What ink(s) are you waiting for in the mail?

[NumberSix]

2 Iroshizuku bottles from Vanness:

 

Shin-kai

Tsuki-yo

[tinta]

My very first KWZ iron-gal ink, a bottle of Blue #6, from Cult Pens. Heard so many positive comments about KWZ inks. Had to try just one.

[AmandaW]

My box of inks finally arrived from the UK. Sadly there's more ink the box than one of the bottles because it's lid wasn't done up. Everything is a mess and the labels no longer.

[A Smug Dill]

Everything is a mess and the labels no longer.

Oh no! I know what thst's like. ;(

[ParramattaPaul]

I'm waiting for a bottle of the new Mabie Todd ink, Kingfisher Blue, to arrive.

 

I want to compare it to the Diamine blues I have.

[NumberSix]

My box of inks finally arrived from the UK. Sadly there's more ink the box than one of the bottles because it's lid wasn't done up. Everything is a mess and the labels no longer.

*hugs*

 

I had a 4.5 oz bottle of Baystate Blue explode one time, ruining everything in the shipment.

[inkstainedruth]

I guess I've been relatively lucky in that regard. But the one time it happened, it was a catastrophe on several levels. It was back when Pharmacist was still about, and when he first started playing around with IG inks that weren't just blue-black. He was selling three packs of small bottles of some of the different colors (the shipping from Belgium to the US was more than the cost of the inks themselves). Well, one of the bottles cracked in shipment (sort of at the shoulder of the bottle. And of course leaked EVERYWHERE. It was dripping through the envelope onto the counter at the post office (I had gotten a notice that they had it waiting for me, which I thought was odd until I saw that...). What was worse, it was the one I had wanted the MOST -- Turkish Nights (which Nelson referred to as "cyan-black"). I contacted him right away and he very Kindly replaced the entire shipment. But that means I have backup bottles of the green-black and the sepia-black -- but NOT of Turkish Nights. Then the next year he had a batch of inks go bad, and then had a family crisis, and then had a lot of travel for his job. And then fell off the radar entirely (I keep hoping he's okay). So I was never able to get a back up bottle, or try some of the other colors (I would have loved to see the purple IG ink, and was curious about the orange IG one), and I never got a chance to get his original blue-black IG ink either.

And no -- KWZI IG Turquoise is NOT a substitute. Nice, but a different color.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ParramattaPaul]

I haven't had any inks spilt during shipping, but I've had a number of shirts ruined from pens suddenly deciding to regurgitate a sack full of ink.

[Intensity]

I've had one ink spill so far from ink, where someone had put tape around the caps but didn't actually tighten the caps before taping... When I ship, I tighten all the caps really well and use a lot of bubble wrap and air packs for any impacts.

[silverlifter]

Still waiting for the samples I ordered in the first week of May to ship...

[Jarod]

Still waiting for the samples I ordered in the first week of May to ship...

 

Oh my... where from?

[silverlifter]

 

Oh my... where from?

 

From the EU to downunder. Postal services are still under limited service apparently.

[Jarod]

 

From the EU to downunder. Postal services are still under limited service apparently.

 

I'm sure you'll feel like a little kid on Christmas day and will enjoy them even more!

[A Smug Dill]

Sigh. I just added large bottles of Diamine Asa Blue, Deep Dark Blue, Deep Dark Orange, Oxford Blue, Pelham Blue and Salamander, as well as a bottle of (new-to-me) Waterman Serenity Blue, to yet another order with Cult Pens this morning. Now I have to identify five other Diamine ink colours and ask Cult Pens to amend my earlier outstanding order (awaiting stock for Pelikan 'replacement' nibs) so that I'm not also receiving small bottles of (most of) those as well in September!

[Jarod]

@A Smug Dill - Diamine Asa Blue, Oxford Blue and Pelham Blue kept jumping in and out of my cart for months. Asa Blue finally made it home! The other two are still on my wish list, but they are so similar to Asa Blue that I don't know if I'll delete them, to later add them back

 

I'm always looking for that blue that will be the blue for me. But as I keep adding blue swatches in my ink box, shuffling them around and then picking out my favourite, I always go for... Waterman Serenity Blue. And I write the name of the ink at the back of the swatches, and the swatches are done the same way.

 

I hope you like Serenity Blue.

 

I don't know if you're into browns, but how about Macassar, Chocolate Brown, Bach, Saddle Brown and Rustic Brown to replace the 5 bottles?

[A Smug Dill]

The other two are still on my wish list, but they are so similar to Asa Blue that I don't know if I'll delete them, to later add them back

I blame @JulieParadise for her recent artful enabling that she always does all too well!

 

I'm always looking for that blue that will be the blue for me.

To be honest, I don't know if, or expect, any of the new-to-me Diamine ink colours (except perhaps Registrar's) I recently ordered to unseat the blue inks that are already on my Top Five blues list:

My Top Five blues

Sailor seiboku

Platinum blue-black

Lamy Crystal Ink Benitoite

Sailor Shikiori yonaga

Diamine Jalur Gemilang

 

But as I keep adding blue swatches in my ink box, shuffling them around and then picking out my favourite, I always go for... Waterman Serenity Blue. And I write the name of the ink at the back of the swatches, and the swatches are done the same way.

 

I hope you like Serenity Blue.

