32 Sheeny Blue Inks Compared On Vellum Paper.

[catalyst]

I wrote with some of my sheeny blue inks with a 3 tined dip pen on Canson's Vellum "paper", if you call it that. This is some weird stuff, it is moderately thick, and completely resistant to inks, but it crumbles up almost immediately at the sign of ink. I had to put a book on this piece just so it would be flat enough for photos:

 

Here is a photo of the paper turned upside down, so you can see past the sheen and indeed that these inks are blue. Also I put a "pure" blue background on my phone, so you can calibrate or relate to the colors that I am posting.

 

 

Here is a list of the inks used in case you cant read that gibberish:

• Sailor Souter
• Sailor Sky High
• Kobe #17
• Kobe #58
• Pilot Iroshizuku Kon Peki
• Pilot Iroshizuku Ama Iro
• Lamy Turquoise

• Organics Studio Nitrogen
• Diamine Skull and Roses
• Kobe #14
• Pent Pen House Gensukai
• Namiki Blue

• Pent Pen House Fuyuginga
• Noodler's Texas Blue Bonnet
• Noodler's Luxury Blue
• Noodler's Dostoevsky

• Noodler's Baystate Blue
• Bungubox Omaezaki Azure Sea
• Monteverde Sapphire
• Maruzen Athena Eternal Blue
• Bungubox Sapphire
• Kobe #2
• Kobe #37
• Ishida Bungu Hakodate Twilight Blue
• Kobe Santica Port Blue
• Pen and Message Saku
• Sailor Yonaga
• Kobe #7
• Bungubox 4B
• Kobe #38
• Sailor Blue Black (dye)
• Penlux Peacock Blue

I just realized I forgot one of my favorites: Private Reserve Electric DC Blue. Anyways I hope this helps anyone considering any of these inks, this is for demonstration of maximum sheen that these inks have to offer.

Edited August 15, 2018 by catalyst

[bobshephard]

Super helpful! I have Sailor Souten and was considering an Organics Studio ink, but they look pretty similar to me here. Thanks!

[adatse]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[catalyst]

Super helpful! I have Sailor Souten and was considering an Organics Studio ink, but they look pretty similar to me here. Thanks!

In my experience Organic studio nitrogen is one the least sheeny of their high sheen inks: Walden, Emerson, Hemingway. So if supreme sheen is what youre after there is no real replacement from what Ive seen. They sheen on just about every paper and the effect is fascinating, but they all smear too easily for me to use them on a daily basis. Souten definitely does not sheen like any of those, but it is also much better behaved.

 

Without getting too expensive Sailor Jentle blue sheens a lot more than souten on decent paper, but is much better behaved than the organic studios if you can tolerate a less vibrant blue. Souten/sky high are some of my favorites though.

[A Smug Dill]

Thank you very much for preparing all the samples and sharing the photos and information.

high sheen inks: Walden, Emerson, Hemingway. So if supreme sheen is what youre after there is no real replacement from what Ive seen. They sheen on just about every paper and the effect is fascinating,

I may have to try them some time, then. Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough, or maybe I just haven't developed an eye for it, but I've never seen (or simply never noticed) sheen on anything I write with a fountain pen, in spite of having fifty different types of bottled inks. But then, this is how/what I usually write:relatively small, with a EF/(Japanese) Fine/Soft Fine nib. I guess that makes it difficult for any ink to sheen even with the right sort of paper? Edited August 15, 2018 by A Smug Dill

[senzen]

Very interesting, thank you! I have Souten and it does have crazy sheen; shame about the funky smell, it's the one ink I need to remember not to use after lunch... Équinoxe 6 also has a lot of sheen, doesn't smell but it does seem to leave some... Silt? Sediments? I tried using it with an EF FC Ambition but it always had starting problems with that ink.

[catalyst]

Thank you very much for preparing all the samples and sharing the photos and information.I may have to try them some time, then. Maybe I haven't been looking hard enough, or maybe I just haven't developed an eye for it, but I've never seen (or simply never noticed) sheen on anything I write with a fountain pen, in spite of having fifty different types of bottled inks. But then, this is how/what I usually write:

[photo]

relatively small, with a EF/(Japanese) Fine/Soft Fine nib. I guess that makes it difficult for any ink to sheen even with the right sort of paper?

