Birmingham – Fred Rogers Cardigan Red

[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.

 

Cardigan Red is a decently-saturated red of medium darkness with a hue slightly on the pink side rather than the orange side. “Decently-saturated” isn’t a great description, but it’s all I could come up with. The color is not highly saturated (aka “retina-searing”), and it doesn’t have a deep or dark color, but it’s still easily legible and avoids appearing pale. Compared to other inks, I would describe it as similar to R&K Morinda (comparison #5) in that it’s not so bright, except it’s far more red. I chose the other comparisons to have a range of hues from more orange (Grapefruit) to more pink (Momiji). Cardgian red is less pink than Momiji, more pink than Wild Strawberry, and less bright than either. I might be subconsciously affected by the ink’s name, but the color seems to be a rather friendly red—bright reds can be alarming, dark reds can be menacing, and intense reds can be angry, but this one is somewhere in between. The ink wrote well in both of my pens, including a F nib that is tuned on the dry side. The flow and lubrication was comfortable, and I had no issues with skips or hard starts. In the drier nib, there was a bit of shading, and in the wetter nib, there was a bit of haloing (on TR at least), so both nibs gave lines with some added interest. On the other hand, the ink has very little water resistance, leaving a pale pink line that would strain your eyes to read. Also, there was a bit of feathering with the bold nib on FC paper (minimal showthrough, zero bleeding), but not on anything else. Not a problem for me, since the majority of my papers are less prone to feathering than the FC paper, but it could be problematic for those who use more absorptive papers. Overall, keeping in mind I’m not a huge fan of reds this ink was a pleasant surprise to me. Its writing characteristics were more fun than I expected, and it did better in my dry fine nib than most of the Birmingham inks have done so far. Still not my kind of color, but I do have a soft spot for Mr. Rogers.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate High

Shading: Low

Sheen: Nope

Water Resistance: Low

 

Paper: Tomoe River (68 gsm/white/loose-leaf)

Pen 1: PenBBS 308 (F/moderately dry)

Pen 2: Namisu Ixion (B/moderately wet)

Dip: Zebra G

Brush: Menso small, size 0 liner

 

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: The scan is slightly oversaturated in the doodle part (the washed portions are slightly paler in life), but the writing is quite accurate. The comparison inks all came out a little too bright; Morinda is especially washed out.

 

Scan:

 

 

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

Kyo-Iro Flaming Red of Fushimi

Pilot Iroshizuku Momiji

KWZ Grapefruit

Diamine Wild Strawberry

R&K Morinda

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction), from Fred Rogers' Senate Statement on PBS Funding (May 1, 1969;

)

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Midori MD:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[lapis]

Nice review! Interesting red!! Also quite gentle... i.e. not too flashy and not too bloody but (as you say) somewhere in between. Sort of like some of the sophsticated reds continually pushed by MB, e.g. Ink of Love, Winter Glow....

[domzals1]

Nice review! Interesting red!! Also quite gentle... i.e. not too flashy and not too bloody but (as you say) somewhere in between. Sort of like some of the sophsticated reds continually pushed by MB, e.g. Ink of Love, Winter Glow....

Funny you mention Winter Glow; I got a bottle of Fred Red with my last purchase from Birmingham and thought the exact same thing. I purchased an open bottle of the Winter Glow a few years back for a slightly inflated price because I absolutely love how it looks coming out of my Sheaffer Holly pen into in my Christmas Cards each year and it has become near impossible to source bottles of. Now, I might have a potential replacement!

 

Fantastic review as always, you're truly an artist!

Edited August 2, 2018 by domzals1

[Jan2016]

Always a great pleasure to see your reviews!!!

[namrehsnoom]

Nice-looking red. I especially like its look on the yellowish Midori paper.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review, and (as always) the stellar artwork.

I hadn't tried this one, since I'm really fussy about reds and have some that work well for me. Not sure if it's my screen, but this also doesn't look quite like the writing sample I saw back when Birmingham's B&M store was open (pretty much every month at Steel City Nibs there's a discussion along the lines of: "Hey -- anyone know if Nick has found a new location yet?"). I may have to check this one out at some point (although I picked up a really nice "true" red back before the Shadyside location closed, in Nemosine Aolus Palus Red).

I'm a little old to have watched Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood as a kid, but I did run across an episode at one point as an adult where he was talking to someone who was a weaver.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth