Comparison of grey fountain pen inks

If you've read my blog for a while, you know I keep an ink journal to keep track of all my fountain pen inks. I update it every time I refill or clean a pen, so it's a great record of maintenance, and of course it helps me remember which ink is in which pen! But I also play around in it from time to time, and ink comparisons are always great fun. I had a yen a while back to compare my grey inks - or at least, the grey and blue-grey inks I had loaded in pens at the time.

What you see above is a scan of that comparison.



I also took a photo of the page, in natural light (indirect sunlight), and to my eyes, this one (the photo above) is a far more accurate portrayal of the colors. But some people prefer scans to photos, so in the interest of a full range, I used both imaging options.

I hadn't realized, until I put them all together like this, how very greenish the Noodler's Lexington Gray is.

The inks and pens listed above:
Diamine Grey / Esterbrook 9550 (EF)
Noodler's Lexington Gray / Guanleming 706 EF
Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun / Platinum Preppy M
Diamine Prussian Blue / Esterbrook 9788 (M)
Diamine Registrar's Ink / Lantu Bazic Eclipse M

The Registrar's Ink and the Lexington Gray are both waterproof, so they show up on postcards with some regularity. The others are for the innards of a letter or a journal.

Do I have a favorite? I guess I'd have to flag the Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun and the Registrar's Ink as current top picks, both for the color and behavior.

For those who are as geeky as I am about this sort of thing, these comparisons are in a Clairefontaine Basics clothbound journal, just like this one I blogged about over a year ago, except the current incarnation has a black cover. I'm pretty happy with using this journal as an ink journal, but when I finish this one, perhaps I'll branch out. Who knows.

A peek at my Clairefontaine ink journal

I've mentioned my ink journal and shown samples from the pages so many times, I guess I should show you the outside! Here's the front of my pretty simple but perfectly useful Clairefontaine ink journal. It is the smaller Clairefontaine Basics clothbound journal, and...



...hopefully this tag tells you everything you need to know.

A whole lotta reds, burgundies, and some imposters

Remember that post about my ink samples from Pear Tree Pens? Well, here are toothpick samples of many of them. In the aforementioned post, I mentioned my quest for the perfect burgundy. Let me tell you, none of the above samples are it! I will reiterate my distaste for pinkish burgundies, and most of these seem to be that. Diamine Claret? Come ON, people, that is just HOT PINK! The caveat is that these inks DO look different in pens, I have put some of them in pens and discovered that I still don't like them. The Mandalay Maroon and Diamine Maroon are both chalky, and just not the color I wanted. The Visconti Burgundy is quite nice, actually, but to me it is more of a red. Some of my own dark reds are closer to burgundy than the Visconti Burgundy. As for the Herbin samples, I've never met a Herbin red I liked. Those won't even see the inside of one of my pens. (Golly, maybe I should do a giveaway of all these wee ink samples I don't like!)



This photo, for comparison's sake, shows the dark red/burgundy inks I DO like. Many of these are in bottles, a few are samples. You have already seen examples on this blog of how different some of these inks look in a pen (see "a few red inks"). I don't really consider Monaco Red or Tiananmen to be burgundy or maroon, but they're great dark reds. PR Burgundy Mist is a GREAT color, but it dries really slowly (as nearly all the PR inks do), and that color is infamous for turning to brown after the bottle has been open for a while. R&K Alt Bordeaux is one of those purplish burgundy inks I actually DO like; can't really say why, it's just a color I really dig. I have that in one eyedropper pen that needs a refill right now, hmm.... Interestingly, Caran d'Ache Storm actually looks much darker in a pen - I don't care for this toothpick sample, but in a pen it's lovely. I only have a sample of that, but someday I may buy it in a bottle...

For search purposes, inks shown in this post are:
Diamine Amaranth
Diamine Maroon
Noodler's V-Mail Mandalay Maroon
Visconti Burgundy
J. Herbin Rouge Caroubier
J. Herbin Rouge Bourgogne
Diamine Claret
PR Black Cherry
PR Burgundy Mist
Caran d'Ache Storm
Noodler's Red-Black
Noodler's Swishmix Burgundy
Noodler's Tiananmen
Noodler's Widowmaker
Diamine Monaco Red
Rohrer & Klingner Alt Bordeaux

A random assortment of ink

Just one quick ink journal photo this time: Noodler's Sequoia, Noodler's V-Mail North African Violet, Diamine Violet and J. Herbin Vert Reseda.

