Most Disappointing Ink Buy

[mhphoto]

I've got a new worst ink of all time: De Atramentis Fir

 

Not only is the color chalky, washed out and flat, but it literally smells like PineSol. NOT ONLY THAT but it ate one of my vintage pens! I really think it shouldn't be sold. It's got some kind of solvent in it I think.

 

 

Details???

[terminal]

I've got a new worst ink of all time: De Atramentis Fir

 

Not only is the color chalky, washed out and flat, but it literally smells like PineSol. NOT ONLY THAT but it ate one of my vintage pens! I really think it shouldn't be sold. It's got some kind of solvent in it I think.

 

 

Details???

 

Yup, I made the mistake of loading it in to one of my old Watermans. It was a newly sack'd pen I bought from a professional and the stuff literally ate through the sack in three days. I had the pen with me when I was out, and when I picked it up I got ink all over my fingers so I took it home and started to clean it out and the ink and water were pouring out of the lever hole. It turned out the ink had literally melted the rubber.

Edited January 6, 2013 by terminal

[de_pen_dent]

Diamine Grape. Was expecting a nice purple but got a very muddy, insipid color. Meh.

[psfred]

Skrip Jet Black. 40 years ago or so I saved up and bought a bottle because I was tired of spending money on cartridges. Big mistake -- the bottle version, unlike the cartridges, was blue-black without the blue. Very light, I was so disappointed I quite using fountain pens for a while (also the mess of trying to refill cartridges in those days, when syringes were NOT readily available).

 

I was just as disappointed with Quink Black in the 80's when I started back to graduate school after leaving my lovely Cross ballpoint in a filling station in Utah on a trip from Oregon to Indiana. Needless to say, I didn't go back to get it when I discovered what I'd done, I was 400 miles away.

 

I still have both bottles of ink. I've tried them again, and it's still no go, if I want gray ink I'll add water to Noodler's Black!

 

Peter

[Bigeddie]

Waterman Havana Brown just isn't rich enough for me, MB Toffee Brown remains my staple.

 

Iroshizuku Aji-sai I am still experimenting with, but I can't seem to get the density needed to show off the colour without performance issues (bleed and feathering).

 

Fortunately only a minority of the inks I have picked up to date!

[notbob]

Initially, I ignored this thread. Too many posts. But finally caved. Very interesting. Lotta repeat inks from diff folks. You can spot trends. I've got almost 3 doz inks, most samples. Only a few disappointments.

 

Seems MB is high on the dis list. I'll add Alfred Hitchcock. Still looks great in the bottle, but on paper, it's brown. I can kid myself and stretch it to a barely perceivable reddish brown, but at a glance, no. Jes plain, dull, old shoes brown. I think I'll do like Ilearnedtoday and dump the ink and keep the bottle.

 

My only Diamine disappointment has been Deep Magenta, which I bought a small bottle to compare with Noodler's Cactus Fruit Eel, an ink I was initially impressed with. The D turns out to be rather boring. It looks like magenta, but has no pizazz, no depth, no kick, no ...no ...anything. It just is.

 

The Cactus Fruit Eel looks great. Writes good, shades nicely, but it's my most disappointing ink. It NEVER dries. Well, a thin stoke will dry in 24-48 hrs. A heavy stroke may never dry. I had a blob of CFE drip on a sheet of CF and reduce to axle grease, but never dried. I have no need of magenta axle grease. And this after I splurged on a full bottle.

 

A lot of this is ink/paper issues. I have some Tomoe River paper. Lovely stuff. Great for revealing sheen. OTOH, some inks will not absorb/dry on it. The blue component to Legal Lapis never dries. Will smear for days, yet dries nicely on Rhodia/CF. Yet most Diamine inks dry instantly on TR paper.

 

I find the lubes/surficants in many Noodler inks make for weird performance, despite the colors remaining rather vibrant. Noodler's inks are the most intriguing, but also the most bizarre. Yer never quite sure what yer gonna end up with, but you know it will be a ride, one way or the other.

[Biber]

I was pretty disappointed by Noodler's Air-Corp Blue-Black. I mean, I knew what to expect (really a dark greenish blue), but I still wasn't blown away, and for whatever reason I was expecting to be blown away by it.

 

Your loss was my gain. Thanks again by the way. So far it hasn't acted like every other Noodler's ink I've gotten (I expect the illusion to be shattered with my second draw from the bottle) and I've been liking it - I'm pretending it's Sailor Miruai actually - but what do I know!

 

Inks that I fell in love with until I actually got them:

 

PR Sonic Blue - too blue

PR Gray Flannel - too soft and fuzzy looking

Herbin Cacao du bresile - too mauvish/pink

R&K Sepia - not quite brown enough; though it's starting to grow on me.

Noodler's Whaleman's sepia - WAY too pink/purple, plus there's some sludge settling out from it.

Noodler’s Burma Road Brown - IT'S GREEN! plus it's too wet and saturated.

Noodler's Army green - too bright, almost electric looking.

 

Hard to please that's all!

Edited January 8, 2013 by Biber

[qwertzu]

De Atramentis Bamboo - the green is much too delicate a color for my need. Only 33.5ml left to go. Sounds like I need Noodler's Army Green.

