Sailor Jentle Four Seasons Rikyu-Cha. This is a green-brown ink that has nice shading and tremendous sheen.
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Category: Ink
Fountain Pen Favorites for September 2016
This was a great month for fountain pens and ink for me.
1. Kaweco Traveller Case. This little case worked its way into my heart, moving from curiosity to essential. Some prefer large cases, but not me. Sized for Kaweco pens, the Traveller fits small and standard-size fountain pens. It carries six of those, plus extras, but easily slips into purse or briefcase. That meant I started carrying multiple fountains for the first time. The price is a splurge, but the quality seems high.
2. Platinum Classic Maki-e. I fell for this, too. To keep the cost down, the maki-e on this pen starts with screen-printing, but it didn’t look or feel like a compromise to me or anyone else who tried it. It’s an attractive pen with a great nib at a great price. And it’s a maki-e pen that you don’t need to fuss over.
3. Pelikan Hub. That was lots of fun, meeting other Pelikan fans and trying other fountain pens and inks. Kudos to Pelikan for bringing people together. And thanks for the Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine. If you get a chance to go next year, I recommend it.
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Photo by Dafne Cholet, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.
Ink Review: Noodler’s Pacific Dawn at the Golden Gate
Noodler’s Pacific Dawn at the Golden Gate. This ink has a long name, a great label and an interesting and complex blue color. Also an interesting story: Noodler’s made Pacific Dawn at the Golden Gate for Straits Pen of Singapore to introduce at the 2016 San Francisco Pen Show.
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And the Platinum Classic Maki-e Goes to …
The random winner of the Platinum Classic Maki-e from Pen Chalet is Gareth19. Congratulations to you, Gareth19, and I know you’ll enjoy this beautiful pen. Please use the Contact menu at the top of the page to send me your full name and address, so I can send you your new pen.
If the pen isn’t claimed by next Monday, I’ll do a new drawing next Tuesday and post that person’s name on the blog instead. Because if this thing stays with me much longer, there’s an excellent chance you’ll next see me hiding with it underground and cooing “my precious.”
But wait, because there’s more to give away. Ron at Pen Chalet and I were so blown away by the rhymes laid down by our commentators, that Pen Chalet is also going to give away two Flash Poetry Prizes. Each Flash Poetry Prize will be a new bottle of J. Herbin 1670 ink of the winner’s choice. I heartily recommend the new Caroube de Chypre, or Emerald of Chivor if you want a bolder color.
With the Flash Poetry prizes, there were so many great choices we just chose 11 of the most outstanding, then had a random number generator pick the two ultimate winners. And those are: Jorge Gomez and Robert Holland.
So Jorge and Robert, please use the Contact menu up there at the top of the page, to give me your names, addresses and choice of ink.
Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to all the entrants. Those rhymes for Pen Chalet really did slay.
Pelikan Hub 2016: Chicago
I went to my first Pelikan Hub on Friday night. Fun.
We had a small group of six; Friday night at 6:30 in the city is a hard time, and some people had to cancel. But for those who were there, it was awesome. The nicest host ever. Key lime pie. And many Pelikans passed around. Fountain pen people are usually congenial, but these other attendees were all amazing. I’m afraid I had so much fun I didn’t take very many photos.
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Kaweco Cartridges: Simply the Best?
I got that really cute pen, the Kaweco Skyline Sport in Metallic Violet in early February, and I immediately popped in a Kaweco Summer Purple ink cartridge. It’s seven months later — seven months of intermittent neglect — and that same ink cartridge is still in there. Still going.
Kaweco Summer Purple is an attractive purple ink. And I really intended to do a post about it. But life got busy. I forgot the pen was still inked.
Months went by. Then I’d find it and use it briefly. Then weeks would go by. But every single time I guiltily rediscovered this pen, all I had to do was pick it up and turn it over, for the ink to immediately start flowing. And by flowing, I mean flowing perfectly, without hesitation, skipping or blobbing.
Some of my pen-ink combinations have balked if left for just a few days unused. So this is meritorious service. Shout-out to Kaweco.
I’ve mentioned that Kaweco inks are nicely lubricated. And that Kaweco cartridges contain a little plastic ball for better ink flow.
