Qin Shi Huang Red Or Pink?

[radellaf]

Trying to decide if I should contact the seller about this. My Qin Shi Huang is more like the light purple Herbin Larmes de Cassis than it is a terra cotta, intense pink, or red (as it seems advertised). There's about 3mm of stuff that settles out within a day that is more of a brick red, sorta cloggy, and not at all UV fluorescent.
I know this is a quirky ink and don't want to complain if I didn't get a bad bottle. I got it out of interest, not for utility, so if this is typical then I'll keep it.

 

Writing and swabbing:

http://i.imgur.com/qlOx2Cal.jpg

 

in UV LED light:

http://i.imgur.com/EaiQjQ5l.jpg

 

bottom of bottle:

http://i.imgur.com/vK5uVp2m.jpg

[amberleadavis]

Nope, that's a bad batch. It's vibrant. And whatever you do, don't mix it with another ink.

[inkstainedruth]

MY initial answer, before seeing radellaf's scans, was to say "Yes...."

My batch of QSH is eye-searing magenta -- so somewhere *between* red and pink.

I actually bought it sort of by accident, not realizing what it was. The label only says "First Emperor", and the rest of the text is in Chinese. I don't think I would have gotten it had I realized, because I remember when it first came out a lot of people complained about the feathering.

Your batch looks more like Empire Red. I'm wondering if you got a mislabeled batch.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

Is Empire red a UV ink?

[inkstainedruth]

Is Empire red a UV ink?

 

I don't know. I'd have to look that one up. I tried a sample of it, though, and the color did not exactly wow me, so I didn't pay much attention after that. But I looked just now (the Noodler's ink property chart on the Goblet Pens website) and Empire Red *is* UV light reactive, apparently.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[radellaf]

Thanks for the help. I looked up a few reviews of Empire Red and it sure looks like that's what I got, though none of them mentioned the effect of the "sediment" and whether to shake it first. Un-shaken, it looks like the kind of light red but not pink that I see in most of the reviews. Some have it darker, but this is a 78G M nib, not particularly wet.

 

I'll see what the seller will do. I'm not thrilled. It's OK, but really too washed out, which is not something I think QSH is known for.

[justaninker]

OP, I had the same experience with a bottle of QSH bought on Amazon. Only that my bottle was even more dilute and the color more muddy. There was also a thick layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Then I got a sample of QSH from Anderson and it was a vibrant, eye-searing pinkish red, as expected.

 

I doubt our off-colored QSH are mislabeled Empire red. I have Empire Red and it's much redder, prettier, with no nasty sediments.

[radellaf]

Without a head-to-head it's hard to tell, and my other two russian inks (plus 54th, and GotA) have a few mm of "sediment" at the bottom as well. It's not really sediment, either. It's like a different density liquid. Some amount of it, with varying settling times, seems to be in every opaque Noodler's ink. GotA & this settle noticeably over 24h. #41 Brown takes a week or more. Even the plain black or colors with it like Zhivago will, after months, have a bit of something. It's why I really like the "standard line" colors and Borealis, but I have most of those, so I venture further.

 

The color looks enough like some reviews, but sure doesn't compare like the swatches. In these, Larmes is darker somehow, but not at all the same hue as this mystery stuff.

 

official swabs

http://i.imgur.com/64tWR7Xm.jpg

 

my versions

http://i.imgur.com/6AO3OSmm.jpg

 

So, in any case, the seller refunded my money and I asked them to get in touch if they ever get some good QSH in. They said they still had a few bottles of this that, I hope, Noodler's will hear about.

 

I'll look for some Empire at the June pen show to compare. Andersons will probably be at the Raleigh show. But, yeah, this could at least as easily just be a bad batch as mislabeled. The other instance I know of was La Coleur Royale being maybe mislabeled Blue, but then it had like three different versions, so who knows.

Edited January 21, 2017 by radellaf

[radellaf]

Got a new bottle for Christmas. This one doesn't settle out, or at least not in a few days.

 

[amberleadavis]

Thanks for sharing the picture with us.

[wallylynn]

wow, that's dramatic.