Some Ink Tests

[USG]

1 hour ago, Mechanical said:

All blue inks are some kind of balm for me.

 

5 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

  Blue is my favorite color for this reason. I think Serenity Blue is aptly named. I’m trying to catalog all of my inks available for samples- the list is long and growing longer. There’s a blue to fit every mood!

 

Gotta love those blue inks.... 😀👍

 

[Penguincollector]

4 minutes ago, USG said:

 

 

Gotta love those blue inks.... 😀👍

 

🙌🏽

[Mechanical]

14 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

  Blue is my favorite color for this reason. I think Serenity Blue is aptly named. I’m trying to catalog all of my inks available for samples- the list is long and growing longer. There’s a blue to fit every mood!

 

I know, right?  Greens and violets, grays and reds, all the colors have some appeal for me.  But give me blue, blue, blue. 

 

Of course I order ink samples to avoid buying whole bottles of ink unecessarily.  But if the ink sample is blue, I almost always want to get the full bottle anyway.  Ama iro, give it here!  Kon Peki, must have! Sailor Seiboku, where have you been all my life?  And so on...

[USG]

Re-posted from the Sailor Pen Thread:

Here's some upsetting information:

Over the years I've purchased a number of Sailor 1911 Ls from the Amazon dealer in Japan, you all know about, with the "right price", but the last pen is some kind of FAKE with what I think is a 14K nib (if that) stamped 21K in a 1911 L body.  What do you guys think about this?

 

This scam is particularly troubling because without a comparison, a one time buyer would never know that he was scammed.

 

Check this out:  Even the hardware rings color are off...  The gold in the center nib is the same color as my recent Sailor Slim 14K Mini.  The whole pen has been downgraded to the 14K color. 

 

 

 

 

Center Bottom ring is not as yellow

 

[Mechanical]

3 hours ago, USG said:

 

What are your pen/ink preferences these days?

 

 

Instead of rambling paragraph after paragraph, I realized I could just summarize:

• Sailor Pro Gear with Diamine Salamander
• Parker 51 with R&K Salix
• Pilot Justus 95 with Take Sumi
• Lamy Vista with J Herbin Lierre Sauvage.

Of course this leaves out many favorite pens and inks... but the pen currently in my hand is usually my favorite...

[Penguincollector]

 I think that’s a fake, @USG. Look at the anchor, it’s pretty different. It definitely either 14k or 14k plated. 21k is significantly brighter, like your other pens. 

[USG]

3 hours ago, Mechanical said:

love blue black inks and I'm current running my Parker 51 F with R&K Salix.  Boy is that nice!  In my Parker 21 F, I'm trying out TWSBI Blue Black.  That's a well-made ink and quite versatile.  I'm liking it.  I do think both of these inks have some amount of iron gall, but I've never had any problem with these modern formulations.  I'm at the end of a Platinum Blue Black fill in my Lamy 2000.  Once that's done, I may do another fill of Lamy Pink Cliff.

 

Hey MCL

 

The only Iron Gall I have is Platinum BB.  The Platinum BB box cautions you to wash out the pen cap with water to avoid chemical reactions.... 

 

'R&K recommends you clean your pen once a week to keep it performing well.'

 

Those look like difficult pens to clean.  How are you going to get all the iron gall ink out?  I know you said you never had a problem but How dangerous is that stuff?

 

Haha, who would have thought Pink Cliff is BB....

 

[USG]

38 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

 I think that’s a fake, @USG. Look at the anchor, it’s pretty different. It definitely either 14k or 14k plated. 21k is significantly brighter, like your other pens. 

 

The nib is non-magnetic, if that means anything.

[Mechanical]

20 minutes ago, USG said:

The only Iron Gall I have is Platinum BB.  The Platinum BB box cautions you to wash out the pen cap with water to avoid chemical reactions.... 

 

'R&K recommends you clean your pen once a week to keep it performing well.'

 

Those look like difficult pens to clean.  How are you going to get all the iron gall ink out?  I know you said you never had a problem but How dangerous is that stuff?

 

I stayed away from iron gall for years.  Then, because I am a sucker for blue-black, I gradually got more and more IG inks.  I started very carefully in cheaper pens that were easy to clean.  

 

But then after a year or so with no problems, I gradually lost my sense of caution; now I use them in everything, including the P51.  I have no particular knowledge here, but I can say these are pens that I use every single day.  And when the ink runs out, I do a good cleaning with a water + vinegar solution.

 

So I’m not in a position to recommend this to others, but for me it has worked. However, as in all things, YMMV.

[USG]

15 minutes ago, Mechanical said:

 

I stayed away from iron gall for years.  Then, because I am a sucker for blue-black, I gradually got more and more IG inks.  I started very carefully in cheaper pens that were easy to clean.  

 

But then after a year or so with no problems, I gradually lost my sense of caution; now I use them in everything, including the P51.  I have no particular knowledge here, but I can say these are pens that I use every single day.  And when the ink runs out, I do a good cleaning with a water + vinegar solution.

 

So I’m not in a position to recommend this to others, but for me it has worked. However, as in all things, YMMV.

 

Good to know... I'm like you were years ago.... 😱

[Penguincollector]

2 hours ago, USG said:

 

The nib is non-magnetic, if that means anything.

  I don’t know if it does anymore, but I have an old style 14k I can compare the design to once I get up to my desk. The color is definitely more like 14k gold. Are you keeping it, or returning it?

