Robert Oster Signature Inks (Picture Heavy)

[Cyber6]

Robert Oster Signature Inks - Quick review of 16 lovely inks

 

You can find Part 2 here.
You can find Part 3 here.
You can find Part 4 here.

Exciting news.. a new PLAYER has enter the Ink World.. Robert Oster Signature Inks !!


I was quite excited to see quick reviews of these inks. You all know how much I love new inks. New colors are always exciting to me. Looking at the line up of Robert Oster, it seems that he has been busy. More than 30 colors are currently available at his eBay store. (31 inks on eBay and maybe 7 more.. total of 38)
In any case, I was dying to get my eager paws on some of his creations.. so I went ahead a selected a few colors then some more oh well. Someone might have gone a little overboard But hey!!... couldnt resist a good deal.

I got:

• Yellow Sun
• Green Olive
• Khaki
• Light Green
• Lime Green
• Jade
• Emerald
• Deep Sea
• Turquoise
• Australian Sky
• Bondi Blue
• Blue Denim
• Blue Night
• Fire Engine Red
• Burgundy
• Chocolate

They come in these cute bottles that are quite misleading.. they contain 50ml of inks and dont look much bigger than the Diamine plastic bottles. I believe Robert Oster's bottles are of a much better plastic; they are quite sturdy and the caps closes tightly. Not one spill, not even a drop of ink crept out. Mr. Oster was having a special of adding a pen (Jinhao) for every bottle you purchased. I believe that offer was for the Australian market (the weight of the pens will definitely be costly for international shipping).. In any case, he was so sweet to add 4 pens for me to try out. I never experienced this specific model of Jinhao, but I am quite happy to check them out.





I LOVE broad, flex, wet pens You can imagine that I run into problems almost everywhere I go (unless sticking to the best paper). I did not bother testing with the worst paper possible. Most of us try our best to use at least decent paper. If you are forced to use bad paper, then stick to very fine nibs with medium to dry flow and you should be ok.

For the purposes of this compendium-review, I use 4 types of paper. Two of them are decent fountain pen friendly (most of the time), one is excellent and the last one is not really meant for fountain pens but I happen to use it to create my swatch cards.

• Regular Decent Paper Black nRed
• Regular Decent Paper Rhodia Dot Pad
• Fantastic Paper Tomoe River
• Absorbent Paper Maruman Mnemosyne

My regular notebook is the Black nRed, I use Rhodia only for testing and Tomoe River is mostly for fun, doodling and testing inks. A great ink just looks FANTASTIC on Tomoe and because of the way it lets inks pool on the surface.. if an ink has the ability to sheen, Tomoe River will show it.


To start, these inks are WET. Really wet. I do enjoy wet inks, but since most my pens are wet pens wet+wet.. is a tad too wet. I believe these inks will work much better on medium nibs and they will also help a dryish pen.

Colors are nicely saturated and most of them display very nice sheen.



BLACK nRED

This is paper works 90% of the time. I tend to use extremely wet pens (broads and flexs) and this paper will sometimes fails me. Only very few inks misbehave on this paper. I enjoy the sturdiness of the hardbound cover and the whiteness of the paper enhances the color of the inks. I do enjoy using this paper and I was gladly surprised that NONE of the Robert Oster inks bleed, showed or feathered on this paper. Some of these inks display a nice amount of sheen on this paper

Edited March 2, 2017 by TheGreatRoe

[Cyber6]

RHODIA DOT PAD

 

 

We all know .. old trusted Rhodia. Robert Oster Inks behave well on Rhodia. No bleedthrough, no showthrough and absolutely no feathering. I don’t believe Rhodia is very good at showing sheen, and I was surprised to see some sheen. Red sheen on Bondi and Denim Blue and silver sheen on Fire Engine Red, Burgundy and Chocolate. Awesome!!!

 

 

 

 

[Cyber6]

TOMOE RIVER

 

 

My lovely Tomoe River paper displays the gorgeous colors with great saturation. Colors seem to always come to life on Tomoe. The swab of color beside the writing sample is not really a swab but an ink splat done with a paint knife. Sheen everywhere. I personally love the sheen on Emerald, Deep Sea and Turquoise. No feathering found at all.

 

WARNING: We all know that Tomoe is a very thin paper. Showthrough is expected, what I was not prepared is to see HEAVY showthrough… no bleedthrough, but the showthrough was significant.

