Inkjournal Ink Flight #3

I am really enjoying this Ink Flight concept and I thank Inkjournal for coming up with the idea and making it happen. It is not a subscription service and there are only a set number of these at the start of every month. Let's take a peek at what came in the third installment.

 

As with all of the Ink Flight boxes, there are 6 samples of ink which are a surprise until you open the box. There is an option where you can receive 7 samples and a special item and for $25, I cannot refuse.

 Month 1 was a set of Noodler Inks, month 2 was Robert Oster and this month is KWZ of Poland. I already love the inks made by KWZ, most notably the infamous Honey color but I have several other colors from KWZ. This set I only had 1 of the 7 inks so I am quite excited.

The inks this month are:

• KWZ Honey
• KWZ Old Gold
• KWZ Azure #3
• KWZ Menthol Green
• KWZ Brown Pink 
• KWZ Gummiberry (Iron Gall)
• KWZ Turquoise (Iron Gall) 

 

  For those of you who may not be familiar with what Iron Gall means, I wrote an earlier post all about it called  The Gall of that Ink.

I really enjoyed all of these colors and Brown Pink may be my favorite of the new colors as I already had Honey.

  Along with the ink came an Inkjournal sticker, which is whimsical and fun.

The big surprise was what I saw next. An A5 Clairefontaine My Essential Notebook. Clairefontaine makes wonderful paper and notebooks and with a paper weight of 90g/m2, excellent for fountain pen use.

What was also fun with this is the little paper with the woeful tale of Phillip and how he just cannot finish a journal. There is a link we can use to download a PDF with great ideas to fill your Clairefontaine journal with so you do not end up like Phillip. I loved that. 

Once again a wonderful Ink Flight and I really look forward to these. Thank you Inkjournal and please keep this up. They are super fun and full of pen lover goodness.

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

Baron Fig A5 Notebook Review

I recently was given an A5 sized Baron Fig notebook from a colleague and I was anxious to try it as I have heard mixed reviews with these books and fountain pens. My results were very interesting here and I was quite surprised.

The book itself has stitching running down the binding which allows the book to open and lie flat, if needed. The paper feels nice to the touch and seems to have some weight to it. I decided to attack the paper with a myriad of inks and nib widths.

The line on the paper is very interesting here. It seems to be impervious to ink and cuts right through any lettering that may pass through it. That is rather annoying and I am no paper expert so I am unsure why that is happening. I could overcome this phenomenon with Noodler’s Heart of Darkness but my other inks seemed to fall short.

Also, most inks seemed to feather badly as well as “explode” a bit into the paper. J. Herbin was especially subject to this whereas Japanese inks were more tolerant to the page with Pilot Iroshizuku and Sailor. This phenomenon was more based on the ink itself rather than compared to differences in nib width. This was quite fascinating to me. Montblanc and Private Reserve also performed well and KMZ seemed to be right in the middle.

I really like the size of this book and at 72 pages, it is nice and thin which helps with portability. The quality of the book is nice and if you choose to use this with fountain pen, be wary of your ink choice to maximize your experience, and the legibility of your writing.

This review is based on my experience and opinion. I do not represent Baron Fig nor am I being compensated in any way.

Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz - Ink of the Year 2017

Pelikan has a reputation for high quality products, whether it be a writing instrument or ink. I have tried Pelikan Edelstein ink before and I really enjoy the inks and when I heard about this one, I was super excited to try it. I love brown inks and this one is really nice.

Browns are fun to write with, in my opinion. When I was going through my inks to come up with some other comparisons for Smoky Quartz, I realized how many browns I have.

When looking at Smoky Quartz, it comes across as a true brown without any red undertones. Montblanc Toffee Brown is very similar to Smoky Quartz but a tad darker whereas J. Herbin Caroube de Chypre is very reddish in its brown. Private Reserve Ebony Brown is a nice dark brown but there are notes of green in it when compared to Smoky Quartz.

Smoky Quartz is a nice, rich brown color with some beautiful shading. The flow is high with Pelikan inks and this is no exception here. The saturation is good, and there is little to no sheen. It is just a delightful brown color.

On Rhodia paper, the color of the ink is rich and dark with nice shading. One thing that I really noticed was how quickly it dries on ink resistant paper. I noticed that it would be dried within 10 seconds of being placed on the page. That is fantastic.

Tomoe River paper also brings out the shading here, as it should and the dry times were also right around 10 seconds which is just phenomenal. What I found to be odd here is that the ink comes across a bit lighter on this paper compared to Rhodia.

If you like brown colored inks this one needs some consideration. Pelikan Edelstein inks are known for high quality and this ink is worthy of being the ink of the year! Hands down.

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

Aurora Blue-Black Ink - My Thoughts

It is not all that often to run into a pen/ink maker that only has 3 ink offerings but Aurora is that brand. This blue/black ink is their third ink color offering alongside Black and Blue which are great inks. This ink has been making some waves in the community and a friend provided me a sample of this ink to play with. Let's take a peek.

First off, a very interesting color here. This is a piece of Mnemosyne paper with some ink applied with an eye dropper. A nice rich blue hue is there with some nice shadows and a dark sheen is there as well. Fascinating results.

I took a look at my ink supply and found three other ink colors to compare against Aurora Blue/Black. I chose Noodler's Air-Corp Blue/Black, Private Reserve Ebony Blue and Diamine Deep Dark Blue. Once again, quite interesting here. Aurora has some dark purple tones which implies some red whereas the Noodler's Air-Corp has more green in it which makes sense as it is a more military themed ink. Diamine Deep Dark Blue came the closest to the Aurora offering and Ebony Blue had a green tinge as well. All are nice dark blue colors but this Aurora color stands out as a favorite of mine.

