Some Ink Tests

July 15, 2023

I'm actually looking for a specific type of ink. One that forms a sheening outline around letters (Halo). The first one I found was Sailor Manyo Yamabuki. The second, to a somewhat lesser extent, was Sailor Manyo Konagi. Out of 23 sample inks I found one more. Sailor Shikiori Kin-Mokusei.

One of the things I did was turn the samples over to see which ones had a potential to stain or coat the acrylic of the sample vile. I thought that was interesting so I took some cellphone pics. The 2 Diamine inks, Blue Velvet and Terracotta, and the single J Herbin ink, Cornaline d'Egypte, were standouts for non- adherence. Honorable mentions were Yu-Yaki, Kin-Mokusei and Quasar, which stuck to the top of the vial.

The Manyo Inks

The Shikiori Inks

The Studio Inks

Other Inks I wanted to test

Kaigelu M nib in a Dip Pen

July 15, 2023

Following this thread to see what happens.

July 15, 2023

I was going to suggest OS Nitrogen, but I see you got a sample.

Now I'm curious to see what happens

July 15, 2023

Thank you for the test. I adore tests.

July 17, 2023

PGC, Lithium#s, ALD

Thanks for tuning in. 😀

July 25, 2023

LOL, So I'm supposed to be doing an ink test. Am I doing it, Nose to the grindstone. Not a chance. Instead I'm ordering more ink, and more pens and more paper...

I tried to buckle down, I got out my dip pens and was trying to decide what nib to use a on the tests, when I got distracted by a video on Clairefontaine paper.

'I have Clairefontaine paper', I thought, and off I went on a joy-write, fiddling about with paper and not doing my ink test.

The thing about the ink test is that the characteristic I'm looking for, (I'm going to call it an "outline" rather than a Halo) is only visible on two kinds of paper. White 75gsm Cosmo Snow and Ivory 75gsm Sakae Iroful, and only 3 inks, all Sailor inks (so far). Yamabuki, Kin-Mokusei and to a lesser extent Konagi)

I tried 80gsm Rhodia, 90gsm Clairefontaine, a few types of Tomoe River 52 & 68gsm (I'm guessing machine #9 because it feathered and the new Sanzen), Jet Pens Kanso Sasshi booklet (I'm guessing machine #7), Kokuyo 52gsm Thin and 64gsm KB, Staples Sugar Cane paper, 24lb HP copy paper and 70gsm Maruman paper. (52gsm View Corona White is on the way)

So what was today's Clairefontaine procrastination? (Left to right)

JinHao x-159 (M) Sailor Shikiori Kin-Mokusei

Sailor 1911 KOP (M) Sailor Manyo Konagi

Sailor 1911 KOP (M) Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko

Sailor 1911L (M) Sailor Manyo Yamabuki

Sailor 1911L (M) Monteverde Fire Opal

Pilot Elite (M) Sailor Manyo Konagi

Wing Sung 601 (F) Iroshizuku Kon-Peki

July 25, 2023

Huh. That certainly is an interesting effect. Don't think I've ever seen that before (certainly not with any of the inks I have).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

July 26, 2023

15 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Huh. That certainly is an interesting effect. Don't think I've ever seen that before (certainly not with any of the inks I have).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Hi ISR 😀

It's all about the paper.🙂 Cosmo Snow paper brings out some very interesting qualities in a lot of my inks. For instance, I found that an ink that tricks out on Tomoe River, will demonstrate its full potential on Cosmo Snow and some inks that don't do anything much on Tomoe River paper come to life on Cosmo Snow.

This is Monteverde Fire Opal on Sanzen 52gsm Tomoe River paper - Sailor 1911L(M)

This is Monteverde Fire Opal on Cosmo Snow paper. Same pen same ink,

Iroful paper does a similar thing but the ivory color, IMHO, throws off some colors.

There are 2 downsides to Cosmo Snow. One is you have to be careful not to get oily finger prints on the paper or you will have an ink resistant spot and the other is that your line width iincreases slightly relative to Clairefontaine or Rodia, for example. I don't know if I'd call it spreading but I like this effect.

