Discontinued, Continued: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Displays Zero Sales Resistance

So... as previously stated, Dr. Inkenstein does NOT need more ink. Seriously. And this has to be why I find myself with ten new inks to test. Ten.  A one followed by a zero.

Paper is Rhodia Ice. Pens are various. The rightmost swabs got a double pass, with some single-pass tail-end showing. 












Many seem dry. Might be the fault of a particular test pen. One of them made an appearance in FPG's Guess The Ink thread.  See if you can match it with the above.

Overall, these are nice enough colors, in spite of some sketchy labeling and occasional hard starting.  And they're being discontinued.  Therefore, on sale.  To which there is no resistance.

 

 

(Updating, now that Dr. Inkenstein has run through just about all of them:

Antique Slate has a definite blue base, that I discovered on cleaning it out of the Dollar demonstrator. It was wet and easy in that pen, no hard starts.

Zircon had a kind of...I don't know, oily? consistency to it, that I found on dipping the nib in water to start the pen writing, because it was always a hard starter.  It looked like a colorful oil slick.

Antique Walnut started hard when left for a day or two in the Metropolitan, but with regular use, flowed well, and may be the blackity-brown of choice for me.

Capri was very well-behaved.  So was the utterly mis-named Cobalt.

Antique Crimson and Orchid stained converters and carts but good! Crimson is weird; it's the only bottle that has bubbles, resulting in almost a soapy consistency, and because of that bubbling up, this ink is frustrating to load a cart with a pipette.

Only the rust-colored Antique Raspberry was always unpleasant to use, dry and hard, and I may give that another go in some garden hose or other.

In all, as the Chesterfield line is being phased out, has some nice colors, and is selling at a good price, Dr. Inkenstein recommends trying a few bottles.)

Five Rules For Fighting: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Posts A Fanfic

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Kenshin does not own the Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters (they are the property of Togashi Yoshihiro et al), and does not make any money from said characters.

 

What Kenshin does own, however, are all the original characters in this work. Any attempt to "borrow" these characters will be met with the katana, or worse.

 

Idiot Beloved takes place shortly after the Dark Tournament; Firebird Sweet directly follows. For reference, I use a combination of the subtitled YYH anime and the American manga, plus some of the CD dramas.

 

This particular tale is told from the antagonist's point of view.

Title: Five Rules For Fighting

Author: JaganshiKenshin

Genre: Action/Adventure, General

Rating: K+/PG-13

Summary: Hiei encounters a youkai in disguise-and he means to have Hiei's hide.

 

A/N: As always, thanks for your reviews and faves!

 

A killer lies in wait for Hiei.

Five Rules For Fighting

by

Kenshin

 

"It's Hiei all right." AkaRaikou's informant ducked back into the reeking alley. "Even though he ain't wearing that black mantle or sword."

 

AkaRaikou scowled, thinking furiously.

 

In the Makai, Hiei was still notorious. But several years had passed since the Dark Tournament. It was said Hiei no longer wielded the Kokuryuuha, and indeed, hardly ever carried a sword.

 

It was also rumored that Hiei had lost a step or two, living as he did in the human realm. That he was an easy mark. But those who spoke of such things did so in hurried, fearful whispers, which meant anyone seeking to make a name for himself could still legitimately aim to take down Hiei.

 

AkaRaikou-the name meant Red Lightning-had been scouting for Hiei about a week now, and had been forced to pay first one insider, then another, and tonight, this human thug. What was his name? Yama-something? Hardly worth remembering.

 

But at least this one delivered.

 

Keeping his voice pitched high, as befitted his current form, Lightning said, "Are you sure it's Hiei?"

 

"Sure I'm sure." The thug bared tobacco-stained teeth. "But kid, are YOU sure?"

 

"Just do it. I'm not paying you to second-guess."

 

They stepped out of the alley, human and youkai. The thug a cheap punk-for-hire, to be had for the price of some booze.

 

Lightning looked human, but this was temporary. He had taken the appearance of a small and fragile ten-year-old boy, and it was a strain keeping his youki suppressed.

 

He was a shapeshifter, and his real form was ten feet of bronzed lightning and clawed thunder. Strength wasn't his only merit. He also had speed to spare.

 

Any moment now, he would secure his fearsome reputation with the murder of Jagan Master Hiei.

 

 

See the rest HERE.

Discontinued! In Which Dr. Inkenstein Posts Moar Blobs

Oh, my...has it been this long already?

 

Dr.  Inkenstein doesn't need any more ink.  Naturally, that must be why I recently bought six (6) new bottles from xfountainpens. 

 

But I have excuses reasons.  They were being discontinued.  They were on sale.  And the bottles were small.

