Tuesday, June 27, 2017

P.W. Akkerman Shocking Blue - Sheen for Days!

This ink just does not get enough press, in my opinion, especially with all the sheen talk concerning the Robert Oster inks of late. Yes, Fire & Ice is nice as is River of Fire and Blue Water Ice but P.W. Akkerman #5 Shocking Blue out sheens them all.



Shocking Blue is quite saturated and is a lovely shade of blue. It flows wonderfully and the sheen is absolutely stunning. With all of the press and excitement that this community had towards the sheen properties of Fire & Ice, I had to post about this overlooked gem of an ink.  I mean look at this on Leuchtturm paper:



And Tomoe River paper:





I recently tried this Dutch company’s ink and wow, I have jumped in with both feet here. The bottles are so very clever in design and yet are completely functional.

If you want a great blue color with sheen then look no further. P.W. Akkerman #5 Shocking Blue sheens like a mofo!!

This post is based off of my opinion and experience. I do not represent P.W. Akkerman at all nor am I being compensated in any way.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

P.W. Akkerman Dutch Masters Series

As many of you saw, I recently tried some P.W. Akkerman inks for the first time and that really opened the floodgates. I now own a few bottles and have tried this limited Dutch Masters series of inks. I am very taken by the colors I have tried which is 5 out of 12 and I could easily use nothing but these colors. I like how Akkerman took some Dutch heritage with famous painters and used that as inspiration for each color. Let's take a look.

Israels Zeeblauw (Sea Blue)

This color is based off of the work by Johannes Israels entitled "Children of the Sea" from 1872.  It is an oil painting and I believe you can see where the color comes from here.


It is a very saturated ink with nice flow and some decent shading.


Honestly, this may be my next purchase as this came from a sample vial. I am not normally a fan of teal-like blues but this one is tugging at my wallet.

Steenrood van Vermeer (Red Stone)

This color is based off of the work of Johannes Vermeer entitled "The Little Street" dated 1657-8. Johannes is most noted, in my opinion, for the iconic painting of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring."


Steenrood is a rich red color that is also rich in saturation with good flow.


I have a few red inks but there is something to this one that may cause me to get rid of all of my other reds. It reminds of Noodler's Black Swan in English Roses but with saturation. Beautiful color.

Hals Oud Bruin (Old Brown Neck)

This is based off of the work of Frans Hals entitled "The Merry Drinker" dated 1628-30. A portrait of a man enjoying a tasty beverage.


Now this color is quite intriguing. It is very saturated with exceptional shading and flow. It is a golden brown color that really mimics this fellas skin tone.



What I also find interesting is the name of this ink color. It is named after a style of beer known as Oud Bruin (Old Brown). This referred to the long aging process of this particular beer which could be up to a year. I really fell in love with this color and bought a bottle. I am still surprised as I generally do not care for light browns, but here I am writing non-stop with it.

Van Huysum Sapgroen (Sap Green)

This is based off of the work of Jan van Huysum entitled "Still Life with Flowers and Fruit". I was not able to get a date here on this as this painter was fond of painting flowers and fruit in a still life format.


Now this ink is saturated and also shades like crazy but wow, it is bright.



This green is truly a sap green but you really need to like a bright, defined green to use it. I love green and it is my favorite color but this is too much for me. As far as the color goes for the inspiration to the painting, it is spot on. A very vivid color.

Ruisdaels Stormachtig Blauw (Stormy Blue)

This is based off of the work of Jacob van Ruisdael entitled "The Windmill at Wijk Bij Duurstede" dated 1670.


This is by far my favorite thus far. It is a deep blue black color but has large amounts of purple which means it has a fair amount of red inside.



At times this would come out of the pen as a blue black and others as blue purple but they both dried the same color which I found to be fascinating. It does a wonderful job of representing the sky of an impending storm and Akkerman really hit the mark with this color. Very fascinating and saturated ink. I have a bottle of this one.

These Dutch Master inks from P.W. Akkerman are stunning and I may need to explore the other 7 colors. The bottles are a whopping 120mL and still have the iconic and legendary bottle design that is also fun to use. Try some.


