Some Ink Tests

[inkstainedruth]

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

  If you hadn’t mentioned that it was a brown, I would have thought it was a green ink. Pretty happenstance.

I was thinking the same thing -- especially given the greenish highlights of the sheen/shimmer around the edges of the letters.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[USG]

3 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I was thinking the same thing -- especially given the greenish highlights of the sheen/shimmer around the edges of the letters.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

So I investigated further. 

This is a section where there was dual shading and it shows the brown color of the ink. 

So is it a brown ink being overwhelmed by the green sheen, or has it become a dual shading dark green ink? 

What we do know is that in the areas where the ink is not thick enough to sheen,, the ink looks the brown I described previously.

 

What do you guys think?

 

[Penguincollector]

I see the brown  on the upper part of the S, left side of the A, most of the T, and on some incomplete letters now. The sheen is at 15/10 levels.

[USG]

On 10/3/2023 at 8:09 PM, Penguincollector said:

I see the brown  on the upper part of the S, left side of the A, most of the T, and on some incomplete letters now. The sheen is at 15/10 levels.

 

The sepia ink has become a dark brown.  This is a better shot.

[USG]

So here's the quick and dirty from some of the new samples.

 

 

 

I was disappointed that The samples of the Herbin shimmer inks from Goulet had such little shimmer in them, except Rouge Hematite which had plenty, but was so dry it didn't want to flow off the dip pen.

 

[USG]

Next up was  some Sailor inks and one Diamine.  I'm getting so confused by all these different inks that my tape method of differentiation has given way to temporary labeling so I can tell which ink is which without going to the "Book" to look it up.

 

Cosmo Snow 75gsm

 

The paper differential was most interesting.  I had been writing in a B5  Tomoe River notebook and switched to 75gsm Cosmo Snow.

Tomoe River 52gsm:

 

 

Then I did the same thing on Cosmo Snow:

 

 

Sargasso had a yellow-orange sheen.

Shigure had a gold outline sheen

Yonaga was silver

Nioi-Sumire was also yellow-orange but not as bright

Manyo Konagi and its ink mix was pink

 

[Penguincollector]

I like this batch, the ink colors are up my alley and they get the outline.

[Lithium466]

Thank you for the comparison. I just received a bottle of Nioi-Sumire and was wondering which pen would suit it better. I'm waiting for a new Platinum 3776 so I guess that will be it.

Konagi has a really interesting pink outline, but my hopes were on Rouge Hematite!

[USG]

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

Thank you for the comparison. I just received a bottle of Nioi-Sumire and was wondering which pen would suit it better. I'm waiting for a new Platinum 3776 so I guess that will be it.

Konagi has a really interesting pink outline, but my hopes were on Rouge Hematite!

 

Hi LTM

The preliminary ink tests were done with the Jinhao pens pictured.  All were dry and needed a little adjustment to increase the flow.  I chose the Jinhao pens with the #8 nibs because they're inexpensive, they write beautifully, and feel great in the hand.... My preference is for the X-159 series.

 

That being said, if you like large pens with large nibs, Without a doubt, (IMHO) the best price Vs. performance in pens right now are the Wing Sung 630s.  I'm using them interchangeably with my 2 Sailor King of Pens.  The only thing I don't like about them is that they're hard to clean piston fillers.

 

The thing about ink and paper tests is that you need some sort of control (pen)  that's the same for every test.  So to recap, I've chosen the Jinhao X-159s for the tests because are fantastic writers and you can get 4 or 5 of them for the price of 1 Wing Sung 630 (which still is inexpensive).

 

The only thing I can say about The Rouge Hematite was that it  didn't want to flow down the nib of my dip pen onto the paper.  I dipped the pen into the ink, put the nib on the paper...  and nothing....  I had to tap the nib on the paper to get it going. Maybe it was the sample.  YNMV.

(You could add a pinpoint of dish detergent to make it flow better)

 

[Lithium466]

I don't have a X159 but I have a 9019 (very nice EF nib), and was already eyeing the Wing Sung 630. Despite good reviews I was still on the fence dropping that kind of cash for a "Chinese pen" 😂

 

As for Rouge Hématite, I have heard of red inks "gelling" with time, if the sample was old...A bottle of it was on my list, but for the price of a bottle I could get a 630 instead!

[USG]

2 minutes ago, Lithium466 said:

I don't have a X159 but I have a 9019 (very nice EF nib), and was already eyeing the Wing Sung 630. Despite good reviews I was still on the fence dropping that kind of cash for a "Chinese pen" 😂

 

As for Rouge Hématite, I have heard of red inks "gelling" with time, if the sample was old...A bottle of it was on my list, but for the price of a bottle I could get a 630 instead!

