EFNIR: De Atramentis Alexander Hamilton

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: De Atramentis Alexander Hamilton

This is review #387 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This ink was gifted to me by a generous FPGeek. The microscope slide was boring. Gold sheen was easy to see on the slide, but not from this nib, suggesting it only sheens from very wet nibs.

Dry time is a guestimate. Cleaning was easy with plain water, but expect to do some extra flushes due to dye concentration.

Erratum: There's an "a" that should be an "e".

Zoomed in photo (The light parts are too light, but otherwise, fairly close.)

Photo (formerly screenshot) (Text is too dark and undersaturated. Go by the scan instead.)

Scan of Completed Review (Very close. Probably the best color reproduction.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (AP: Very close to what I see. CP: It's darker in real life, and a solid color - no hint of the lighter spots the image shows.)

Line width (Roughly 314µm. The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. With 387 inks measured, the average line width is 299µm.)

Swatch card comparison (Colors are fairly close!)

Previous Review: Kitty Inkpot Elegy of the Fallen.

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!

[yazeh]

Another great review @LizEF.

This was my first De Atramentis ink. It was also one of my early attempts at drawing.  Feels like a life time ago. 

I had a chuckle at this ink trying to bleed through but not achieving it's (ultimate) goal, I hope not.

But my favourite part is Essri, Eenees and dragons. Looking forward to the next adventure, new inks and EE (Essri's Elders). 

 

Thanks for bringing inky magic to this glorious spring day.🙏🙏🙏

 

P.S. Ferovere as opposed to ferro-gallic? 

 

 

 

 

 

[LizEF]

6 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Another great review @LizEF.

Thanks!

 

6 minutes ago, yazeh said:

This was my first De Atramentis ink. It was also one of my early attempts at drawing.  Feels like a life time ago. 

  I think I had this - under the name Aubergine - way back in 2016 or so - but it was so dark from the EF nib that I didn't get a bottle.  I think it was one of the first that showed me how different an ink can be from an EF.

 

7 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I had a chuckle at this ink trying to bleed through but not achieving it's (ultimate) goal, I hope not.

 Every now and then there's an ink that makes the attempt, but doesn't succeed. It's very rare for anything from a Japanese EF to bleed.

 

8 minutes ago, yazeh said:

But my favourite part is Essri, Eenees and dragons. Looking forward to the next adventure, new inks and EE (Essri's Elders). 

 

8 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing inky magic to this glorious spring day.🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome!  Glad to hear it's good weather up there!

 

9 minutes ago, yazeh said:

P.S. Ferovere as opposed to ferro-gallic? 

 I forget where the name came from.  Possibly a translation of some meaningful word into some obscure language, or maybe just a bunch of sounds I strung together.  

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is a good legible poiple ink, even if I am not a fan of the purples.  It's even tempting!  And I can imagine myself writing with it.

 

But those groans you hear?  Me, bemoaning the 4evarrr dry time.  
 

You make Tuesdays magical and fun... I always look forward to the review and story and can't wait to vithit Etthri'th village.  Thanks, @LizEF!   👏🏻 🐍 💝

[LizEF]

6 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

This is a good legible poiple ink, even if I am not a fan of the purples.  It's even tempting!  And I can imagine myself writing with it.

 For me, a little purple goes a long way, which is good, because I don't have very strong preferences for which of the umpteen billion shades of purple I prefer. 

 

7 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

But those groans you hear?  Me, bemoaning the 4evarrr dry time.

 It's not really forever.  In test, it dried faster, so I didn't add another mark during the review. I'm sure it would have fully dried by 25 seconds.  Long? A little, but it's not like the ones that take more than 2 minutes!

 

9 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

You make Tuesdays magical and fun... I always look forward to the review and story and can't wait to vithit Etthri'th village.

 Thanks!

 

9 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks, @LizEF!   👏🏻 🐍 💝

 You're most welcome!

[Sailor Kenshin]

For a southpaw hooker, 20 seconds is an eternity. 

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

For a southpaw hooker, 20 seconds is an eternity. 

[yazeh]

3 hours ago, LizEF said:

 I forget where the name came from.  Possibly a translation of some meaningful word into some obscure language, or maybe just a bunch of sounds I strung together.  

I fed it to ChatGPT: 

1. Real language: West Frisian

The solid linguistic hit is West Frisian. Ferovere appears as a form meaning “conquered,” “captured,” or “won.” For example, one West Frisian vocabulary source gives “wy sille jim ferovere ha / hawwe” as “we will have conquered you all.”

So the real-language meaning is basically:

ferovere = conquered / captured / won over

That also fits with related Dutch veroveren, “to conquer / capture / win over.”

2. Invented/fantasy world: yes, “Mount Ferovere”

I found a fantasy usage: Mount Ferovere appears in The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh: Part 3: The Old Goat. In that story, characters are summoned to Mount Ferovere, to the Wizards’ Palace, before the High Wizard.

 

 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

I fed it to ChatGPT: 

[...unimportant nonsense...]

2. Invented/fantasy world: yes, “Mount Ferovere”

I found a fantasy usage: Mount Ferovere appears in The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh: Part 3: The Old Goat. In that story, characters are summoned to Mount Ferovere, to the Wizards’ Palace, before the High Wizard.

 

 

 I'm famous!  Or infamous...  