The assortment is random, it's just a few I wanted to check out at that moment.

Maybe you'll be able to view a larger size if you have a Flickr account.

So far Diamine Violet is the winner - looks smashing in a pen (more views of that later), shades well, behaves well, and has the charming effect of changing color as it dries. It goes down much more pink/magenta, and you can just watch it dry more blue. I really dig that.

Noodler's Sequoia is too... meh... for me. If I want a green, it needs to be more green than this. Also, it dries a bit slowly.

Noodler's V-Mail North African Violet is a lovely bright purple color, but it also dries a bit slowly for me.

The J. Herbin Vert Reseda was a gift. It is far too light for my taste. I put it in a pen once and could barely read it.

Noodler's V-Mail GI Green

This Noodler's V-Mail series GI Green ink generated a lot of hubub because of the "orange halo" that appears around thicker lines of the ink. It is clearly visible in these photos, especially on the wetter dip nibs used. However, Noodler's has since reformulated this ink to make it darker. The samples shown here are definitely the original version. You can view this large if you have a Flickr account of your own.



More views of the sane ink, from different dip nibs. You can also take a closer look at this one, with said Flickr account. I do have this ink loaded in a pen now, but the pen (a Platinum Riviere - thanks, Carroll!) is rather on the dry-writing side, and I've never been able to get the orange tones from the ink in that pen.

A few red inks

Here are some of my dark red inks, shown in pens and not in toothpick samples. We have Noodler's Tiananmen, Diamine Monaco Red, Noodler's Red-Black, and Noodler's Swishmix Burgundy. This is probably a fairly accurate representation of the colors, though most of the nibs were very much on the fine side. As for the Noodler's Swishmix Burgundy at the bottom, I have to admit I do not much care for it. I find it chalky, and that really bugs me in an ink in ways I can't even explain. If you have a Flickr account, you might like to see a larger version of this photo, where you can see the subtleties of the inks.



Next we have a cropped version of the top three inks, which I do like. This was not a conscientious red ink comparison, I just happened to refill a bunch of dark reds at once.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Noodler's Red-Black, which is usually too brown-looking for me. On some papers, usually coated postcards, you can really see the red undertones of the ink, but on most papers it ends up looking sorta brown like this. The upside is that it's partly waterproof - the black component is waterproof, so the red may wash away but the black will stay.

The Tiananmen and the Diamine Monaco Red have very special places in my heart. It doesn't hurt that the Monaco Red is in one of my very favorite pens - a red Esterbrook LJ with a semi-flexible 9048 nib. It's a joy to use, and the shading (color/saturation variation) in the Monaco Red is lovely.

Are you getting sick of the ink stuff? I am, a little bit. I have more ink photos in the queue, but I believe for my next post I'll jump ahead in said photo queue and post about a letter.

Diamine ink comparison, in pens

To follow up on that post I did a few days ago on the Diamine inks, here I have photos of them loaded in pens, with the two similar colors next to each other.



The Steel Blue definitely looks darker, deeper, and with more jewel-green undertones. Of the purples, all the scribbles are with Imperial Purple. I did not note the pens for those, either, mea culpa: the Imperial Purple is in a Lamy Vista F, and the Majestic Purple is in an Esterbrook SJ with a 2550 nib.



Yep, they're similar colors! I do like the Majestic Purple, but whenever I see it next to the Imperial Purple, I like the Imperial Purple a lot more.



Yes, I do a little bit of levels/color correction in my photos; just for comparison, the above photo is unedited/corrected for light and shading.

Three Pilot Iroshizuku Inks

Like I said, we'll be on this fountain pen ink theme for a few posts straight, folks. Bear with me.

Here are three inks from the Pilot Iroshizuku series. It's a Japanese ink that is rather expensive... some folks think it's overpriced but I've found it's pretty darn fabulous. These are probably my three favorite inks right now. If you've heard me talk ink, you know I really love the fine lines between blue and green: the blue-greens, the green-blues, etc... and I love me a good, rich, dark green. So I am completely thrilled with these three.



As with other ink photos, I've taken these in natural light from a variety of angles. Photographs do not do this ink justice - it has so much richness and depth, beautiful shading, and it really does look that gorgeous in a pen. I hope to have writing samples from a pen up here someday, but these are toothpick lines just like yesterday's post.



