Caran D ' Ache - Grand Canyon

[Sandy1]

Please take a moment to adjust the brightness & contrast of your monitor to accurately depict this Grey Scale.

As the patches are neutral grey, their colour on your monitor should also be neutral grey.

Mac_Link

 

Figure 1.

Grey Scale.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/INK576.jpg

Figure 2.

Swabs

Paper: HPJ1124 24 lb. Laser Copy.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK799.jpg

Figure 3.

NIB-ism LINK

Depicts nib line-width and pens' relative wetness.

 

WRITTEN SAMPLES: Moby Dick

 

Row Heights:

Narrow nibs: 6mm.

Other nibs: 8mm.

Figure 4.

Paper: HPJ1124.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK802.jpg

Figure 5.

Paper: Rhodia.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK805.jpg

Figure 6.

Paper: G Lalo, Verge de France, white.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK807.jpg

Figure 7.

Paper: Quo Vadis, Habana journal, ivory. (Swan song for this sub-normal paper.)

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK809.jpg

Figure 8.

Grocery List

Paper: Pulp. One-a-Day calendar page.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK811.jpg

 

OTHER SAMPLES:

 

Figure 9.

'HAPPY!' on Glossy Card.

Smear/Dry Time on Glossy Paper.

Smear/Dry Time on HPJ1124.

Wet Tests on HPJ1124.

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy116/Sandy1-1/InkyThoughts2010/Review%20-%20Caran%20d%20Ache%20-%20Grand%20Canyon/INK800.jpg

 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

 

Type:

• Dye-based fountain pen ink.

Daily writer?

• Unfortunately not.

A go-to ink?

• Of course.
• This is a quite neutral but warm brown.

USES:

 

Business:

• Very much depends on the nature of the business.
• As the colour Brown has many connotations, consideration and care is required, especially for external correspondence.
• Lacks the gravitas of even a medium-pale Blue, but it cannot be dismissed as a spineless or whimsical colour.
• It is very suitable for editing and mark-up,
• For corrections / grading, it may be just a bit too warm & fuzzy.
• May be seen by some (not I) as an alternative to dark greens, teals, etc. (e.g. Legal Lapis, Verdigris.)

Illustrations / Graphics:

• An obvious choice, as it is neutral-but-warm and has very good performance.
• Due to shading, it may not be suitable when lines of uniform density are required.
• Would be a very good choice for labels, annotations, etc.

Students:

• Not so much.
• While fine for personal notes, I'm not sure if it is currently generally acceptable for assignments. (Readers: Please chime in.)
• It is very easy on the eye, so for condensed study notes, which may be read numerous times, (especially if you're as blonde as yours truly), it may be just the thing.
• It is not so very robust.

Personal:

• Absolutely.
• What are you waiting for? Order Go buy some right now, when it arrives, then write someone immediately - a far better use of your time than reading the rest of this Review.
• This ink would welcome any size or shape of nib.

PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE & CHARACTERISTICS:

 

Flow Rate:

• Pretty good, without pushing or pulling.
• Very good manners, and just might compensate for pens with a balky/uneven feed.

Nib Dry-out:

• Not noticed.

Start-up:

• Immediate.

Lubrication:

• Really good, but not outstanding.
• Provides enough feedback so one may keep the nib running on its sweet spot.
• Could not quite overcome the rough ride on the textured G Lalo paper.

Nib Creepers:

• None.

Staining:

• None after 3 days.

Clogging:

• Not seen.
• Seems unlikely.

Bleed Through:

• A bit on the Quo Vadis 'Habana' journal with blank ivory paper.
• ((This seems to be common with that paper, so that Journal will get i-g ink - likely Scabiosa. That paper is FP-hostile - worse than Pulp for goodness sake!))

Show Through:

• A bit on the Quo Vadis 'Habana' journal.
• On other papers, both sides of the sheet may be used.

Feathering / Woolly Line:

• Absent.

Smear/Dry Time

• Glossy: 5 - 7 seconds.
• HPJ1124: 12 - 15 seconds.

Water Resistance

• -3- on the 4S Scale.

"All legible, but either very faint and/or has heavy staining from re-deposit of soluble dye.

Needs recovery/restoration for anything beyond personal use."

The colour that remains is Blue. (Might make for an interesting graphic effect.)

• Peek

Smell:

• Next to none.

