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This is the second round of ink testing that I am doing - the first is already three months in and you can find those posts on my blog. I figured that for this one I would start from the beginning on here and post updates as I go along. Eek! I am so excited about this. After taking nearly a month to fill up a new page full of inks (partly because I went on vacation for a week), it’s finally ready: As with my first epic ink test, I will have four tests running in parallel: a control which will be kept in a plastic sleeve in a notebook, an ambient light test which will hang on my fridge, a water test, and a sunlight test which will hang in my bedroom window. The ambient and sunlight tests are already in place, so let’s meet our contenders for this round, shall we? Just in case you cannot easily read my handwriting, here are the inks that will be tested: Pilot Varsity disposable pen in black Diamine Salamander Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses Pelikan Edelstein Aventurine Iroshizuku Tsutsuji Private Reserve Shoreline Gold Paradise Pen Turquoise Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku Fisher Space Pen, black ink Yoobi gel pen Organics Studio Gregor Mendel Diamine Poppy Red Standard Sharpie marker Noodler’s Sequoia Green Organics Studio Edgar Allen Poe Noodler’s El Lawrence Pilot G2 in purple Sharpie pen in purple *The test indicator was written in a black sharpie pen* This is sad because it also shows you just how far behind I am on posting reviews. I will eventually post reviews for all of these inks except probably the Sharpies… Anyway, I am very interested in seeing how these inks perform because a lot of them are not marketed as being “bulletproof” or “archival” or “eternal” - they are just regular inks. The paper used is Staples bright white 24 lb inkjet paper and the pens were mostly a mix of M and B nibs. Right away I can share the results of the water test: To do this test I submerged the paper in a bowl of cool tap water and let it soak for a few minutes. I then pulled it out, gently blotted off the excess water with a paper towel, and allowed it to air dry on a metal rack. I would say the following inks “passed” my water test, in that they would be easily still readable by someone who did not do the original writing: Pilot VarsityDiamine Salamander (this is weird, because as I noted in my review I saw some water resistance there but then retested on different paper and it was not there, but this is the same paper I used in the review so…?)Noodler’s BSiAR and El LawrenceIroshizuku Ku-Jaku (I saw similar performance on the water test which will accompany my review)Fisher Space Pen and Yoobi gel penOS Gregor Mendel and Edgar Allen PoeBoth Sharpies The rest of the inks I would say are not terribly water resistant. Obviously this is my opinion and you might feel differently, but a lot of them washed out just a bit too much for me to write anything that needs to be permanent. So, that’s where I will leave this for now. In a month I’ll update on how the other two tests are coming along and in the mean time I’ll start working on the page for round 3! :-)

Howdy! I have been posting the results of my second round of ink testing as an ongoing project, but I just hit the six month mark on my first round and I figured that I would post the results as kind of an overview without the along-the-way commentary. Because, science. :-P Here is the setup for the first test (same as for the second one), followed by the control sheet and the water test: After one month: Two months: (control on left, ambient indoor on right) (Control on left, sunlight on right) Three months: (Control on left, ambient indoor on right. At this point I decided that there wasn't much happening here so I retired the ambient indoor light test.) (Control on left, sunlight on right) Four and a half months: (Control on left, sunlight on right) Six months: (Control on left, sunlight on right) At this point I am planning to do another check towards the end of December since I will be moving and so the test might end around the 8 month mark. I am also filling a sheet or two for my third round to start in January and I would love suggestions on inks that I haven't tried yet. I'm open to non-FPs as well, so if you have other types of pens you want to see tested, let me know! :-)