Of Which Categories Of Ink Are (Small) Samples More Useful?

[A Smug Dill]

Of which categories of ink are samples more useful, specifically when the samples on offer are small?

I've been mulling over this question for a while, primarily for the purpose of deciding of which of the 200+ commercially available inks I have here I will offer samples as giveaways to fellow enthusiasts, but since I personally don't request, acquire or use ink samples, I can't really answer it myself. So, I'd like to solicit your opinions.

Just to be clear, I don't mean that question in a completely open-ended way.

Let's assume the format is fixed

If every enthusiast of fountain pen inks used pens that took international standard cartridges, ideally I'd be able to offer one international standard short cartridge as a sample of a particular ink, with which a pen user can perform tests to suit his/her product information discovery needs, and close the gap between what the ink manufacturer has published and what he/she really wants to know about the ink, before he/she is prepared to buy a bottle and deploy it in actual use.

Of course, I'm not blaming ink manufacturers for the information gap, when no manufacturer can pre-empt every combination of pen, nib, paper, environment and application, to which some individual consumer may want to put a particular ink. It's not up to anyone else to know or find out whether the particular ink will stain some particular part of Sam's prized vintage piston-filler, should the ink be left in the barrel for three months with sporadic usage.

Anyway, I've settled on providing 0.7-0.75ml samples of inks in resealable 1.5ml centrifuge tubes, which aren't designed to last long-term (e.g. the plastic hinge on the lid will probably snap after several openings and closings), along with either 0.5ml disposable pipettes or 1ml syringes with blunt-tip 14-gauge plastic needles, so that the equivalent volume of ink as in an international standard short cartridge can be easily transferred into whichever brand of converter, or an emptied old cartridge, or the barrel of an eyedropper pen, and even some piston-fillers with nib units that can be easily screwed out to access the cavity of the ink reservoir.

Let's assume the volume per sample is not negotiable

I personally see no need for 2ml, much less 4ml or 5ml, of a particular ink on which to perform the necessary testing, before someone can decide whether further investment is warranted, or for the ink to be summarily rejected as a prospective candidate for purchase and use.

It isn't really worthwhile to send just (one ink cartridge or) one 0.7ml ink sample in the letter post, so I'm happy to put together ink sampler sets with such samples of five or more different inks, if and when I do offer giveaways.

So, which types or categories inks?

Would it be more useful to get and test samples of rare inks, with which little is known and few reviews have been published by well-known reviewers and random pen enthusiasts, versus inks that are more common and already much reviewed and/or discussed online, but one just wants to double-check for his/her nuanced use cases to confirm whether the ink is suitable for a given application?

Would it be more useful to get and test samples of hard-to-get inks, such as shop exclusives of which there is only one retailer which is overseas (e.g. Diamine Jalur Gemilang, Sailor Kujukuri Coast series) and thus acquisition of such requires non-trivial effort and commitment, versus inks one could buy from any number of local retailers, either by online/mail order or off the shelf in a bricks-and-mortar store?

Would it be more useful to get and test samples of inks that are relatively expensive (on a per-millilitre basis, or requiring a minimum purchase of >65ml even though the bottle price is no higher than a 20ml bottle of Sailor Shikiori), versus inks that are relatively cheap that one could have just spent a few dollars buying a full retail bottle with which to experiment in the first place, if one was curious as to which inks are worth buying?

Would it be useful to get a taste, by way of a small sample equivalent to a short cartridge, of ink one would or could never buy (e.g. way too expensive, or long since discontinued) but nevertheless want to satisfy one's curiosity once and for all, without any prospect of putting it into actual use at any sort of scale? Or would satisfying one's curiosity and perhaps whetting one's appetite in such a manner not be useful at all, so the only useful samples are of inks one may be prepared to buy given the constraints of availability and price, but only after confirming through testing that those inks meet one's functional and qualitative requirements?

 

Would it be more useful to get samples of inks that one would "never" trust to use in one's pens, such as pigment inks, but nevertheless wants to see how they would perform in one's use cases, so that one knows exactly which compromises are being made eyes wide open and confirm that one has made the right decision in not going for a more permanent, more waterproof, more saturated, blacker, etc. ink for a given purpose?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

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My objective: I've already spent money acquiring a boatload of retail bottles of ink, to satisfy my curiosity about those inks. I want to help ("enable"?) like-minded fellow fountain pen enthusiasts to want more, buy more, spend more in pursuit of the hobby, but individually make fewer regrettable purchasing decisions along the way acquiring products that aren't fit for their purposes. I sorta lost interest in producing more ink reviews and contributing more data points for others to take into account in their own analysis, because some users like to complain about omission of particular information that they want to know. Well, they can do the work and the testing themselves, but I'm happy to contribute to opportunities here and there for them to do so.

