Lamy Crystal Inks

[Paul_LZ]

My question to our ink knowledgable  members:

 

How do Lamy Crystal inks fare in your lists? And what characteristics do they have? (flow, wetness, etc)

[A Smug Dill]

 

[Paul_LZ]

2 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Brilliant, thanks!

[Paul_LZ]

Your review is extraordinary! Thank you for being so meticulous and employing your time to help us understand certain notions of this wonderful and sometimes inexplicable world of ink. My hat off!

[lapis]

I find these inks "good", as regards maintenance in general, but also their colour selection is quite interesting. Price is more than acceptable. Only drawback IMO is the construction of their bottles. Too flat to get a big nib in and out with ease (and getting the pen filled too, har, har....). Also, the inner discs in the lid are lousy because they continually stick to the glass -- even after being clean -- and that promotes unnecessary work.

[Paul_LZ]

1 hour ago, lapis said:

I find these inks "good", as regards maintenance in general, but also their colour selection is quite interesting. Price is more than acceptable. Only drawback IMO is the construction of their bottles. Too flat to get a big nib in and out with ease (and getting the pen filled too, har, har....). Also, the inner discs in the lid are lousy because they continually stick to the glass -- even after being clean -- and that promotes unnecessary work.

Thanks for the feedback. I love the shape of the bottle, very special design, but I imagine one could buy special ink bottles in which one would fill them with ink, making it easier to fill, right?

[lapis]

Yes, that's right. The bottles' shapes themselves are actually good, IMO, because their non-circular form (as seen from above) does allow you to get a good grip on it while trying to turn open the lid....

Ways to get around the small size and/or flatness of the whole bottle:

• I fill only smaller pens and/or pens with small nibs with those inks.
• As you say, pour the whole ink (out of 1 or 2 bottles) into a more decent bottle (see all the threads here on that story). E.g. old (50-ml) or new (60-ml) MB shoes, GvFC, Waterman, and Pelikan (4001 more so than Edelstein) bottles are all recommendable.
• Fill a converter with the ink, directly with the converter alone in the bottle....

[Paul_LZ]

35 minutes ago, lapis said:

Yes, that's right. The bottles' shapes themselves are actually good, IMO, because their non-circular form (as seen from above) does allow you to get a good grip on it while trying to turn open the lid....

Ways to get around the small size and/or flatness of the whole bottle:

• I fill only smaller pens and/or pens with small nibs with those inks.
• As you say, pour the whole ink (out of 1 or 2 bottles) into a more decent bottle (see all the threads here on that story). E.g. old (50-ml) or new (60-ml) MB shoes, GvFC, Waterman, and Pelikan (4001 more so than Edelstein) bottles are all recommendable.
• Fill a converter with the ink, directly with the converter alone in the bottle....

Great, thank you.

But what about bottles like, for instance, the TWSBI Diamond Ink bottle? Or are they brand specific?

[lapis]

I can't say, because I don't have such a bottle. Looks like you need a syringe and needle for this type. Or a different bottle.... BTW the best "non-ink-brand" bottles I've ever found and used again and again are 15-ml (½-oz) Nalgene bottles. Especially for carrying any ink in any pants pockets anywhere anytime. Indestructible. Also available in bigger sizes like 30-ml etc. Crazy thing is that even in the 15-ml job the volume plus inside diameter up top are still big enough for at least one big and easy fill!

[Paul_LZ]

15 minutes ago, lapis said:

I can't say, because I don't have such a bottle. Looks like you need a syringe and needle for this type. Or a different bottle.... BTW the best "non-ink-brand" bottles I've ever found and used again and again are 15-ml (½-oz) Nalgene bottles. Especially for carrying any ink in any pants pockets anywhere anytime. Indestructible. Also available in bigger sizes like 30-ml etc. Crazy thing is that even in the 15-ml job the volume plus inside diameter up top are still big enough for at least one big and easy fill!

Great, thanks again! 

[A Smug Dill]

50 minutes ago, Paul_LZ said:

for instance, the TWSBI Diamond Ink bottle? Or are they brand specific?

 

You can fill (just about) any brand of fountain pen after submerging its nib in the ink that is trapped in the cone-shaped reservoir inside that bottle, using whatever filling mechanism is applicable, the same way as you would with a Parker Penman ink bottle, Platinum Carbon Black ink bottle, etc. that has a similar internal reservoir.

