TWSBI 580 with B nib

Posted on March 24, 2013 by admin

I’ve got it!

Last Wednesday I received a FedEx parcel containing my shining new TWSBI 580 fountain pen with B nib. It’s my third TWSBI, after a 540 with 1.1 stub and a Mini with M nib.

I really like it, it feels great in hand… bit it feels almost the same that the 540 too. As I love my 540, that’s not a problem for me, but if you look for a different writing experience, the 580 won’t do it, it’s clearly a new, improved version of the 540, as the 540 was of the 530.

A superb pen for me, the,. The B nib is juicy, generous, wet, and it writes like a dream. The Noodler’s Upper Ganges Blue is beautiful in the transparent barrel, and the B nib allows to admire its nice shading on the paper.

After having used it since Wednesday, the 580 has become one of my favourite pens. The B nib is a bit too wide for daily use, but it is so smooth that I use it nevertheless.

In brief, a great pen, TWSBI!

As usual, I’ve posted this review also in Fountain Pen Network.

Noodler’s Upper Ganges Blue ink

Posted on January 22, 2013 by admin

If you have read my other reviews, you maybe know I’m in a quest to find the perfect blue ink, or at least my perfect blue ink. Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium was a close one, but its non full waterproofness was a bad point for it. Noodler’s 54^th Massachussetts, also from Noodler’s, was very nice, but a bit dark for me. So my quest continued…

And today I review an ink as water resistant as the 54^th Massachussetts, and almost as bright as Liberty’s Elysium : Noodler’s Upper Ganges Blue. I said almost, because as you can see here, Liberty’s Elysium is still brighter.

Ink Review : Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue

Upper Ganges Blue is indeed waterproof, it has passed the water test without any problem, neither the water drops of the splash test nor more than one minute underwater of the immersion test have altered this beautiful ink. As comparison, you can see how badly Liberty’s Elysium supported water. Upper Ganges Blue really deserves the bulletproof label.

Besides that it’s a very beautiful ink, rather wet as I like, with a generous flow and only a bit of feathering on this Rhodia paper. Dry time is not bad, you must wait at least 10 s before rubbing your hand on paper if you want to be sure that it won’t smear. Once dry, ink is inalterable.

I really love this ink, for now it’s my favourite blue, my almost-perfect blue ink. If only it could be as bright as Liberty’s Elysium, it would be the truly perfect one.

As usual, I’ve also posted this review on the Fountain Pen Network.

Complement to Noodler’s 54^th Massachussetts ink review

Posted on January 22, 2013 by admin

A quick complements to Noodler’s 54^th Massachussetts ink review.

I did the review with a Noodler’s Konrad, and as I write with a fairy light hand, it didn’t flex at all, so the result was almost like writing with a F nib. As inkstainedruth pointed at Fountain Pen Network, my review didn’t show the greenish overcast that other reviews shown, and the F nib didn’t show any shading. And as the paper used was cheap copy paper, it wasn’t the ideal one to observe colors.

Here you have a sample on better paper (Rhodia Dot Pad) with a juicier nib (Platinum 3776 with Music nib), so you can see the shading. Drying time is almost the same. I think I see a light greenish overcast, but I4m not sure, I’m not good at finding color hints on samples. So I let you judge…

Ink Review : Noodler's 54th Massachussets, complement

Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink

Posted on January 17, 2013 by admin

Last week I received a pen that I had waited for a long time, a Noodler’s Konrad Ebonite, and in the same parcel an ink I had wanted to test for a long time : Noodler’s Lexington Gray.

I wanted to test both of them, so I loaded the Konrad with the Lexington and I began to write. The ebonite Konrad was wonderful, but I will review it another day, because today is the Lexington Gray that is reviewed.

It’s a nice ink, really nice. The color reminds me of graphite pencil’s color, it almost looks like pencil on paper. t’s easy on eyes, less aggressive that a black, less bright than a blue and more original than a blue-black. An ink I think I will use a lot for daily note taking.

I was rather surprised by the ultra fast dry time, and by the good behaviour of this ink on almost any paper, specially on cheap paper. It’s a great ink : bulletproof, fast drying, well behaved in any paper and a nice color, what else could you want?

As usual, I’ve also posted the review on Fountain Pen Network.

Noodler’s 54^th Massachussetts ink

Posted on January 2, 2013 by admin

As much as I loved the Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium ink, I wasn’t 100% happy with its non-fully waterproofness, so last December I decided to continue my quest to find the perfect blue ink.

After watching a video about Noodler’s 54^th Massachussets at Goulet Pens, I passed an order of a bottle of 54^th M. and another of Noodler’s Polar Blue. I will review the Polar Blue another day, today I wanted to speak about this wonderful and beautiful blue-black ink.

The only thing I don’t fully love is color, a bit to dark for me. It’s very (very!) saturated, with little shading, I guess I’m going to dilute it a bit next time to reduce saturation and see if it does some shading and a bluer color. It doesn’t feathers, even on bad paper, and that’s a big positive point for me (and Polar Blue and its Black sister, aren’t great on that area). It’s waterproofness is really stunning, as usual in Noodler’s bulletproof inks (besides Liberty’s Elysium). It flows good on my Noodler’s Konrad, I had read it was somewhat dry or hard-starting, I haven’t found it so.

