(I C U) Ink Review - Susemai - Too Blue Cashmere

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_935.jpgBe sure to read this thread first for "the rules". Anyone can join in and no prior INKsperience is necessary.

Other test inks include:

Blue

Blue Batch A = Blue Amber

Blue Batch B = Blue Balls

Blue Batch C = Blue Cashmere

Blue Batch C version 2 = Too Blue Cashmere

Blue Batch D = Blue Diamond

Black

Black Batch A = Black Amber

Black Batch B = Black Balled

Black Batch C = Black Cat

Black Batch D = Black Diamond

Green

Green Batch C = Green Cashmere

Green Batch D = Green Diamond

Red

Red Batch C = Red Cashmere

Red Batch D = Red Diamond

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_935w.jpghttp://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_935wb.jpg

[Cyber6]

[amberleadavis]

This one won't mix well for me. I need to give is another go.

[zoniguana]

Blue 2, at 8%

Blue 2 at 16%

Edited August 15, 2014 by zoniguana

[amberleadavis]

Did it mix well for you?

[Dumatborlon]

The pipette was labelled ‘Red Cashmere’, which is certainly isn’t. By exclusion, it should be ‘Too-blue Cashmere’, so I’m putting this into this thread here.

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EI9+sk;%E2%99%82;summaprada;ppm-00166b.jpeg

I can’t get the colour to scan correctly. On the scan, it looks much bluer than in reality, where it’s much more like a pale blue-black or rather blue-grey. I aimed for 1:1 dilution (as recommended by Susemai), but in reality it’s closer to 2:1 (2 parts ink). The pipette didn’t contain any extra indication, so I guess it is supposed to be at 16% concentration. With my imprecise dilution, the sample should be at around 10%-ish.

But I find the numbers hard to believe: It looks incredibly pale and much more likely to be in the 4‒8% range. This diluted, it’s too pale to be useful for writing. I cannot draw, so I can’t judge that, but the few awkward doodles that I tried looked rather nice. It darkens a little as it dries, but not by much. It’s very prone to smearing, which is surprising enough.

Anyway: After the cartridge runs out, I’ll try it undiluted. Right now, I cannot recommend it, though it looks rather nice along brown (the scan doesn’t really do it justice).

[amberleadavis]

Yeah, this ink is a blue gray and is disappointing if you dilute it at all.

[Dumatborlon]

Update: I certainly won’t do anything with the undiluted stuff. There’s some sludge at the bottom of the bottle where I decanted it. Not as bad as with Pepto-bismol, but nothing I would dare to put into a pen.

Here’s a colour comparison with the few other blues that I have at hand, that might give a better idea:

http://chiffre.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/Colour-comparison/blue.jpeg

Too bad that it’s completely unuseable with a dip pen, it almost jumps from it. Undiluted, the colour is nice enough (still nothing that I’d write home about), but if I can’t use it with any writing implement then it’s not much use.

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EI9+sk;%E2%99%82;summaprada;ppm-00175.jpeg

[Dumatborlon]

After two days of forced use (good that I didn’t fill a long cartridge), the ink starts to grow on me somewhat. When it flows well, it can look really nice. It usually does, too, but sometimes it’s a bit slow on the reuptake after the pen was left unused for a few hours. But take that with a grain of salt, this may as well be the too-smooth paper from the pad I’m using right now which generally is a pain to use.

 

Anyway: Usually (read: 80–85% of the time), it has a great flow. When it does so, there’s pronounced shading. In combination with the low saturation, it makes for interesting effects when doodling. Which I can’t stop doing, even though I am absolutely worthless at any kind of drawing.

 

I guess at first there was still some left-over water in the feed of the pen, diluting the ink even further. At that time, it was clearly overdiluted. Now it’s behaving better—as this cartridge runs out, I’ll try again with a wee bit less dilution; say, 1:3 or 1:4 at most. As already say, I don’t dare use it undiluted, as I can clearly see sediments in the bottle into which I’ve decanted it.

 

Right now, I can only describe the colour as… interesting. It looks the way one would imagine the colour of water, or of rain, or a rainy sea—somewhere along that general direction, you get the idea. I found that it pairs very well browns; together with a paler brown like Noodler’s Polar Brown, it imbues a kind of November-y spirit to the writing. Greens also work well; Susemai Green Diamond (at 8%) in particular is just a perfect fit.

 

So I’ll back down a bit from my earlier statement: At this dilution at least, this ink definitely isn’t for everybody. The contrast might be too low for writing, although this again has it’s advantages, as you can revise your writing at least twice (say, once in red, then again with some dark green or black). I dislike blue inks in general (due to overexposure during my school years), but this one has enough… character? that I can see myself using it to some degree.

 

I’ll try to do a write-up and post some scans and photographs and stuff, but right now I’m too tired, maybe tomorrow. Hope this was helpful in the meantime.

[Dumatborlon]

Anyway: After the cartridge runs out, I’ll try it undiluted.

