Aquamarine - Pelikan Edelstein Ink Of The Year 2016

[visvamitra]

I have mixed feelings about Edelstein a s a line. The inks aren't bad. But they're not as good as the price tag would suggest. On the other hand Pelikan does a great job communicating with pen enthusiasts and engaging them in activities (Pelikan Hub, creating the color of the ink of the year).

My feelings change nothing - each year I'm eager to try their new ink. I've played for a while with Aquamarine and I'd like to share my view. I didn't expect to enjoy the color and while I'm not crazy about it, I must say it's quite interesting, especially in braoader nibs. The ink is fairly waterproof and offers nice and smooth flow - at least in pens I've fillied with it. I haven't observed any bleedthrough or feathering. I'm not sure if I'll keep the bottle or if I'll resell it, but this ink is really good.

PS: Be sure to check excellent Namreshnoom review.

Bottle

Ink Splash

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Water resistance

Software ID

Tomoe River, Kaweco Sport Classic, B

Leuchtturm 1917, Kaweco Sport Classic, B

Poljet, Graf von Faber-Castell Tamitio, B

Oxford, Graf von Faber-Castell Tamitio, B

Mini-comparison

[Uncial]

I like the green, blue and teal colour range so this ink worked for me. I like it.

[lgsoltek]

I like your garden more than this ink, Vis!

[visvamitra]

Sadly it's just pittoresque countryside and not my garden but me too, I prefer it to the ink.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks for the tip on wider nibs.

Last year I was much too late for Amethyst, except in cartridges. I now have three six packs of cartridges.

In I was late this year with Aquamarine also... so I bought a six pack; just in case. It appears my Pelikan CC pens are all F nibs.

Now that the bottle came in, I'll test that ink in both 'true' regular flex F and also a semi-flex M/B/or Oblique of those two, on a good paper.

 

It is my first 'teal' ink.

[EdeIstein88]

I keep hunting garnet ink bottle.. no luck until now..

I hate ink with "limited edition" condition....

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.

I didn't think I'd like Aquamarine, but I got a free bottle as swag in this year's Pelikan Hub. So I tried it, and it's a better color than I gave it credit for being. Not my favorite Edelstein ink, mind (that would probably be either Topaz, Amethyst, or Tanzanite -- in no particular order). But better than I expected.

Although your comparison is now making me want MB Tolstoy....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ItwasLuck]

I actually prefer this to Jade after seeing this review and Namreshnoom's review. Am I going crazy? 😫😫

[Bo Bo Olson]

My bottle is still unopened...lack of wide pens....too many filled.

B or better, Semi-flex B or better...... :eureka: Ah, just got to clean out my 605 in it has a 400 - T transitional 1954 semi-flex B nib on it.

 

Lazy will win... I hurry...do as I say...not as I do.

 

Could fill a ....transfer a cartridge to a Lamy B.

Vampire a cartridge into an old Osmia OB or OBB.

 

To do is one thing....to think a much easier.

[mehandiratta]

I somwhow like this ink...

Though for me Amethyst was one of the best limited edition inks..

[sansenri]

happy 2019!

 

I'm resurrecting this thread just to add my comment and thank you Visvamitra for the review.

I got a bottle of this ink as a bonus with a pen purchase recently.

It's not my favourite colour as I tend not to like greens so much, and I find it rather uninspiring, although it does shade nicely with broader nibs.

I recall Visvamitra mentioning that he finds Edelstein Sapphire uninspiring too (while I'm actually quite fond of it, together with JH Eclat de Saphir, and Diamine Sapphire) so I started wondering what would happen by mixing two supposedly uninspiring inks.

The result is not as obvious as you may think.

I'm not opening a new thread to show you what happens because I really only made a few attempts and do not really have time to go into deeper investigation, however I found at least two interesting approximated formulations, which anyone having these inks can try

(I assume mixing Edelstein inks together will cause no issues, I've done it before with 4001 inks and JH inks.)

1st Edelstein mix: Aquamarine 6 part, Sapphire 5 parts

This is more or less what it looks like
(it's a photo so the colours are not too precise, Aquamarine here looks slightly less green than it is)

 

(sorry for the spelling mistake...)