 

 

I find very interesting that Black n’Red took the ink much better than Tomoe River.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cyber6]

Maruman Mnemosyne Cards

 

 

These are my lovey swatch cards. They are made of cardstock and not really meant for fountain pen ink. Most inks do behave on it, but dumping copious amounts of wet ink will usually made it feather like a chicken. None of the Robert Oster's Inks feathered on the cards. I am impressed. :D

 

 

 

 

[Cyber6]

For the (Charlie) Sheen lover in all of us…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cyber6]

Overall, these inks are more than just GREAT BANG for your BUCK… they are quite impressive on its own right.

 

During my communication with the lovely Mr. Oster (he is really a nice guy), I found out a few things:

• Price of the ink will increase on May 7. From $7.99AU to $9.99AU
• For international clients, he is offering a “special” of 7 bottles for the price of 6 bottles, and shipping reduce to $20 AU. (actually, I don’t know if the 7 for 6 is only for international… Ozzies, don’t shoot me.. just ask him nicely I am sure he will offer the same for Australians)

For international orders, you should use his email Signature@RobertOster.com

 

 

And to think that I paid approx. $30 USd for Pelikan Aquamarine on February of this year (pre-order), and I am STILL waiting for it. .. I am sure Robert Oster Deep Sea is just as good, and possibly even better.

 

 

 

 

I think I need to go back and get some more… specifically Moss Green, Copper Brown, Barossa Grape… :blush:

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the quick view to Robert Oster’s Signature Inks. I definitely enjoyed playing with them. :P

 

 

DISCLAIMER: I don’t really test for water resistance and staining, since I don’t care about the first and have either cartridge or sac pens. I also just received these inks in the mail less than 48 hrs ago, so I have not tested behaviour of long term in pen. I will definitely update this thread as time goes by and I get to experience these inks daily for a longer period of time.

 

Not affiliated to Robert Oster.. yadda yadda…. Just an inkaholic at heart.

 

 

C.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Cyber6

[visvamitra]

@C - cool. Thank you for the photos. I was curious (and still am) about this inks. They look rather nice. And as you I'm always thrilled to hear about new ink makers / mixers.

[migo984]

Cyber6 - you MUST get Claret. It's unique and quirky. It goes on a dusty dark plum claret wine colour and changes colour as it dries to have pinky grey shading and a little bit of silver sheen. I like it better than KWZ Grey Plum!

 

My favourites so far are Khaki and Deep Sea (which I called in my earlier post the love child of Yama- dori & Verdigris in a moment of euphoria lol). You noted the significant show-through on Tomoe. It actually bled through my Tomoe very badly, which I did post about in the other thread. It does much better on Graphilo A4 paper sheets.

 

Jade is pretty but I'm not at all keen on Royal Red or Lime Green.

[sakayume]

Thanks for the review! I have to admit, I had a look at his ebay store previously, but wasn't very interested in the colours shown in the swatches. I usually find myself liking inks much more in user reviews and photos, and Deep Sea looks absolutely gorgeous here!

 

More than anything though, your photos have convinced me I really need some Tomoe River. I thought I'd be satisfied with Life paper until I finished it, but... The difference between the appearance of these inks on Tomoe river and Rhodia is like beauty and the beast.

[Tas]

Excellent work Cyber6 !

[lgsoltek]

Great work! I love all of them except Emerald, Light Green and the brown.

[dcwaites]

One of his blues to note is School Blue - a nice dark blue that some would call verging on a blue-black. Very business-appropriate.

The blue inks I have tried so far all have quite noticeable shading, and I will have to spend some more time with the non-blues.

I might have to get the Blue Night, and maybe another green. The Aus. Sky Blue is a bit light for me, and not really interested in the Black unless it has some magic properties. When one has HOD, who needs another black?

[Cyber6]

@C - cool. Thank you for the photos. I was curious (and still am) about this inks. They look rather nice. And as you I'm always thrilled to hear about new ink makers / mixers.

 

 

I know how much you love new inks my friend. I will send you samples of everything I have, I want to see your lovely swatches made with them.

 

 

C.

[Cyber6]

Cyber6 - you MUST get Claret. It's unique and quirky. It goes on a dusty dark plum claret wine colour and changes colour as it dries to have pinky grey shading and a little bit of silver sheen. I like it better than KWZ Grey Plum!

 

My favourites so far are Khaki and Deep Sea (which I called in my earlier post the love child of Yama- dori & Verdigris in a moment of euphoria lol). You noted the significant show-through on Tomoe. It actually bled through my Tomoe very badly, which I did post about in the other thread. It does much better on Graphilo A4 paper sheets.

