EFNIR: Lennon Tool Bar Sesame Oil

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Lennon Tool Bar Sesame Oil

This is review #325 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This was a 2021 Limited Edition, so if you're interested, search now as once stock runs out, there won't likely be more.  The color is quite different between a wet, wider EF and my review pen - and I like the review pen color better - it's very pale.

This is an extremely dry ink. It didn't like my Pilot Stargazer, F, which I think of as at least average flow, maybe a little wet.  It couldn't keep up with my Bock EF titanium nib (I'm wondering if the pen or converter contributed to that problem).  And yet it actually liked my review pen - flowing well except briefly in the morning of day 7. Once I'd written enough, it was flowing well again.  The point is: you may have a hard time finding a compatible pen.

I really like the pale tan color I get from my review pen. If you like that, too, note that you won't get it from a very wet nib - see the swatch card in the video.

Cleaning was very quick and easy.  The microscope slide was monochrome and had nothing new.  I'm sorry - once again, I forgot to adjust the camera to give better exposure for the video.

Zoomed in photo (Close. Actual color might be a little more tan, less saturated.)

Screenshot (Not too far off, but color is under-saturated.)

Scan of Completed Review (Almost perfect - go with this one!)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (AP: Close; CP: text is a little dark)

Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 276µm. With 325 inks measured, the average line width is 297µm.)

Previous Review: Rohrer & Klingner Document Black.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[yazeh]

Excellent review @LizEF of an unusal ink

Lennon Tool bar and someother brands seem to be specializing now on the chromoshading bandwagon. They have a lot of intriguing new inks, which several are feline themed 🙀

It seems like one of those inks for @namrehsnoom who is our resident ink whisperer

 

Ink seems to have a long drytime on Rhodia, but has a nice golden tinge to it. I would've like to see how it looked with other nibs, but we can't have our cake and eat it, can we? 😄

 

Looking forward to seeing what our interprid friends will be building with magical bridges and towers...

 

Thanks for bringing gold and light to a very cold, buried by snow day 🙏🙏🙏

 

 

 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

@LizEF, I like the color, too. It's really similar to my fave Unobtainium ink, Pelikan Khaki.  But its behavior?  No.  Do Not Want dry inks!

 

I've got Lie de The but that is darker.  Much.  The Khaki shaded beautifully, but even for a Pelikan ink, I don't recall it being all that dry.

 

(Also Do not want: my index finger still being jacked up....and upcoming dental extravaganzas.)

 

And a ravening wind today actually ripped my shopping list from an outside handbag pocket.  That, too, is Do Not Want.  But I managed to come home with cheese danish! 

 

You always make Tuesdays magical and fun... those boxes are way cool.  I look forward to the next review and story. 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Excellent review @LizEF of an unusal ink

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Lennon Tool bar and someother brands seem to be specializing now on the chromoshading bandwagon. They have a lot of intriguing new inks, which several are feline themed 🙀

It seems like one of those inks for @namrehsnoom who is our resident ink whisperer

Yes, agreed on all counts!

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Ink seems to have a long drytime on Rhodia

Long-ish, but not eternal.

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

but has a nice golden tinge to it. I would've like to see how it looked with other nibs, but we can't have our cake and eat it, can we? 😄

Yes, though it really dries to tan (there's a bit of color-loss as it dries).  The nibs on the swatch card (Pilot Stargazer fine and Bock titanium EF) are the only pens I'd put the ink in.  The color I get from my review pen is the color I wanted, so I wish that was the color from every pen...  This ink and another (Anderson Pens Oshkosh Denim) have convinced me that an ink can be too dry for a wet pen.  Inks this dry need a less-demanding pen, or they won't keep up with the flow demand.  At least, this is the only explanation I have.  Anywho, there are some vendor and a few user images out there to see for anyone who wants to see more...

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Looking forward to seeing what our interprid friends will be building with magical bridges and towers...

Even I have no idea.  (Turn your eyes, readers, if you don't want to see behind the curtain...  These were just a prop to cause Quin to become very emotional over the fake feud with his parents and thereby prompt him to reveal the secret to Makhabesh and Essri.)

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for bringing gold and light to a very cold, buried by snow day 🙏🙏🙏

You're most welcome!  Wishing you sunshine and warmth soon!

[LizEF]

24 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, I like the color, too. It's really similar to my fave Unobtainium ink, Pelikan Khaki.

Wow!  Unobtainium and unfindable, too!  (Web search got me zero results.)

 

25 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

But its behavior?  No.  Do Not Want dry inks!

  Honestly, this is really the pickiest ink I've tried.  I assume it's "as designed" because I got a full bottle - no evidence of evaporation or other issues.  That it's a 2021 limited edition suggests it may have spent some time on a shelf (I got it in December of last year), but I saw no evidence that it suffered from that.  In that light, it makes me wonder what the makers were thinking and what pens they tested it in.   Anywho, into every life, a problem child must come, and since I like the color from dry nibs, I'll just have to keep playing until I find more perfect pens.

 

34 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

(Also Do not want: my index finger still being jacked up....and upcoming dental extravaganzas.)

Sorry to hear your finger is still being uncooperative!  And how frustrating to have to deal with that and a dental extravaganza!   (Dental work is the worst - well, sometimes.)  Hope all goes well and your finger speeds its recovery!

 

42 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

And a ravening wind today actually ripped my shopping list from an outside handbag pocket.  That, too, is Do Not Want.  But I managed to come home with cheese danish!

Whoa!  Serious wind.  Comfort food is the way to go!

 

42 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

You always make Tuesdays magical and fun... those boxes are way cool.  I look forward to the next review and story. 

Thanks!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Pelikan Khaki was only available in carts.

 

And it really WAS khaki;  I thought Iro Ina-Ho would be a replacement, but it was too green.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Pelikan Khaki was only available in carts.

 

And it really WAS khaki;  I thought Iro Ina-Ho would be a replacement, but it was too green.

Wish it hadn't vanished from the planet!

[InesF]

Thank you, @LizEF, for this ink review and for the story episode. Always a good starting point when a magic party receives new items - action, chaos, glory, victims, heroes and something to tell at the campfire, all those ahead! 

 

From photo and scan and magnifications combined, I would say this ink is in the range of Iroshizuku Ina-ho, KWZ Honey and Sailor Studio 273 (in theory) and Sailor Studio 280 (in praxis).   

But whatever it is, it is a generally nice ink. I think I mentioned it elsewhere and can only repeat: I feel lucky about the full ink drawer that refuses to grow bigger. No more room for new ink acquisitions! Nice!   

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @LizEF, for this ink review and for the story episode.

You're most welcome!

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Always a good starting point when a magic party receives new items - action, chaos, glory, victims, heroes and something to tell at the campfire, all those ahead! 

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

From photo and scan and magnifications combined, I would say this ink is in the range of Iroshizuku Ina-ho, KWZ Honey and Sailor Studio 273 (in theory) and Sailor Studio 280 (in praxis).   

I have Ina-Ho and KWZ Honey, so they weren't similar enough to make the group of comparison inks in the video.  I don't have either Sailor, but from online images, 273 is a little darker, maybe pinker (or otherwise more colorful - the images I'm finding are all over the board).  280 is definitely too green.  (This is really a hard color to find - and I've been looking at everything that might possibly be close.)

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

But whatever it is, it is a generally nice ink. I think I mentioned it elsewhere and can only repeat: I feel lucky about the full ink drawer that refuses to grow bigger. No more room for new ink acquisitions! Nice!   

  Well, this one might have brought as much frustration as joy - since it's so picky about its pen.  Hmm.  I just realized my Kaweco Sport, F might also be a match.  I'll have to do a lot of testing...