Blue? Blue-Black? Or Somewhat In-Between? In Which Dr. inkensteinWonders

My dear friend Susan, learning of Dr. Inkenstein's Grayish-Blue-Black quest, asked a great question: 'Can't you mix inks to get the exact color you want?'

 

And of course you can.  I've done it.  Lots of others have, too.  But you might run into problems when two inks from different sides of the tracks clash and start a feud.  The results: SITB, or as it's technically known, Slime/Stuff/Shinola In The Bottle.

 

Recently Dr. inkenstein had to dump an eyedropper glass bottle of Fireball, a custom red-orange mix, because of SITB.  Also a bottle of Everflo True Blue, which was not a mix at all.  And it's harder to clean a contaminiated (and potentially beloved) pen than dump a bottle, so no matter how it hurt, out the bottles went.

 

Then, when mixing inks, there is also the factor of losing one or more components of the inks, such as Wetness, Flow, Lubrication, Bulletproofness.

 

Ink.  It's kinda like science!   You need a lab coat, test tubes, a Jacob's Ladder, and maybe even lightning!

 

So on to testing more loads of blues and blue-blacks:

And yes.  You can tell that Diamine China Blue is in no way even remotely blue-black.  But I included that color to make a point.  Probably. 

And yet...what of the Misty Blue?  Has it BB elements, hints?  And the Akkerman?  Is it BB?  Indigo?  

Where do you draw the line?  And with what color?

MI-10: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Gets Beachy

Just havin' some fun, as the Summer Mystery arrived:

One final addition to the MI-10 Experience: I had neglected to run a chroma, so I did a quickie here.



These two were inks I might never have tried, though 'Carli' is a color right up my alley, and if I were buying an Edelstein it would be this 'n. I didn't notice the dryness many people mentioned in their reciews, but the Rotring Artpen might be a garden hose.

Loved working with 'Lloyd.' It glides in the pens I used, I see lavender and turquoise notes in the chroma. Oddly enough, 'Lloyd' seemed to have an affinity for my fingers like no other ink...ie: every time I opened the vial, some of it leapt onto them. 

So thanks once again to the Undisputed Queen of Ink-stery, for the opportunity to try a range of inks I might not have otherwise sampled.  

Stay tuned for more.

Continuation! In which Dr. Inkenstein Furthers the Blue-Black Quest

Three pens loaded for testing.

Due to the ink tests, I decided that Diamine Twilight will be the next ink in my five-dollar Tachikawa manga pen, which may approximate the mix of original black ink and the Noodler's Navaho Turquoise I kept throwing into there.

Five days later, Dr. I. was still soaking and flushing that needle-nib pen that had been filled and never cleaned for ten years....water in cup still blue after one week's soaking. Ten years. Five days. I suppose it will take its own sweet time.

The first batch of blue-black testing, on Rhodia Uni:





The Diamine Prussian Blue looks greener than it is...the Tanzanite and Chopin look all to similar in this scan. I believe the Chopin is a little 'softer.' Thanks to KLP for both those samples!

Ooo...maybe I'll do a trio of chromas...

Which turned into a quartet. Diamine Prussian Blue shows turquoise in its corona. Edelstein Tanzanite washes into a royal blue, while Chopin plays it slate. The Skrip BB is from the conical Slovenia bottle and has a really interesting forest-green center.  Dr. Inkenstein loves inks with complex chromas.

To be continued....soon.

Blue-Blacks: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Ponders A New Obssession

Lately, Dr. Inkenstein has been, well, let's say highly INTERESTED in blue-black inks.  After all, they are our favorite colors, if you include those inks that lean teal, like Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku and Chesterfield Teal.

So based on various online reviews and scans, I tested a bunch of new inks (all except the Everflo, which is not at all new and has been on my ink hutch for years, and is not a true blue-black but it's here for comparison purposes).

Part of the 'fun'of testing inks is finding a perfect ink/pen combo.  The Nemos write dry.  The Hero and Lamys write wet.  The dip pen dips.  So many different factors, including paper!

The paper here was, uhh, an Office Depot composition notebook with Brazilian paper.  The scan looks different from the photo.  The differences are interesting.  The ink colors in real life are also different.  On to the particulars.


 Brand(s):  Everflo, Diamine, OrGaNicS Studios (sample courtesty of a pen pal), Private Reserve

Color(s): True Blue, Eau De Nil, BlakWa, Ebony Blue

Intensity:  Ebony Blue the highest and most saturated; the Diamine and OS less saturated.  Everflo was tough to place.  It's semi-saturated, and not a real BB, but whatever.  ;p

Flow:  All except the OS had decent flow, that is, until the PR EB had been in the pen for a couple of weeks, and then it needed multiple water-dips to start.  It also began smearing badly.  FPG had a discussion on similar problems with intensely saturated inks; it appears that it's just part of the breed.  Dilute or suffer.

The reluctant nature of the OS was not due to the pen (A Hero Summer Colors), because with its provided cart of Hero ink, that pen is an absolute gusher.  I believe the Diamine would have good flow but the Nemo pens are dry writers.

Shading:  None whatever in the Everflo.  All others had varying good degrees of shading, and the PR had SHEEN!

