Your Most Recent Impulsive Ink Purchase? (Replacement Bottles Don't Count.. Only 1St Timers!)

[Misfit]

17 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

Thanks @Misfit & @Mercian for playing along with my attempt at a little game!

I should have guessed on the sunrise ink. I have cartridges of that ink, and in pens right now!

[XYZZY]

2 hours ago, RJS said:

Agreed. They're not my kind of thing. Why bring back a centuries old brand name and attach it to neon ink right out of the gate? 😅

Just spitballing here, but if Barock was such a major supplier for a large region/population, then it seems reasonable to me that maybe they had many product lines, perhaps one being neon.  Perhaps ask Octopus if there is a historical basis for their choice?

[RJS]

54 minutes ago, XYZZY said:

Just spitballing here, but if Barock was such a major supplier for a large region/population, then it seems reasonable to me that maybe they had many product lines, perhaps one being neon.  Perhaps ask Octopus if there is a historical basis for their choice?

I imagine they made a whole variety of stuff pre-1989. The two chaps running the remnants of the company between then and 2012ish seemed to focus on more traditional stuff from what I can find (you can still find samples on here, for example). I'm not sure how much cachet there could be remaining in today's market for those that remember possible neon inks from the 1980's...

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Octopus 'sheen' inks came in first.

 

Unicorn in a Pelikan 805 OB, modern wider width.

Medusa in a P-75 Thuya OB.

 

Papers tested CT 90g, Oxford Optic 90g, and M&K 95g typewriter paper now called office paper.

Clairefontaine Triomphe 90g

Unicorn some shading, no sheen even when tilted.

Medusa, a no grab me purple, no shading, no sheen.

Oxford Optic 90g

Unicorn, ok shading, letters darker where it sheen's...When Tilted!.

Medusa nothing special, no shading, no sheen.

M&K 95g.

Unicorn Shading, dark where sheen is when tilted...if one waits.

Medusa, no shading...some light  greenish sheen to the purple ink...tilt like hell right under the desk light for a minor color change.

 

UNICORN....not a shade monster. Some when tilted. a nice blue, shading if when the regular blue runs into the sheen chemicals...therefore shading ok. Sheen when tilted is not what I want.

 

 

MEDUSA ....a real disappointment.  No shading...too wet....and only on M&K a few letters that are 1/4th  greenish..but do not sheen. Maybe I can take it down town and put it in the free books bookcase. Don't want to give it to anybody I know.

 

Anybody got a shade monster or three?

None of those tilt for sheen inks.

 

[RJS]

2 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

The Octopus 'sheen' inks came in first.

 

Unicorn in a Pelikan 805 OB, modern wider width.

Medusa in a P-75 Thuya OB.

 

Papers tested CT 90g, Oxford Optic 90g, and M&K 95g typewriter paper now called office paper.

Clairefontaine Triomphe 90g

Unicorn some shading, no sheen even when tilted.

Medusa, a no grab me purple, no shading, no sheen.

Oxford Optic 90g

Unicorn, ok shading, letters darker where it sheen's...When Tilted!.

Medusa nothing special, no shading, no sheen.

M&K 95g.

Unicorn Shading, dark where sheen is when tilted...if one waits.

Medusa, no shading...some light  greenish sheen to the purple ink...tilt like hell right under the desk light for a minor color change.

 

UNICORN....not a shade monster. Some when tilted. a nice blue, shading if when the regular blue runs into the sheen chemicals...therefore shading ok. Sheen when tilted is not what I want.

 

 

MEDUSA ....a real disappointment.  No shading...too wet....and only on M&K a few letters that are 1/4th  greenish..but do not sheen. Maybe I can take it down town and put it in the free books bookcase. Don't want to give it to anybody I know.

 

Anybody got a shade monster or three?

None of those tilt for sheen inks.

 

Before giving up on seeing sheen, or shading, buy paper that really shows it off... It's more about the paper than the ink, from my experience. 

[RJS]

https://fountainpenlove.com/paper/how-different-papers-affect-fountain-pen-ink-sheen/
 

They mention that Clairefontaine shows good sheen, but I've found that paper variable, even across a single notebook...

[A Smug Dill]

I ordered sixteen bottles of inks just now, for the princely sum of (a tad under) AUD $44 — about US$28 — inclusive of 10% tax and non-nil international shipping charges from China to Australia.

• A 12-bottle set of Ostrich's (2017) Flower series shimmer inks in 15ml bottles
  (which would have cost me US$50 if ordering from an AliExpress seller offering it)
   
   
• 18ml bottles of WeTone (aka Yun Tang)'s 神隱 (literally Gods' Seclusions, which the manufacturer explained in the marketing material as “favourite mortals that the gods chose to keep secluded in nature away from human civilisation”) series of four sheening inks
    

(Sorry, can't directly link to Taobao product listings, it doesn't work that way.)