 

The variables for writing with fountain pens that are typically mentioned are the quality of Pen, paper, and the ink. For sheen it is the same with the new added variable of lighting. Some inks like Organics Studios will almost always show sheen under any lights, but most inks have to have some decent lighting - I use my large LED desk lamp. As for paper Midori is about as good as Tomoe for eliciting sheen, and the Vellum paper is the best Ive ever seen, but its not really useable paper. As for Pen the thicker and wetter the easier. If you want it to look like those splashes or a Dip pen, then maybe try a Franklin Christoph 1.9mm music nib.

 

This is a photo of my ink log of the Platinum 3776 Ultra Extra Fine on Midori Paper:

 

The UEF has not really been inked with anything super sheeny, but you can see a slight bit amount of sheen on the Kyo No Oto Nurebairo. This ink is not a crazy sheening ink, and the sheen also happens to be the same color as the paper, so it'll be more difficult to see on Midori. Next on the list for the UEF is Bungubox 4B, which has a good amount sheen, so we will see how that does.

 

In this next image are other Fine and medium writing samples: Pilot 743 fine + Ishida Bungu Hakodate Twilight, Platinum Preppy 0.3 written normally and up side down, FPR flex nib in a Jinhao + Organics Studios Hemingway mixed with almost 50% water, Jinhao 992 medium with Parker Penman Emerald:

 

 

Here is The OS Hemingway when a generous amount of ink is laid down. Also this is WITH almost 50% added water:

Edited August 15, 2018 by catalyst

[catalyst]

Very interesting, thank you! I have Souten and it does have crazy sheen; shame about the funky smell, it's the one ink I need to remember not to use after lunch... Équinoxe 6 also has a lot of sheen, doesn't smell but it does seem to leave some... Silt? Sediments? I tried using it with an EF FC Ambition but it always had starting problems with that ink.

 

 

I actually like the smell of Sailors inks, a lot. Noodlers inks not so much: Kung Te Cheng smells radioactive. KWZ standard inks smell fantastic. Diamine Skull and Roses, Bilberry and Majestic blue provide a lot of sheen with virtually no smell as well. Ive never used Equinoxe 6.

[aardvarkbark]

...I've never seen (or simply never noticed) sheen on anything I write with a fountain pen, in spite of having fifty different types of bottled inks. But then, this is how/what I usually write:relatively small, with a EF/(Japanese) Fine/Soft Fine nib. I guess that makes it difficult for any ink to sheen even with the right sort of paper?

 

I'm guessing there's a correlation between width of line and degree of observable sheen. I, too, write only with Japanese EFs, and don't see sheen or variation on the paper.

 

Alternatively, maybe I suffer from the same ocular disorder that afflicts you.

[Karmachanic]

relatively small, with a EF/(Japanese) Fine/Soft Fine nib. I guess that makes it difficult for any ink to sheen even with the right sort of paper?

 

 

 

 

I actually like the smell of Sailors inks, a lot. Noodlers inks not so much: Kung Te Cheng smells radioactive. KWZ standard inks smell fantastic. Diamine Skull and Roses, Bilberry and Majestic blue provide a lot of sheen with virtually no smell as well. Ive never used Equinoxe 6.

 

This and very little colour variation in inks that have that characteristic led me to buying some M nibs, after writing F for decades. Yesterday I purchased 2 Bs. I find that soft or semi-flex also helps, in that they help get more ink on the page. Down the rabbit hole! "Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids!"

[catalyst]

 

 

 

This and very little colour variation in inks that have that characteristic led me to buying some M nibs, after writing F for decades. Yesterday I purchased 2 Bs. I find that soft or semi-flex also helps, in that they help get more ink on the page. Down the rabbit hole! "Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids!"

Thats the spirit! I love mediums, broads, stubs, soft and flex for fun, but as writing tools I have to always keep a couple fines and the UEF around as well.

