Sample Mayhem!

[shawndo]

159 inks done so far. I powered through a bunch today. My concurrent espresso hobby is definitely helping this effort. I think I will choose about 15-20 to make it through to a second round and load them into a fountain pen. Then I think a third or fourth round will determine my final list of "keepers" and I think this will also be the target number of fountain pens I think I may decide to keep. I'm hoping for 5 or less. (I'm at 2 pens right now)

 

Favorites so far:

- Iroshizuku Asa-gao, Yama-budo,

- Diamine Bilberry, Majestic Blue

- Noodler Baystate Blue, Baystate Concorde Grape, Blue Eel, North African Violet, Manhattan Blue

- Private Reserve American Blue

Edited July 9, 2012 by shawndo

[Lazarus Long]

You forgot Diamine Sherwood Green.

[pen2paper]

My beloved ex hubby says we need to have this in a database.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/files/file/5-fountain-pen-inventory-database-by-jon-rosen/

ahem..

for pens, And inks.

 

 

[pen2paper]

oops duplicate

Edited July 10, 2012 by pen2paper

[shawndo]

Here are the pages from round 1. I attempted to smooth my glass pen towards the end, and it just started gushing ink, so the text portions are a little heavy towards the end. I think it would be better to just consider the color patches. Next step is to dip some favorites into my Lamy 2000 F.

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-1.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-2.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-3.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-4.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-5.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-6.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-7.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-8.jpg

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round1-9.jpg

[Uncle Red]

There are some amazing colors there.

[KenD]

This is an amazing piece of work!

[meghan]

I am thoroughly impressed!

[shawndo]

I chose some favorites, but haven't decided if these will be all for round 2 yet. Can anyone suggest ones I should take a closer look? I am tending towards saturated burn-your-eyes-out blues and purples that you can still use at work. I am discovering this means Private Reserve and Noodler for the most part, although Diamine Billberry is way up there.

 

Just dipping the pens didn't really work out well, so I just did inked up my whole collection with each ink (only 2 pens...)

 

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-1.jpg

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-2.jpg

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-3.jpg

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-4.jpg

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-5.jpg

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-6.jpg

http://www.shawndo.com/images/content/forum_stuff/inksamples-round2-7.jpg

[reprieve]

I'm a big fan of Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue and Iroshizuku Asa-gao. I also like the DC Supershow Violet, but the blue is my favorite.

[shawndo]

alot of the dark blues are pretty similar. Maybe I can't see the subtleties. In person, I can't see the difference between PR Electric DC Blue, PR American Blue, PR DC Supershow blue, Diamine Sargasso Sea. And I'm looking really really close with a flashlight.

Also, I might have screwed up the representation of some of them by having the converter not fully dried out before inking the pen. I noted the one I was sure of, but some others may have been affected. oh well, it's a learning process.

 

 

I want to give away all of these samples. They are all just barely used. For payment, I want a promise to post a certain number of reviews to the Ink Review forum by the end of the year. I think there are people better suited to this than me and who have more energy, by far.

 

So please reply with bids of how many reviews you promise to post by Dec 31, 2012. I'll decide based on the number of reviews you promise as well as the quantity/quality of reviews you have already posted.

 

I am still new to this community so please let me know if this is inappropriate or should be moved to a different forum.

[debbiewm]

I am SOOOOOO jealous! Enjoy! I'm very tempted to visit their site.... cheers, Debbie

[Alohamora]

You have a couple of my favorite inks in this latest group of writing samples, Electric DC blue and Supershow Violet. I think Noodler's Liberty's Elysium is a must try as well.

 

DC Super Violet was a LE, last I looked isellpens still had some in stock, but I didn't see it anywhere else. ETA, indy-pen-dance.com and Goulet still shows some in stock as well. Was a second batch manufactured?

 

Btw, what is the grey, white, black cube in your photos? I used to use a grey card for exposure metering (long time ago).

Edited July 14, 2012 by Alohamora

[Alohamora]

alot of the dark blues are pretty similar. Maybe I can't see the subtleties. In person, I can't see the difference between PR Electric DC Blue, PR American Blue, PR DC Supershow blue, Diamine Sargasso Sea. And I'm looking really really close with a flashlight.

Also, I might have screwed up the representation of some of them by having the converter not fully dried out before inking the pen. I noted the one I was sure of, but some others may have been affected. oh well, it's a learning process.

 

 

 

 

American blue should be a little lighter than Sargasso or Electric blue, but they are close.

[OakIris]

Absolutely amazing! After looking at all the different samples I bet your eyes began to cross but thank you for sharing your journey with us. Hope you found the blue and/or purple ink of your dreams.

 

(I must admit that I do pity whoever at - presumably - Goulet Pens had to assemble your order - bet they took the rest of the day off after it. )

 

Holly

[mhguda]

I've not done an ink review yet and don't know if I will do one any time soon. So I won't qualify for your generous offer. But based on what you've posted so far, I'm going to visit the internet inksample sellers and get me a few of them. I'm especially impressed by the Iroshizuku Asa gao, and the Private Reserve DC Supershow blue. Those are inks I've never used, so I am going to try them. Thanks for sharing, and pointing the way.

[shawndo]

Btw, what is the grey, white, black cube in your photos? I used to use a grey card for exposure metering (long time ago).

 

The gray section can be used as a gray card. Instead of calibrating the camera though, I use it to set the white balance after-the-fact in a raw-file converter.

The little black hole is always the blackest black, and the silver ball will always have a blown out white. Handy little doodad for calibrating color.

I've included it so that if you guys were inclined, you could download the photos and use it to calibrate the colors to your particular screen.

[Ad_Astra]

Your ideal reviewers would be people like dcpritch, Sandy1, dizzypen, etc, but if none of them are interested or anything, I'm pretty sure I could finish 75-80 by the end of the year, with a comparison chart as well.

 

That's an impressive set of samples, hope it helped you decide on some inks!

[Alohamora]

Btw, what is the grey, white, black cube in your photos? I used to use a grey card for exposure metering (long time ago).

 

The gray section can be used as a gray card. Instead of calibrating the camera though, I use it to set the white balance after-the-fact in a raw-file converter.

The little black hole is always the blackest black, and the silver ball will always have a blown out white. Handy little doodad for calibrating color.

I've included it so that if you guys were inclined, you could download the photos and use it to calibrate the colors to your particular screen.

 

Judging by the inks I am familiar with, the photos look very accurate on my monitor, without any tinkering. I used a program called Calibrize to adjust my monitor.

 

I love this type of comparison where a large number of samples are photographed at the same time under the same lighting conditions making comparisons easy. Thank you for posting the all the photos!

 

It would be nice if this thread were eventually moved into the Ink comparisons forum where it will be easier for people to find down the road.

[shawndo]

 

Judging by the inks I am familiar with, the photos look very accurate on my monitor, without any tinkering. I used a program called Calibrize to adjust my monitor.

 

just a general rule of thumb in this case. If the background color actually looks white/light gray to you, No blue/yellow/magenta/green color cast, then the colors should be relatively accurate on your monitor.