[pucipatas]

5 more bottles of Birmingham Pen Co's atominks....I may have a slight problem.  Brings me to 35 bottles.....🤭

[Bo Bo Olson]

I was using good to better shading papers.

The nibs used are springy regular flex= Japan 'soft', not the wetter semi-flex. I find regular flex to shade better than  in most cases semi-flex.

 

Just inked Mondi 100g color copy

Medusa...nothing, no sheen, no shading.

Unicorn some shading, no sheen.

 

Avery Zweckform 170g slick paper. the only Avery paper that didn't quickly end up in the printer even the 120g stuff did. Don't buy less than the 170g stuff.

Medusa...nothing.

Unicorn, some minor shading, no sheen

 

All five of the papers I used, CT 90g, Oxford Optic 90g, and M&K 95g (typewriter)/Office are are well into the better papers.

At first Mondi impressed me, and luckily I had a couple lousy Clairefontain papers that DCL 100g or what ever, and ClareAlfa 120g....papers I will never buy again. They ended up in the printer after one sheet.

Mondi 100g  at first I liked it, but then it almost ended up in the printer. It didn't shade well....or not as much as I expected from an expensive 100g paper.

Half the 170g Avery Zweckform ended up in the printer...it too, almost didn't quite made my cut off. Some inks werk on it.

 

I noticed on the link, that all the sheen monsters had to be tilted........if so is not worth my chasing any more sheen inks if that is the case.

 

I can go moving my head as I read a little bit, but I've no desire to have to tilt the paper.

 

I had to dig out my very best paper 170g Gmund Blanc-beige (name of paper sort) in creme. That cost €40-45 for a 100 sheets.

Unicorn, very slight bits of heads up sheen, ..no tilt sheen.

Again Medusa does nothing.

[RJS]

45 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I was using good to better shading papers.

The nibs used are springy regular flex= Japan 'soft', not the wetter semi-flex. I find regular flex to shade better than  in most cases semi-flex.

 

Just inked Mondi 100g color copy

Medusa...nothing, no sheen, no shading.

Unicorn some shading, no sheen.

 

Avery Zweckform 170g slick paper. the only Avery paper that didn't quickly end up in the printer even the 120g stuff did. Don't buy less than the 170g stuff.

Medusa...nothing.

Unicorn, some minor shading, no sheen

 

All five of the papers I used, CT 90g, Oxford Optic 90g, and M&K 95g (typewriter)/Office are are well into the better papers.

At first Mondi impressed me, and luckily I had a couple lousy Clairefontain papers that DCL 100g or what ever, and ClareAlfa 120g....papers I will never buy again. They ended up in the printer after one sheet.

Mondi 100g  at first I liked it, but then it almost ended up in the printer. It didn't shade well....or not as much as I expected from an expensive 100g paper.

Half the 170g Avery Zweckform ended up in the printer...it too, almost didn't quite made my cut off. Some inks werk on it.

 

I noticed on the link, that all the sheen monsters had to be tilted........if so is not worth my chasing any more sheen inks if that is the case.

 

I can go moving my head as I read a little bit, but I've no desire to have to tilt the paper.

 

I had to dig out my very best paper 170g Gmund Blanc-beige (name of paper sort) in creme. That cost €40-45 for a 100 sheets.

Unicorn, very slight bits of heads up sheen, ..no tilt sheen.

Again Medusa does nothing.

You own some lovely paper, the kind I also like. I'm not big into sheening inks, but I own some of the sheen-tastic Japanese papers like Tomoe River, which I bought out of curiosity to see what the fuss was all about. They're on a different level of sheen, if that is what you're after (or extreme shading). I'd rather use the papers you have, though.

[Mercian]

8 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Anybody got a shade monster or three?

None of those tilt for sheen inks.

I have always assumed that ‘sheen’ is an artefact of diffraction caused by microscopic-scale variations in the surface level of an ink after it has dried.

IF that’s right, then the only way one would ever see sheen is by tilting/bending the paper.
 

The most-pronounced sheen I have personally seen is from Lamy’s 2016 ‘Dark Lilac’, on Oxford Optik, and I could only see that when tilting/bending the paper.

 

But YMMV, and my assumption about about sheen being an artefact of diffraction may of course be completely wrong.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you...will have to budget in some Tomoe River,...come summer time.

If I want to pay a fortune in mailing, there is some Lamy Dark Lilac in America....

 

A few hours later the two Octopus shading inks came in Karamell/Caramel (215 M)  and Bronze (915 Hunter Toledo B).

