EFNIR: Diamine Bilberry

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Is this a call to arms?  All right!  

 

7 hours ago, InesF said:

All I can tell for sure is, that the effects of writing with a pen that tends to dry out is not so easy to see when saturated inks are used. If the tine slit is wide enough, such inks can concentrate to a certain level and stay wet (liquid) for unexpected long time. However - and that may had happened with your Platinum pen - if the tine slit is comparably narrow, the drying on the nib does not suck enough ink to replace the lost volume, maybe it increases its contact surface tension (due to precipitates) and lead to hard starts that last until the concentrated and precipitated ink is washed out - which needs some time and some line length and some hard pressure to get the ink flowing at all.

Be aware, this is a hypothesis of what we (me too) experience from some ink and nib combinations.

Knew you'd have ideas.  Thank you!

 

7 hours ago, InesF said:

You gave me so much hope! 

Of figuring out FPs sooner?  Or of one day meeting Vulcans?

[RJS]

It was coincidental stumbling across this thread this afternoon- today I found two Narwhal pens that had been mislaid when we moved home last summer. One loaded with Bilberry and one loaded with the awesome Asa Blue. The Bilberry still wrote nicely! Impressive. The Asa Blue hadn't dried up, but didn't want to write properly with any level of coaxing.

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, RJS said:

It was coincidental stumbling across this thread this afternoon- today I came across two Narwhal pens that had been mislaid when we moved home last summer. One loaded with Bilberry and one loaded with the awesome Asa Blue. The Bilberry still wrote nicely! Impressive. The Asa Blue hadn't dried up, but didn't want to write properly with any level of coaxing.

Nice!

[RJS]

I suppose this is more to the credit of the pens and how they seal that they both had near full loads of ink remaining, but it suggests Bilberry is pretty tolerant too. It's a lovely colour as well. 
 

Keep up the excellent reviews, Liz- they're always a pleasure to read. 😊

[LizEF]

16 minutes ago, RJS said:

I suppose this is more to the credit of the pens and how they seal that they both had near full loads of ink remaining, but it suggests Bilberry is pretty tolerant too. It's a lovely colour as well. 

Agreed - no ink lasts that long without a pen to help it out.

 

16 minutes ago, RJS said:

Keep up the excellent reviews, Liz- they're always a pleasure to read. 😊

Thank you!  No plans to stop (and you can thank Quin and Makhabesh, and now Essri and Vika, for that - now that I've got a story to tell, there's no stopping until it's told).

[InesF]

21 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

But then what role is the breather hole playing there? On the 3776, it's widely exposed, while on the 45, it's hidden under the mini hood. Increasing the precipitation potential between nib and feed?

For feeds with only one combined slit it is always the most simple way of letting air in. More complicated feeds may have the air channel separate from the ink channel and do not need the breathing hole.

The hole in the nib increases the evaporation surface. The evaporation speed (the amount of water evaporating over time) is also influenced by temperature and by relative humidity of the air around the evaporation location. (To be more precise: it is the difference between water vapour pressure at the current temperature and the water vapour saturation of the surrounding air.) If the breathing hole is covered inside the section, air exchange is slow and therefore water evaporation is slow. Hooded nibs allow for simple feeds that dry out much slower.

 

21 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Its plastics feel cheap, the nibs are nice, and there is nothing better than 45 minutes of desperate flushing, then several days of soaking, a few ultrasonic rounds, to still find some ink leaching out, right?

+1 👍

That's the right dose of excitement; we need people like you!   

[Lithium466]

Thank you for these details. I think that the 3776 feed is "simpler" than the multi parts Parker 45 collector + feed.
I will need to revisit my fastest hard starting inks with these two pens, some IG like ESSRI (or Platinum's own blue black, technically an iron containing ink) and a few Sailor.

 

Back to Bilberry (to stay on topic^^), before the Parker 45 I had tried it in a few Pilot and Platinum and the hard starting was so bad I had basically given up on it. Maybe a fresher bottle would be different. I can't remember if I sent a sample to @LizEF or not?

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

I can't remember if I sent a sample to @LizEF or not?

Yes, this review was from the sample you sent.

[Lithium466]

18 hours ago, LizEF said:

Yes, this review was from the sample you sent.

Mmm, so it could be my bottle being finicky - I don't remember seeing that complaint in other reviews 🤔

I thinkI got it from Diamine directly. Maybe the warm Canada climate contributed to some evaporation.

[LizEF]

56 minutes ago, Lithium466 said:

Maybe the warm Canada climate contributed to some evaporation.

[chromantic]

This is a nice "bold" purple ink, though I prefer mine a little more red-leaning. A far cry from that washed-out Ajisai.

[LizEF]

56 minutes ago, chromantic said:

This is a nice "bold" purple ink, though I prefer mine a little more red-leaning

Yes, nothing soft or subtle here.

 

56 minutes ago, chromantic said:

A far cry from that washed-out Ajisai.

  Ajisai will lull you to sleep, this one will invite you to a dance club.