Birmingham – South Side Park Fern Moss

[crahptacular]

Birmingham – South Side Park Fern Moss

 

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors at the time of writing) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

South Side Park Fern Moss is a very grey green. I’d even go so far as to call it a greenish grey rather than a greyish green, depending on the lighting. In daylight, I see it as a green, but at night with dimmer artificial lighting, I could swear that it’s a grey. When I first made a swatch for this, I was really excited to try it, but now that I’ve used it for a while, I’m not as enthusiastic about the color. It looks much different in writing than when I made my initial swatches. I think the color should be relatively complex (the paper towel I rest my brushes on shows at least three different dye components), but somehow I can’t see any of the complexity in writing, or even more surprisingly, in washes. I’ll readily admit I let my expectations get ahead of me, so apologies for the bias, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed with the ink. Anyway, I have quite a few greyish greens to compare this against, so you can see that this ink has far less color saturation than others like Foggy Green or Loden. I also included Lexington Gray in the comparisons so you can decide for yourselves whether this appears closer to grey or green—to my eyes, it falls neatly in between. My own inflated expectations aside, I think fans of not-quite-greys or greys-with-a-twist would enjoy this color. The amount of green is sufficient to add some interest to it and distinguish it from plain greys, and I found its shading in writing to be subtle and attractive. I think this is one of the uncommon cases where I find an ink more attractive in plain writing than in more generous applications like splashes, smears, washes, flex, etc.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Medium

Sheen: None. Very matte.

Water Resistance: Moderate High. (I forgot to show the usual test on the review sheet! The three letters “ses” at the end of the word “staircases” became the ad hoc test. The green comes off, the grey stays put. Very readable).

 

The following sample was done with a Pilot Kakuno (Medium) and a Franklin Christoph 65 (Broad Stub) on Tomoe River (52gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a size 3/0 mop. Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Bad Scanner Disclaimer: The photo lighting is absolutely awful. Unfortunately I think the next few months’ worth of photos will be equally bad. The scan is quite accurate, fortunately. The colors are just a touch oversaturated in the comparisons, but the doodle, writing, splash, and big smear all look good on my monitor.

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Papier Plume Bayou Nightfall, KWZ Foggy Green, Franklin Christoph Loden, Birmingham Frank Gorshin Riddle Green, Noodler’s Lexington Gray

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction), from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[namrehsnoom]

Great review.
And the colour ... wow ! A greenish grey ink ... salivating ... must have ...
I've put it high on my to-buy list - the gates to my ink-budget re-open on January 1 ... only a few more weeks.

[gylyf]

What a beautiful color! Thanks for the review.

[Intensity]

Beautiful color with good water resistance: on my list now. Thank you for your review.

[inkstainedruth]

Hmmm. This one is a maybe. Reminds me a bit of J Herbin Vert Empire (which I already have) after it's faded a bit. But the artwork is lovely.

Thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Tas]

Ooo wee.

How did I not notice this ?

[lapis]

Ooo wee.

 

How did I not notice this ?

DITTO !!

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Oh goodness look at that shading and that indescribable color. Wish list!

EDIt: Thank you to the power of thank you for uploading big scans. I have poor eyesight so I usually need to squint to gauge the ink color, but not in this case. Great review!

Edited May 10, 2018 by RoyalBlueNotebooks

[Intensity]

This review prompted me to get my own bottle (thank you!), and it is definitely excellent and complex ink with a great vintage vibe!

[Jan2016]

Love your reviews!

[DrScholl]

Ooo wee.

 

How did I not notice this ?

 

Same here!!

Thanks for your beautiful review, look at that shading ...

Does any of you know if this ink is available somewhere in the EU ? Besides I read here that Birmingham inks are made in Germany by DeAtramentis.

I tried to order one from the US but there was a killing shipping cost of $ 22.33 for a 9.99 bottle, which kind of dampened my spirits

[Honeybadgers]

Birmingham needs more love. Such amazing ink quality

 

Sport Donnelly grass stain is my favorite green ever, and it was a limited edition

[JonSzanto]

Birmingham needs more love. Such amazing ink quality

 

Sport Donnelly grass stain is my favorite green ever, and it was a limited edition

 

But of course you realize how subjective this all is. I like the guy, I dug his spirit and way of treating customers, all that. I purchased three inks after looking at quite a few. One of the things that makes it difficult is that a lot of his inks are very closely similar in hue and shade. Teeny differences. But I found three, one of which was Sport.

 

I used one fill and knew I wouldn't use it again. Just not my kind of green, and I like green inks. Fortunately, the two others (again, they are similar, just slightly differing shades of rusty/brick/magenta) turn out to work pretty nicely in flexible nib situations, and I'm enjoying those.

 

So there may be others in his lineup worth investigating, but my general take on them - from my perspective and use - is that they lack a bit of character for common use and appear a bit weak and faded. I'll keep an eye on the reviews so that I can be surprised by another new ink. Sport Donelly didn't work for me. No hate, by any means, but can't love it, either.

[Honeybadgers]

He kind of aims for the faded, warm, smoky colors. He doesn't do vibrant. I really like tarnished nickle, fort blockhouse sepia, and in particular allgegheny river twilight is an AMAZING dusky purple.

 

They're also extremely well behaved

Edited December 29, 2018 by Honeybadgers

[ENewton]

He kind of aims for the faded, warm, smoky colors. He doesn't do vibrant. I really like tarnished nickle, fort blockhouse sepia, and in particular allgegheny river twilight is an AMAZING dusky purple.

 

They're also extremely well behaved

 

I also really like the purples. My favorites are Waterfront Dusk and Lilac Wind.

[Intensity]

He kind of aims for the faded, warm, smoky colors. He doesn't do vibrant. I really like tarnished nickle, fort blockhouse sepia, and in particular allgegheny river twilight is an AMAZING dusky purple.

 

They're also extremely well behaved

With a few exceptions, the colors are murky and dark. But Andy Warhol Pop Purple and Truss Blue are very vibrant.