And I am worried about our heroes!  Can't wait for the next installment. Thanks, @LizEF! 

[LizEF]

23 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Awesome.  The second micro is a particle accelerator, with Caspar The Friendly Ghost in there.  Of course there's growling and moaning…

  Oh, I see him.  My first thought was "the birth of a galaxy".

 

23 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I almost like the base color.  Almost.

 I know the feeling.

 

25 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

And I am worried about our heroes!  Can't wait for the next installment.

 Thanks!

 

26 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks, @LizEF! 

You're most welcome!

[Sailor Kenshin]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

  Oh, I see him.  My first thought was "the birth of a galaxy".

 

 I know the feeling.

 

 Thanks!

 

You're most welcome!

 

Birth of a Galaxy = even better!   

[LizEF]

19 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Birth of a Galaxy = even better!   

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting color, but might be a little on the pale side to be really legible on the page (although I also found that it was interesting that it came across as darker on the Iroful paper). 

But thanks as usual for the review.   

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Interesting color, but might be a little on the pale side to be really legible on the page (although I also found that it was interesting that it came across as darker on the Iroful paper). 

But thanks as usual for the review.   

 You're most welcome!  A larger or wetter nib would make it more legible, regardless of the paper, but for those of us in the US, it may not be worth the effort to have it shipped in from China.  

[inkstainedruth]

True enough.  Especially at the moment, with all the brouhaha about tariffs.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[yazeh]

Great review @LizEF.

I like the colour but there are many cheaper inks available, especially as the chromo-shading is not visible with "normal" fountain pens. These inks remind me of the early shimmer inks and all the problems they had. I doubt at this stage if they are worth the hassle of ordering them. 

 

I love how you create such a poetic and magical scene with our heros. Beautiful writing. 👏

 

Microscopic image reminds me amethyst crystals. 

 

Thanks for exploring these ink and brings colour to these grey/ white cold days. 🙏🙏🙏

[LizEF]

9 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Great review @LizEF.

Thanks!

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I like the colour but there are many cheaper inks available, especially as the chromo-shading is not visible with "normal" fountain pens. These inks remind me of the early shimmer inks and all the problems they had. I doubt at this stage if they are worth the hassle of ordering them. 

Could be that this ink has "aged out" of the chromashading. Or maybe it's just meant to be multiple shades of green. Or, as you say, normal FPs won't cut it.   Whatever.  In part, this review is also for those who can easily get this ink.

 

12 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I love how you create such a poetic and magical scene with our heros. Beautiful writing. 👏

 Thanks!

 

12 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Microscopic image reminds me amethyst crystals. 

Yes! It does look rather crystal-like.

 

12 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for exploring these ink and brings colour to these grey/ white cold days. 🙏🙏🙏

 You're very welcome!

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

I like the colour but there are many cheaper inks available,

 

There are, but Collection Traced inks are actually not expensive with regard to their item prices for either chromatographic shading inks, or Chinese inks designed to appeal to hobbyists and those who ‘play’ with inks in their home market. There are Chinese brands such as Backstage Forest and UnChroma in that segment that price their products uncompetitively and also not offering any ready option for ordering bottles/volumes larger than 20ml, thus getting close to the price per millilitre of Sailor Yurameku inks in the Chinese market.

 

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

In part, this review is also for those who can easily get this ink.

 

It's as easy to get as Hosia, KittyInkpot, etc. on AliExpress. (I went there in an anonymous browser session just now, without signing into my account, and used Alabama as the delivery destination.)

 

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

Could be that this ink has "aged out" of the chromashading.

 

I'll check the bottle later, in the next 24–48 hours.

 

These are the official marketing images for the ink:

which correspond reasonably to what I saw on the CRENA swatch card.

 

Anyway, thanks again for producing another review!

 

[yazeh]

@A Smug Dill maybe, I'm looking the wrong place, but each bottle of Hosia, Kitty Ink Pot, are as expensive as Japanese or Edelstein inks.  And I couldn't find Collection Traced on AliExpress.

The chromo-shading effect with many of the ink is barely perceptible with normal fountain pens, unless one uses a flex, fude or dip pen. 