On Rhodia paper, it looks great. This ink has a great flow, nice saturation and is a surprising shader since it is a dark ink. That was a surprise for me. Even being more of a wet ink, it doesn't take long for drying times and is a pleasure to write with.

Tomoe River paper actually brings out some sheen here and there. The pens used were a Jinhao x750 with a M nib and a Franklin Christoph 19 with a Medium Cursive Italic nib. The ink behaved much like on the Rhodia paper. We had great flow, nice dry times and shading with some sheen here.

Overall a very nice ink that is acceptable for professional use in an office setting or just some personal journal writing. It is not waterproof so it may not be a wise choice for anything needing to be archival. I really like how the black qualities of the ink are muted and the blue does shine through so it is not a super dark offering. I will be buying a bottle most definitely, as if I need more ink, but I am doing it anyways. Thhppfft!

This is based off of my personal experience and opinions. I do not represent Aurora in any way nor am I being compensated.

Robert Oster Fire & Ice - My thoughts Take 2

In my previous post, I went through my frustration with this ink and its refusal to sheen. I thought about it, I decided to buy a bottle anyways and guess what? Sheen for days!!

Now I completely understand the love of this ink and the reason it is so popular. The sheen is absolutely powerful, pronounced and gorgeous. The above example was written with an Edison M steel nib on Tomoe River Paper. Look at all the sheen with a M nib.

Ok, so it is odd that the sample didn't produce any sheen for me but the bottle does. Can you get a dud sample? Seems rather unlikely. This Cerulean blue ink is a wonderful ink. It shades, sheens, has nice flow and is a must own ink, in my opinion.

This post is based off of personal experience and opinion. I do not represent Robert Oster in any fashion nor am I being compensated in any way.

Robert Oster Fire and Ice - My thoughts

Robert Oster is a ink maker in Australia that really made a splash in the ink scene with Fire and Ice. I have seen the reviews and I wanted to try this ink myself so I received a sample and tried it out. My findings seem to differ from the majority of the internet.

 The special property of this ink and the reason for the name here is the red sheen that is to appear during normal writing. The main ink color is a Cerulean blue color which is more of a teal that is bluer than green. Sheen happens in highly saturated inks as not all of the dye can be absorbed by the paper so as it dries on top of itself, a different color is usually seen. This is sheen.

 This is Fire and Ice with the red sheen visable. This took some big drops to make it appear. I originally tried this ink with my Edison Collier with a M nib and no sheen was evident. Now, I have read some internet reviews that achieved some sheen with a F nib but I decided to try it in a Twsbi Diamond 580 with a 1.5mm nib.

 This did not achieve any sheen. This is a very wet nib and the paper here is Mnemosyne. Well, maybe the paper is the issue.

Nope, Rhodia didn't help either which was unsettling. Well, what should I try next? Oh, I know what to try. Voodoo paper which you know as Tomoe River.

Seriously? No sheen here either. What does a pen geek need to do in order to see some fire in their ice? The only other thing I can think of is this was a sample and perhaps a bottle would provide better results.

I do like the ink. It is a Cerulean blue, as I mentioned earlier and is quite similar to J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor, which is a teal but more green than blue. Emerald of Chivor is also supposed to have red sheen as well. I also tested this next to 2 other teals which are Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-Ro and Ku-Jaku.

Fire and Ice is much more blue than the comparable inks here. It shades nicely and is overall a great blue ink but what about the fire? Where is the sheen? Grrrr.

This review is based off of my own opinion and experiences. I do not represent Robert Oster nor am I being compensated in any way.

Inkjournal Ink Flight #2

Inkjournal strikes again with another Ink Flight box and this one was teased a bit as to what the inks would be. I took a gamble and was rewarded with inks I had hoped for. Let's take a look at the inks and the surprise included.

The clue for the upcoming inks were that they would come from overseas. Granted, that could reference Diamine, Bookbinders, Faber Castell, J. Herbin and many more brands but I had a gut feeling they would be Robert Oster inks. I was correct.

Robert Oster inks have become very popular recently and the most infamous would be Fire and Ice. I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in trying them out and I really like the color palette included in this Ink Flight.

Our Robert Oster samples for March are:

• Barossa Grape
• Fire & Ice
• Peppermint
• Cafe Crema
• Australian Sky
• Yellow Sunet
• Direct Sun

 

Along with the inks came a Robert Oster blotting card. 

It is a convenient and portable way to handle long drying ink when on the go and you need to hurry and close that notebook on a freshly penned note(s). Last month we had the micro fiber cloth and here is a blotter card. I love this.

Next was a surprise. Last month there was an InkJournal book for our ink cataloging needs but this month was a bit different.

Three Platinum Preppy pens with all of the supplies needed to convert them into eyedropper pens. Included are the pens with F nibs, o-rings, silicone grease and an eyedropper. Now, you may be sitting there thinking "well that is all fine and dandy but how in the heck would I do that!" 

Instructions are also included! Huzzah! This eyedropper kit was a welcome surprise and allows other pen enthusiasts to possibly try something new. 

InkJournal Ink Flight #2 is a success in my opinion. I paid $25.00 for this months offering and I believe I will be continuing to do so going forward. I really like seeing what is inside the box!

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