Hand oil sensitivity:

• Slight. (Evident on the Rhodia: lower-centre left margin, just above the Phileas block.)

Archival:

• Not claimed.

Clean Up:

• Extremely fast and thorough with plain water.

Mixing:

• No stated limitation.
• As this colour has a fair bit of yellow, tungsten light sources may invoke a perceptual colour-shift. To off-set that shift, there may be a temptation to add a hint of dark red/purple or even gray to keep the appearance, and to keep it anchored to the page. Please try to resist that temptation.

THE LOOK:

 

Presence:

• Classy.
• Very classy.
• Inviting, but with a bit of sang_froid. (How is that done with a warm-neutral ink?)
• Being a lighter density warm colour, it resides in front of the page surface; and is very comfortable there.

Saturation:

• This is not a saturated ink.
• And really - why bother with a saturated brown?

Shading:

• Nicely done, and very eloquent. (Pardon the surfeit of images, but my subjectivity is showing.)

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

Variance depending on pen+nib combos used:

• A fair bit.
• While this is good news for those who like to tune The Look with various ink and paper combos, it may be frustrating to other practitioners.

SIMILAR COLOURS:

• Please chime in.

PAPERS:

 

Lovely papers:

• Off-white, natural and buff papers.

Trip-wire Papers:

• Optically brightened whites, too-yellow tints of ivory or cream.

Tinted Papers:

• Stick with the pale neutral browns.
• Anything too warm will unseat this ink.
• Not a blue tint - ugly green tinges will appear.

Is high-end paper 'worth it'?

• Grand Canyon does very well on all FP-friendly papers, so using high-end paper is more a matter of preference over performance.

OTHER THAN INK:

 

Is the name appropriate?

• Adequate.
• IIRC, the Grand Canyon itself has an overall warmer feel - away from the yellow tint and well into ochre / red browns.
• One cannot capture ALL_OF_THIS in a 30 ml bottle:

Presentation :

• 30ml. bottle in a box.

Country of origin:

• Infers Switzerland, which may or may not be the case.

Container:

• A heavy clear glass square-based bottle, 48mm on each side, with a maximum height of 65mm.
• The centred round opening is a mere 18mm.
• Single tank, no filling aids, no sediment collector. Bah! 2xBah for such a *nasty_word* shallow ink tank.
• The Label does not include the word 'ink', not does it carry a graphic that indicates ink.
• The 'Bakelite' screw cap has a pronounced grippy shape.
• The cap is not child-proof.
• The cap seal seems to be the better sort of coated card stock.

Box:

• Nicely coated.
• Includes a cut-out to display the bottle label, which can be a minor nuisance to make sure the appropriate face of the bottle is shown.
• Includes the word 'ink' in several languages.

Eco-Green:

• All bits easily recyclable.
• Cap likely benign.

Availability:

• The brand seems to be a global player in the luxe niche.

ETC:

 

Amongst similar inks, what sets this ink apart?

• Fairly neutral-though-warm colour.
• Excellent performance and manners.
• Very nice shading.

Majik:

• Afraid not - the ink doesn't have the latent energy to be conjured.

Personal Pen & Paper Pick:

• At arm's length, I'd pick the Safari + the G Lalo.
• At common reading distance, its the Sonnet + the HPJ1124.

Yickity Yackity:

• While I usually enjoy Brown ink, I've never been a great consumer of that colour. My bottle of Parker Penman Mocha was only recently replaced with a pot of the Pilot yama-guri. But I thought (in my inky way) that I'd use Brown more often if I had more choice. (No poking the fun at me, OK?) It might work-out that way - so maybe baby.
  
• And it takes an ink such as Grand Canyon to be a viable alternative to yama-guri.
• Ah kushbaby, this one I think could find a place in your array.

{OoxoO}-=-{OoxoO}-=-{OoxoO}-=-{OoxoO}-=-{OoxoO}-=-{OoxoO}

 

MATERIEL USED:

 

To be relevant to most members, I make an effort to use papers, pens & nibs that are readily available. For the pens, I paid $100 or less, and are 'factory stock' - not customised.

 

These pen+nib combos were used:

 

Written Samples:

• Pilot 78G + steel F
• Pelikan P99 + steel F
• Pilot Custom 74 + SMF
• Parker Sonnet + M
• Waterman Phileas + steel B
• Lamy Pink Safari + steel 1.1i

Lines & labels:

• Pilot Penmanship + steel XF with Noodler's Lexington Grey.