July 26, 2023

This is intriguing. That corona around the letters is really cool. I’m almost certain that I have seen this before, but can’t place it.

July 26, 2023

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

This is intriguing. That corona around the letters is really cool. I’m almost certain that I have seen this before, but can’t place it.

If you find any inks that do that trick please let me know..... 😀👍

July 27, 2023

On 7/26/2023 at 10:12 AM, USG said:

If you find any inks that do that trick please let me know..... 😀👍

I will; it’s been a crazy couple of months in terms of this hobby- there’s been more in person meeting and sharing than usual, so I have to go through all the doodles and ink/pen tests to see. I was also looking at a ton of other people’s notebooks and it’s all a bit of a blur. I added a pack of the Iroful to my Amazon cart, so I can start my own project and let you know what I find. Next Jetpens order will have the CA Snow paper. I’m also going to try all the different papers in the sample pack I got not too long ago because I think it’s one of those odd ones like NSF35 or something like that. I wonder if it’s the sizing or the weave that pulls a certain chemical in the ink out to the edge of the letters.

July 30, 2023

On 7/27/2023 at 4:01 PM, Penguincollector said:

I will; it’s been a crazy couple of months in terms of this hobby- there’s been more in person meeting and sharing than usual, so I have to go through all the doodles and ink/pen tests to see. I was also looking at a ton of other people’s notebooks and it’s all a bit of a blur. I added a pack of the Iroful to my Amazon cart, so I can start my own project and let you know what I find. Next Jetpens order will have the CA Snow paper. I’m also going to try all the different papers in the sample pack I got not too long ago because I think it’s one of those odd ones like NSF35 or something like that. I wonder if it’s the sizing or the weave that pulls a certain chemical in the ink out to the edge of the letters.

"I’m also going to try all the different papers in the sample pack I got not too long ago ..."

That's a great idea. You might find something. 👍

These are the samples I'm testing:

[So far, the effect was only visible on Cosmo Snow & Iroful paper and with 3 inks]

Manyo Inks (11)

Sailor Manyo Kikyou

Sailor Manyo Kuzu

Sailor Manyo Haha

Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi

Sailor Manyo AkebiSailor

Sailor Manyo Ume

Sailor Manyo Sumire

Sailor Manyo Konagi <-- has a less pronounced effect

Sailor Manyo Nadeshiko

Sailor Manyo Fuji

Sailor Manyo Yamabuki <-- where I first noticed the effect

Shikiori Inks (5)

Sailor Shikiori Shigure

Sailor Shikiori Nioi-sumire

Sailor Shikiori Kin-mokusei <-- had the effect

Sailor Shikiori Yodaki

Sailor Shikiori Souten

Sailor Ink Studio inks (4)

Sailor Ink Studio 441

Sailor Ink Studio 123

Sailor Ink Studio 873

Sailor Ink Studio 930

Other Inks Of Interest (8)

Colorverse Quasar

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

Diamine Blue Velvet

Diamine Terracotta

Organics Studio Nitrogen

Jacques Herbin 1798 Cornaline d'Egypte

Iroshizuku Yu-yake

Monteverde Fire Opal

July 30, 2023

Something that I just put together is that two of the three inks with the outline effect and the Monteverde are all yellow/orange/brownish.

July 30, 2023

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

Something that I just put together is that two of the three inks with the outline effect and the Monteverde are all yellow/orange/brownish.

"yellow/orange/brownish."

I thought that too but Robert Oster NG special, Australis Oak, Diamine Terracotta, Iroshizuku Yu-yake, Studio 930 and as much as I liked it for shading, Jacques Herbin 1798 Cornaline d'Egypte didn't pan out in the "Outline" department, as well as Vintage Omas Sepia, and the fresh bottles of Pelikan Brillant-Braun (which out of the bottle on my dip pen was practically the same color as Fire Opal) and Blau-Schwarz, (which shaded nicely but didn't do anything else).

