Birmingham – George Westinghouse Alternator Crimson

[crahptacular]

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors when I bought the sample pack, but I think they’re at 40+ and counting) 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.

 

Alternator Crimson is not the color I expected when reading its name. I suppose I would call it a crimson-black; it’s quite dark, with relatively low color saturation, with a hue that’s reddish-brownish-purplish. You can tell how confused I was with the color by looking at the comparison inks I ended up choosing. It’s a pretty unique color for my collection, though others with more extensive experience might be able to suggest similar colors. In writing, it’s dark enough that it can sometimes be hard to make out the actual color of the ink. In this respect, I was reminded of Sailor Doyou, which I know is brown but most of the time just looks black to me. Maybe my eyes are faulty. Alternator Crimson isn’t quite that dark (I can usually tell it’s not black, at least!) except on TR, where the ink tends to sit on top of the paper. On other papers, like in my writing samples, the lines are not as dark and the color comes out more. However, I noticed that on Midori (a yellower paper), it came out looking like a flat brown, losing most of its crimson, which was disappointing. I enjoyed its range of shades when used with water, though most of those light tones never show up in writing. As far as behavior is concerned, it’s been perfectly acceptable and hasn’t given me any problems. Overall, I found this color pretty interesting, as I don’t have any other inks that are too similar. I’m not sure it’s a color I’d use very often, but I wouldn’t mind having more to play with.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Low

Sheen: None

Water Resistance: Moderate-high (red washes off, but a pretty dark grey line remains)

 

 

The following sample was done with a FC 27 (XF) and a Namisu Ixion (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: This was a bit tough to balance. The doodle came out with a touch too much purple, but the big smear had too little. The writing in between them looks okay, though. Try to imagine the color being somewhere between those two hues! The comparisons are all useable, with Doyou looking a little odd (sheen) and PdL and Shigure both being a touch redder than they should be.

 

Scan:

 

 

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

Sailor Doyou, Sailor Kobe #27 Kounan Maroon, J Herbin Poussiere de Lune, Sailor Shigure, Noodler’s Black

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Midori MD:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[inkstainedruth]

Not really a color for me. But as usual, thanks for the review and the stellar artwork.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[da vinci]

Fabulous review, thanks

[Newjelan]

Wonderful review, thanks.

[KellyMcJ]

Well, darn. I'm an electrical history buff...I guess I need this now! 😂

[ENewton]

I found this ink to be a dark mahogany color on most papers.

 

I am surprised to hear the lubrication described as "moderate." Alternator Crimson is probably the smoothest, most lubricated ink I have ever used. My notes say "exceptionally smooth writing."

[crahptacular]

Interesting; I didn't notice anything like that! With the needlepoint nib I wouldn't expect to feel much lubrication, but I don't recall the broad nib feeling particularly smooth. In fact, I changed it from "moderate high" to "moderate" after doing the writing samples (I do those at the very end of my review process) because I had been using TR paper all week, but noticed it wrote drier than expected on Midori in particular. I'm also not sure mine would be called mahogany... maybe I have the wrong image of "mahogany" in my head, though. Mine had a definite purple undertone that I wouldn't associate with mahogany. I'm wondering if our formulations might be slightly different.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Absolutely love the artwork!

[Intensity]

This is an unusual color and makes me think of vintage industrial things. I think of it as a reddish sepia-black kind of dirty shade.

 

Re: lubrication for needlepoint nib--I just recently went through the exercise of finding the most lubricating ink for my needlepoint pen. Other than Organics Studio Walden Pond Blue (super lubricating ink that makes any pen glide, but I wouldn't use in a vintage pen with a latex sac), I found that Sailor Kobe #51 Kano Cho Midnight is the most lubricating for tiny scratchy nibs. Most other inks I've tried, including those that are said to be more lubricating, have not been as noticeably smoothing as those two. I've tried Sailor's pigment black, Iroshizuku inks, Noodler's Eel Black, Aurora Black (pretty good, but not as good as the Kobe ink), and a slew of other inks.

[Tas]

Skills !

[KellyMcJ]

I got my bottle yesterday. It does NOT play well in my vintage Eversharp Skyline, which is a HUGE disappointment (it skips and feathers like crazy in my Apica journal) and seems to do much better with a drier pen. I put it in a Guanleming (brand from China) and it's working much better, no skips or bleed through and minimal feathering.

 

Gorgeous color!!!

[Misfit]

I had hoped it would be a sheening color between red and blue. I might buy close to 10 in samples from Birmingham Pen Co. They have them in cute bottles.