 

the resulting ink is a nice shade (I like blues!) but just slightly less vibrant than the two originals

 

2nd Edelstein mix, to slightly increase the contrast of the result I then added a slight amount of Edelstein Tanzanite to the Mix... (about 1 part Tanzanite, to 6 Aquamarine and 5 Sapphire)

the result is a much darker shade of blue, and by adding just slightly less or slightly more Tanzanite the result keeps changing quite evidently.

Sorry I have not taken photos of results, will do possibly when I recover from Xmas holidays and back to the office shock...

 

 

The behaviour of these two mixes is in every way similar to Edestein inks in terms of flow, etc., rather dry with some nice shading on wider nibs, quick dry, no sheen at all.

The paper used is ordinary copy paper.

 

It looks as though by playing around some nice intermediate shades can be had...

feel free to try!

 

 

[cattar]

+1 to mixing Edelstein colors. Like your mixes.

 

My Platinum Plaisir is continuously filled with Edelstein. Sometimes one color, often a mix. And I tend to add a bit of Tanzanite to shade and for water resistance.

[inkstainedruth]

@ sansenri -- thanks for posting your mix and the results. While (as I said at the time) Aquamarine wasn't as horrible a color as I expected, it didn't exactly wow me either. And I tried Sapphire at one of the Pelikan Hubs and wasn't overly wowed by it either. But the mix is definitely an improvement on both of those. I may have to get at least a sample of Sapphire and see how I like the mix in person (not sure I want to add in Tanzanite, though -- I like that one WAY too much by itself to want to waste it on ink mixing... .

Hmmm. Now I'm starting to wonder how it would work if I mixed Aquamarine with Herbin Eclat de Saphir (I just picked up a backup bottle of that, and was wondering if -- had I been able to get one a couple of weeks ago at Fountain Pen Hospital -- whether I'd go through a 100 ml bottle of it... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sansenri]

thank you Ruth

actually the amount of tanzanite (which is quite dark) needed to slightly darken the mix is really small unless you want the mix to become very dark.

I played around a little with my mix and when using a little tanzanite got something vaguely similar to Majestic blue in colour, but without the typical characteristics of Majestic (the sheen, the strong concentration, the smearing, the lubrication - it behaves like most other Edelsteins).

 

I think mixing some Acquamarine and JH sapphire would be just fine, I believe they are both very neutral inks, from a chemical point of view.

Try on a small sample and see how it goes! I used a metered syringe to dose the parts, washing the syringe carefully between fills, one of those mini marmelade glass jars to put the mix in , then filled the syringe with the mix and filled a converter directly with it. This way I could make just small samples and not use too much ink, before I got the preferred mix.

[Intensity]

  On 1/7/2019 at 9:39 PM, sansenri said:

happy 2019!

 

I'm resurrecting this thread just to add my comment and thank you Visvamitra for the review.

I got a bottle of this ink as a bonus with a pen purchase recently.

It's not my favourite colour as I tend not to like greens so much, and I find it rather uninspiring, although it does shade nicely with broader nibs.

I recall Visvamitra mentioning that he finds Edelstein Sapphire uninspiring too (while I'm actually quite fond of it, together with JH Eclat de Saphir, and Diamine Sapphire) so I started wondering what would happen by mixing two supposedly uninspiring inks.

The result is not as obvious as you may think.

I'm not opening a new thread to show you what happens because I really only made a few attempts and do not really have time to go into deeper investigation, however I found at least two interesting approximated formulations, which anyone having these inks can try

(I assume mixing Edelstein inks together will cause no issues, I've done it before with 4001 inks and JH inks.)

1st Edelstein mix: Aquamarine 6 part, Sapphire 5 parts

This is more or less what it looks like

(it's a photo so the colours are not too precise, Aquamarine here looks slightly less green than it is)

 

(sorry for the spelling mistake...)

 

the resulting ink is a nice shade (I like blues!) but just slightly less vibrant than the two originals

 

2nd Edelstein mix, to slightly increase the contrast of the result I then added a slight amount of Edelstein Tanzanite to the Mix... (about 1 part Tanzanite, to 6 Aquamarine and 5 Sapphire)

the result is a much darker shade of blue, and by adding just slightly less or slightly more Tanzanite the result keeps changing quite evidently.