On these papers:

• HPJ1124 24 lb. Laser Copy.
• Rhodia, Pad 18.
• G Lalo, 'Verge de France' white.
• Quo Vadis, Habana journal, ivory.
• Pulp. (One-a-Day cartoon calendar page.)
• Glossy paper.
• Glossy card.

Images:

• Scans were made on an Epson V600 scanner; factory defaults were accepted.
• Figures shown were scanned at 96 dpi & 24 bit colour.
• Images linked were scanned at 300 dpi & 24 bit colour.
• Scans went straight to the file sharing thingy.

-30-

Edited August 1, 2010 by Sandy1

[RayMan]

Thanks for the very thorough and thoughtful review. I'll give this ink a try.

[Sandy1]

Thanks for the very thorough and thoughtful review. I'll give this ink a try.

Hi,

 

You're welcome. Glad that you appreciate the Review.

 

As you can tell, I really do like all the ink brings to the party - manners, shading, lubrication, ease of clean-up, even its goofy interpretation of water resistance - not just the colour. A lot of good stuff is packed into that wee idiotic bottle.

 

Bye,

S1

[contaxrts2]

Thank you for your wonderful detailed review.

[IWantThat]

I used to scan your ink reviews and then move on, but I read this one straight through and then looked for more reviews you'd done You're so thorough and you have so much fun with it! Thank you I love the Caran d'Ache ink colors, but find the ink saturation...opaque...rather than deeply saturated like Noodlers or Private Reserve. Have you noticed this, or is it just me?

 

Thanks again, for a great review and a great read

Edited August 1, 2010 by IWantThat

[lapis]

Thanks for the very extensive review as usual.

It's my favourite brown.

But, as I've often said earlier, it still doesn't really remind me of the Grand Canyon I once saw up front a few years ago.

 

Mike

[rudyhou]

this is a great review. thanks for sharing. i was actually thinking of getting a bottle of this grand canyon brown but was worried the brown wouldn't be "brown" enough to my liking. judging from your review, it's got a decent enough shade and tone of brown that qualifies to be on my list of inks-to-get. once again, thanks for sharing the review.

 

-rudy-

[Sandy1]

Thanks for the very extensive review as usual.

It's my favourite brown.

But, as I've often said earlier, it still doesn't really remind me of the Grand Canyon I once saw up front a few years ago.

 

Mike

Hi Mike,

 

You're welcome. Glad you liked it.

 

I could easily see GC being close to hand. And being a favourite.

 

In the text I mentioned:

 

"OTHER THAN INK:

 

Is the name appropriate?

• Adequate.
• IIRC, the Grand Canyon itself has an overall warmer feel - away from the yellow tint and well into ochre / red browns.
• One cannot capture ALL_OF_THIS in a 30 ml bottle:"

Just click the Link.

 

As you've been a long-term user, what are your favourite pen+nib and paper combos? (As hard as I try to show what an ink might look like for other people, its of great use to hear from those who use it on a routine basis.)

 

Bye,

S1

[Sandy1]

Thank you for your wonderful detailed review.

You're welcome.

[Sandy1]

I used to scan your ink reviews and then move on, but I read this one straight through and then looked for more reviews you'd done You're so thorough and you have so much fun with it! Thank you I love the Caran d'Ache ink colors, but find the ink saturation...opaque...rather than deeply saturated like Noodlers or Private Reserve. Have you noticed this, or is it just me?

 

Thanks again, for a great review and a great read

Hi,

 

Yes, I can have fun doing an Ink Review, even if its just to poke fun at the ink (so sorry Lamy Green, you perform well, but...)

Or I get carried away, (Parker Quink Red), so that Ann 'helps' cut the Review to avoid legal issues and breaching bandwidth allocation.

 

I do try to be thorough. Before starting to do IRs I looked at the What to Include guidelines, ignored the 1-page thingy, and went from there. Some ideas were also gleaned from Inky Thoughts : smell, fidelity, samples on glossy card & glossy paper. I also try to get on 'both sides' of an ink: writer & sender and the recipient: "If I received a letter written in ..."