 

Just not as small as I had originally thought.

 

Paper is Rhodia.  Ink names scribbled in pencil.

 

 

 

 

 

The only ones loaded now are Antique Jade, in a Hero 616, and Antique Crimson, in a Jinhao x750 fude.  (I like Amberlea's notion of 'abusing' inks by means of pens with biiig nibs). 

 

All these swabs look different from the swabs posted on xfountainpens.

 

In my swabs, Antique Jade looks gray, but in the pen, it's a bit darker and greener, and on some papers it shades.

 

The Crimson looks darker and more intense in the fude.  The Orchid, when dip-tested, is all but black.  Dr. Inkenstein longs to mix a drop or two of Orchid into the Crimson.

 

They're already sold out of some colors that I wanted.  Hurry if you're interested.

 

 

 

Sailin' Da Blooz: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Searches For Truth

Turns out Dr. Inkenstein does not have very many True Blues. And of the following, some are far from true blue, and quite a few are sample vials: the Iroshizukus, and the Sailor Kobe #37 (thanks for this latter to bluesea!). Rotring Ultramarine, which Dr. I used to have, and re-purchased NOS from fleabay, is remembered as being a nice denim color. But it's actually POIPLE, as evidenced by the chroma. (sorta kinda....scannage tones down the normal dynamic color range). Rotring Ultramarine does fade down in poiple-osity a bit when fully dried. 

The Old Shoe MB was bought secondhand and is clearly a blue-black, but looks blue in the bottle. I swear it does. It's there for...contrast. Yeah, that's it. Contrast. Just like the Rotring.

Tsuyu-Kusa, while a lovely color with excellent properties, seems a little pale for everyday use. Asa-Gao... just didn't thrill me. 

My favorites? The classic Waterman Florida Blue, now a collector's item. And JH Eclat de Saphir. If I wanted a darker blue, Myosotis. I guess Skrip is up there, too, rating an Okay, At Least It's Inexpensive (this would be the conical-bottle Slovenia version).

These are not my finest chromas; I plead InCoSomNia.

Are my ink-bottle days behind me? Maybe. If Sailor made a true, clear blue with no green, turquoise or POIPLE undertones, I might be interested.


Da inx:



Da chromaz:

Black Is Black: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Does Coronas

Dr. Inkenstein is not particularly a black ink aficionado. Oh, sure, we are familiar with Lamy Black in carts. It's black. It works in my red Lamy Safari with a Fine nib. As I say, it's black. So, too, with Platinum black carts and the Preppy .03 and .02. They write black.

I recall buying my first bottle of used (beg pardon, 'previously owned') Montblanc ink on fleabay. Yay! I thought; I'm significant now! I own an ink bottle shaped like a shoe!


It was black. It wrote black. And so on and so forth, until I had acquired a couple more bottles of black ink, all of which wrote...black.


But then something interesting happened. Seeing a review of PR Velvet Black, and being impressed with the brilliant corona produced by dropping it on a paper towel, Dr. I did a series of paper towel chromas, with four bottled blacks. The results were not what I expected. The Levenger Raven Black was...black. 

The others were a surprise, and far more colorful. Now I wonder...is the Montblanc even a black? It sure writes like one. Waterman and Quink seemed very close in color components, but in daylight, and not scannage, Quink's corona was slightly more intense orange. Still, I don't think any of them were as much of a rainbow as the PR Velvet!  Which clearly will be coming to my ink shelf soon.

InkBlots: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Visits The Princess and the Peas

In keeping with the recent Ink-Testing theme, Dr. Inkenstein has lined up all available bottles of green ink, ignoring the many test tubes, uhm, sample vials in the Ink Storehouse.

Fifteen green inks? Really? That's too many. Isn't it? 

Some of these green inks look gray (Noodler's BGG, JH Vert Empire, MB Jonathan Swift). Some look brown (Stipula Musk, I'm talking to you!) and at least one looks like a highlighter ink. There are pea greens, spinach leaves, and evergreens.

Noodler's BGG is the only true waterproof ink I know. It also forms little indelible particles of varnish in the ink sac, and, if you're supremely lucky, also the feed. It is kept in a Hero 329. For ever. Even then, it gets cleaned out a lot. Another feature of BGG is that you can dilute it as much as 90 percent with water, and it will still be legible.

Apart from the Hero/BGG combo, the MB Irish Green is in a green Pilot Metropolitan Retro Pop, M nib.
All other inks were dip-tested with a glass pen. The test paper is Rhodia ice.





It's tough to pick a favorite, even among the similar blue-ish-y-toned greens like Skrip, Waterman, JH Verte Reseda, and Levenger Gemstone. Oooo...I know...I need another green. From Iroshizuku, maybe.