Inks Review : Noodler's 54th Massachussets

In brief, I really like this ink, I only wish it was a bit bluer. Maybe I should try Noodler’s Upper Ganges Blue next time…

As usual, I’ve also posted this review in the Fountain Pen Network.

Diamine Orange ink

Posted on August 16, 2012 by admin

After having found a great red ink with Diamine Dragon Red, I wanted to find a bright orange ink. I looked many ink swabs, and the orange I liked the best was Diamine Orange, so I ordered a bottle.

And I must say I chose well, as I love this ink! A very saturated, bright orange, neither yellowish nor reddish. I feared it could be a bit fade, pale, difficult to read, but it isn’t at all, it’s a bright color that grabs your attention, and a nice alternative to reds or greens as complementary color for writing.

According to color theory, Diamine Orange is the almost perfect complementary color for Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium (LE) blue ink. I like using LE blue for daily writing, so it suits me well to use Diamine Orange near it, for titles, marking, highlighting and contrasting.

The ink is not waterproof, as expected, but it resist way better than I would have thought. The bottom right corner had been submerged in water for one minute, and you can still (almost) read the text.

Diamine Red Dragon Ink

Posted on July 16, 2012 by admin

I discovered this color in a postcard from a fellow FPNer. I was looking for a new red, as I was tired of Monaco Red (also from Diamine), and Diamine Dragon Red looked way more vibrant on paper than in online swab pics.

I ordered a bottle from Cult Pens (no affiliation, only a happy customer), and when I received the bottle I loaded my spare Lamy Vista with it, and I began to write.

I was charmed, it’s truly a beautiful color, with generous flow, rather saturated but with some nice shading. A great ink for me!

It’s a very generous ink, with good flow, but that generates show-through and some feathering and bleed-through on cheap paper. On standard office paper feathering is minimal, as bleed-through, but show-through makes of Diamine Red Dragon a one side only ink on this paper.

The ink isn’t waterproof at all, as you can see in bottom right corner. The corner itself was submerged in water for 30 seconds, and the grid motif was splashed with water drops.

I have to test it with a dryer nib, maybe my Arimail 44, and with an italic or stub nib. I will post an update as I will do it.

As usual, I’ve also posted this review in the Fountain Pen Network.

Noodler’s Liberty’s Elysium ink

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

I’m loved this colour since the moment I watched the video on Goulet Pens site. It’s the kind of blue I was looking for, a beautiful, vibrant, saturated true blue. I ordered a bottle the first day, and I’m really happy with the product.

Yes, I’m aware of the polemics about its waterproofness and bulletproofness. I wouldn’t call this ink waterproof, personally, because some soaking can make the text difficult to read, but it’s an ink that remains on paper even after extended immersion in water, so I can understand the logic behind the waterproof denomination it has been given. Anyways, if I want truly waterproofness, I have my Noodler’s Polar Black or my Pharmacist’s Iron Gall Ink. My Noodler”s LE is simply a very beautiful ink for me, at a very reasonable price.

Ink review - Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

The waterproofness was interesting. Lots of dye begins to flow as soon as a drop of water touches it, making if difficult to read. But no matter of much water, there is always enough ink on the paper to be able to read the text. In fact, it can be read better after an extended immersion (like the doodling and text in bottom right of the page) than after only some drops of water (like some words at the middle-right of the page, that were splashed with water during the immersion test.

Anyways, I can only say that I love this ink

As usual, I’ve posted a copy of this review on Fountain Pen Network.

Water resistance test : Noodler’s Polar Black ink

Posted on June 1, 2012 by admin

Reading this thread on FPN about Noodler’s Black ink, I wanted to make a similar test with my current favorite ink (with Pharmacist’s Iron Gall Blue-Black), Noodler’s Polar Black.

So I decided to try a similar water resistance test. Similar but not the same, because for example I have no newspaper near me today

I’ve used 4 kinds of paper : Rhodia Dot Pad, unnamed office copy paper, PostIt note and a page of glossy magazine paper.

Here you have the samples after writing :

Here the four samples after being submerged in water for 10 minutes :

And here after some torture…

The ink is wonderful in all samples besides the glossy paper. Why doesn’t it perform great on it? If I understand right, it’s because it bulletproofness comes from bonding with cellulose in paper, and in glossy paper there is a layer impermeable between the ink and the cellulose, bonding is way limited.

I really love this ink, my ink of choice (with Pharmacist’s Iron Gall Ink) for everyday use!

I’ve posted this review on the same thread in FPN.

CalligraphInk 1.2 stub, a cheap pen that performs well

Posted on May 22, 2012 by admin

Last week, I went to the local art supplies store, looking for some craft stuff. While there, I looked around and I saw something interesting on a shelf : a box marked CaligraphInk Fountain Pens.

CalligraphInk? I didn’t know the brand. I took one pen, it had a 1.2 stub nib, it didn’t look too [i]cheapy[/i] and it only cost 8€. Of course, I bought one!

At home, I loaded it with Noodler’s Polar Black and I passed to the test. I expected it to perform poorly, unremarkably at best… I was wrong!

It’s a nice pen, it glides on paper leaving a beautiful wet trait of ink, effortlessly.

The pen is cheap, solidly built and it writes great, so now I’m keeping it in my pocket as my EDC stub pen (I don’t want to put more expensive pens in my pocket).

I’ve also posted this review on Fountain Pen Network.

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