 

The TWSBI Diamond bottle does offer special provisions to facilitate filling of certain TWSBI pen models.

 

https://www.twsbi.com/collections/frontpage/products/twsbi-diamond-50-ink-bottles

 

So, the answer to your question is neither just yes nor just no.

[Paul_LZ]

36 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

You can fill (just about) any brand of fountain pen after submerging its nib in the ink that is trapped in the cone-shaped reservoir inside that bottle, using whatever filling mechanism is applicable, the same way as you would with a Parker Penman ink bottle, Platinum Carbon Black ink bottle, etc. that has a similar internal reservoir.

 

The TWSBI Diamond bottle does offer special provisions to facilitate filling of certain TWSBI pen models.

 

https://www.twsbi.com/collections/frontpage/products/twsbi-diamond-50-ink-bottles

 

So, the answer to your question is neither just yes nor just no.

Thank you, but I can also get an Ink Miser, much cheaper and apt for the job

[Sailor Kenshin]

4 hours ago, lapis said:

I find these inks "good", as regards maintenance in general, but also their colour selection is quite interesting. Price is more than acceptable. Only drawback IMO is the construction of their bottles. Too flat to get a big nib in and out with ease (and getting the pen filled too, har, har....). Also, the inner discs in the lid are lousy because they continually stick to the glass -- even after being clean -- and that promotes unnecessary work.

Ditto to the tenth power.  I experienced an ink-splosion removing the cap last time.  I then pried off the inner cap, painfully removed all the glue, and reinserted the inner.  No more ink-splosions.

[bunnspecial]

My experience with about half the line(forgive my not knowing the names, but blue and green in addition to Benitoite and the blurple one, the latter of which I do love the sheen on) is that they're decent inks but I'm not wild about the bottle. The colors are good but not particularly unique. I do like them better than most of the Lamy standard line inks.

 

As far as price-they're really not that much out of line with other premium inks like Iroshizuku and Edelstein. Both of the latter have retail prices of around $28/50mL in the US the last time I looked. The Lamy Crystal bottles are 30mL and current prices I see are $16. Without doing the math, they may be a little less expensive per mL but not by a huge margin. Of course how many of us routinely finish bottles of ink? It's certainly a lot less expensive to get the full line-up of colors than with other brands.

[Paul_LZ]

On 7/22/2022 at 5:02 PM, bunnspecial said:

My experience with about half the line(forgive my not knowing the names, but blue and green in addition to Benitoite and the blurple one, the latter of which I do love the sheen on) is that they're decent inks but I'm not wild about the bottle. The colors are good but not particularly unique. I do like them better than most of the Lamy standard line inks.

 

As far as price-they're really not that much out of line with other premium inks like Iroshizuku and Edelstein. Both of the latter have retail prices of around $28/50mL in the US the last time I looked. The Lamy Crystal bottles are 30mL and current prices I see are $16. Without doing the math, they may be a little less expensive per mL but not by a huge margin. Of course how many of us routinely finish bottles of ink? It's certainly a lot less expensive to get the full line-up of colors than with other brands.

Thank you, I do love the Amazonite colour though, a ver elegant bluish green

[Paul_LZ]

7 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Ditto to the tenth power.  I experienced an ink-splosion removing the cap last time.  I then pried off the inner cap, painfully removed all the glue, and reinserted the inner.  No more ink-splosions.

An ink-plosion would be a messy disaster. In such cases I'd do the operation in a sealed plastic bag, minimises ink flying everywhere.

[Sailor Kenshin]

2 hours ago, Paul_LZ said:

An ink-plosion would be a messy disaster. In such cases y di the operation in a le¡are sealed plastic bag, minimises ink flying everywhere.

Well, next time…. 😉

[Paul_LZ]

3 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Well, next time…. 😉

👍🙂

[arcfide]

I enjoyed the colors that I got from them, particularly their dark green Peridot and their Benitoite. Benitoite is probably pricier than the similar Pelikan 4001 Blue Black, but more readily available in the US. It's also a pretty decent color, and serves the place of a dry IG type ink. Peridot flowed very well and was a very pleasing shade to me. Overall, I think Lamy has a very competent line-up of inks, including the Crystal and the standard line. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

The bottles are beautiful.  (Apart from the caps.)