Sailor Spring Inks

Two of the four new Sailor LE inks arrived in my mailbox today - Waka-Uguisu and Sakura Mori. You can see below how Waka-Uguisu compares to a couple of other yellow-green inks in my collection (click to enlarge):As you can see, Sakura Mori showed some interesting orange-pink colour separation when I brushed the samples out onto 160gsm CP watercolour paper. The ink does not show this much of a duo finish in a pen, but it is slightly noticeable. Dropping the ink onto a paper towel will instantly show this effect as the dyes absorb at different rates.

I have inked up my Sailor 'Snow White' LE with this ink, and I must say that they make a very pretty pair. :)

(I believe Uguisu translates to "olive green", and is often associated with the colour of the Japanese bush warbler or nightingale.)

Incoming Ink!

Well, after a dry spell ink-wise, I have two nice Sailor Spring Limited Edition inks on their way to me:

• Waka-Uguisu (Mid Yellow-Green)
  
• Sakura Mori (Cherry Blossom Pink)

Pink ink is something really unusual for me to buy, the only other pink ink I have is Levenger's Pinkly. Sakura Mori is far more subtle and sweet. I still have no idea about what pen I would put it in...

The Waku-Uguisu is much more my style - rich yellow-green! I am mad about any warm greens. Inkophile pointed out to me that it might be similar to another Sailor LE ink we both have, Hougado Souseki Uranari Green. It will be interesting to see how they compare!

Bad Laurel, No Biscuit

So, I really hate admitting things like this, but confession is good for the soul or something, right? :P

Well, on the weekend I opened up one of the cases I use to store Japanese pens in, and selected two Platinums which I was planning to ink up for the week ahead. The pens in question can be seen in the above image, (4th and 5th from left). These are pens from the early 1970s, when Platinum was designing some extremely interesting and beautiful writing instruments. They were released in the same year and share a very similar design – flattop, tapered barrel, seldom-seen ball clip, and a cap band decorated with neat little squares. The nib units are identical, and each has a large Fine 18K white gold nib. One pen has a quiet and utilitarian stainless steel body with acid-etched black squares, while the other is flashy solid sterling silver with red urushi-filled squares.

As I picked up the stainless steel pen, I suddenly remembered that this pen had not been cleaned and emptied; I had put it in the box to photograph it, and then not taken it back out. By now, I had a vague sense of impending doom. I picked up the second pen, which I had been using around the same time as the other one, and with a sigh, I realised that this one wouldn’t have been cleaned either. Crap.

I headed off to the bathroom sink, and pulled the cap off the stainless steel pen (maybe it was my imagination, but it did seem harder to remove that cap with the images of a sticky and gross grip section in my head.) But no, there was no ink-soaked section, but there was a gross ink-covered nib, and a suspiciously ink-encrusted trim ring. The feeling of doom intensified. I looked at the semi-dry ink on the trim ring a little closer, and immediately noticed two things:

1. The stuff looked like iron rust.
2. The stuff smelled like iron rust.

NOOOOOOO!

Amidst a small panic and some swearing, I broke out a baby’s toothbrush and some ammonia. Soon I was gently scrubbing the nib, and blue-grey ink was coming out, but the rusty stuff on the trim ring wasn't moving (see the trim ring here). A half hour later, blue-colored water was still coming out of the nib, and the rust (it was definitely rust) was still there. Meanwhile, the nib unit of the sterling silver pen had cleaned free of its ink (poss. Sailor Red Brown) very easily, so I dried it off and put it away. I was feeling a little bit sick over the nib unit of the stainless steel pen at this point. It was such a nice pen! I scrubbed at it some more, but blue was still leaching everywhere and I could still clearly smell rust, so I ended up soaking the unit overnight.

The next morning I flushed the last of the blue out (finally), and then dried the nib off and sat down and looked at it. The rust around the trim ring was still there, but some of it had stained the tissue I was drying the nib off with, so I kind of rubbed at it a bit more, and surprisingly, more rust appeared on the tissue. I scratched at the rust with my fingernail. It was slightly stubborn, but soon shifted to reveal shiny *stainless* steel underneath. Aha! I suddenly realised what it was – ferrogallic (iron gall) ink!

I examined the trim ring with a 20x loupe, and could see no pitting / damage. Now, I have had flash corrosion damage on a nib unit in the past, but it occurred with R&K’s Scabiosa, which is a strong ferrogallic ink (indeed, the corrosion occurred within two weeks.) The ink which my stainless steel Platinum pen had been inked with was 15+ year-old Platinum Blue-Black, and (to my shame), the pen must have been sitting in the case for well over six months.