August 3, 2023

I read (somewhere) that Diamine Polar Glow and Diamine Jack Frost are very similar dark turquoise colored inks. Color-wise my Kaigelu [M] dip pen agrees that they're very close but when you look at the inks themselves, they are very different.

Although both inks are saturated enough to sheen, Polar Glow coats the bottle and feels thicker and is a wet ink (to me) while Jack Frost seems to be on the watery side, doesn't coat, and feels like a dry ink (to me). The other difference is that Jack Frost has Shimmer, which I noticed less on the page and more when I turned the bottle upside down.

I haven't experimented much with these inks yet, but on the 2 papers I've tried so far, the shimmer, pinkish sheen and line width effect is more pronounced on the 75gsm Cosmo Snow paper than on the 52gsm Sanzen Tomoe River paper, although I prefer the lighter drag and the denser darker color on the Tomoe paper.

Polar Glow (Kaigelu 356 [F])

I don't know why I ended up with bottles of these inks. Note to self, get samples, see if you like it. 🤪

August 3, 2023

The pen and nib are critical to how an ink looks.

This is from a New Bottle of Pelikan Blau-Schwarz.

This is Diamine Polar Glow from a Kaigelu 356 (F) on Cosmo Snow paper

And this is Diamine Jack Frost from a Jinhao X-159 (M) on Cosmo Snow paper

August 3, 2023

Both of those remind me of Hypercolor t-shirts. The difference between the nibs in the way they put down the Pelikan BB is striking.

August 4, 2023

I've been experimenting with Polar Glow and Jack Frost. I loaded the Polar Glow into a Pilot 743 FA.

Then I took a good look at the writing sample with a magnifying glass. In a few places I saw the outline effect I was looking for, so what I'm thinking is that the outline effect is a type of sheen that outlines instead of filling the letter. Duh.🤪

Polar Glow

I want to make a correction. After writing with the inks, Jack Frost is a Dry ink with the accompanying flow difficulties of a dry ink and Polar Glow is wetter with a nice flow.

This is gravity defying high viscosity Jack Frost in the converter of a Jinhao X-159.

August 4, 2023

I am so tempted to try a sample of that dry Jack Frost in my blue Pelikan now. It’s absolutely gorgeous! I also have some half formed theories on sheen and outline. The first inks I trialed are sheeners. I haven’t looked at them in good enough light yet to see if any have the outline effect. I want to have a few sheets of different colors and brands ready for when my new lamp gets here.

ETA: I don’t mean to call your theories half formed, only mine.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Penguincollector
Clarification on who is half baked- me

August 7, 2023

This is my first foray into shading and sheening inks so I'm Still experimenting and attempting to get pics of the shimmer, sheening and shading effects. Apparently there's a learning curve to this and currently I'm at the bottom. I apologize for my scribble and cellphone pics.

The inks are Diamine Polar Glow, which is a shading and sheening ink that flows nicely and Diamine Jack Frost which adds shimmer to the mix. I found Jack Frost to b a dry ink that didn't flow easily and required a pen with a wet nib.

Looking at the inks without the effect, the Kaigelu Polar Glow presented as a dark blue ink. The Jack Frost was a similar dark blue out of the EF Jinhao and a lighter blue out of the Medium Jinhao. If I wrote with no pressure, it was turquoise.

The examples are on Sanzen 52gsm Tomoe River paper and 75gsm Cosmo Snow paper

The Kaigelu F nib was stock. The EF Jinhao X-159 had been tuned at some point in the past and is now a fine with a wet flow.

I got an interesting blue glow effect with the Jinhao/Jack Frost pen on the Tomoe paper

Polar Glow shades a lighter blue and sheens red. Under magnification, you see that the shimmer is responsible for the blue glow effect in the Jinaho/Jack Frost. I'm surprised that I didn't get a greater effect on the Cosmo paper.

I added a second Jinhao X-159 medium at the bottom. The wider nib naturally enhanced the effect.

75gsm Cosmo Snow paper. It was expected that the Polar Glow would be brighter on the Cosmo paper and it was. It was unexpected that the Jack Frost didn't shimmer more. Could be the particles fell out of suspension.