Lamy, Crystal ink, Azurite - What pen and paper do you use?

[Chi]

I have been looking for a good combo to have Lamy azurite shows its sheen consistently.

After trying a few different pens, modern and vintage, nothing seems to help : / 

 

Pen I have tried: Noodler's Ahab (Flex), TWSBI VAC 700 (B), Monteverde Monza ID (Flex), Pilot Custom (14K, Music), Sailor pocket fountain pen (21K, Zoom), 

 

My go to paper is Tomoé River 52g, but I do have cosmo air light 75g, Midori MD, Kobeha Graphilo.

 

Comparing to other sheen inks I have, This one seems to be very challenging...

 

Any thoughts or ideas? 

[arcfide]

What other inks are you comparing it to? With those papers and those pens, I'm surprised you aren't at least seeing some sheen. IME, you've pretty much got the big names in sheening papers (TR, Graphilo) and some of the wetter pens out there. 

[Chi]

@arcfide I am comparing it to Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo, and Sailor Shikiori Okuyama. The sheen do show but it's not as obvious. Maybe I should adjust my expectation? I am really hoping to have some monster sheen combo but maybe Azurite is not the ink to do it?

[Mercian]

If you want a blue-black ink that sheens, and you have pens that write ‘wet’, I recommend that you look at reviews on here of Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite.

 

I have got occasional sheen from writing with it in a Rhodia Webnotebook with my Pelikan M805 and my Lamy 2000. Both pens are fitted with ‘F’ nibs. I should add though that they are both ‘wet’ writers.

 

If you like what you see of Tanzanite in reviews, you could try a sample of the ink before stumping-up for a whole bottle.

 

Good luck 

[InesF]

@Chi, the Azurite has a beautiful golden sheen but is a bit hesitating to show it.

According to my experience, either a very wet pen or a TomoeRiver like paper will be needed. If you like to use this Lamy Crystal ink for everyday routine writing, rarely you may see the sheen. Don't worry, if you like the colour as it is. If sheen is the reason you use it, you should try something like a Pelikan or Santini or Pineider pen - those are all very wet writer.

 

With a surface tension around 65 mN/m, Azurite is comparably well behaving and may not cause troubles with those very wet writing fountain pens. With pens of "normal" or "average" wetness you will not get Azurite to sheen.

 

[Chi]

@InesF Thank you for sharing. I do have one Pelikan but probably is not good to try it with Azurite since it's a demonstrator and Azurite is not very easy too clean. The gold sheen I do get when I use my wet pens, but was hoping to get that saturate bright green sheen.

Oh well, I did try very hard for it. Maybe I will get a very wet writer in the future and give it another go.

[A Smug Dill]

On 1/30/2022 at 11:23 AM, Chi said:

I have been looking for a good combo to have Lamy azurite shows its sheen consistently.

After trying a few different pens, modern and vintage, nothing seems to help : / 

 

Pen I have tried: Noodler's Ahab (Flex), TWSBI VAC 700 (B), Monteverde Monza ID (Flex), Pilot Custom (14K, Music), Sailor pocket fountain pen (21K, Zoom),

On 1/31/2022 at 4:52 AM, Chi said:

Maybe I will get a very wet writer in the future and give it another go.

 

Did you end up getting, or finding, a pen that would do the trick with Lamy Azurite for you?

 

Looking at the list of pens you've tried, I can't help but notice that they all seem to have nibs designed to put down wide lines of ink. My view would be that, for starters, you should try a pen with a nib no broader than Fine but has wet ink flow, so that it would put down wet but narrow lines of ink that don't spread on non-absorbent paper. Once those juicy strands dry sitting on top of the paper surface, they should be apt to exhibit sheen; and I take “shows it sheen consistently” to mean almost every line sheens, as opposed to measuring and maximising the total area covered by sheeny ink marks.

 

Just to be clear, I mean instead of using a Zoom/Music/Italic nib, supported by a feed with adequate ink flow, to put down a 1.2mm-wide line with a single pass on the page, and expect ample sheen to be seen, use a Fine nib supported by an equally wet feed to that put down a 0.4mm-wide line; and if you must cover a 1.2mm-wide strip with ink to get the total area of sheen you desire to see, then make three passes drawing parallel 0.4mm lines immediately next to each other, and effectively deposit threefold the volume of ink in that area that a wide nib could in a single pass.

 

A Fountain Pen Revolution Himalaya pen with an ebonite feed (made for supporting Flex nibs) coupled with an FPR steel EF nib (which isn't that fine, in my experience) will probably make the ink tracks more than wet enough. Or you could try fitting an ebonite feed from Flexible Nib Factory designed to work with a Pilot #10-sized 14K gold FA nib, into a Pilot Custom 742 or Custom Heritage 912 that has a Fine nib.

 

[Chi]

@A Smug Dill I tried my Pelikan M250 with 14C Fine nib with a few sheen inks. (image below)

 

The sheen from my new bottle of Azurite did not perform as well as my last bottle. That is what driving me a little nuts.

It makes me start to wonder if it is ink batch consistency related. 

 

I have a vivid image memory of making azurite doing consistent green sheens when writing, but I did not have a good system keeping my records at the time. So it is very possible that consistency was produced by a glass dip pen instead of a fountain pen.

 

In general, the fine nib did do better than broader nibs. I might try to test these inks again now that I have acquired M200 EF nib and JoWo #6 Flex nib from Flex Nib Factory.

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

3 hours ago, Chi said:

@A Smug Dill I tried my Pelikan M250 with 14C Fine nib with a few sheen inks. (image below)

 

The sheen from my new bottle of Azurite did not perform as well as my last bottle. That is what driving me a little nuts.

It makes me start to wonder if it is ink batch consistency related. 

 

I have a vivid image memory of making azurite doing consistent green sheens when writing, but I did not have a good system keeping my records at the time. So it is very possible that consistency was produced by a glass dip pen instead of a fountain pen.

 

In general, the fine nib did do better than broader nibs. I might try to test these inks again now that I have acquired M200 EF nib and JoWo #6 Flex nib from Flex Nib Factory.

 

 

 

Lovely comparison!