Evidently, Platinum’s Blue-Black ink must have once been made from a weak iron gall base; much like LAMY Blue-Black is made today. I say, "been made" instead of "is made", because I have current stocks of Platinum Blue-Black and while the attractive ferrogallic characteristic of the ink colour dramatically fading when drying still does occur, I believe it does so to a lesser extent than the old ink.

While I was lucky, and I learned something new, I’m not in a hurry to have a repeat performance, I think I’ll be extra disciplined about cleaning my pens in future. ;)

PS: I know pictures of the nib would have made this post more interesting, but I had other things on my mind at the time!

Pilot Iroshizuku Autumn Inks

The latest three Iroshizuku inks, Fuyu-Gaki, Tsukushi, and Yama-Guri, plus a couple of comparisons to show which way the ink colour shifts.

Click to enlarge!

Enjoy!

Pilot Iroshizuku Ito-Ya Inks

The other day I received two bottles of Pilot's 'Tokyo Limited Edition' ink. These were made especially for the stationery store to end all other stationery stores, Ito-Ya, Ginza district, Tokyo.

Click to enlarge!

Three inks were produced: Shimbashi-Iro, Edo-Murasaki and Fukagawa-Nezu. Not being a fan of blue, I passed on the Shimbashi-Iro, but the rich red-violet and green-grey tones of the other two were unmissable!

The ink samples I brushed on above are: Yama-Budo, J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune (Moondust), Edo-Murasaki, Fukagawa-Nezu, Fuyu-Syogun and Kiri-Same.

I don't write ink reviews, but keep your eyes on Inkophile, because samples of Edo-Murasaki and Fukagawa-Nezu will be with Margana shortly.

Iroshizuku Inks - Autumn Range

My Iroshizuku inks arrived today! Four beautiful bottles! The colours are gorgeous and bright!

Yay Pilot!

(Also posted on FPN.)

New Pilot Iroshizuku Inks!

New Autumn colors from Pilot in the beautiful Iroshizuku range!


Such juicy and sweet colors!

Find them here.

Sailor "Hougado" Edition Pens

Two very beautiful Sailor Professional Gear Slim pens joined my collection this week: a Hougado Brown and a Hougado Green.
Inked with Sailor-Hougado Deep Rust Black and Deep Moss Black respectively.

Waterproof Inks - Update

A couple of days ago I received my Sailor Kiwagura ink, and so I eagerly loaded it into my Sailor "Manga/Comics" desk pen (which has a fantastic EF steel nib) and tested it. I put samples from all three of my black waterproof inks (Sailor Kiwagura, Pilot Security and Platinum Carbon) down on some Arches 185gsm Watercolour paper and also some cheap office paper, and let the ink dry for 10 minutes. Disappointingly, the Sailor Kiwagura samples released a small puff of black ink upon contact with water, while as usual the Pilot and Platinum inks did not.

Further testing is required... maybe a longer drying time is also needed for the Kiwagura ink. Any update information will be posted here.

03/03/2008 Update:
I sampled the Kiwagura further on my watercolour papers, and have discovered that paper makes a bit of a difference here (which is unusual in my experience with this kind of ink). After allowing the ink to dry for two hours or so, I soaked the paper for twenty minutes, and this time the the Kiwagura was fine, with only a barely-visible swirl of black released by the Kiwagura on the Arches 185gsm Medium. On Fabriano 300gsm and Art Spectrum 210gsm Medium papers no black was released.

Waterproof Inks

I am very pleased to report that the waterproof black inks I recently purchased have given me no trouble at all in my fountain pens! When I use watercolour paints or water-soluble pencils on sketches drawn with these inks, no black ink is released by the water and brush.

Pilot Security Black is marginally darker than Platinum Carbon Black - although this is only apparent when the inks are carefully compared side by side. I'm using Security ink in a regular DPP-100 Pilot Desk Pen, and the Carbon ink in a Platinum Carbon Pen. Sometimes the Pilot won't start on the first stroke, but that's the only thing I've noticed. Neither ink appears to settle or do anything unwanted inside the pen.

Ujuku were out of Sailor Kiwagura stock, so I should get that ink in a couple of weeks, but so far I'm thrilled - these inks have worked out perfectly!

Pilot Iroshizuku Ink

The end of 2007 brought five exciting new inks from Pilot - Iroshizuku Color Drops, a range of blue inks with hues derived from nature:


While blue is not my favorite color preference, the Iroshizuku inks asa-gao, ajisai and tsuki-yo have soft undertones of blue-violet and green-blue, making them quite appealing.

I hope the initial Color Drops range is a sign of things to come from Pilot - imagine a small series of this ink in beautiful reds or greens!