I’m a moron. Since I want to raise the concentration, I might as well just add a bit more of the stronger stuff. If I add one part 16% to one part ~10%, I should get two parts at 13%. My algebra is a bit rusty, but it should work out. Will see what comes out of it soon…

[DaveBj]

My Too Blue Cashmere test is a total bust; I'm not even going to bother to write the test sheets. There was only 2 ml of liquid in the pipette, and since it was supposed to have been a 16% solution, I added 2 ml of water, to bring the concentration down to 8%, and loaded the test pens. The result was like writing with blue-gray colored water. Ain't gonna work, not at the recommended concentration.

 

Sorry.

[amberleadavis]

Yeah, I understand.

[Dumatborlon]

At 10% it’s already barely useable, so 8% is right out. The sweet spot seems to be at around 12%. Enough dye that it now looks like ink rather than water, but not yet concentrated enough that it wants to separate. It comes remarkably close to Diamine Indigo now, but as if any trace of green had been stripped of that.

 

Direct comparison to follow, I need to find an empty pen first—all this testing has completely screwed up my usual lineup. :‌o)

[Dumatborlon]

As already mentioned: Blue Water looks remarkably like Diamine Indigo with all traces of green removed:

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EId+sk;%E2%99%84;saguaro;jpeg-00925.jpeg

Top left is Indigo, top right is Blue Water at ~10%, bottom right is Blue Water at ~12‒13% (the concentration which I’d recommend).

Here’s a page of daily notes and scribbles, which should give a better overview:

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EId+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00190b.jpeg

My setup is not calibrated, so the colours are a bit off. Susemai’s blue has a greyish tinge, which does not show on my monitor. Reproducing ink on computer monitors is always the usual struggle. For reference, the other colours in the picture are De Atramentis Fuchsia (top left) and Mahatma Gandhi (idem); Susemai Green Diamond at 8%; Noodler’s Polar Brown; Monteverde Burgundy (left center) and MontBlanc rouge.

The darker blue in the top right corner and the bottom third is where the stronger 12% concentration has already taken hold.

A little bit of interplay between various dilutions of Green Diamond (between, approximately 5% and 8%) and the 10% blue can be seen here (the turquoise in this image is Monteverde’s):

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EId+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00189b.jpeg

@Amber: Usually I discard my scratch pads after they’re full. Shall I keep them (at least those that contain nothing confidential) for Team Susemai, or are they interested only in the review sheets?

[amberleadavis]

As already mentioned: Blue Water looks remarkably like Diamine Indigo with all traces of green removed:

 

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EId+sk;%E2%99%84;saguaro;jpeg-00925.jpeg

 

Top left is Indigo, top right is Blue Water at ~10%, bottom right is Blue Water at ~12‒13% (the concentration which I’d recommend).

 

Here’s a page of daily notes and scribbles, which should give a better overview:

 

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EId+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00190b.jpeg

 

My setup is not calibrated, so the colours are a bit off. Susemai’s blue has a greyish tinge, which does not show on my monitor. Reproducing ink on computer monitors is always the usual struggle. For reference, the other colours in the picture are De Atramentis Fuchsia (top left) and Mahatma Gandhi (idem); Susemai Green Diamond at 8%; Noodler’s Polar Brown; Monteverde Burgundy (left center) and MontBlanc rouge.

 

The darker blue in the top right corner and the bottom third is where the stronger 12% concentration has already taken hold.

 

A little bit of interplay between various dilutions of Green Diamond (between, approximately 5% and 8%) and the 10% blue can be seen here (the turquoise in this image is Monteverde’s):

 

http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/5EId+sk;%E2%99%84;summaprada;ppm-00189b.jpeg

 

@Amber: Usually I discard my scratch pads after they’re full. Shall I keep them (at least those that contain nothing confidential) for Team Susemai, or are they interested only in the review sheets?

 

 

The scratch pads are WONDERFUL! Please include them.

[Ted A]

I'm not sure I can add much, but here is a scan of the notes I took on using the Too Blue Cashmere:

 

 

I found this to be too dry to use enjoyably. When I put it into an Ahab with flex nib, the ink would get dark enough to make it readable, but it still felt extremely dry off the nib. I had to write fairly slowly of the nib would go dry.

 

Even though the nib felt very dry as I wrote, the ink itself was quite slow to dry. About 25 - 30 seconds on the Fabriano Misto paper.

 

There was no bleed through, even on relatively poor quality paper. And not much show through.

 

There was a little shading if the nib was wet, like the Ahab.

 

With the Monteverde medium nib and when the ink was diluted 1:1 with water (I received 16%), it was too light in color for me to enjoy.

[vossad01]

I have posted an Inky Gradient of Too Blue Cashmere for those wondering about dilution.

Edit: I have a number of remarks on this ink in the gradient posting, just briefly skimming some of the comments above, it sounds like my sample has been better behaved than average thus far. It will be interesting to see how that changes when I put it in a Metro for the actual review.

Edited September 20, 2014 by vossad01

[amberleadavis]

I think we are now accustomed to the Susemai inks being very vibrant and this one just wasn't.

 

Thanks everyone for the hard work!

[msun]

Review for the Too Blue Cashmere 16%. This ink did not write well for me at all, but in hindsight, the pen I used (Platinum preppy eyedropper) was not writing well either. It was very dry and very light, the pen was also very scratchy. I did not like this ink/pen combo, but if I have time, I may write another review using a different Preppy pen.

 

http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/ah91/kikosun/Susemaitoobluecashmere_zps782aef57.jpg