[A Smug Dill]

Thank you very much for the guidance, I think I get it now.

 

Essentially you're looking at the edges of globs of dried ink (sitting on top of another layer of ink) around broad strokes, and if the colour appears different from the colour of the ink that gets soaked into the fibres of the paper, that is what you call ‘sheen’.

 

 

so I suppose ‘sheen’ can be there if I lay down enough ink even with narrow strokes, provided that there is little or no feathering and the ink does not get fully absorbed.

 

 

 

 

The number one requirement, then, is to lay down more ink than I usually like to do, to partially cover up the true colour for which I chose the ink to write with (using a fine nib, as I like to do) in the first place.

[catalyst]

Thank you very much for the guidance, I think I get it now.

 

Essentially you're looking at the edges of globs of dried ink (sitting on top of another layer of ink) around broad strokes, and if the colour appears different from the colour of the ink that gets soaked into the fibres of the paper, that is what you call sheen.

 

so I suppose sheen can be there if I lay down enough ink even with narrow strokes, provided that there is little or no feathering and the ink does not get fully absorbed.

 

The number one requirement, then, is to lay down more ink than I usually like to do, to partially cover up the true colour for which I chose the ink to write with (using a fine nib, as I like to do) in the first place.

Exactly, thats great! With tsuki yo I am not sure if it is sheeny enough to elicit the sheen on an EF nib, if that is your goal.

[A Smug Dill]

I think I prefer a more smoothly blended visual effect such as shading, than the dried stain look at the end of my strokes. I was hoping that people were generally talking about sheen that is more or less evenly spread along each pen stroke, kinda like writing with metallic ink (but without the glitter component, and the sheen not necessarily being gold, silver or bronze in colour).

[A Smug Dill]

With tsuki yo I am not sure if it is sheeny enough to elicit the sheen on an EF nib,

 

 

I guess if one is really looking for it, the sheen is there:

 

To give you an idea of how hard I pressed down on the sheets – which, by the way, is not unusually so for me, in order to get the proper line variation into the pen strokes for Chinese characters – these are photos of the back of the sheets:

[luxseeker]

To give you an idea of how hard I pressed down on the sheets – which, by the way, is not unusually so for me, in order to get the proper line variation into the pen strokes for Chinese characters – these are photos of the back of the sheets:

 

What was under the paper when you wrote this?

[catalyst]

 

 

I guess if one is really looking for it, the sheen is there:

 

To give you an idea of how hard I pressed down on the sheets which, by the way, is not unusually so for me, in order to get the proper line variation into the pen strokes for Chinese characters these are photos of the back of the sheets:

Wow! Thats crazy. I didnt know a VP could give that much line variation. I barely touch the paper when I write with mine

[A Smug Dill]

 

What was under the paper when you wrote this?

 

 

An old Rhodia ‘webnotebook’ with the soft, almost puffy covers.

 

 

Wow! Thats crazy. I didnt know a VP could give that much line variation. I barely touch the paper when I write with mine

 

 

I tend to write with a light hand if I'm, say, writing out the entire Heart Sutra (with 260 Chinese characters) on 5mm grid paper. If I'm just writing a few characters, but trying to get maximum line variation into the form, then I press down hard.

 

To be fair, it doesn't really take pushing too hard to get enough line variation, but I suppose I was also trying to lay more ink down earlier than I normally would.

[luxseeker]

I find the pressure to get variation for the nà stroke to be tricky.

[A Smug Dill]

Wow! Thats crazy. I didnt know a VP could give that much line variation. I barely touch the paper when I write with mine

 

 

Just on that point, I can still get quite a bit of line variation writing in Chinese with a Platinum #3776 14K gold F nib, which feels like a nail compared to a Pilot Vanishing Point 18K gold F nib.

 

 

I'm not sure whether I'd be able to get sheen out of that, though, and frankly I'm not sure it would make my writing look better or more artistic.

 

I hope you'll excuse me for not loading my one and only Fine-nibbed Platinum #3776 with a blue ink to write the above in order to nominally stick to the topic of the thread.