Edited December 3, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[silverlifter]

Given that you have acquired, and presumably used, all of these inks, another approach would be for you to curate sampler packs based on what you find interesting about particular collections, and allow others to experience the inks through that lens.

 

I'm really thrilled with the iron gall sample set you put together. I can only imagine others would be equally chuffed to receive other categories/collections you deemed interesting or remarkable.

Edited December 3, 2019 by silverlifter

[A Smug Dill]

silverlifter, thank you for your feedback. I don't know about curating, but...

 

Right now I'm waiting for my Pilot Iroshizuku ink samplers giveaway thread, which I put up midday yesterday, to be approved. My next ink samplers giveaway thread is now up.

 

I remember being keen enough, several years ago, to order more than half of the twenty-four colours in 50ml bottles from Japan, when local stockists of Pilot Iroshizuku were few and far between and their asking prices outlandish. Then, I couldn't resist completing the "collection" last year, although in some of the remaining colours which held the least personal appeal, I only bought 15ml bottles.

 

The brand is seen as much more common these days, and local asking prices have become far more palatable, especially in comparison with that of some other brands of ink that are supposedly much cheaper per ml. However, I'm sure there are still some Aussie fountain pen users who are used to using Waterman and Cross inks bought from department stores, and are wondering if Pilot Iroshizuku inks are "all that" for colour, flow and general good behaviour, to be worth the acclaim and (minor) premium.

 

So I want to give someone the opportunity to try some of the inks for themselves, ahead of the upcoming post-Christmas sales campaigns. No doubt online retailers such as Milligram, LarryPOST, Pens Paper Ink, etc. as well as bricks-and-mortar shops such as Dymocks will be offering discounts on Boxing Day. On that premise, I hope the ink samples will be useful.

Edited December 4, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[Noihvo]

 

 

 

[katerchen]

For me it would be inks outside my comfort zone, eg browns, oranges and greens.

[ErrantSmudge]

I like the idea of sampling rare, "extinct" (as in vintage or no longer manufactured), or hard-to-get inks as a way of comparison for identifying modern, easily available replacements or alternatives.

 

I also like the idea of sampling inks that I suspect might be high-maintenance, so that I can decide if the ink is worth the effort. Iron-galls, "sparkle" inks, and pigmented inks fall into this category for me.

[inkstainedruth]

@ A Smug Dill -- While I applaud your intent, I don't think you're going to get any sort of consensus. I know that when I buy samples the motive varies. Sometimes I was trying to match another ink for color, shading, and/or sheen. Sometimes I was curious about specific properties (such as IG inks) and sometimes it was just a matter of "Hmmm, I really need to try that...."

As for the amount per sample? There needs to be enough for one or two fills (just doing a swab doesn't give an accurate indication of the color, IMO; people really need to be able to see how the ink behaves coming out of a nib and feed -- the color, the dry- or wet-ness, whether the ink does better in a wider nib, and so on. And not everyone has or uses cartridges, so sample vials are better for them.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

inkstainedruth, thank you for your feedback.

I don't think I'm looking for any consensus per se, when I know those are new to the hobby will have different questions, concerns and priorities to those who have already tried a hundred inks of different brands; and enthusiasts in different geographical localities would have different interests as well. PenBBS inks are neither rare nor difficult to get in China, but almost impossible for users elsewhere to acquire or sample. Pilot Iroshizuku ink is cheap in Japan to buy (in 15ml bottles, too, if one only wants to sample), but I'd imagine it's not so cheap to get a bottle of KWZ Ink (shipped) there.

Obviously I personally would have an Australia-centric viewpoint when it comes to market availability and pricing of inks, and it's hard to see outside that, even though intellectually I know Australia is not the centre of the world or at the nexus of the hobby; neither is Canada, Germany, India, Japan, USA or Venezuela, irrespective of how many ink reviews and subsequent comments on such come from fellow members from those areas in an English-speaking forum.

That's why I wanted to pose the question in a more theoretical, region-agnostic kinda way, without being overly concerned about actual shipping charges and individual shopping habits. I mean, even though Diamine Iridescink Philip is only available from Cult Pens in the UK, to me the shipping charges are effectively nil because I always consolidate more than £70's worth of purchases before placing an order (or just top up an order with frivolous purchases) to get free shipping to Australia; but the individual fellow Aussie who only wants to buy one bottle of ink right now, as the focus of his current topic of interest, and nothing else on the same order would see things differently even if he lived right next door to me.

I agree that doing a swab or chromatography strip is not sufficient for getting a sense of how an ink will perform in a user's primary use case(s). However, 0.7ml is the volume of ink one would expect to get in a commercially available international short cartridge, the type that is often supplied in retail packages for fountain pens to get the new owner started, so I'd argue that a common position in the industry is that it is a full "fill" that suffices for normal, everyday applications of fountain pens. I also looked at the respective capacities of Platinum, Sailor, Pilot, Diplomat and Parker (and other) converters, and there are few that hold more than 0.7ml.