These inks are starting to become more widely available in the U.S. (I can't speak for other countries, sorry, except that they come from Japan) but I bought mine from JetPens, one of the first retailers to bring them all over here. I know I've talked about JetPens before - fabulous customer service and incredible shipping rates - free with a purchase of $25 or more in the USA. Wow. Anyway, the colors I have here are as follows:

Ku-Jaku / Peacock (Deep Turquoise)
Syo-Ro / Pine Tree Dew (Dark Turquoise
Shin-Ryoku / Deep Forest Green (Deep Green)

I linked to the product pages because the bottles are so darn pretty, too. Even the boxes are gorgeous.

Most importantly, this is the best-behaved ink I have ever used. Ever. It flows perfectly, and it dries instantly. I have yet to smudge it, even from a wider nib on slick paper like Clairefontaine. Hooray! I love this ink and definitely think it's worth the heftier price tag. I still covet a couple of the other colors, particularly Tsuki-Yo (Night Sky), but those may have to wait a bit...

Five Diamine inks

Here we have a very unscientific comparison of 5 fountain pen inks by Diamine: Majestic Purple, Imperial Purple, Delamere Green, Marine, and Steel Blue. They are done with toothpicks in the ink, except that the bottom example of Steel Blue also has a writing sample with the ink in a pen.



These samples are in my Clairefontaine ink journal, and they were taken with no flash in natural sunlight. I turned the journal three different directions on the table, so you'll see a slightly different angle for the lighting. Some people don't care, but I do - I like to see the subtleties, especially when I'm trying to make judgments on a computer screen.



Diamine is an English maker of fine fountain pen inks, and I recently purchased a whole passel of smaller 30ml bottles directly from them. Shipping from the UK wasn't all that bad, all things considered, and I like trying out the colors in the smaller bottles. I knew that I'd be getting some similar colors, and I am pretty fascinated by the results of how similar Imperial and Majestic Purple are, as well as Steel Blue and Marine.

The Delamere Green is sort of the odd duck - it's not similar to any inks on the page, but it is a gorgeous dark green with a deep hint of blue.

Warning: I'm about to get geeky about ink, so if you're a general letter-writer reader, you might not dig into this next bit. (Maybe I've lost you already.)

I am really in love with Diamine inks these days. The color variety is beautiful, the saturation is excellent, the shading is almost always pronounced and fabulous, and the behavior is near-perfect: good flow and VERY fast dry time. I've bemoaned the fact before that I am right-handed, but I write like a lefty: I'm an "overwriter" which means that I curl my hand around, and my hand sits on top of the lines I've written above. For a slow-drying ink, this means almost certain smudging unless I place a very careful blotter on top of the paper. With Diamine inks, this is almost never necessary.

In a separate post I will show off Diamine Violet, which I only got as a sample - that is the one bottle I am certain I will buy in a larger size. As for the purples, I have a slight preference for Imperial because it is more blue, and Majestic is more on the pink/magenta end.

I shall almost certainly acquire a larger bottle of Delamere Green.

Marine or Steel Blue? They are just too similar to buy both, but I'm undecided. They behave differently in pens, of course, and I'm just going to have to try them both out in different pens. So far I tend to lean towards Marine, because Steel Blue is so similar to another color I love: Private Reserve Blue Suede.

So many inks, so little time...

2 V-mail inks in pens, plus my new fountain pen!

Here are those photos of my two V-mail inks in pens. For those of you who are reading this who AREN'T pen geeks, these are the fruits of my Sunday excursion to the New England Pen Show in Boston, my first-ever pen show. It was ever so much fun. If you're not a pen-and-ink geek, then this post may not mean a whole lot to you. More letter stuff coming later, I promise - but I gotta share the pen-and-ink goodness with my fellow fountain pen nut readers.

I learned recently from the The Fountain Pen Network (FPN) forums that Boston Brahmin Black is indeed part of the V-Mail series. (For more background, see my Noodler's inks from the New England Pen Show post.) So the two inks shown at the top of the page, Midway Blue and Boston Brahmin Black, are both in that series. Oh, and you gotta view this one large to appreciate it.

Both the Midway Blue and Boston Brahmin Black are shown in Autopoint Big Cat pens, which I got as part of Richard Binder's nib-smoothing kit. I haven't even played with the smoothing kit itself yet, because these German "student pens" are already pretty nice and smooth.

Have I mentioned I am in love with Midway Blue? I am in love with Midway Blue. Excellent shading. Great, bright color. Dries really quickly. Hooray!

