The senses: smell

[cfclark]

I loved the smell of the former Waterman Blue Black. Nowadays something changed, it doesn't smell like ink any more.

 

greetings,

Anna

 

I was going to post the same thing--my current bottle is still old enough that it has that smell. I guess I'll be disappointed when I have to restock.

 

[cfclark]

My favorite is Omas Blue- lovely odor. Sometimes, you can find me with a tiny dot of the stuff at the end of my nose- the smell is distinctive enough to smell it off of the nib, and I'll use the smell of the nib to tell (before writing with the pen) if I inked it with Omas Blue or another blue.

 

I hadn't noticed that before but, having a bottle of that very ink on my desk, I picked it up and sniffed--very nice, reminds me of tempera paint from childhood for some reason, or maybe the smell of an art supply store when you first walk in.

[Joe in Seattle]

Waterman's purple used to have a very distinktive inky smell. I found it agreeable.

 

The last couple bottles I bought seem to have been deodorized, unfortunately.

[RevAaron]

The other Hero inks aren't like the 234. It's carbon particle ink. I just sniffed the Hero Blue/Black ink that I have and it has a sort of solvent-y odor to it, not terrible at all. But the hero 234 has an odor that triggered a reflex in me that said, "This stuff is bad! Get away from it!" It doesn't just smell awful it smells dangerous.

 

Our sense of smell is a fascinating thing...

 

I also have some Hero carbon ink. I assume it's no. 234, but I'd have to check. To me, the 234 didn't smell like burning rubber- I only smell a solvent odor, with an undertone of ash, sort of a thickness rather than an odor. Can't wait to get home so I can smell it again to check...

 

Regarding women's noses: indeed, they are superior. There is also a lot of genetic variability as well as variability triggered by changes of hormones- pregnant women have incredible noses. People also perceive those odors differnetly. Might have something to do with individual or sexual differences, but my wife thought that Omas Blue smelled pretty nasty- I think it's got a lovely sent, if a bit strong. She also thinks the camphor smell of celluloid is nasty, whilst I *love* it- I could sniff that all day.

 

I'll have to try the Hero Carbon out on her tonight!

 

It's like paperwhite daffodils- a lot of people, especially women, seem to think they smell nice. To me, they smell like cat (bleep) that someone tried to cover up with some Febreze or spotshot.

[HerosNSuch]

Found it. It's made by a local woman out of her stationary shop. It's called Rosanne Ink and it's not available outside of the immediate area for now.(I already checked.) And, as I expected, it does get packaged in whatever bottles are cheapest to hr at the time that a batch is made.

 

BTW: It is dip/printing/brush ink only and will absolutely make a mess of a fountain pen feed according to one local stationer who carries it.

[stevlight]

I LOVE the smell of Namiki black--but not everyone does!!

[Slush99]

Black Magic Blue smells STRONG. :sick:

[Garageboy]

Noodler's has a weird unusual plastic smell to it that I can't put an eye on

[minemap]

Black Magic Blue smells STRONG. :sick:

 

Yeah it's strong, it's the one that first made me think about this! Out of the 6 bottles in front of me though I think it smells by far the best. It wafts up from my paper as I write

[RevAaron]

OK, sniffed the Hero 234... smells like sumi ink. Or paint. To my nose, at least.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

OK, sniffed the Hero 234... smells like sumi ink. Or paint. To my nose, at least.

Okay, it could sort of smell like some paints.

 

The olfactory sense is very subjective, of course. The vocabulary for it is pretty thin too; things smell like other things, and if you have never smelled the reference you don't know what the writer is talking about. All that Remembrance of Things Past stuff comes welling up out of some very primitive parts of the brain.

[bugmd]

I cannot believe that no one has commented on the aroma of Waterman Havana Brown. I love the ink so I tolerate the malodorous nature of it.

 

BTW I do like the MB Christmas inks, at least the ones that I have had a whiff of.

[wrath186]

All of my Noodler's inks smell like Elmer's glue, at least to me they do. Levenger's Fireball smells a little rotten kind of like bad breath.

[dumdummuoi]

This thread is sorta dead, but I just remembered what the worst-smelling ink I've ever used was: Diamine Quartz Black. I swear, the stuff smells like petroleum. Nasty! Anyone else experience this, or is it just my bottle?

[johnboz]

+1 fro vintage Sheaffer Skrip.

 

Here's another +1 for just about any vintage ink.

 

I did get a bottle of vintage Waterman's Black that smelled exactly like green olives. It made me a little queasy when I opened it. I let it air out a bit and now it smells a little more "normal", but still strong.