Welcome - 2008

Ah... 2008 is now upon us, whatever shall it bring?

Well, for starters I know 2008 will bring me the following goodies from the Ujuku Shop:

• Platinum Carbon Ink
• Pilot Security Ink
• Sailor Kiwagura Ink

I'm looking forward to using these black waterproof inks on my Art Spectrum "Draw & Wash" pads, which provide a perfect feather-free surface for ink sketching.

I'm hoping the new inks won't pose too much of a flow problem with my favourite sketching pen - a Japanese WELL Eyedropper pen from the 1940's. The WELL has a rather nice flexible shiro nib, making it a much more enjoyable sketching tool when compared to the modern Sailor and Platinum desk pens usually suggested for use with these waterproof inks.

A Quiet Day...

Life in pendom has been quiet of late, but I have a couple of small pen and ink notes to report:

• I've ordered two bottles of the FPN Dumas Tulipe Noire ink, which is a dark red-violet shade possibly resembling a mixture of Noodler's Red Black and PR Burgundy Mist.
• I recently acquired a vintage Sailor 'Egyptian Hieroglyphs' pen, which is a model from the mid 1970's or so. Striking design! It is a rare short-long version of the full-size Hieroglyphs pen. (Picture to come.)

More news next time, I hope!

Ink Capacity

On Friday I had a startling experience - a co-worker approached me, and wanted to know if I could recommend a quality fountain pen with two specific requirements: that it is heavy, and short. I couldn't actually think of any pens to suggest to him (I think I was still in shock from actually discussing fountain pens in my daily life instead of FPN), but I promised I would gather bring some catalogues and recommendations to him on Monday. He also mentioned that price was no object. This makes me wonder if he has any idea of what one could spend on a fountain pen if money were no object...

But I digress...onto the subject of this post - ink capacity!

Ink capacity concerns many people; however, I am not one of them. I actually prefer to use cartridge/converter pens, because with piston-fillers you are stuck with one ink colour for awhile, which is boring. :) Anyway, I decided to find out how much a few of my most commonly used pens differ in regard to ink their capacity:

Brand / Model	Type	Capacity
Parker	Cartridge	~1.3ml
Pelikan M2xx & M4xx	Piston-Filler	~1.5ml
Pilot	Cartridge	~1.1ml
Pilot	Converter (CON20)	~0.8ml
Platinum	Cartridge	~1.1ml
Platinum	Converter	~0.6ml
Sailor	Cartridge	~1.1ml
Sailor	Converter	~0.6ml
Sheaffer	Cartridge	~1.3ml
Other	'Short' Cartridge	~0.8ml

(The above volumes are approximate.)

Looks like I'm on the right track in just refilling my cartridges with a syringe.

May Collection Updates

I've been somewhat slack about posting of late, so let us see what updates we have for May...

INK - I can't believe I didn't post about my new inks. I recently ordered Noodler's Nightshade, Private Reserve Gray Flannel, Rohrer & Klingner Sepia and Rohrer & Klingner Smaragdgrün from The Inked Nib, with wonderful service from Natalie as per usual.

• Noodler's Nightshade: This is a dark red-violet, almost like a mixture of Noodler's Red Black and J. Herbin Moondust. Moderate shading, very well behaved. (Thank you to Gary for getting me interested in this ink. :)


• Private Reserve Gray Flannel: This is a medium gray, quite neutral, with perhaps a hint of a green undertone. Moderate shading, very well behaved, perfect flow.


• R&K Sepia: I recently finished a half-bottle of this ink which I traded for last year, so when I ordered a fresh bottle, I wondered if the colour would differ at all. I was glad to find that it didn't, because this ink is the closest replacement for Parker Penman Mocha that I have found. It's very slightly lighter than Mocha, but the colour is so close... that completely neutral, true brown with no red, orange or yellow undertones. Lovely! Rather strong shading, no feathering, quite free-flowing.


• R&K Smaragdgrün (Viridian Green): Initially, this was an odd colour for me to buy, but my collection was lacking a pure blue-green (not to be confused with green-blue / turquoise). This ink colour has grown on me, and is very reminiscent of Sheaffer Emerald, though the colour is slightly deeper and more intense - a great ink. Moderate shading, very well behaved, perfect flow.

NIBS - I completed a more comprehensive review of my Richard Binder Needlepoint nibs! I uploaded several pages of writing samples on different papers, as well as some close-up shots of those beautiful nibs. Read on... XXXF and XXXXF Round and Italic Points.