 

And I was bothered by Reviews with huge numbers of queries, clarifications, etc., etc. It would seem that the Review missed something somewhere. Or, as we have seen, defective inks come to light, or pots that have spoiled or are somehow outside expectations. (e.g. Dry time of DC Supershow Blue. & another recent Review of Bleu Pervenche showed a water resistance far beyond what others had experienced.)

 

You mention the saturation of the Cd'A inks in general. Well, unfortunately Cd'A does not really have a 'house' style in the same way that Herbin does. I consider 'opacity' to be more closely associated with pigment inks. Most of the few PR inks with which I've worked tend to be highly saturated, have little if any shading, etc. - yet their Shoreline Gold is quite the opposite!

I don't use the Noodler's very much - the big bottles seem to demand a commitment (a dare even!) to finish them. I do have a bottle of their #41 Brown on the WishList, so we'll see. It would be nice to find an ink that won't bleed though the ivory paper in the Habana journal.

 

Bye,

S1

[AndrewC]

S1, Thanks for your ink review. While I appreciate your insane attention to detail, I must say that the comments you add toward the end of your reviews keep me checking for more of your reviews. Outstanding! Please keep up the great work. And the fact that you quote Moby Dick? Class all the way. Thanks for great info and good fun.

[Sandy1]

S1, Thanks for your ink review. While I appreciate your insane attention to detail, I must say that the comments you add toward the end of your reviews keep me checking for more of your reviews. Outstanding! Please keep up the great work. And the fact that you quote Moby Dick? Class all the way. Thanks for great info and good fun.

Hi,

 

A Watson bulk loader and 100' of Ilford B&W film (HP5 was the green; FP4 the Blue, the real slow stuff PanF was the Brown, yes?). Been a while since I'd seen that combo.

 

The comments at the end are just what's left. As if one takes a meeting, runs the agenda, then talks about the most important stuff while waiting for the elevator. Ha!

 

& insanity is too often under rated.

 

And I did use 'Treasure Island' for a while, but thought it had way to much dialogue. 1/2 the written sample was punctuation. and para marks.

 

Bye,

S1

[rudyhou]

Thanks for the very extensive review as usual.

It's my favourite brown.

But, as I've often said earlier, it still doesn't really remind me of the Grand Canyon I once saw up front a few years ago.

 

Mike

Hi Mike,

 

You're welcome. Glad you liked it.

 

I could easily see GC being close to hand. And being a favourite.

 

In the text I mentioned:

 

"OTHER THAN INK:

 

Is the name appropriate?

• Adequate.
• IIRC, the Grand Canyon itself has an overall warmer feel - away from the yellow tint and well into ochre / red browns.
• One cannot capture ALL_OF_THIS in a 30 ml bottle:"

Just click the Link.

 

As you've been a long-term user, what are your favourite pen+nib and paper combos? (As hard as I try to show what an ink might look like for other people, its of great use to hear from those who use it on a routine basis.)

 

Bye,

S1

 

yes, i would agree. the real grand canyon color i saw upfront a few years back lean towards reddish-orange hue to the brown. perhaps everyone looks at it differently, depending the time of the day of the visit.

 

-rudy-

[Sandy1]

Thanks for the very extensive review as usual.

It's my favourite brown.

But, as I've often said earlier, it still doesn't really remind me of the Grand Canyon I once saw up front a few years ago.

 

Mike

Hi Mike,

 

You're welcome. Glad you liked it.

 

I could easily see GC being close to hand. And being a favourite.

 

In the text I mentioned:

 

"OTHER THAN INK:

 

Is the name appropriate?

• Adequate.
• IIRC, the Grand Canyon itself has an overall warmer feel - away from the yellow tint and well into ochre / red browns.
• One cannot capture ALL_OF_THIS in a 30 ml bottle:"

Just click the Link.

 

As you've been a long-term user, what are your favourite pen+nib and paper combos? (As hard as I try to show what an ink might look like for other people, its of great use to hear from those who use it on a routine basis.)

 

Bye,

S1

 

yes, i would agree. the real grand canyon color i saw upfront a few years back lean towards reddish-orange hue to the brown. perhaps everyone looks at it differently, depending the time of the day of the visit.

 

-rudy-

Hi,

 

I know we're a bit off-the-topic, but...

Time/s of day / year and the atmospheric conditions, especially smog & forest fire smoke, have a big influence on the appearance of things outdoors.