These inks reminds me of the early sheening inks, like Émeraude de Chivor and it's "sheening" property which wasn't visible on Rhodia but only on classic Tomoe River paper. 

 

On the plus side, when I do ink washes the beauty of these inks emerge. The colour and complexity of the dyes are stunning.  

[LizEF]

50 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

It's as easy to get as Hosia, KittyInkpot, etc. on AliExpress. (I went there in an anonymous browser session just now, without signing into my account, and used Alabama as the delivery destination.)

While this is easy (in terms of the steps required to accomplish the task), in my mind, it's not easy because I've heard too many stories of Americans who ordered from sites like Aliexpress and ended up with false charges on their credit card, didn't receive the (right) product, and similar difficulties. As someone from the generation that reportedly trusts no one, I'm not willing to risk that - not even for Mao She.  

 

48 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

These are the official marketing images for the ink:

...

which corresponds reasonably to what I saw on the CRENA swatch card.

Thanks! Also, sorry: I think I confused this in my head with another ink. You're right, the CRENA swatch card does show a little bit of pink in the heaviest area, so one can expect that from a nib that puts down a lot of ink.

 

49 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Anyway, thanks again for producing another review!

 You're most welcome!

[A Smug Dill]

6 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I couldn't find Collection Traced on AliExpress.

 

Yes, someone in a Facebook group also made that remark to me.

 

The AliExpress seller who lists all these uncommon Chinese inks still offers Collection Traced inks, it's just that now they're grouped under ”Other brands ink”, and it isn't until the second or third page of listings under there that you'd see them. The words “Collection Traced” isn't in the listing, either, so you can't find it or land on it by keyword searching.

 

11 minutes ago, yazeh said:

each bottle of Hosia, Kitty Ink Pot, are as expensive as Japanese or Edelstein inks.

 

 

That AliExpress seller is listing the 19ml bottles of Collection Traced inks at USD 23.46 today (and shipping charges are non-nil). The price in Collection Traced official store's listing on Taobao is less than that figure in CNY. Today's conversion rate is CNY 1.00 ≈ USD 0.144, so the ‘price’ you'd see is more than sevenfold how Collection Traced has priced its inks (in that bottle size).

[A Smug Dill]

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

maybe, I'm looking the wrong place, but each bottle of Hosia, Kitty Ink Pot, are as expensive as Japanese or Edelstein inks.

 

I cannot find a local stockist (i.e. based in Australia) that carries Collection Traced and KittyInkpot as well as Sailor; but Soe & Soe would be loosely comparable with Desk Bandit in where they stand as retailers, especially (as far as I'm aware) when neither of them are commercially authorised retailers for those brands/company that have no official distributor and thus no citable MSRP or RRP in the Australian market. So, let's take a look, from where I stand, at their list prices absent limited-time-only and/or coupon-code discounts.

 

 

 

Price per milliltre is still significantly lower for the Collection Traced ink in a 19ml bottle, in spite of the far higher level of mark-up, than for Sailor ink in 20ml bottles. The lowest I've seen (and been able to get) Sailor Yurameka inks, on a clearance basis (or at least I have not seen the particular retailer restock sold-out ink colours not discontinued by Sailor itself) and stacked with something like a Black Friday site-wide discount, from a local retailer was AUD $17.36; but that wouldn't be a fair point for reference, when I know Soe & Soe also offers discounts from time to time that I don't watch out for.

 

(Oh, and I've since seen the Yurameku inks offered on Taobao for less than what I paid, but still more than double the list price of Collection Traced inks on a per-millilitre basis.)

[yazeh]

@A Smug Dill Thanks for all the research and info. I got my samples from Soe & Soe after seeing one of your earlier reviews.

[Baggins]

As always great review. I use B nibs usually, but your reviews introduce new inks and unknown brands (for me). 
So very much appreciated what you do.

[LizEF]

4 hours ago, Baggins said:

As always great review. I use B nibs usually, but your reviews introduce new inks and unknown brands (for me). 
So very much appreciated what you do.

 Thanks! Am very happy to introduce you to new inks.