Mystery Ink No. 12

[naimitsu]

Someone is still out there who hasn't finished yet, I believe.

Hopefully you don't mean me! I decided to be lazy and let Sammyo & Scooby921 report out for me

[Laura N]

Someone is still out there who hasn't finished yet, I believe.

Hopefully you don't mean me! I decided to be lazy and let Sammyo & Scooby921 report out for me

Not you -- I just lump you three together, like Musketeers.

[Jon Szanto]

WHEN ARE WE
GOING TO FIND
OUT ABOUT
MYSTERY
INK #12?

[Laura N]

Someone is still out there who hasn't finished yet.

[Jon Szanto]

Someone is still out there who hasn't finished yet.

They must be dealt with.

[Laura N]

Let's read Yeats:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

[FredRydr]

Let's read Yeats:
...
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Nevermore.

Fred

[Jon Szanto]

Let's read Waits:

The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to New York, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking...

And the menus are all freezing, and the light man's blind in one eye
And he can't see out of the other
And the piano-tuner's got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
As the bouncer is a Sumo wrestler cream-puff casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the I.Q. of a fence post
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking...

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
'Cause the piano has been drinking, the piano has been drinking
The piano has been drinking, not me, not me, not me, not me, not me...

[rdcalhoon]

Here I am, taking my sweet time. I always feel the need to try a new ink in daily use over a number of days before I render a verdict. Maybe when I have experience with a lot more inks I will be more prepared to make a more rapid judgement. The idea that I need to try lots more inks to improve my evaluation skills seems good to me, anyway.
I won't list out here all the unplanned time sinks that have occurred recently, but if you listen closely you might hear me muttering about cellphone replacement (If it is a known manufacturing issue, why did I have to spend hours on the phone trying different resets and reinstalls before hearing that?), wind storm damage, or goats breaking into the lavender labyrinth.
I tried this ink dipped with a range of pens ranging from fine to 1.9 on Rhodia paper. I enjoy this color range. I have a half-dozen ink samples that are similar color, but none match.
I have been using MI12 in my Pilot Kakuno fine and my Reform 1745 pens in Apica, Scout Book, and Fabriano notebooks. I have had no trouble at all with dry times or smearing. The Kakuno is a rather fine width, but is a tad wet. The Reform is a bit wider, but writes on the dry side.
The ink is saturated enough that the fine line is still quite dark. It is noticeably purple next to black ink, but not so purple to distract from the text.
I would use this ink in a fine nib for my pocket notebook or in a stub for writing a letter or in a journal.
I like this ink, being predisposed by the color. I do have a couple bottles of kinda similar ink, so I doubt I would purchase a bottle until I ran one of those down.

I do appreciate all of your patience while I scribbled away.
If I am the last holdout, then let us hear the identity of MI12.

[Chrissy]

Someone is still out there who hasn't finished yet.

it's not me is it?

[Laura N]

I will arise and go now, and go to MI-12....

MI-12 is Diamine Damson.

DSC_6242 copy.jpg

The damson is a small sort of plum that grows on a thorny hedge or tree, often in the wild or as a volunteer, in both Britain and America. By happy coincidence, I just finished David Mitchell's Slade House, in which damsons grew in the garden of The Scary House that no one should enter. Do we never learn our fairy tale lessons?

However, I digress, because MI-12 is also Akkerman Voorhout Violet.

DSC_6237 copy.jpg

The guesses that were submitted to me were one Private Reserve, one Diamine not-Damson, and one Diamine Damson, which actually wasn't a guess, because they owned it already. No one mentioned Voorhout Violet.

The inks I had that were super close are as follows:

DSC_6241 copy.jpg

Interestingly enough, although Damson/Voorhout Violet does not appear very red-purple to me, it is clearly redder in tint than the other inks I have that look oh-so-very-close in real life.

Reprieve kindly provided the Damson for MI.

As always, thank you to everyone.

[rdcalhoon]

I had decided MI12 was very similar to but not quite Diamine Damson, which I thought was a bit darker and maybe a touch redder. This based on dip pen scribble and smear.

[necrotic]

Laura, thanks again so much for organizing these Mystery Ink episodes. It was fun to try this ink and to read everyone's experiences. I actually used this ink a lot more this week when writing Christmas cards. I think it's wetness (which had bothered me a bit before) is dependent on the ink and nib size. Writing in card stock with a fine nib, I had none of the drying time issues as before. Shows again the difference pen and paper make when evaluating ink. I definitely learned something. Thanks!

[millerwb]

40 ounces left! That was one big bottle! ;-)

I would find a good home in Texas for the forlorn ink remains, if even a small bottle, 1/2 full. You can PM me if still available and I can send some postage money.

[Jon Szanto]

Big thanks - as always - to Laura for propping up the creaky cart of Mystery Inks, and thanks to Reprieve for donating the ink. Something I would certainly never go after on my own, but always interesting. BTW, the sample page I made with 3 papers and four nibs has come in handy in other venues: I've gotten a lot of mileage out of it in the last week or so with new fp users, and showing them how one ink can look so different by virtue of non-ink things.

Yay Mystery Inks!

[Laura N]

40 ounces left! That was one big bottle! ;-)

I would find a good home in Texas for the forlorn ink remains, if even a small bottle, 1/2 full. You can PM me if still available and I can send some postage money.

Oh I'm sorry, but someone already claimed it. But thank you for offering! I'm sure it would have loved Texas.

[Crazyorange]

I had a feeling it was a diamine ink. Though I'm not a big fan of the ink, I like the fact it was close to other inks but not a match. Made for fun guessing. Thanks Reprieve for supplying the ink. . Thanks Laura for putting everything together.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I LOVED this ink. And I do not like dark purple inks. So this makes the second food-themed dark purple Mystery Ink that I enjoyed.

I have failed to guess correctly in all the trials, but this time I knew MI-12 was NOT Vivaldi, 'cause I have a sample.

Thank you, Laura!