This is based off of my experiences and opinions and I do not represent P.W. Akkerman at all nor am I being compensated in any way.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Lamy Petrol - I Have Seen You Before

Lamy Petrol is the hot ink topic in the pen community as of late and every time I saw a swab of it online, it looked so familiar. At our last pen group meetup, I had an opportunity to obtain a sample of Lamy Petrol from a friend and then it hit me on where I had seen this ink before. It is a dead ringer for Noodler’s Ink Air-Corp Blue Black.



It is amazing how closely related these two inks are here. Both inks are a very dark teal, sometimes to the point of looking near black. The only difference I can see if the Lamy Petrol tends to sheen more than the Noodler’s Air-Corp but only if you decide to glob it on.








Lamy Petrol is having issues with meeting demand, for whatever reason, so if you are wanting to get a bottle of this ink, the Noodler's Air-Corp Blue Black ink is available from your favorite retailer, I would bet.

This is based off of my experience and opinion. I do not represent Noodlers or Lamy nor am I being compensated in any way


Saturday, June 10, 2017

Inkjournal InkFlight #5

Oh man, I have been wanting to try this ink brand for quite some time and now I get to thanks to this months Inkflight. Can you tell I am a bit excited? Here is what awaited me in this month's box.


Akkerman inks! This Dutch company has the best ink bottles but I didn't want to buy one blindly without seeing what the ink was like. I was not at all disappointed.




These are some rather lovely flowing inks with some high saturation, much like the Robert Oster inks tend to be. The inks were sampled on Mnemosyne paper and I must say, Shocking Blue and Simplistes Violet both sheened on this paper. I cannot even get Fire and Ice to do that without copious amounts of ink.



See the sheen? Very nice, indeed.

Along with the inks were a few other surprises. A nib holder and 3 Brause flex dip nibs.


I do have an interest in Calligraphy and working on my flex writing, I sure need it too. This was a really unexpected addition but I really like it. I have heard great things about Brause nibs and I look forward to trying them out. I will admit, I haven't yet as I have been having way too much fun sampling and playing with the inks. I will be buying some bottles now and more ink isn't what I need but oh well.

Overall another successful InkFlight box. I still find the $25 price tag to be totally worth it. Try one out.

This review is based off of my opinion and experience. I do not represent InkJournal nor am I being compensated in any way.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Smooth Operator Battle - Who Wins?

I realize I am treading on dangerous ground here as people have very strong opinions on certain pens. This is based on my findings and preferences since smoothness is completely subjective.



I looked at my smoothest writing pens in my collection and originally had 6 pens picked out but then I decided to limit this to gold nibs across the board so my Twsbi pens are out. Perhaps I should also do a smoothness comparison amongst my steel nib pens.

Let the battle begin!






Let’s start with the Platinum 3776 with a 14kt gold nib. Japanese nibs are generally finer in their grinds so this is a broad Japanese nib which is close to a German medium. It is a lovely writer and a gorgeous pen with a classic shape. There is noticeable feedback on this nib both audibly and physically which puts it down on the list. It isn’t unpleasant but since this is the smoothness battle, it must tap out.




On to the Pilot Vanishing Point here with an 18kt gold medium nib. I have a few Pilot pens but the VP seems to perform above the other Pilot’s I have. It is smooth and writes very well every time I call upon it. It is a very smooth writer with some feedback but when compared to the 3 pens below here, it just cannot compete.




The Visconti Homosapiens Steel Age has a 23kt nib in Palladium and this particular nib is a medium. This nib is super smooth with the most minimal of feedback but is quite an ink cannon. This nib deposits a generous flow of ink to the page which is great but how much of the smoothness is the nib and how much is attributed to the ink flow? I am not complaining about this pen as I love it but I feel the ink flow helps too much. Yes, super smooth writing here but due to my criteria, I am pushing it to third.




Which leads to the battle of German pens apparently.
The Pelikan SouverÓ“n M800 is an absolute delight to write with. It has some audible feedback but is super smooth when writing with the medium 18kt nib here. Ink flow is adequate and not anywhere close to gushing.



The Lamy 2000 has a 18kt medium nib and is super stealthy and smooth.  Much like the Pelikan, it has trace amounts of audible feedback but is butter smooth when writing. Ink flow here is also adequate and nowhere close to gushing.


This is super tough. I will have to give the edge to the Pelikan but the margin is very slim compared to the Lamy 2000. Price can be a deciding factor if you are looking at these two pens but the Pelikan gets my winning nod. 


This is solely based off of my opinion and experience. I do not represent any company featured here nor am I being compensated in any way.