Papers CT 90g, Oxford Optic 90g, M&K 95g, Mondi 100g, Avery Zweckform slick 170g and Gmund Blank-beige 170g in creme.

 

Karamell is a bit redder than Pelikan 4001 Brown....not quite red. In a regular flex M nib.

Bronze reminds me of R&K Alt grun-gold/gold-grun. B regular flex nib.

 

Start with Clairefontaine Triomphe 90g.

Karamell...Medium light shading,...looks good.

Bronze...good shading.

Oxford Optic 90g

Karamell...good color, medium shading, more than on CT.

Bronze...tad better shading on CT....could be B is too wide for the ink on Optic.

M&K 95g

Karamell...duller than on CT and Optic, Ok shading to good.

Bronze..thinner than CT and Optic..B nib... not stick in your eye but nice middle shading.

Mondi 100g

Karamell redder than M&K with  light to almost middle shading. Is bit wider than M&K

Bronze...took a good half a minuted of comparing to say bronze was a tad better at shading on the M&K. shading good enough.

Avery Zweckform slick 170g

Karamell...a tad redder, good shading as expected on such a thick slick paper.

Bronze dried to a light shading green, more like DA Golf. Goes down R&K Alt green-gold or however that ink is called., then dried a light green.

Gmund Blank-beige 170g in creme

Karamell...I expected more shading with this paper...light to medium. Color good.

Bronze...it and Optic are the wider papers for this ink. Shades well.

 

Yes, I would buy either of these inks again....though I think the Bronze would get less use like my R&K Altgrungold.

 

[PithyProlix]

On 4/25/2024 at 9:38 AM, PithyProlix said:

Yesterday's impulsive purchase was NOS bottles (with boxes) of Montblanc Blue Black and Black, I believe from the 1950s.

 

The Montblanc ink arrived yesterday. The "Black" was neither black nor NOS: it is "King's Blue" (interesting that the primary box and bottle labelling is German but ink name is English) and only about 1/5 of the ink remains.  I'm actually glad it is the koenigsblau/royal blue and not black but disappointed that the seller said it was "full", of course. Grr ... will hopefully get some money back.

 

Like some other vintage blue blacks, it goes on a teal-gray, and, as an iron gall ink, it is getting greyer as it ages on the page. King's Blue is quite dark but I suppose that's probably due to evaporation of its water. I'm being safe and only using dip pens, at least for now.

 

Does anyone know when these inks were originally sold? I've read conflicting information - some say 1950s and others 1960s, though I guess it could be both. I can show the boxes too, if needed.

 

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Real nice....before my time, which started when the old 50ml shoe bottles were discontinued for the new 60ml shoe bottles.

 

Chasing ink wells I only have one '30-50's Guttenburg bottle, which I don't think I have a picture of....do...

A bottle of '50-70's Uhu (a glue company) ink and bottle.

They have a give away program now in Germany, for a pound of coffee or for free items are given away, that are worth more than the trashcan...but not enough to spend big money on a Flea market table.

This pen ...a Senator, and this ink. A Royal Blue.

Later lucked into a '40's Uhu pen.

Had never heard of that brand.

Modern Lamy ink bottles with the little nib cleaning cloth tab is one of the Grand ink bottles of all time. These are the w.Germany ones, so before 1991.

I've been muttering about opening up these bottles for quite a while.

 

[chromantic]

The new MB Klimpt is out of stock so I ordered RO Great Southern Ocean instead, which I'd been wanting to try anyway. It's what the Klimpt review photos reminded me of.

[lascosas]

Today this DHL package arrived with my recent 40% off Van Dieman inks...

[Misfit]

@lascosas  which will you use first? How soon will it take to try all of them?

[lascosas]

I started last night with their April 2024 ink.  The monthly inks are 100 ml (versus their normal 30) and are free with orders of 10 inks.  It is a brown shading ink with bronze (?) shimmer.  How long will it take to try the other 27?  Oh, a long time.

[RJS]

2 hours ago, lascosas said:

I started last night with their April 2024 ink.  The monthly inks are 100 ml (versus their normal 30) and are free with orders of 10 inks.  It is a brown shading ink with bronze (?) shimmer.  How long will it take to try the other 27?  Oh, a long time.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts as you work through them!

[A Smug Dill]

Eighteen 18ml bottles of 瑾沉 (Jin Chen) ink — all six of the chroma-shading inks (the top six in the first image below) and all twelve of the sheening inks the seller has listed for the brand. There are a few colours I am barely curious about and would readily omit, except for the effective discount getting the inks in sets. The entire order came to under AUD $40 including tax and shipping (by slow boat), which is around US$26.

 

v