[Biber]

De Atramentis Bamboo - the green is much too delicate a color for my need. Only 33.5ml left to go. Sounds like I need Noodler's Army Green.

 

Delicate is a great description. In that vein, quite a while back, I fell for Noodler's Spirit of Bamboo. Of course I never got past coveting the color, it being a Singapore exclusive and not readily available to me. The thing is, I fall for all these wonderful colors but when it comes down to it I just don't see myself using them. Fortunately I've only gone so far as to actually purchase relatively few of them. But my wish list sure is long!

[goodpens]

Diamine Damson. I was so prepared to really like it--a perfect dusky purple. But once I used it, it just seemed so dull in every way.

[Cyber6]

Diamine Damson. I was so prepared to really like it--a perfect dusky purple. But once I used it, it just seemed so dull in every way.

 

 

I have been meaning to get a sample of Damson for some time now. I am kind of partial for dark almost black colors.

 

Would you consider selling me the leftover ink? Or we can trade samples.. I have enough ink to make it worth your while

 

 

C.

[inkydoc]

Early on in my venture into the world of FPs, I got a bottle of PR Sherwood Green because I liked the colour swatches. At that point I wasn't reading reviews and didn't know about how long it takes to dry. So I was certainly disappointed in myself for not doing my research. I have also learned not to buy a whole bottle, but to go with samples first!

[axolotl66]

Diamine's Dark Brown - it isn't, it's orange brown.

Diamine's Blue Black - it clogs.

Noodler's Burma Road Brown - it's goose guano with excellent writing properties, unfortunately.

Parker Blue Black - too green.

Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses - I have the red-black and that shades just as well in my experience!

PR Black Cherry - no shading and smears.

 

Graham

[Cyber6]

 

Noodler's Burma Road Brown - it's goose guano with excellent writing properties, unfortunately.

 

 

:roflmho:

 

I am waiting for a bottle in the mail... I am sure I am going to love it!!!!

 

 

 

C.

[chris537]

iroshizuku ina-ho is pretty boring, i had much higher hopes for it

[Lothianjavert]

DC Supershow purple..... it feathers horribly, even on decent paper. Love the color, can't stand how it acts. I'm looking for a replacement well-behaved vivid purple now.

[swanjun]

Herbin gris nuage - the grey so pale it was almost illegible.

 

I have a bunch of J. Herbin inks in cartridge formwhich I'm glad of now, since at the time I didn't know of mold issues in the bottlesincluding Gris Nuages. Way, way, way too pale so I added a few drops of Diamine Damson to the cart and it became a lovely (and much more visible) purple-grey. I've got 5 carts left still, so I guess I'll be doing the same again whenever I get around to using them.

 

Texas Live Oak. Beautiful shade of green BUT it bleeds and spiderwebs terribly! I've tried it in several pens and on several papers with no sucess.

 

This ink makes a medium Sheaffer write like a broad, at least. And I've never gotten that dark green I've seen on scans of reviews. Mine's more like Diamine Umber.

 

Yama Budo : I was expecting a deeper color, a dark red-purple that is suitable not only for correcting school papers... I still am mad with myself, paying such an elevated price for this ink, and it sits in my cupboard for so long now, undisturbed... :bonk:

 

I was so glad I got just a sample of this when I tried Noodler's Cactus Fruit Eel and discovered it was more beautiful/interesting and way less expensive!

 

My only ink disappointments have been from Noodler's. I want to think it's a coincidence. Red-Black, Kiowa Pecan, and Apache Sunset are rather dry, though I have seen reviews that rank them as wet, especially AS. Not sure why mine is dry.

 

My Red-Black is pretty wet, actually. At least in a broad Jinhao 159.

 

 

Christine I didn't like the Black Swan either, too burgundy for me but THEN... I added about 2-3 drops of black per refill and now I love love love this ink. It's a lovely deep eggplant now. Try it and see if you like it.

 

I may have to try this. I just loaded a broad Pelikan Future with it last night and was disappointed that it wasn't darker. My first thought was to try it in a finer nib and see what happens. (ETA: So glad I managed to try the sample before impulse-buying a bottle!)

Edited January 10, 2013 by swanjun

[Linsolv]

Most disappointing was Noodler's Army Green. I bought it with my first pen to get free shipping, having seen the swatches on gouletpens that were sorta olive drab; it came as a dark, ultimately forgettable forest green.

 

I was sufficiently annoyed that I'm sure if I'd bought it someplace I knew anything about I could've asked them to take it back, but it was some Amazon seller. So ultimately it is still sitting with all the rest of my ink, only to be used when I grow entirely too bored of my lovely blue and brown and purple and serviceable black.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Linsolv

[mhosea]

Most disappointing was Noodler's Army Green. I bought it with my first pen to get free shipping, having seen the swatches on gouletpens that were sorta olive drab; it came as a dark, ultimately forgettable forest green.

 

Pre-reformulation or post-reformulation? Did you see this? http://www.inknouveau.com/2012/09/changing-noodlers-army-green.html

[Pen Nut]

X-Feather....Lovely black but drying time was crazy and even when dry a fine carbon like deposit stayed on the ink which smudged easily.