Birmingham – Andrew Carnegie Steel Blue

[crahptacular]

Birmingham – Andrew Carnegie Steel Blue

 

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.

 

Andrew Carnegie Steel Blue is a very grey blue with a cool tone. It has a moderately low range of shades, which results in lines that tend to be relatively consistent. When the ink shades, it has a gradient effect, without much contrast, except with wet nibs or writing styles that allow a lot of ink to pool at the end of strokes (compare the all caps writing sample with the other two samples/review writing). It has reasonably high water resistance and comfortable flow, but showed a tiny bit of feathering on FC paper with a wet bold nib. This ink reminds me of Kyo no Oto’s Aonibi, which I enjoy a lot. Between the two, Aonibi is slightly bluer, but the two are quite similar in writing. I would say it’s somewhere in between Aonibi (on the blue side) and Callifolio Gris de Payne (on the grey side). Personally, I prefer Aonibi, but if you’re in the US (not sure about the availability of Birmingham inks internationally), this ink is a cheaper alternative that’s nice in its own right. If you enjoy muted, greyed-out colors, you might be interested in this one. If you like bright, vibrant, vivid colors, this is definitely not a bright happy sort of blue.

 

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate high

Shading: Medium

Sheen: None.

Water Resistance: Moderate-high

 

 

The following sample was done with a Pilot Elite (Extra Fine) and a Nemosine Singularity (Broad) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a size 0 liner. Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: Both the photo and scan look pretty accurate to me this time. The scan does a better job with the comparison inks, all of which turned out fine (for once).

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

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

Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo, Kyo no Oto Aonibi, L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Oconto, L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Gris de Payne, Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Sandra Cisneros’ “Eleven”

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[ENewton]

Another attractive ink, and another inspiring review. Thank you.

[inkstainedruth]

This one is a maybe for me (reminds me a lot of Waterman Mysterious Blue in some pens).

Thanks for the review. And, well, maybe not....

Good thing the Birmingham Pens B&M store is only open on Saturdays and I've got some other commitments between now and the first of the year.... I'd be going bankrupt.... I was in there one time last spring to check out the Lamy al-Star Pacific Blue; didn't get that but *instead* I walked out with a TWSBI 580-al -- a more expensive pen! -- and three bottles of De Atramentis ink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[titevm]

I'm really into blue-blacks, so, I'll try to get me a bottle of this one.

 

Amazing review as always, keep up the great work and thank you once again!

[ENewton]

 

Good thing the Birmingham Pens B&M store is only open on Saturdays and I've got some other commitments between now and the first of the year.... I'd be going bankrupt.... I was in there one time last spring to check out the Lamy al-Star Pacific Blue; didn't get that but *instead* I walked out with a TWSBI 580-al -- a more expensive pen! -- and three bottles of De Atramentis ink....

 

 

I don't think the store is open even on Saturdays at the moment. The proprietor had to close the storefront and is looking for a different location.

[Pensei]

Good review, good drawing. Also, your selection of comparison inks is always enlightening.

[crahptacular]

I'm really into blue-blacks, so, I'll try to get me a bottle of this one.

 

Amazing review as always, keep up the great work and thank you once again!

I'd sooner call this a blue-grey than a blue-black (not that I'm an authority or anything--I don't have many blue-blacks). That is to say, I think the hue fits into the blue-black family, but it doesn't get very dark; even the flex writing doesn't approach black. Unfortunately, I don't have a "standard" blue-black to compare it against, but if/when you get the ink, you should expect a muted blue, nothing very saturated .

 

 

 

By the way, not to sound like an advertisement, but I saw that the Birmingham inks (full-size bottles) are 50% off at the moment...

[Tas]

Lovely review as ever. Thank you so much for making the time and sharing

[inkstainedruth]

 

I don't think the store is open even on Saturdays at the moment. The proprietor had to close the storefront and is looking for a different location.