[LizEF]

Meanwhile, we need a name for Essri's village! 🐍  Suggestions welcome from any and all!    If it will help, here's what we know:

• It's in a forest, in the mountains (on a south-facing slope, of course, where they can enjoy the sun) NW of Ferovere, beyond the Goat Lands, in the vicinity of the Muirdoor
• It's a snek village
• Sneks have "elders" - respected leaders who pass down the snek lore from generation to generation
• Sneks (generally) don't read or write (these being a challenge for creatures without arms or legs), and so their legends are oral.
• Snek legend says their magic¹ was a gift from dragons because they were dragon-friends (back when there were dragons)
  • ¹Snek magic varies from individual to individual. Not all are "finders" like Essri.
• Essri ran away from home because the other sneks made fun of his lisp.

Should anyone wish to propose some snek lore about dragons and snek history, I welcome your ideas!   (They may not survive the back of my brain, but I promise to feed them into the story-generator!)

[lamarax]

This one (a.k.a Aubergine), might well be my "grail" ink color, if there's such a thing  

 

Problem is, there's no hint of shading whatsoever, like with all De Atramentis inks  

 

I've got it stagnating inside a LAMY 2000 <F>, which I'm not particularly fond of 😐

[LizEF]

36 minutes ago, lamarax said:

This one (a.k.a Aubergine), might well be my "grail" ink color, if there's such a thing  

 

36 minutes ago, lamarax said:

Problem is, there's no hint of shading whatsoever, like with all De Atramentis inks  

Well, I wouldn't say all, but the wetness can have that effect, especially in any pen that's not bone dry.

 

37 minutes ago, lamarax said:

I've got it stagnating inside a LAMY 2000 <F>, which I'm not particularly fond of 😐

Ah, yeah, no shading in that combo (from what I hear about the 2000).   Time to find yourself a bone dry pen.   

[USG]

11 hours ago, LizEF said:

 I'm famous! 

 

Of course you are ....😀👍

In terms of purples, I prefer blue leaning purples... 🤷‍♂️

[yazeh]

15 hours ago, LizEF said:

 I'm famous!  Or infamous...  

The infamous Efnir.  

[yazeh]

19 hours ago, LizEF said:

  I think I had this - under the name Aubergine - way back in 2016 or so - but it was so dark from the EF nib that I didn't get a bottle.  I think it was one of the first that showed me how different an ink can be from an EF.

Inkswatch considers this Aubergine, Alex Hamilton.

https://inkswatch.com/ink.html?inkId=156

 

Vanness even goes further: 

https://vanness1938.com/products/deatramentis-standard-aubergine

 

Aubergine is also known as: Alexander Hamilton, Giacomo Puccini, Louise Aston, Laura Biagoitti Roma (Perfume ink No 7), Birthday, Titus Flavius Caesar, Algiz Rune, Paul Cezanne, Paris & Louis Renalt.

 

14 hours ago, LizEF said:

Suggestions welcome from any and all!

I'll get back to you. But, I already have a title, The Last Dragon.....

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, USG said:

Of course you are ....😀👍

😊

 

6 hours ago, USG said:

In terms of purples, I prefer blue leaning purples... 🤷‍♂️

 I can't seem to make up my mind as there are beautiful ones in both directions, and as soon as I put them next to each other, they change sides.   Thankfully, purple isn't a color I feel strongly about, or this might be a form of torture.

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

The infamous Efnir.  

 

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

Inkswatch considers this Aubergine, Alex Hamilton.

...

Vanness even goes further: 

 

3 hours ago, yazeh said:

I'll get back to you. But, I already have a title, The Last Dragon.....

 Pretty sure that title is already in use...

[inkstainedruth]

Trying to remember now if I have this one (but under the "standard" name of Aubergine).  Of course, I'm still in the process of porting files from the old laptop to the new one and can't remember what's on which at the moment (yesterday I was going crazy trying to find the NaPoWriMo folder -- only to realize it's now on the NEW computer... ).

And have gotten two calls already this AM from my husband, who had emergency intestinal surgery a couple of days ago -- apparently he's been released from the hospital TODAY but has been told different times by different people....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

4 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

the process of porting files from the old laptop to the new one

The worst part of having computers!

 

4 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

And have gotten two calls already this AM from my husband, who had emergency intestinal surgery a couple of days ago -- apparently he's been released from the hospital TODAY but has been told different times by different people....

Glad to hear he's escaping the hospital!   Best wishes for a full and quick recovery.

[inkstainedruth]

And of course it's now HARDER to scroll down the page (and harder to click on the correct part of the screen in order to find the sidebar to do that).  Because God FORBID that anyone at Apple knows how to write unit tests to make sure their "upgrades" don't break something ELSE in the process....   I'm now having to RELEARN where to click on a window so I can do that without suddenly having to fix some mistake.  

Now thinking of the time when that chick on the phone from "Creative Media" (a different flavor of Apple Support) did a screen share session and told me that I couldn't have multiple lines of text in a center header field in Pages -- because, "See -- it's greyed out in the sidebar!"  And I was like, "SINCE WHEN!?"  And was SOOOOO tempted to ask her how old she was, because I was just betting I'd been using Apple products (starting with a -- used -- one of the little box computers back in the early 1990s IIRC) as long as she'd been alive; and MAYBE longer.... 🤬  And I'm not a techie by ANY stretch of the imagination but DO understand the concept of "garbage in/garbage out"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth