ink

Rating: 5.0 November 30, 2010 The award for most poetically named ink goes to Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses – one of the most poetic inks I’ve reviewed this year. Black Swan is a brand new ink from Noodler’s that was just released in late November. It is a moderately saturated ink with lots of very moody shading, and was designed to show off the shading potential of flex nibs.

Greg asked: I just read your review at: /2010/10/ink-review-diamine-imperial-purple.html Very nice. How permanent is this ink? Well, as you can see above - not very. The smear test, which is a wet finger dragged across the ink, left a big, purple streak. The lines range from obliterated to semi-readable. The drop test, in which I drip water, let it soak for a second, and then blot it up, fared a little better.

Rating: 4.0 November 15, 2010 J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis is a lovely, pale blue ink that evokes a field of wildflowers – like its namesake “myositis,” which is more commonly known as “forget-me-not.” The low level of saturation allows for an extremely high degree of shading in both fine and wide nibs. In fact, in a wide enough nib, it almost looks like one is painting with watercolors. Like Vert Empire, Myosotis is one of the wetter J.

Rating: 4.0 November 2, 2010 I do not use black ink on a daily basis. To me, one of the joys of using fountain pens is the broad spectrum of available ink colors and black ink just isn’t all that interesting. However, there are a number of situations for which only black ink will do, so when Diamine offered to send me ink samples for review, I requested Jet Black.

I didn’t have time to write an ink review this week, but I did have the opportunity to look through my ink collection to figure out what to review next. In the 8 months I’ve been writing reviews, I’ve managed to publish 24 ink reviews, but I’ve got a lot more left to go. Since there are no signs that I’m going to stop collecting ink any time soon, I suspect I’ll be writing up reviews until I’m old and grey.

Rating: 5.0 October 18, 2010 I’ve been using Diamine Imperial Purple for the past two weeks, and I can’t get enough of it. It’s a vibrant, majestic purple that makes me think of royal banners waving in a bright, sunny sky – of knights jousting on horseback and ladies waiting in…um…waiting. It is a highly saturated “red” purple that exhibits moderate shading. It is not reddish per-se, but rather red by contrast with a blue-purple or indigo.

Rating: 3.0 October 09, 2010 Pelikan has just released a new line of premium inks called Edelstein, which means “gemstone” in German. There are seven colors in the line, all intended to represent a jewel tone: Onyx, Sapphire, Topaz, Jade, Aventurine, Mandarin, and Ruby. As of the date of this review, all but Onyx are available via US retailers. Like many ink collectors, I was eagerly awaiting the line, and I ordered a bottle of Ruby as soon as I got word that they were in.

Rating: 4.0 September 21, 2010 Pelikan Blue Black is a member of Pelikan’s 4001 ink line – their standard, bottled fountain pen inks. It is a pleasant blue-grey that reminds me of denim, and is moderately saturated while exhibiting a modicum of shading. The color of the ink is not dramatically affected by the color of paper – it lays down a consistent line on both bright-white Rhodia paper and off-white Moleskine paper.

Rating: 4.0 September 14, 2010 Some inks are simply too appropriately named. Diamine Oxblood is one such ink. It is a well-behaved red-brown that falls firmly into the “dried blood” category. If you’ve ever brought a juicy steak home from the butcher and taken a look at the butcher paper, you know exactly what’s in store for you. Oxblood is highly saturated with a surprising level of shading. On both the off white of Moleskine paper and the bright white of Rhodia paper, this ink creates a bold, bloody line.

Rating: 5.0 September 07, 2010 I love red inks, and Diamine Red Dragon has just won a place in my top three. I’ve had a lot of experience with J. Herbin, Iroshizuku, and Noodler’s inks, but, up until recently, had no experience with Diamine inks. I’d read many flattering things about them online, so I figured that I should give them a shot. The lovely folks at Diamine were nice enough to send over six bottles for review, and Red Dragon is the first of them.