 

  I did just see Eric the Red’s post on the other thread, so there’s hope that it’s just a different alloy. I have honestly never seen gold 18k and above from Asia look that pale. 

[USG]

3 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  I don’t know if it does anymore, but I have an old style 14k I can compare the design to once I get up to my desk. The color is definitely more like 14k gold. Are you keeping it, or returning it?

 

  I did just see Eric the Red’s post on the other thread, so there’s hope that it’s just a different alloy. I have honestly never seen gold 18k and above from Asia look that pale. 

 

The color of the nib is identical to the color of the 14k nib on the Slim Mini, and the clip and the trim have been downgraded in color as well to match the nib. 

 

[Lithium466]

I've been using Graphilo for several days, and I have mixed feelings. It's quality paper, no bleeding/feathering/ghosting with any of the inks I tried, and yes both sides are very similar (and usable since it's also thick enough).

On the other hand, it's making inks dry faster than say some TR paper, so it's not doing much (if at all) in terms of sheen, shading, etc (although shading I wouldn't really know, perhaps with the right ink and pen). It's also not as smooth as I like, and it's not white, so I don't see any reason to really recommend it, nor to buy some more.
To recap, for me it's fine...good paper, boring, not smooth enough, pass.

 

My research for the perfect blue ink failed miserably (momentarily). I have Lake Placid blue looking close to Herbin Eclat de Saphir concentrated, and Iroshizuku Asa-Gao not as dark as I remembered. Also not as wet as Lake Placid blue, and not as fun as Taccia Ao. I found a leftover of Sailor Ink Studio 743 and it's really a smooth ink! With dry out tendencies on a dry nib, like many Sailor inks unfortunately. Maybe there's something between 443 and 743 that could please me better? Right now I'm very tempted to buy some Noodler's Baystate blue.

 

Anyway, to cure that blue ink depression, I had to buy some greens, Lady Emerald and Taccia Midori. And maybe a few other things...just when I started another cycle of decluttering my ink collection (again, rude people of my household complained).

 

As a side note, I was very pleased with Iroshizuku Kosumosu (thanks @Penguincollector!). Good flow and more saturated than I thought. Colorverse Fountain Pen day 2024 is nice too! 

[Mechanical]

6 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

To recap, for me it's fine...good paper, boring, not smooth enough, pass.

Thanks, @Lithium466, I keep looking at Graphilo and wondering if it's worth it.  Your experience makes me think it's probably not.   Moving on...

 

[USG]

Some Blue Blacks (well sorta)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[USG]

@Mechanical I want to get back to discussing BB inks with you....

@Lithium466 I owe you a response to your last post.   But when I told you I hadn't made a Tomoe River 68gms notebook I was mistaken, I have one, and rarely used because it feathers like the paper from machine #9, which is the same time frame that I bought this 68gms paper.  Anyway, here's what it looks like.....

 

Some Close ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mechanical]

11 hours ago, USG said:

@Mechanical I want to get back to discussing BB inks with you....

@Lithium466 I owe you a response to your last post.   But when I told you I hadn't made a Tomoe River 68gms notebook I was mistaken, I have one, and rarely used because it feathers like the paper from machine #9, which is the same time frame that I bought this 68gms paper.  Anyway, here's what it looks like.....

 

I see that Platinum Blue Black and Pelikan 4001 Blue Black hold back on feathering pretty well on this paper.  And Souboku does quite well, doesn't it?  

 

I do think I am having better luck with my Iroshizuku Shin Kai on TR68 than you're getting here.  But, well, anywhere my hands touch this paper, I can have problems, so I frequently mask off the part of the page I'm not writing on...

[Penguincollector]

7 minutes ago, Mechanical said:

 

I see that Platinum Blue Black and Pelikan 4001 Blue Black hold back on feathering pretty well on this paper.  And Souboku does quite well, doesn't it?  

 

I do think I am having better luck with my Iroshizuku Shin Kai on TR68 than you're getting here.  But, well, anywhere my hands touch this paper, I can have problems, so I frequently mask off the part of the page I'm not writing on...

  I bought an artist’s glove this winter because I am constantly having to use lotion. It’s a big help. It leaves the first three fingers free and covers wrist, ring finger, and pinky. 

 

[USG]

3 hours ago, Mechanical said:

 

I see that Platinum Blue Black and Pelikan 4001 Blue Black hold back on feathering pretty well on this paper.  And Souboku does quite well, doesn't it?  

 

I do think I am having better luck with my Iroshizuku Shin Kai on TR68 than you're getting here.  But, well, anywhere my hands touch this paper, I can have problems, so I frequently mask off the part of the page I'm not writing on...

 

You could very well be getting be getting better results than I did.  I bought this paper during the transitional period before Sanzen took over.  I also have some Tomoe River 52gsm paper from Maching #9 that feathers.  The good news is that the current Tomoe River-S paper is fine. 

 

2 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  I bought an artist’s glove this winter because I am constantly having to use lotion. It’s a big help. It leaves the first three fingers free and covers wrist, ring finger, and pinky. 

 

 

I've been thinking about getting that too....  👍😀 

Atm I'm using a 6X6 Velum sheet as a barrier.

 

[Penguincollector]

5 minutes ago, USG said:

 

 

 

 

I've been thinking about getting that (artist’s glove) too....  👍😀 

Atm I'm using a 6X6 Velum sheet as a barrier.

 

  I got the idea from watching @LizEF‘s videos.