Birmingham Pens Infield Brown

December 10, 2017

Birmingham Pens Honus Wagner Infield Brown

Based on the positive review of some of the inks from the Birmingham Pens shop in Pittsburgh, PA I ordered the full sampler pack of 30 inks. I know some won't be to my taste, but many seemed quite interesting. The inks certainly win the award for the longest names. I stashed the samples away for relatively easy access, and this was the second ink I blindly selected for review.

Brown inks are one of my favorites, but it can be challenging to find interesting ones. Many manufacturers' brown inks are based on red-brown, and this one is not an exception. It's quite nice, but honestly there is nothing special about it. It cleans very easily from the pen yet is reasonably dark. I'd say it is along the lines of MB Toffee Brown, Visconti Brown, and similar inks. Not as pure brown as Noodler's Brown nor as red as Noodler's Beaver. It shades nicely across the papers I used. No show through or bleed through, though it wouldn't be unexpected on the cheapest papers.

The ink isn't water resistant but handles better than many.

Pen: Pelikan M400 (M)

Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory.

Camera: iPhone 7 using Camera+ app

The images were fairly decent, but the FPN uploader seems to modify the images making the ink appear darker and with less range than in reality. Most are decent, but the MvL one definitely has been shifted darker. As always with ink reviews, you may want to order a sample prior to diving in on a full bottle.

December 10, 2017

Hmm.

I have a bottle of this but haven't tried it yet. Looks to be a lot redder than I anticipated. I got it because their other brown, Shadyside Walnut Street, is now a lot redder than the older bottle I have (they've changed sources for the materials).

Thanks for the review. And the head's up....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

December 10, 2017

Based on my swatches (haven't used them all in pens yet) all of the browns from Birmingham are on the reddish side. Walnut St. goes more on the orange-red side while Infield Brown and Blockhouse Sepia are more pink-mauve tinted. Perhaps the dyes they are using do not lend themselves to other hues.