 

I ordered a 3 pack of 9019s and found them to be a little too fat.  The Original X-159 feels much better to me.  I've been through XF, F and now the new M nibs which I'm using for the tests.  A few people, myself included,  have taken their XFs and rubbed the sides on some  micromesh to make an Architect point.  I only did it a little on each side and I ended up with some nice line variation, which is posted somewhere above.  The only negative I found with the EF is that I've not been able to see the shading and colors I get with the medium nibs.

 

That said, the 630 is even better.  The standard 630's medium steel nib is so close the Sailor King of Pen's 21K gold medium nib it's scary.

 

The Rouge Hematite looked as liquidy as any of the other inks in the sample vials, so I'm not sure about it gelling....   but hey, get a sample and see if it works for you.

[amberleadavis]

On 10/10/2023 at 9:31 PM, USG said:

Next up was  some Sailor inks and one Diamine.  I'm getting so confused by all these different inks that my tape method of differentiation has given way to temporary labeling so I can tell which ink is which without going to the "Book" to look it up.

 

Cosmo Snow 75gsm

 

The paper differential was most interesting.  I had been writing in a B5  Tomoe River notebook and switched to 75gsm Cosmo Snow.

Tomoe River 52gsm:

 

 

Then I did the same thing on Cosmo Snow:

 

 

Sargasso had a yellow-orange sheen.

Shigure had a gold outline sheen

Yonaga was silver

Nioi-Sumire was also yellow-orange but not as bright

Manyo Konagi and its ink mix was pink

 

 

I am impressed! These are some of my favorite inks.  I love seeing them together.

[amberleadavis]

@USG You should also add those pictures to the Blue thread.

[USG]

On 10/18/2023 at 6:50 PM, amberleadavis said:

@USG You should also add those pictures to the Blue thread.

 

Only 2 of them were blue  🤷‍♂️

[USG]

DOPPELGANGERS  (how many inks do we have that are essentially the same)

 

So there I was writing with my usual suspects.. 3 KOPs, 2 W-S 630s and 2 X-159s [all Ms]

 

Inks were:

KOPs

Sailor Manyo Nadeshinko

Sailor Manyo Konagi

Sailor Shikiori Yonaga

W-S 630s

Pelikan 4001 Blau-schwarz

Diamine Majestic Blue

X-159s

Diamine Sargasso Sea

Sailor Shikiori Nioi-Sumire

 

And I noticed that the Diamine Sargasso Sea and the Sailor Shikiori Nioi-Sumire were Doppelgangers.

 

For Paper I chose my most revealing, Cosmo Snow.

 

 

 

 

Then I lightened the pic to better see the colors.  They look very similar, right down to the pink sheen.

 

 

[amberleadavis]

2 hours ago, USG said:

 

Only 2 of them were blue  🤷‍♂️

Well, add those.

 

[Lithium466]

Is Diamine Sargasso sea as lubricating as Sailor Nioi-sumire? I have some Nioi-Sumire in a 1911 EF at the moment and it's really nice, but the Diamine is so much cheaper.

[USG]

5 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Is Diamine Sargasso sea as lubricating as Sailor Nioi-sumire? I have some Nioi-Sumire in a 1911 EF at the moment and it's really nice, but the Diamine is so much cheaper.

 

Hi LTM

 

I have both inks in X-159s and they feel about the same when I write with them.  

 

The thing about the [M]  X-159s is that they all wrote on the  dry side when they arrived and I adjusted them for a wetter flow which is my preference for ink comparisons.  

 

I had the Nioi-Sumire in a Sailor KOP, and as you suggested, it looked great on cream colored paper, but looked lighter on the Tomoe River S paper I was writing on.  At the time I was looking for a darker ink to compare with The Diamine Majestic Blue that was in a Wing Sung 630, so I switched it out for the much darker Yonaga, which is a nice ink, but didn't turn out to have the deep blue tone of Majestic, (which works very well in my Pilot 743FA)

 

I like Diamine inks but the Sargasso Sea smells really bad.  It has the strong mold-like smell that some Diamine inks are known to have.   Sailor inks OTOH have the much more pleasant, vintage aroma of Phenol that I prefer.  
 

Because of the strong moldy smell that comes off the nib while I’m writing, I’m not sure I’d consider them interchangeable.  OTOH, an EF may not lay down enough ink for the smell to be noticeable.

 

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

Guess now I will have to add a 30mL bottle of Sargasso sea in my next order!
I have to admit I don't mind the moldy smell, if it's anything like Aster or Sapphire blue. It's usually not to pungent coming from EF nibs, less than the typical Sailor smell, which I really like. Reminds me of primary school Watercolor paint 🥰

 

Do you have Diamine velvet blue? Not as purple. Or maybe Sailor ink studio 743...or J. Herbin Bleu des profondeurs, which is my latest ink crush, thanks to @LizEF.

[inkstainedruth]

I didn't honestly like Sargasso Sea when I tried it.  I got a sample when it first came out, mostly because people described it as a replacement for Parker Penman Sapphire.  But while the color was pretty, it was a very cloggy ink.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth