Search the Community

I am always hunting inexpensive notebooks or legal pads that are fountain pen friendly for my work. I have been, for the most part, disappointed by the cheap quality of the paper on most pads and notebooks for everyday use. Last night, I spotted a display of these "new" notebooks that boast a high quality paper that resists ink bleed. At $1.97 per notebook, I decided to purchase a couple. A Quick Review of the new Five Star Coillege Ruled Notebook by Acco Brands in A5-related size: This notebook is made in the U.S, and is Number 11231. It has a 2 subject divider and a colorful cover. The paper is a light weight, student quality and likely not archival. The overall feel of the paper is smooth, but has a slight amount of toothiness. The manufacturer indicates that the notebook "Lasts all year. Guranteed!", and contains reinforced storage pockets, water resistant cover and high quality paper, "which resists ink bleed with common student writing instruments such as pencil, ball point pens, gel pens, felt tip pens and markers". I decided to see how fountain pen ink would do. The pens, nibs and inks used in this test for feathering, bleedthrough and showthrough were: Montblanc 144, fine 18K gold nib: Sailor Kobe Ooji Cherry Namisu Nova, medium titanium nib: Montblanc Irish Green Conklin Duragraph, 1.1 stub nib: Midnight Blue ink creation of mine Franklin Christoph Panther, Matsuyama medium italic 14K semi-flex nib: DeAtramentis Aubergine Italix Captain's Commission, medium italic nib: Diamine Woodland Green Lamy Studio, fine 18K gold nib: Akkermann #14 Purple Lamy 2000, medium 18K gold nib: Sailor Nioi Sumire Lamy LX, medium nib: Robert Oster Australian Mauve Opal Delta Capri Marina, broad fusion nib: GvFC Deep Sea Green Lamy Safari, broad nib: Diamine Bilberry Lamy Safari, medium nib: Robert Oster River of Fire Lamy Al-Star, fine nib: Robert Oster Tranquility Lamy Safari, fine nib: Cross Violet Custom made, fine 18k nib: Robert Oster Green Diamond Delta Horsepower, 1.1 stub fusion nib: DeAtramentis Robert Louis Stevenson Jinhao 450, Goulet 1.1 stub nib: DeAtramentis Edgar Allen Poe The following are printer scans of the inks tested on the paper. The image quality is not the best, but it should give you some idea. Note that the pink/red/purple colors seem "fuzzy". This is the result of my printer scanner, not the ink feathering. Page 1: Page 2: Feathering/Spreading: Overall there was minimal feathering. Those which did have some feathering included those inks which came from stub or broad nibs. Almost all fine or medium nibs showed little to no feathering. Bleedthrough: There was no bleedthrough, except with my very wet Italix Captain's Commission with Diamine Woodland Green,there were a few tiny spots where the ink was just beginning to bleed. Showthrough: Almost all of the fine and medium point nibs did not show through. The exception is my Namisu Nova which has an exceptionally wet medium titanium nib, and Lamy Safari medium nib with the very wet Robert Oster River of Fire ink. Almost all of the broad and stub nibs did showthrough, with the exception of Conklin Duragraph because the ink is fairly light in color, and surprisingly the Delta Capri Marina with a very wet broad nib filled with GvFC Deep Sea Green. Overall, I am very impressed with these little notebooks. I would recommend these to any student who uses fountain pens, particularly with fine and medium nibs. And with the black or dark blue cover, this would be acceptable for professional use as well as long as your use is non-archival.

This must've been covered elsewhere (but I couldn't find it) -- I've been using Akkermann ink (mainly Shocking Blue and, recently, Karmozijn) with my Omas celluloid pens -- and, for the most part, had no pen/ink-interaction issues (I hope). Lately, I've also added Iroshizuko kon-peki to my small ink collection. Anyways, today I've looked at the colorverse 'crystal planet' review, and the mentioning of that ink's ph (together with some grim pictures from RichardB's website) made me wonder -- has anyone experienced any problems using these inks (akkerman/iroshizuko/colorverse) with celluloid nitrate pens?

Hi, everybody. This is my first time posting in the ink section. I concentrated on pens for the first year and haven't really paid attention to inks, but now that I have most of the pens that I want and I'm writing with them one a regular basis, I would like to try some inks out to find myself a basic ink palette of light blues, dark blues, greys, browns, greens and reds. My goal is to find inks that are compatible with my pens (but one particular ink doesn't have to be compatible with all the pens because I think that would be asking too much) and are colors that i enjoy. I attached a photo of my current pens and if you have that pen can you share your experience with inks that work with them. Also, are there any online shops that have both Montblanc and Akkermann inks? I would like to try out some Akkermann because I really like the bottles and would like to reuse the bottle for other inks that have less practical bottle designs. Thanks for everyones reply. The inks that I currently have are: Montblanc Irish Green (brought from Massdrop) MB Toffee Brown (Massdrop) Iroshizuku KonPeki, Yama Budo, and Tsukushi (Massdrop) Diamine Grey, Red Dragon, Golden Brown Namiki Blue Noodler's Heart of Darkness, Purple, 54 Massachusetts,

Akkerman #14: Parkpop Purper Akkerman inks are made by P.W. Akkerman in The Hague. Akkerman inks have unique bottles that make filling pens very easy. This review is based off a sample that I purchased several months ago and I am just now getting around to trying. My overall impression is very favorable. The ink is not lubricated, but flows nicely and behaves well overall. But what really sets this ink apart is the sheen! I had seen some sheen when I wrote in my journal (MD Midori) and really saw sheen when I wrote a letter today. But I was hugely surprised to see so much sheen on the HP copy paper that I wrote this review on. My overall score is 8/10, with such great sheen! Thank you, KaB and lapis for your assistance to correct my typing blunders! I do appreciate it!