 

Well, there were issues. The location was half a block off a major business district but unless you knew the store was there you might not find it. The storefront was really small, the street parking in that neighborhood is either metered or you have to have a "resident" sticker in your car window (and the block the store was in had zero street parking), and given that there are a fair number of trendy boutiques and higher brand chain stores, I'm betting the rent was high. Even on the side street. Plus, they often seemed to have just one of an ink -- so if they were sold out I expect it took awhile to get together another order big enough to defray the shipping charges. And not having stuff in stock is always kind of the kiss of death for a small business.... [There's a shoe store in the town where I lived in MA -- they had been in business for DECADES. They specialize in having shoes for people whose sizes ranged from AAAA to EEEEE, and people would travel there from out of state to go shoe shopping. My husband found ONE brand of shoes wide enough to fit him. And because of him they started carrying *two* pairs in stock of that brand and style....]

I don't know where the location of their warehouse (and the old xfountainpens mail-order business) was in relation to the B&M, but given where I *think* the mail-order office was (which I'm guessing was mostly just an office/mail-drop) it wasn't all that easy to get between the two locations.

It's really sad. I loved going there, and there was nearly always at least one or two other customers. I suspect that the hope was that it was a more upscale neighborhood, and there were a couple of other stationers stores towards the other end of the business district (both of which sold a few pens and inks, along with some journals and notebooks), plus a Dick Blick art store had moved in. But those were all at the other end of the main shopping area in that neighborhood.

Fingers crossed that another location can be found.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ENewton]

 

Well, there were issues. The location was half a block off a major business district but unless you knew the store was there you might not find it. The storefront was really small, the street parking in that neighborhood is either metered or you have to have a "resident" sticker in your car window (and the block the store was in had zero street parking), and given that there are a fair number of trendy boutiques and higher brand chain stores, I'm betting the rent was high. Even on the side street. Plus, they often seemed to have just one of an ink -- so if they were sold out I expect it took awhile to get together another order big enough to defray the shipping charges. And not having stuff in stock is always kind of the kiss of death for a small business.... [There's a shoe store in the town where I lived in MA -- they had been in business for DECADES. They specialize in having shoes for people whose sizes ranged from AAAA to EEEEE, and people would travel there from out of state to go shoe shopping. My husband found ONE brand of shoes wide enough to fit him. And because of him they started carrying *two* pairs in stock of that brand and style....]

I don't know where the location of their warehouse (and the old xfountainpens mail-order business) was in relation to the B&M, but given where I *think* the mail-order office was (which I'm guessing was mostly just an office/mail-drop) it wasn't all that easy to get between the two locations.

It's really sad. I loved going there, and there was nearly always at least one or two other customers. I suspect that the hope was that it was a more upscale neighborhood, and there were a couple of other stationers stores towards the other end of the business district (both of which sold a few pens and inks, along with some journals and notebooks), plus a Dick Blick art store had moved in. But those were all at the other end of the main shopping area in that neighborhood.

Fingers crossed that another location can be found.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I understand that there was a major problem with the plumbing a week or two ago; possibly the search for a new venue has to do with that. In the meantime, the online business proceeds as usual, and Nick's ink formulations are getting quite a bit of attention. It's just an awful time of year for a vendor to have to relocate.

[inkstainedruth]

 

I understand that there was a major problem with the plumbing a week or two ago; possibly the search for a new venue has to do with that. In the meantime, the online business proceeds as usual, and Nick's ink formulations are getting quite a bit of attention. It's just an awful time of year for a vendor to have to relocate.

 

True, that.

Plumbing problems suck. And (at least around here) the real estate market kinda dries up in the winter. Anybody who's looking for a place at this time of year is really motivated. I don't know for commercial rentals, but for the housing market a lot of sellers take their stuff off the market until spring (and the real time to sell is before school starts in the fall, because people with kids don't tend to want to disrupt their kids' schedules and make them have to adjust to a new school/new friends in the middle of the school year).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intensity]

Amazing artful review! This one's extra great.

 

Sad to hear about BPC's troubles. I hope they keep going (and keep their great ink line available for a long time!)