Parker Penman Sapphire (Photo Heavy!)

[attika89]

Hi everyone!

This is my review of the Parker Penman Sapphire.

Unique? hard to find a substitute? One thing is for sure...it is discontinued

 

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[Jadie]

A lovely review of a rare and special ink. So...any chance you're going to buy the rest of your local stock, since they're lucky enough to still have it around?

[attika89]

I think I will get a bottle or two, but I don't think I can do more (even though I really want to!)

Edited July 1, 2013 by attika89

[The Good Captain]

I will past in the comment I made on this topic, on FP Geeks. Saves the typing.

I just see an ink somewhere around Diamine Majestic Blue, Diamine Sargasso Sea, Akkerman Shocking Blue and Sailor Jentle Blue. AND I can get all four for less than the amount that PS is going for these days. A LOT less.
But of course, it's just a matter of personal taste, after all.

And there you have it.

[lapis]

Excellent review. I'll have to go along with our Good Captain. I'd rather have five or more different inks -- especially if they were all very similar blues -- than one single bottle of the real McCoy for the same price. Also, it's fun fooling around with my own attempts to create a good substitute. DCWaites has already done this IMO quite successfully and he wasn't fooling around.

 

Mike

[attika89]

Captian, Mike, I agree with you.

I would have passed it if the price was ridiculous, but it was more than reasonable

[lapis]

Captian, Mike, I agree with you.

I would have passed it if the price was ridiculous, but it was more than reasonable

Well, I'll buy that, too. I mean if I could get a bottle of that Sapphire for the same amount I paid lately for one the new CdA inks, I guess I'd still survive.

[swanjun]

I can't remember where now (sorry!) but I was lucky enough to get 100 carts of Penman Sapphire for $24 a year or so ago. I have been rationing them, and am awfully glad I have them, because I can't justify paying the price this goes for online. Wish I could come into a trove of Emerald carts!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Some times 20 year old single malt just won't do, it has to be the 35 year old.

 

 

In the meanwhile, who is DCWaites?

Where do we find this alchemist?

[dcwaites]

Speak of the devil...

 

I think that one ink that is ignored in all the discussion of PPS and its clones is Noodler's Blue. It, like Ottoman Azure (which I built my blend Faux Penman Sapphire #8b on) has similar bleeding, feathering and spreading characteristics to PPS, and is so close to PPS that at normal reading distance, I cannot tell which is Noodler's Blue, and which is PPS. There is a difference, but it is subtle, and I don't think it is worth obsessing over.

 

And don't forget the other PPS clone, PR American Blue diluted with 15% or 20% water. That ink also shows the 'red sheen' so I suspect they used the same dyes that Parker did in making Penman Sapphire. It does, however, bleed and feather a tiny little bit more than PPS or NB, but not significantly on good papers.

 

One thing, many of the papers I use aren't the best, and so I tend to run my pens a little lean, meaning the inks show a little thinner on the paper, but this reduces feathering and bleeding. My comparison between NB and PPS was done using pens set like that. Perhaps people using wetter pens may see more differences.

Edited July 1, 2013 by dcwaites

[torstar]

Great review.

 

The penman inked often clogged and was discontinued due to that factor. Not sure how another decade would increase the clogging, probably make it worse.

 

This blue is special but not worth paying that much $$$ for.

 

I have a few bottles and enjoy using them, but I won't weep too hard when I'm done with it

[Sandy1]

Speak of the devil...

 

<snip>

 

Indeed!

[kevanf1]

There is currently a bottle of PPS on UK eBay. It is £21.50 with 5 hours to go. When it went above £10 I bowed out. It is very nice looking ink but at that price it is a luxury that is too highly priced for me.

 

As an aside, when I first saw this on the eBay auction I had not heard of it before and initially thought it was a new limited edition from Parker. Of course, after some research I now know that it was available in the early 1990's but only for a short while due to many people having clogging problems. Perhaps a little more care in flushing more often might have helped? Anyway, I was quite amused to find some stories of Parker having to withdraw this ink not due to clogging but because it was reputed to be 'radioactive' Hmmm........

 

I'll get a bottle of Noodler's Blue I think.

[dcwaites]

It appears that the problem with the Penman inks was mostly a combination of the then new Parker Sonnet with Parker Penman Ebony. Ebony had a higher concentration of dyes (as to most black inks, just to get a deep, intense black), and tended to dry out in pens if the caps didn't seal properly.

 

Unfortunately, many of the Sonnets at the time had a crack in the inner cap. Combined with a 'breathing gap' to reduce the chance of children suffocating if they swallowed the cap, many, many Sonnets (including mine) dried up and clogged when filled with Penman Ebony and not used daily. As a result of many complaints, Parker pulled the whole Penman range.

 

Strangely, a few years later Parker briefly reissued a watered down version of Penman Ebony, calling it Penman Black. Same dyes as the original, but less concentrated.

 

These days, Penman Sapphire (and presumably the other coloured Penman inks) is no more 'dangerous' than any of the other saturated inks like Noodler's and Private Reserve.

 

As for Penman Ebony, there are now many more black inks available, including PR Velvet Black, Noodler's Black and Heart of Darkness, Sailor Kiwaguro Black, Aurora Black, etc, etc, etc, all of which can out-black Penman Ebony.

[attika89]

Well, I'll buy that, too. I mean if I could get a bottle of that Sapphire for the same amount I paid lately for one the new CdA inks, I guess I'd still survive.

Well, it was around the old CdA price, so I would call it good.

[Larry T]

I bought twelve bottles of Penman Sapphire back in 2007, and have used it extensively in many pens. I've had zero issues. I just don't use it in pens that are hard to clean, not because of clogging, but because it can take a while to rinse out, because of the saturation. I made the mistake of filling a Parker 61 with it, that pen now uses only blue ink. It's still my favorite blue, but I don't think I would pay the prices it's commanding now.

 

Larry

[lapis]

Well, considering that eBay number which somebody just pulled off, for that price you could get almost 5 1/2 bottles of the new CdA inks...

[torstar]

dcwaites:It appears that the problem with the Penman inks was mostly a combination of the then new Parker Sonnet with Parker Penman Ebony. Ebony had a higher concentration of dyes (as to most black inks, just to get a deep, intense black), and tended to dry out in pens if the caps didn't seal properly.

 

 

My Sonnet was a soon discared lemon, dried up with most any ink in seconds.

 

I don't recall huge troubles with ink the drying up in pens back in the day, but enough of a problem was issued to stop production.

[welch]

Sam Fiorella, of Pendemonium, assures us that various Penman inks suddenly froze various nibs. She sold office supplies then, and would have seen many more bottles than we do.

 

I haven't had a problem with Penman Sapphire, but my four bottles does not count as a good quality assurance sample.

 

On the other issue: no other ink glows like Penman Sapphire. Yes, I have and use Noodler's Blue, PR American Blue, and PR Supershow Blue. I'd call Supershow Blue the closest to Penman Sapphire, but only in one of Sapphire's several "modes".

 

PPS changes color depending on the type of light, the time of day, and the angle. None of the others have that.

[The Good Captain]

PPS changes color depending on the type of light, the time of day, and the angle. None of the others have that.

What about Diamine Majestic Blue? Or Sailor Jentle Blue? Or Akkerman Shocking Blue?

I would suggest that these, and probably a lot of others, exhibit the same qualities under the same conditions that you mention.