Summary:  While OS and Diamine Eau De Nil look almost identical on paper, in the scans and photos they look quite different, with the OS Blakwa appearing far more green.  Possibly the BlakWa shades a bit better than Eau De Nil.


What follows is the scan AND the photo of the four inks.

We have further blue-blacks to test: Noodler's Blue-Black, a sample of Chesterfield Night Sapphire, which I like a lot, and the cart that arrived with the Hero Summer Colors.  Until next year!

Spring Green! In Which Dr. Inkenstein Tests Color and Shape

Spring has sprung (or so the calendar says!  the Actual Real Life Weather has other ideas), and so has Dr. Inkenstein's ink supply.


 It's that time of year when you want to move from the dark, brooding browns and burgundies of winter toward something lighter and brighter.

One day I found myself staring at three new, untested green inks. So I grabbed some pens for dipping and went to work.

Of all the dippers, a cheap little Wing Sung 285 (or maybe 235, it's hard to read...) proved the best and most pleasant to use, writing up to a half a page on a single dip. 

Thin paper beware.  These inks, tested on Clairefontaine's nice little Twin Book, do not show through, but will show through on Bagasse paper, except for Noodler's Zhivago.

 Despite not being light and bright at all,  Zhivago happens to be Dr. Inkenstein's favorite of the new greens, with its blackety-greenish undertones that show especially well when the ink is diluted.  I have been using the ink in a Nemosine Singularity (see previous review) for sketching.  It adds an intriguing glimpse of now-you-see-it, now-you-don't color in an ink that otherwise reads as black.

Many of you know Dr. Inkenstein as the Chief Engineer on the Cheap, Cheerful Pen Express.  So when I discovered this little oddity while surfing fleabay, I snapped it up.

The Papermate DJ uses standard international cartridges (and came with a free one from the dealer).  It comes in a few different colors, and this one was sold as green, labeled blue, and definitely looks a green that leans just slightly toward blue.  The Skrip Green in was IT for this pen.  A perfect pen/ink combo, owing entirely to laziness and luck.

At first, Dr. Inkenstein came away with green fingers and thought this little fountain pen leaked.  Later on, it was discovered to be Operator Error.  This has turned out to be a nice, wet, smooth writer that is yes, obviously cheap, but very comfy to hold and write with.

It has rubber-ish trim rings, and the translucent black cap does post (though not all that securely), and has the extra added advantage of two little 'relief''  hearts displayed on the clip if you are into cute.  I am.

I don't know if this is NOS or just new, but I had never seen the like, and jumped on it.  I'm sure if you searched for 'Papermate DJ Fountain Pen' you'd find it.  I think if you're a fan of inexpensive and cheerful writers this will be right up your alley.

One of these days: Superhero Pens.  Really.

Knockaround! In Which Dr. Inkenstein Writes Blue-Black

Sometimes, you can’t manage a Big, Important Involved Post, like Superhero Pens, but you want to post something because you got some new inks to test.
　
Also sometimes, you just want a knockaround ink, you know? An ink that doesn’t come in a ‘collectible’ bottle, an ink that doesn’t cost a fortune, an ink that is easy to open and isn’t overfilled and doesn’t tip too easily and you don’t have to approach with fear, awe, and trembling.
　
You inks out there know who you are.
　
　
To this end, Dr. Inkenstein sent for a bottle of New Formula Skrip Blue-Black ink, as opposed to the vintage formula that came in the inkwell bottle and was impossible for me to open. This came to about ten bucks…could have found it for less money in Real Life, but was impatient. Will never again order from this particular vendor; the tiny box was un-padded and bulging, but the ink miraculously arrived intact. And NO. The dealer was not isellpens, Jetpens or Goulet Pens. Rest assured of that.
　
　
Also ordered a bottle of Hero Blue-Black ink from fleabay. At about five bucks shipped, this is the Bargain of the Bunch.
　
Why is Diamine Denim included? Because it’s in a Knockaround Pen, one of my trusty and well-loved Platinum Preppys. And because I had a test bottle of Denim on hand, bigger than a sample, far less than a full bottle. We hates these small bottles. Hard to squeeze a nib into, all too easy to tip over. Diamine isn’t exactly Knockaround Ink, but the full-sized bottles are at least stable, easy to open, and difficult to tip.
　
I dip-tested the Skrip and the Hero inks using different pens, shown here on a Clairefontaine Grid Pad and shot with a very bad digital camera of sorts with no close-up feature:
　

　
　
Then I further disgraced myself by dip-testing all the inks with a horrible, no-name glass pen. This pen would make a professional calligrapher write like a cross-eyed monkey tanked up on espresso, so it had no difficulty whatsoever in making Dr. Inkenstein’s southpaw scribble resemble blue worms on a plate.
　

　
　
I also tried diluting each ink with first a water-dip, then a cotton swab smear. The Diamine Denim seems to have the least green undertones of the three tested inks, and may be the ‘truest’ blue of the bunch. But I kind of favor the Hero ink at this point, for a combination of price, bottle, and just because.
　
　
As for each ink’s shading properties, it’s too early to tell, and besides, it’s snowing. And there’s a loose chicken in my yard.