 

Jade is pretty but I'm not at all keen on Royal Red or Lime Green.

 

 

OK... Claret is on my list !!

 

Deep Sea is beautiful, but the shocker for me was Emerald.. I am not too keen on blue-greens... BUT the SHEEN!!! It just looks fantastic on it..

 

 

Showthrough - Now, by definition, I call bleedthrough when the ink ACTUALLY passes through the paper and stains the front side of the next page. I DID NOT experienced ANY bleedthrough with Tomoe River. I was dumping ink like a madwoman, I was using a paint knife from crying out loud. No bleedthrough whatsoever.

 

The showthrough was significant. It doesn't bother me at all, since I NEVER write on the back side of page (goes back to the time when as a kid, I had a heavy hand and the imprint of my writing could easily be seen on the back... I never wrote on the back side of my pages) .. but it needed to be told.

 

 

 

 

C.

[Cyber6]

Thanks for the review! I have to admit, I had a look at his ebay store previously, but wasn't very interested in the colours shown in the swatches. I usually find myself liking inks much more in user reviews and photos, and Deep Sea looks absolutely gorgeous here!

 

More than anything though, your photos have convinced me I really need some Tomoe River. I thought I'd be satisfied with Life paper until I finished it, but... The difference between the appearance of these inks on Tomoe river and Rhodia is like beauty and the beast.

 

 

Great to hear Candide... Most people swear on Rhodia, but honestly once you experienced Tomoe River... you can't go back to anything less..

 

 

C.

[Cyber6]

Great work! I love all of them except Emerald, Light Green and the brown.

 

The Light green is too light to be useable, but the rest are quite nice. I do like the brown (Chocolate), cause I like my red-browns.... but I would like a real brown. I think I need to check "Darker Chocolate".. I think that is the name of another of his inks.

 

 

 

C.

[Cyber6]

Excellent work Cyber6 !

 

 

Thanks Tas... I would send you samples of the blues if you like.

 

 

C.

[Cyber6]

One of his blues to note is School Blue - a nice dark blue that some would call verging on a blue-black. Very business-appropriate.

The blue inks I have tried so far all have quite noticeable shading, and I will have to spend some more time with the non-blues.

I might have to get the Blue Night, and maybe another green. The Aus. Sky Blue is a bit light for me, and not really interested in the Black unless it has some magic properties. When one has HOD, who needs another black?

 

 

The sample color of School Blue (on his eBay site) doesn't look that much darker. He used to have a Blue-Black (listed on his eBay post)... never seen it thou.

 

 

And yes... forgot to mention that the shading is out the WAZOOO.... amazing shading...

 

 

I also want a darker red... Fire Engine Red is lovely, but I need a Vampire red to feel complete....

 

 

 

C.

 

 

 

P.S. David.. did you noticed?, I posted at 4am... Who needs sleep when you have amazing inks to play with.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Cyber6

[migo984]

OK... Claret is on my list !!

 

Deep Sea is beautiful, but the shocker for me was Emerald.. I am not too keen on blue-greens... BUT the SHEEN!!! It just looks fantastic on it..

 

 

Showthrough - Now, by definition, I call bleedthrough when the ink ACTUALLY passes through the paper and stains the front side of the next page. I DID NOT experienced ANY bleedthrough with Tomoe River. I was dumping ink like a madwoman, I was using a paint knife from crying out loud. No bleedthrough whatsoever.

 

The showthrough was significant. It doesn't bother me at all, since I NEVER write on the back side of page (goes back to the time when as a kid, I had a heavy hand and the imprint of my writing could easily be seen on the back... I never wrote on the back side of my pages) .. but it needed to be told.

 

 

 

 

 

C.

 

Yes, I define show-through & bleed-through the same way you do.

 

There was definite bleed-through with ink staining the page underneath. I tried 3 sheets - white & cream loose-leaf + a page in a notebook. All from different sources. However it didn't bleed through the 68gsm Tomoe, Graphilo A4 writing paper or Orchid 80gsm paper (which feels & behaves like a slightly thicker version of Tomoe ).

 

Edited to add : batch variation maybe? Or environmental conditions?

Edited May 5, 2016 by migo984

[Tas]

 

 

Thanks Tas... I would send you samples of the blues if you like.

 

 

C.

 

Oh Cyber6, SO generous, as always, thank you however . . . I never thought I'd say this but please don't . I'm so far behind with sketches and thank yous and CRVs that I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.