Thank you! Now, please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to talk down your tastes...

 

Serenity Blue has been in my Amazon "saved for later" list for many months, largely based on its reputation for being a safe ink (not that I like, or have a habit of, using "safe" inks for testing any of my fountain pens), but also because it's relatively cheap, and it's almost as if a "standard" — if only for use as a frame of reference, to calibrate against and understand what others are talking about — for any fountain pen hobbyist and ink addict to have, and also because I may need to pad an order with it to qualify for free international shipping to Australia due Amazon Prime membership (which still has a threshold amount, most of the year). However, no matter how many times it got into my shopping cart, it still ended up getting replaced in favour of something else (like watermarking/embossing ink, and I don't play with embossing at all, WTH?); and I found an easy way to get around the free Prime shipping threshold.

 

On account of it bringing the total spend on one of my Cult Pens order yesterday to £200.02, it finally made it. I'll give it a go, but I think with competition from Monteverde Horizon Blue (which I already have and like), Visconti Blue (which I haven't tried) and my old bottle of Cross blue ink (which I don't enjoy using per se, but because it's so old and expendable, that's my pen "testing" ink), Waterman Serenity Blue may struggle to find a place. I do want to see where it stands against the plethora of Diamine blue inks.

 

I don't know if you're into browns,

Very much so; I like writing with brown ink more than I do blue ink, even though I have more varieties of blue ink by sheer count (63 versus 42).

 

I do have 16 unopened bottles of Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz, haha. I'd love for Platinum Classic Ink Khaki Black to remain my primary/staple brown ink, but the price made it an impractical decision, so I was resigned to picking a Diamine or (gasp!) Noodler's brown ink for it. However, coming across Smoky Quartz offered at just a quarter of the local RRP/MSRP (which is also about a quarter of what I have to expect to pay for a bottle of Khaki Black these days, and that's with discounts), and discovering that its water resistance puts some iron-gall inks to shame, choosing it is a no-brainer to me.

 

but how about Macassar, Chocolate Brown, Bach, Saddle Brown and Rustic Brown to replace the 5 bottles?

I already have the first two, and the last three are already in transit to me from Cult Pens from an earlier order.

 

I asked Cult Pens last night to change the five bottles to: Ancient Copper, Eclipse, Indigo, Steel Blue, and Teal. I already have Eclipse and Indigo; a 30ml bottle each of Ancient Copper and Teal are already in transit (on the same order as the three browns), and only Steel Blue is totally new, having displaced Marine from that last slot just so I can compare those two colours.

[tinta]

My box of inks finally arrived from the UK. Sadly there's more ink the box than one of the bottles because it's lid wasn't done up. Everything is a mess and the labels no longer.

Sorry to hear this. Was it the shipper who dropped the ball or the postal services? Who did you order from in the UK?

[arcfide]

I am eagerly awaiting my third Platinum Classic ink, Lavender Black. Platinum Blue Black currently reigns supreme as my favorite ink to use right now, but I have been collecting up little trinities of colors. I just received my order of Noodler's Black, 54th, and Legal Blue, and previously I picked up Iroshizuku Kon-peki, Tsuki-yo, and Take-sumi. I already have Platinum's Blue Black and Carbon Black, so I've just added in Cassis Black and Citrus Black, with Lavender Black the last one of the Classics that I intend to add.

 

Amongst this set of three vendors, I have to say, Platinum is really winning for me.

[AmandaW]

Sorry to hear this. Was it the shipper who dropped the ball or the postal services? Who did you order from in the UK?

I'm not sure who is at fault. It was well packed - the bottles and cartridges wrapped together in plenty of bubble-wrap and cushioned by plenty of foam peanuts inside a larger box. The outer box wasn't especially damaged (though some ink was soaking through). The bottles were both Kaweco, glass - each inside it's own plastic box - both those were covered in ink on the inside of their boxes suggesting both had leaked.

 

When I opened them it was obvious that the purple bottle was at least a quarter turn undone so it was that which had spilled enough to fill up the bubble-wrap and escape into the outer box. The black ink wasn't tightly closed, but not as obviously undone - enough to leak, but not enough to create havoc. The labels of both bottles were ruined as well as the cardboard of a pack of cartridges. The whole sorry mess, now cleaned up, just looks kinda secondhand. All up I lost about 25% of the ink. A little leak or two can create a big mess.

 

Maybe the fault is with Kaweco? And maybe The Writing Desk for not double checking. They have offered to replace one of the bottles. I don't think I can be bothered chasing it up. I'm disappointed but don't need a lifetime supply of purple. And who's to say it won't happen again? Maybe Kaweco bottles don't travel well? It has definitely put me off ordering ink from overseas.

 

[Jarod]

I'm not sure who is at fault. It was well packed.

Maybe the fault is with Kaweco? And maybe The Writing Desk for not double checking.

Kaweco bottles are sealed with paper going from one side of the cap to the other. You can't open a bottle without breaking the seal - not even a quarter turn.

 

I seriously doubt that Kaweco would send bottles with the broken seal, or that the seller would too. Customs sometimes open packages to see if the contents are true to the shipping slip. I have found some cartridges floating around in the parcel and their box was clearly opened. I see no reason why the seller would have broken the seal on the box to see if all the cartridges were inside, and I know from experience that the seller makes sure that the cartridge box is unopened before shipping.