But I must also show you my new baby. I splurged (a calculated splurge, as I'd been considering this for month) on a Pelikan M200 with a custom Binder-ized nib (for those who aren't pen geeks yet have read this far, Richard Binder is a famous "nibmeister," or master of fountain pen nibs, known for his fine work and specialty nibs) of the XXXF Needlepoint variety. I tested one at his table and knew it was for me. This puppy is SUPERFINE, baby! For those of you that get letters from me, you already know of my penchant for reeeeeeallly fine nibs (and fine = thin, the opposite of a broad nib). I've never written with anything this fine before. You can see it in the photo at top with the Noodler's Squeteague. I am in love with my new pen.

Here's a bit of pen porn, a close-up of that needlepoint nib:



Oohhhh yeah. You can view this one large if you want to, too. Mmmmm.

Coming soon, back to letter-writing goodness - I'll have another really long, photo-filled post featuring the work of one of my intrepid correspondents, who did a photo documentary of every step of the wax seal process.

Happy writing! Go write a letter!

Noodler's inks from the New England Pen Show

As promised to many friends on The Fountain Pen Network (FPN), here are photos of all the Noodler's inks I tried out at the New England Pen Show in Boston this past Sunday. Inks were all tested in the provided Platinum Preppy brush pens, already filled with the inks. All are, of course, Noodler's inks.



PART 1 (View large for close-up)
Emperor's Purple (Kung te-cheng)
Purple
La Reine Mauve
Periwinkle
Concord Bream
Borealis Black
Mandalay Maroon (V-Mail series)



PART 2 (View large for close-up)
Baystate Blue
Dark Matter
Beaver
Midway Blue
North African Violet (V-Mail series)
Luxury Blue



PART 3 (View large for close-up)
All of these are from the V-Mail series:
GI Green
Midway Blue
Operation Overland Orange
Rabaoul Red
Midway Blue (I tested this one a lot, and ended up buying it. More photos of this ink in a pen coming shortly.)

Check out the cool orange tint on the edges of GI Green! That color is way too light for me, but the green-to-orange effect is pretty groovy. If you like it as much as I do, check out this ink review on the Fountain Pen Network. It REALLY shows off this ink.

The whole New England Pen show was a blast, but the Noodler's table was among the most giddy kind of fun. I really appreciate the savvy FPN members who gave me the excellent advice of bringing my own ink journal and getting samples of as many Noodler's inks as I could in there. I didn't try a lot of colors just because I'm not inclined to like them. I did try to get all the V-Mail series, just for fun, even though I'm not likely to buy an orange ink.

For my blog readers who are only into the letter part and this fountain pen and ink talk is making your eyes glaze over, sorry about that. But I gotta geek out here, because fountain pens and fountain pen inks are among my favorite parts of letter-writing.

Before I close, a little more on this special brand-new V-mail series of ink.

I spoke with Nathan Tardif, the maker of Noodler's ink, about these brand-new inks. First he was talking with someone else about them, so I listened in. Then I joked, "have you tested V-mail ink on a V-mail?" And he then said no, the inks were only 48 hours old, and showed me his printed sheet of info.

Apparently the V-mail series are prototypes, produced as a test batch for the NE Pen Show. He may start making more based on how folks react to these.

I believe he called them "vintage-style" inks, and said they are made from the same reverse-engineered dyes that he obtained for Boston Brahmin Black (the NE Pen show limited edition ink, that folks who attended the show got for free. I posted photos of the snazzy bottle in my blog post yesterday). He explained something I don't quite understand, having to do with mimicking vintage inks made by a pen company in the midwest (ummm.... Iowa? Ohio? I can't remember and I'm sure someone will dress me down because it's obvious who they're mimicking but I have no idea) that he can't name by name because they still exist.

ANYWAY. These new inks are "water-resistant," Nathan says, although they smeared when I smudged with saliva (my non-scientific test).

I bought Midway Blue, which is a very bright, very saturated light blue - a color almost like turquoise, that I never would have thought I'd like, except I saw it in person and loved it. Like I said, more photos of this ink actually in a pen (where, in my humble opinion, it looks much better than in a brush/highlighter pen) coming soon.

Other colors were GI Green (looked surprisingly light and minty to me), Operation Overland Orange, Rabaoul Red, Mandalay Maroon, North African Violet. There was a brown I didn't even try so I didn't write down the name.

The fact that a brand-new series of Noodler's ink would be making its debut at the NE Pen show was a total surprise!