Clearly, it all works. What a well-made pen, what a great ink cartridge, what a great ink brand.
And Summer Purple ink is a nice color, too.
Comparing Sailor Souten with Sailor Sky High
I plan to do a more in-depth look at Sailor Souten, but we were talking yesterday about how it compares to Sailor Jentle Sky High, and here’s a quick look at just that.
Sky High is my favorite Sailor ink, and one of my all-around favorite blue inks. It’s just a nice, cheery blue, with great shading, and uncomplicated behavior. It even has nice red sheen for sheen fans.
But when Sailor discontinued Sky High, that was fine with me. I had a bottle, and I have a lot of blue inks. If I ever used up my Sky High, I’d be left with only 943 other blue inks. Not a tragedy.
But Sailor did bring out Sailor Jentle Four Seasons Souten, and I was given a sample, and eventually bought a bottle. I’ve been using both together for the past few weeks, to evaluate Souten and compare the two.
I don’t think they are identical. I think Souten may be very slightly darker than Sky High. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but I am certain that any differences are slight. (I’ve also done paper towel chromatography.) To me, Souten is essentially the same as Sky High.
Here’s a writing sample. Souten is the first ink and Sky High the second in each pair
I’ve mostly been writing with both inks in Lamy Safaris with broad nibs. Those are dry pens. Here’s a closeup.
I also tried the two inks in Edison pens with identical 14k medium nibs. Those are wet writers.
Sky High still looks just a bit lighter to me, after using them for weeks in the same pens on many different papers. But the two inks share the same hue, the same degree of shading and sheen and the same excellent behavior.
I was happy to buy a bottle of Souten. Sky High is a favorite, and I’m pretty sure I won’t even notice the difference.
Comparing Parker Penman Sapphire and Bung Box (First Love) Sapphire
When I got my new bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire (not actually new, but new-to-me), I hemmed and hawed about what pen I should use.
Part of me wanted to put it in a gorgeous Azure Blue Parker Vacumatic, because PPS is a gorgeous blue Parker ink. Another part of me thought, this is a job for my Pelikan M205 blue demonstrator: PPS is an ink that should be appreciated in a demonstrator. While all the votes on Instagram were for the Vac.
But I ended up choosing the beautiful new Kaweco AL-Sport Light Blue with extra-fine nib instead. I’ve got that pen for review, and it deserves a special ink.
After a few days of using PPS in the Light Blue AL-Sport, a light bulb went on: I also have Kaweco AL-Sport in raw aluminum with an extra-fine nib. The same pen, the same nib. So I grabbed the second AL-Sport and filled that with what remains of my sample of Bung Box First Love Sapphire, which is often compared to PPS.
You can see the results at the top, and I’ll put some closeup photos on the next page.
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Blast from the Past: Parker Penman Sapphire
A very nice friend found a partially full bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire for me, and it arrived on Friday.
I don’t chase vintage inks, so this will be my first and last bottle of this one, but it’s great to have more to use. PPS is a great blue color, very deep, with nice shading. This ink is saturated, is not easy to clean, and it has red sheen out the wazoo. I like less saturated inks; I like easy-to-clean inks; and I’m neutral on sheen. And I still adore PPS. It is special.
I put it in a Kaweco AL-Sport with extra-fine nib this time.
Date, Marry, Kill: My Least Eligible Ink Bottles
Ink bottles were on my mind last month. Two bottles came into my possession that were extra attractive: a Graf von Faber-Castell and a J. Herbin 1670. At the same time I got three new Sailor inks, reminding me that Sailor bottles could make a saint curse. I needed no reminding that I am not a saint.
I’ve never been one to prioritize the aesthetics of an ink bottle. For me the main point is the ink inside. However, I try to use up my inks, so I do care how useful and practical a bottle is.
So, I’m going to play “date, marry or kill” with a few ink bottles. The first is a bottle everyone hates, except me. The next two are bottles everyone loves, but I am on the fence about. The last is a bottle that I loathe.
Join me, then, as I play ink bottle bachelorette. But it’s just for fun. No ink bottle design seems to stop me from buying the ink. It just lets me perfect my cursing.
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Fountain Pen Follies 