Susemai Black Cat Cashmere

January 25, 2015

SuSaMai Black Cat Cashmere: A Review

First, I want to thank amberleadavis for her generosity in letting me try out SuSaMai Black Cat Cashmere ink powder through one of her PIFs. I love trying out different inks and colors, so this opportunity was much appreciated. I posted this review on the PIF subforum, and I am posting here for those who may be interested.

The following is a first impression, slight in-depth review of the Black Cat Cashmere, which comes in powder form for you to mix as you like. There are other colors of course, and they are made by Black Stone Ink company. More background information can be found in the first post by amberleadavis here.

Black, in general, is not my favorite color since it is so ubiquitous, but my experiences have shown that there is black and there is BLACK. Which one you prefer is all up to you.

I have found Black Cat Cashmere to be a very decent ink. It is relatively well behaved, flows very well in the pens I have inked, and it dries relatively fast. It has some archival quality as long as there is enough ink on the paper and given adequate drying time. Black Cat Cashmere is also one of the darkest out of all the blacks in my stock. Your conclusions may vary depending on many factors such as wetness, paper, and nib as well as your own style of writing. The following scans try to demonstrate how the ink looks in different pens and writing applications. Some of the subtleties may not be readily apparent due to the limitations of the upload, but I hope it gives you a more than adequate idea of the properties of the ink.

This does not follow my usual style of ink reviews, so forgive the inadequacies. All the writing has been applied on Rhodia Reverse Book, 80g., graph rule. I mixed one packet of Black Cat Cashmere (~4g) with about 55ml of distilled water. According to the packet, 50-60 ml is recommended for your normal fountain pen ink. Less water will result in more saturated color, and more will result in more diluted or washed out color. Most of the writing was done with my newest acquisition, a vintage BCHR Waterman 52 with a nice flexy 14k #2 nib.

As you can see from the above scans, the only other black that is close to Black Cat Cashmere is PR Velvet Black. Even Noodler's HoD was not that close. The Pilot Black is not really in the same league since the Parallel Pens generally lays down a very wet line, especially the 6.0mm version.

In conclusion, I am enjoying this ink. The ink can shade some depending on your writing style, and the color itself is very utilitarian for many applications. I would highly recommend this ink, and if you like to dabble, the powder gives you the opportunity to tailor the ink to your tastes. Enjoy.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Crewel

January 26, 2015

Thank you for this review, your handwriting is beautiful and shows all of the inks to lovely effect!

I see that you have inked a vintage pen, are you comfortable leaving this, and the SuSaMai inks in general, in vintage pens? I'm new to the FPN world but have acquired a few vintage pens with lever systems. I'm wondering what kind of maintenance these inks would require. I'm very attracted to this and the Cashmere Blue and Green.

Thank you,

Elle

P.S. Do you know how we can get these inks?

January 26, 2015

Great Review!

January 26, 2015

@ Elle Dechene

Thank you for the complements. I hope the review did the ink justice.

As to how you can acquire some of these inks, the best one to speak with would be amerleadavis, since she had provided me with the packet. Hopefully we'll manage to source more in the future because I would like to try the other colors.

As to your other question relating to vintage pens, in my opinion, I do not think there will be any problems using Susemai inks in vintage pens. My logic is that the inks used during the contemporary times of the vintage pens tended to be harsher, e.g., iron gall, and if the vintage pen could handle those types of inks, surely the pen can handle Susemai. Additionally, the ink is essentially a mix of water (over 95% by volume) to powder, where the powder itself does not appear to have anything other than crystallized dye and maybe some other easily dissolved particles. I don't know the actual content, but from empirical evidence, read sniff test, I don't smell anything that can potentially have negative effects to the sac and other components of a vintage pen.

I could be wrong about my assumptions (I know I know, ass-u-me, etc. ), but I've read others who have used various modern inks (non-powdered) in vintage pens without issue and most tend to have a strong alcohol type smell. So if these modern inks work, so should the Susemai. Granted I do not know what the long term effects may be. So far the ink has worked well in my Waterman. My only foreseeable problem is cleaning the ink out of the pen. It may take a lot of flushes depending on how stubborn it may be to cleaning.