But - the folks at Cd'A could have done a lot worse with the naming; and the name is clearly meant to invoke an emotion/connotation, rather than to be explicit.

I do recall taking issue with the Diamine 'Indigo' ink: they named a specific colour, but what was in the bottle was not that colour.

So with their Colors of the Earth series, the naming will be imaginative / evocative rather than specific and accurate.

 

Bye,

S1

[rudyhou]

Thanks for the very extensive review as usual.

It's my favourite brown.

But, as I've often said earlier, it still doesn't really remind me of the Grand Canyon I once saw up front a few years ago.

 

Mike

Hi Mike,

 

You're welcome. Glad you liked it.

 

I could easily see GC being close to hand. And being a favourite.

 

In the text I mentioned:

 

"OTHER THAN INK:

 

Is the name appropriate?

• Adequate.
• IIRC, the Grand Canyon itself has an overall warmer feel - away from the yellow tint and well into ochre / red browns.
• One cannot capture ALL_OF_THIS in a 30 ml bottle:"

Just click the Link.

 

As you've been a long-term user, what are your favourite pen+nib and paper combos? (As hard as I try to show what an ink might look like for other people, its of great use to hear from those who use it on a routine basis.)

 

Bye,

S1

 

yes, i would agree. the real grand canyon color i saw upfront a few years back lean towards reddish-orange hue to the brown. perhaps everyone looks at it differently, depending the time of the day of the visit.

 

-rudy-

Hi,

 

I know we're a bit off-the-topic, but...

Time/s of day / year and the atmospheric conditions, especially smog & forest fire smoke, have a big influence on the appearance of things outdoors.

But - the folks at Cd'A could have done a lot worse with the naming; and the name is clearly meant to invoke an emotion/connotation, rather than to be explicit.

I do recall taking issue with the Diamine 'Indigo' ink: they named a specific colour, but what was in the bottle was not that colour.

So with their Colors of the Earth series, the naming will be imaginative / evocative rather than specific and accurate.

 

Bye,

S1

 

very well put, S1. couldn't have said it better myself. on that note, caran d'ache grand canyon is still a very nice brown ink.

 

-rudy-

[nummies]

Wow, such an extensive review---more than I needed

Going to pick this up tomorrow, thanks to you

[Sandy1]

Wow, such an extensive review---more than I needed

Going to pick this up tomorrow, thanks to you

Hi,

You might want to take a clean empty pen with you, and ink-up before you leave the shop.

Start writing letters immediately!

And will you use it as a Daily Writer ink?

Let us know!!! Really

Bye,

S1

[lapis]

What are my favourite pen+nib and paper combos?

Sorry, was out to lunch. Fantastic scenic of yours there!

My favourite threesomes don't exist. As important as paper is, I don't really care much about that. I love and need a really good pen or 5. Lots of heft and weight (without cap posted) and then I go through dozens of inks, just try'en all out in each pen. E.g. my M800 is rather a dry writer while my M1000 really has a huge flow, and others are somewhere in between. Oh yes, my Crest and Charleston are extremely wet writers too. Just love the heck out of that trait. So, I like to pair things up. Which pen likes which ink and/or vice versa . If the paper is bad, I don't use it. I spend all my money on inks. Cheapest copy paper feathers too much for me although I don't mind the bleeding. If a paper is too smooth like writing on glass (Claire or Mole) I forget about them too. Usually a halfways decent copy paper from HP in the 100-110 g range will fill the bill.

 

I have to admit (very gladly) that CdA's naming of their 9 inks is fantasic and adventurous, even if they don't (and can't) always "match" colours perfectly. Just like your photo here.

 

Mike

[Blix]

I apologize for bumping an old thread, but I just want to say thank you for this review.

It's like 20 years since I used a fountain pen, loved using one when I was is school. My handwriting is ugly as hell, but it looks a lot better using a FB!

 

Back then I had a simple Parker and used whatever ink it came with, and didn't know there was so many choices.

Now I have a Pilot 78G and a bottle of Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black coming as a safe choice for my work notes, but I figured going back to a real pen, I should try writing a letter or two as well, haven't done that in years!

My 10-year old son will be blown away getting a hand-written letter. But I want a warmer color for that, and here I am, this ink seems perfect

[Ghost Plane]

That's what the reviews are for. Glad you joined us.