Turquoise: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Asks, Which Sky's The Limit?

Dr. Iinkenstein is admittedly ink-fussy. This one is too thick. This one is too dry. But is there one that's 'just right?'

After complaining I was unable to tell one turquoise ink from another without a score card, I tested a few...well, all...of my turquoise inks. Although two of them, the Iroshizuku Ama-Iro and the Diamine Steel Blue, were mere sample vials.

All the tests except those two were done with a glass dip pen. The Steel Blue was loaded in a Dollar Demonstrator. And even though I have MORE than enough Turquoise inks,the Ama-Iro has such wonderful flow properties when tested in a Metro Retro that I may spring for a bottle.

The Pelikan swab looks much darker than it should because I took it from the cap, where it had partially dried, but it also displays the most sheen of any turquoise ink tested. Sparkle, even! 

The Souten seems bluest, the Steel Blue greenest. The Ku-Jaku is indescribable and undefinable.  The paper: Rhodia Ice.




Still can't decide on a favorite.

Signed,
Goldilocks

Moar Blotches: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Goes Rorschach

Kobe # 23 Nagata Blue...

That's the very blue-black ink Dr. Inkenstein believes will be The One, and desperately wants to try...but it is currently Unobtainium. 

Why must I be so FUSSY about my ink colors? *sobs quietly while sucking thumb* 

So recently, Dr. I tested---side-by-side, mind you!--- Chesterfield Sodalite, Diamine Prussian Blue, and both old and new MB Midnight. May be going with the Sodalite, probably in a Safari. The Prussian showed too green, the old MB a touch navy, too, and the new, while a favorite, was too....uhmmm, soft?  Hard?  Hot?  Cold?

Just call me Goldilocks.

Here forthwith, a  bunch of BBs with a glass pen. Again, Prussian Blue seemed too green, one MB was darker and more navy than I wanted at the moment, though I usually go with the more modern Midnight. And you can see which I chose.

And don't even get me started on turquoise.  Or teal. 

signed,
Goldilocks 

Mr. Hiei: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Returns To Fan Fic

It's been a long time.  Here's an into and an excerpt:

 

Disclaimer: Kenshin does not own the Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters (they are the property of Togashi Yoshihiro et al), and does not make any money from said characters.

 

What Kenshin does own, however, are all the original characters in this work. Any attempt to "borrow" these characters will be met with the katana, or worse.

Idiot Beloved takes place right after the Dark Tournament; Firebird Sweet directly follows. For reference, I use a combination of the subtitled YYH anime and the American manga, plus some of the CD dramas.

 

Title: Mr. Hiei

Author: JaganshiKenshin

Genre: General, Mystery

Rating: K+/PG-13

Summary: Hiei awakens in a place he's never seen, and a fog that's alive.

A/N: This one-shot is peppered with OCs. As always, thanks for your faves and reviews!

 

Outside a building near the woods lurks a strange, threatening creature that challenges Hiei's ingenuity.

Mr. Hiei

by

Kenshin

 

Jagan Master Hiei, special operative for both the top-secret Agency, and Koenma. Somewhat unwilling member of Team Urameshi, especially when I have to bail them out of a jam.

 

 

Great. You know who you are. Ten points.

 

 

 

Battling vertigo, Hiei leaned against the sink while he checked his pockets. In his wallet was Agency ID, but no plane ticket. Money. About a hundred US dollars, plus its equivalent in several other currencies. Standard contents. No convenient little card telling him of his mission.

 

He was wearing jeans, and a sweatshirt chewed off at the arms, as if he'd just come from a disreputable gym, or an even more disreputable rehearsal hall.

 

Not a black-tie case of espionage then, but the Agency gear meant he wasn't fighting monsters on his own dime either.

 

His phone-another Agency special-remained in his pocket. He could place a call, ask 'Where am I and what was I doing?' Embarrass himself. Maybe later.

 

He made the return journey by clinging to the opposite wall.

 

With a rolling garment rack containing angel costumes, boxes stacked against the wall, and an old sofa, the attic didn't look like a particularly dangerous place.

 

The girl was still sitting on her trunk, wide-eyed.

 

Hiei spoke. "You said everyone's gone. How do you know?"

 

"Same way I know you're a live wire," said the girl. "I just know things."

 

So the kid's a psychic? Or has a strong sixth sense, like Kuwabara and my Firebird, Shayla Kidd.

 

He trudged toward the window.

 

"Don't look outside," she warned.

 

Hiei looked, and slid to his knees.

 

"Told you not to look."

 

 

Read more Here!