Sorry I have not taken photos of results, will do possibly when I recover from Xmas holidays and back to the office shock...

 

 

The behaviour of these two mixes is in every way similar to Edestein inks in terms of flow, etc., rather dry with some nice shading on wider nibs, quick dry, no sheen at all.

The paper used is ordinary copy paper.

 

It looks as though by playing around some nice intermediate shades can be had...

feel free to try!

 

Amazing, youve made Sailor Sei Boku!

 

Well, not really, of course, but that was my immediate reaction after seeing the mix. It looks SO much like Sei Boku.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Intensity

[Bo Bo Olson]

Only took me 4 years & 3 months to get around to using this ink....I think...could be I did, and posted it not on this thread.

So the very first think I did was open the little grey plastic box, pullout an index card and withe what pen, and what ink.

 

In mid month at a live auction I spend a fortune on pens, be it small, medium or large, has to do with how high up you sit from your chair........but thankfully I won't be buying inks for a while.......

Someone said, use a wider nib....and I had what looks to be a '90-92 W.Germany 800 18K, OM.....ran water though it....no ink came out, the sticker is on it, and looks mint....could be the pen was. If not right next to it.

 

Sigh, those older nibs do write thinner. My first impression was it wrote to an F..........................somehow I'd been a bit light handed, with a touch of pressure the regular flex nib wrote to the M.

On Rhoda 90g, the ink shades....which is very important to me.

 

My ink runs more blue than the green shown by other folks in this post.

 

I guess it's not quite Greek Island aquamarine, but if it be teal, fine. I don't think I have much teal. It is more blue than green to my eye. But there is a green tone...........therefor a teal...going have to see it under bare sunlight.

I had been dithering between this ink and Olivine....glad I picked this one.

 

Still some day I'll try a broad nib.. a semi-flex B, OB or even OBB. A semi-vintage  regular flex OB might be better. I think I'm shy of regular flex B nibs, do have a nice old small 600 OBB, that could do the trick for wide nibs.

How ever I've found that semi-flex nibs are depending on the ink and paper match; sometimes too wet and swallows the shading.

Regular flex....or what the Japanese call soft, the '82-97 Pelikan and present and past 200, are good shading nibs.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

This one of my favorite inks. I always have the Pelikan m120 Green inked with Aquamarine at all times.

 

Although the colors of Edelstein Ink are not unique by any means. Other manufacturers have offered colors similar to Edelstein for years. I found Edelstein inks life changing. I mostly write with Pelikan pens, about 6 hours a day everyday for the last 10 years, so the Edelstein inks offer a nice line that is not too dry or wet which allows my sloppy handwriting to be legible. Not only that, they are easy to clean for the most part.

 

Edelstein may not be my favorite ink range. I prefer Sailor Shikiori (mostly the previous colors under the Jentle name) and Rohrer and Klinger. But the combination of Pelikan Pen + Edelstein Ink is hard to beat. I fill Pelikan pens with Rohrer and Klinger inks, but I am careful about what Shikiori ink I fill a Pelikan with (sometimes a bit too wet for me).

 

I found Moonstone makes my m800 Grey Stripe write nicely. Akin to a Sailor pen. Which I find enjoyable.

 

The price in the states may be high. I find any ink above the $20 to be pricey. Although, I am guilty of buying a few of these inks (sometimes). One can purchase Edelstein overseas, and much cheaper. Ie., for someone ordering from say Appelboom. There is a discount for multiple bottles. Sure shipping can be expensive, but if placing a bulk purchase for say 8 bottles. It comes out to $126 with shipping to the states. Now you can always add a $10 off coupon, or wait for the rare %20. 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a reverse problem, Noodlers over here in Germany  is the expensive imported E-19 ink, and all Japanese inks are more than the new high priced E 19 MB....

Not long ago, Japanese inks cost E-70 a bottle until Amazon's air fleet brought it down to E22-25. At E-70, I really didn't care at all what color squisshy-wishhy san was.

And my Japanese was very limited to start from 1970, and about all I can say now is "Don't Touchy Mustache".

So have no idea in the world what colors they are. 'Winter maple leaves mashed on the street', don't tell me much.

 

Edelstein I think is now E-17 up an Euro from the last few years.