In my experience, I can do at least four of this type of sheets of 'lab' tests and writing samples, on a variety of paper types if need be, with 0.7ml of ink assuming I'm not trying to fill multiple converters (of various bore) to use in pens of different brands for testing. Obviously, the more information a particular user wants to discover, the more planned-out, focussed and precise he/she will have to be with the testing procedures. I expect it to be hard work, in the name of due diligence before committing to an ink purchase; the carefree enjoyment part comes when one has the 30ml or more of the ink at one's disposal, and can write or draw all day with it, and swatch or splash the ink to the heart's content.

A few months ago, I started a thread to discuss how to make one's ink 'reviews' more systematic, and economical on (time and) the use of the ink on hand for various tests, but sadly that didn't seem to attract too much interest from doers. So I'm taking a different tack; and if I offered larger volumes in the ink samples, I'm afraid I'd only encourage fellow fountain pen enthusiasts to be less careful and thought-out in their information discovery approach, simply because they can "afford" it then. I'm spending my money and effort on preparing, packing and shipping the ink samples to others, to contribute to what I would personally see as positive change or trends in the community, and not to help attitudes go the other way.

[A Smug Dill]

ErrantSmudge, I have every respect for users who endeavour to reverse-engineer a product, and/or reproduce exactly by other means a well-defined (or well-understood) outcome from its use, when the only previously known solution is henceforth denied them. Using a sample of an (extinct or hard-to-get) ink that one hasn't previously used before, for the express purpose of "adopting" a new goal for tinkering or mixing, is a bit of a special case though. There are so many other inks available on the market these days to buy any day of the week — some pricier than others, but at least the total cost of acquisition would be clear upfront, before one commits to an informed decision — so it seems especially risky, at least in terms of personal frustration, to pick a new goal to satisfy using a new-to-oneself and unavailable ink as the yardstick. If someone has never used Parker Penman Sapphire, wouldn't it be easier just to pick some newer blue ink out of hundreds that are more accessible commercially today, that is pleasing to oneself (and friendly to one's budget, if that is even a consideration) and anoint it as "The One" to be used in significant volume?

 

Nevertheless, I have a lot of (say) Rohrer & Klingner 2018 Limited Edition Aubergine here, so I'd be happy to give samples of those away — but I'll assume anyone who is of a mind to reproduce that exact ink colour (and perhaps other characteristics, such as sheen) using some other formulation will have plenty of more easily accessible purple inks and/or mixer inks on hand themselves, and all they need is enough of the original ink for "requirements definition" for the project.

 

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Noihvo, if I was in China, or otherwise have ready access to inks in that market, something like PenBBS inks would be prime candidates for ink sampler giveaways — relatively cheap for me to get and provide, compared to the price anyone in Australia, Europe or North America has to pay Vanness1938 or on eBay to buy — to broaden others' ink horizons and/or satisfy their curiosity. Like you said, expensive (for recipients) to get hold of, but still not difficult to actually find, if they discover they like a particular ink well enough that they just have to have it, and not some imitation even though they know they're paying easily fourfold or fivefold the "true" price of a bottle of it, because sometimes people just want what they want, not that there's anything wrong with that.

[ErrantSmudge]

If someone has never used Parker Penman Sapphire, wouldn't it be easier just to pick some newer blue ink out of hundreds that are more accessible commercially today, that is pleasing to oneself (and friendly to one's budget, if that is even a consideration) and anoint it as "The One" to be used in significant volume?

 

[...] I'll assume anyone who is of a mind to reproduce that exact ink colour (and perhaps other characteristics, such as sheen) using some other formulation will have plenty of more easily accessible purple inks and/or mixer inks on hand themselves, and all they need is enough of the original ink for "requirements definition" for the project.

 

 

Yes, it absolutely would be easier for one to go through easily available inks to choose a preferred standard. But as humans, we have our own FOMO - fear of missing out. We see it, we like it, and though the original ink may be truly unattainable, we want the closest possible alternative we can find. Some of these inks, like Parker Penman Sapphire, have achieved legendary status, so for those new to the hobby it's understandable they would want to understand what it's about.

 

I led a CRV expedition to find recipes to replicate Lamy Dark Lilac and Lamy Petrol, two well-loved inks no longer available. For that I received samples of each, which were essential to provide the "requirements definition" for hue, saturation, shading and sheen, and we were able to come up with pleasing recreations and alternatives using readily available inks. In another case, an FPN member discovered that Monteverde Horizon Blue is an extremely close alternative to Parker Penman Sapphire based on having the original ink for comparison.

 

In these cases, I think there's value to the general community in that those of us who were "late to the party", so to speak, can still have a pretty faithful recreation of the experience of using those inks. And ultimately, it's the experience of using pen and ink that brings us here.

Edited December 8, 2019 by ErrantSmudge