PENS - I picked up two more Japanese fountain pens last week, both Platinum brand, and both 1970's Sterling Silver models. The first is a Riviere model with small inlaid red accents on the cap, while the second model is unknown, with red urushi accents on the cap. Both are high-quality pens, and from what I can gather, they were originally sold in the ~15,000 ¥en range.

The Platinums should arrive next week, and I will definitely be photographing them and preparing a write-up. Not much product information for older Platinum models exists out there on the WWW, so unfortunately I will be limited to discussing the design and showing off pretty pictures! :)

Ink!!!

My inks finally arrived from Pendemonium! Nine delicious colours:

- Diamine Umber
- Noodler's Russian Chekhov
- Noodler's Russian Dostoyevsky
- Noodler's Russian Pushkin
- Noodler's Apache Sunset
- Noodler's Golden Brown
- Private Reserve Burgundy Mist
- Rohrer & Klingner Fernambuk
- Rohrer & Klingner Morinda

...plus some Red Platinum cartridges and some silicon grease to use on my Sailor Eyedropper, which has a point-section leak.

Very pleased with all the colours except Diamine Umber and Noodler's Dostoyevsky. Umber was touted as a Pelikan Moss Green alternative, which is so not true. Moss Green was a yummy olive shade, while Umber is just a forest green. Meanwhile, Dostoyevsky looks like a slightly faded Sheaffer Turquoise. Boring.

Rohrer & Klingner Morinda and Private Reserve Burgundy Mist are my favourites from the bunch. :)

Samples and such posted here (FPN).

Pen Ramblings

More of an update today... no new news to share. :)

Firstly, my Nakaya Piccolo. It is incredibly perfect - I love this pen so, so much.

Next, my Aurora Mini Optima. Not long after I bought it, I felt the ink flow was a little too much. The wonderful Pamela B sorted it all out, and in a roundabout way also gave me the opportunity to have an Extra Fine stub nib ground for the pen. I’m really looking forward to getting it. :)

Two cute Pilot 78G's arrived from HisNibs today - a Teal and a Cinnabar with Fine nibs. Being Japanese this means they are more like extra-fine nibs, and so far the dip-test has indicated these pens are winners! Lovely service from Norman, as usual. :)

Perhaps it's just the combination of the EF nibs and dry-writing pens that I use, but my FPN Special-Edition ink isn't really so brown at all. In fact, it's a middle-of-the-road dirty red-orange. I can see with a wet writer that the colour would deepen, but really, there's a heck of a lot of red in there.

Inky Fingers

Yesterday my FPN ink arrived. :)

I was a bit surprised by the packing method (newspaper in a cardboard box), and as I lifted the third bottle out of the box I saw a suspicious red smudge on the bottom of the box. The bottle had cracked, and was slowly leaching its contents all over the place. I couldn't find an empty ink bottle for the life of me, so I poured the whole thing into a zip lock bag. Probably not the best solution, but oh well.

Since two of the bottles were for friends, I don't actually have a bottle of FPN ink now - I do have a bag of ink (which looks freakishly like a bag of blood), and I have a bottle with ink stains all over its beautiful label. I don't know what to think of the ink, it very much reminds me of timber stain and has an odd opaqueness to it. I think it's all good though. I put it in my Pilot MYU. It writes very well and the colour is also really nice - very much a rusted red-brown.

I have enquired about the broken bottle, but don't really expect to hear anything. Sigh. Guess I had to run out of good fountain pen luck eventually.

Noodler's Russian Eternal Inks

There are some quite exciting new Noodler's inks on the Pendemonium website of late, especially the Russian Eternal collection colours, of which I have already ordered four. Currently my Pendemonium order looks like this:

- Diamine Umber
- PR Burgundy Mist
- R&K Morinda
- R&K Fernambuk
- Noodler's Russian Pushkin
- Noodler's Russian Dostoevsky
- Noodler's Russian Tolstoy
- Noodler's Russian Rachmaninov

Maybe I will also get Akhmatova if I find out a little more about the colour.

I am really looking forward to these inks, especially Pushkin! :)

An Esterbrook and a FOURTH Omas

In pen news, I received my lovely Esterbrook Copper SJ in the mail today, plus a wonderful little assortment of nibs as a gift! Some people in the fountain pen community are incredibly kind. :) I also ordered two bottles of the FPN special edition ink, "FPN Galileo Manuscript Brown". I don't have a true brown in my ink collection, so I'm really looking forward to getting a nice 'bulletproof' brown. :)

In other pen news, I bought *another* Omas 'Princess' from the Celluloid Collection. This time it was the Scarlet Red colour.

That makes four Omas Celluloids.

In two months.

I think I must join Pen Collectors Anonymous.