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Roefisher
October 1st, 2013, 11:44 AM
Hello folks,

While it's always great to read ink reviews and see pictures on the Internet, I think that I'd enjoy having my own ink samples down on paper at home.

I just tested a few minutes ago and I had more than enough ink from collecting the drops on the bottle cap to swab with a cotton bud and put a good example down on paper. But how do you go about a handwriting example - or should I just not bother with that?

If it is better to have a short writing demonstration, do you just use a normal fountain pen then clean afterwards or do you have any tips or advice to do it some other way?

Thank you,

Mark

Laura N
October 1st, 2013, 11:59 AM
Swabs are nice, but using the ink to write does tell you more. I've used a dip pen, and I've used a fountain pen. The dip pen is faster to ink up and to clean, but the fountain pen will give you a truer idea of the color and more importantly the behavior (wet or dry, feathering, etc.). If you keep an ink sample book, you can just leave space for writing a sentence, or cross-hatching, or whatever you prefer, and then fill that in when you ink up a pen.

If you use the same type of pen to test your inks, that's even better for comparing different inks down the line. Back when I was testing a number of ink samples, I'd use a Lamy Safari, but it could be any pen.

Laura N
October 1st, 2013, 01:43 PM
I can only speak for myself, but I do fill the pen with ink, not just dip it. I want to see how the ink works, not just how it looks. Of course, if you have a huge haul of samples, it probably helps to use a dip pen to make the first cut.

I prefer a dip pen to dipping a fountain pen only for ease of cleanup. You can usually find an inexpensive Brause calligraphy set at an art store. Even a Speedball would work, if you have a wider nib. But dipping your fountain pen also works, of course. No need for extra equipment. :)

AndyT
October 1st, 2013, 03:16 PM
I'm another dip pen user, but have to agree with Laura that it can be deceptive. It's not a bad approximation of a flex pen, but the saturation tends to be greater than you'll get with most stiff nibbed fountain pens. What I haven't tried but which might work rather well thinking about it is a fountain pen nib in a dip pen holder - it's the tipping which spreads the ink out to the stated line width so very likely the saturation would be more realistic.

One other sampling method which I think is more valuable than a straight swab is what Stephen Brown refers to as the Tardif test. In case you haven't seen it, it's just a matter of dipping something like a knife into the ink and spreading it out a bit. If there's shading to be had, that shows it off better than anything else.

ac12
October 1st, 2013, 08:33 PM
I find a swab only useful to tell me the general color.

The ink will look quite different out of a pen, putting down a thin ink line, vs. the big swabbing patch.

The other thing is the pens wetness will also affect how the ink line looks. I have 2 pens with the same ink, but one puts down a darker ink line than the other. The darker ink line is from a WET pen.

Another factor is the nib size. I find that lighter inks look even lighter out of a narrow F or XF nib vs a wide M nib. Blue ink that looks nice out of a M nib, looks very weak out of a XF nib. I had to switch the XF nib pen to black ink, as none of my blue inks looked good out of that pen.

A sample of the ink line from each pen would be useful to see the characteristics of that pen. Then you could extrapolate that to the ink from another pen.

fncll
October 1st, 2013, 10:43 PM
I always use the same dip pen---a Ranga ebonite dip pen with a feed---as well as a swatch using a cotton swab. I keep all of the samples in the great little Mnemosyne books, which seem tailor-made for this purpose: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/9645578123/ !

The Good Captain
October 2nd, 2013, 02:53 AM
For some time now, I've been using a couple of Lamy Safaris to do my ink samples for scanning. I just dip them and use a rubber bulb to flush the nib and section out, between inks. Seems relatively successful, and give a reasonably accurate 'impression' of how the ink might look when actually filled. Recently I've started to use a small paintbrush to do 'swab' tests. I load the brush so it's fairly wet then do four or five small swabs on the paper, so they are getting progressively paler. Seems to work but there is no substitute for a written line to show ink's colour and behaviour.

Jeph
October 2nd, 2013, 07:35 AM
When I did this for myself, I used a TWSBI 580 with both the EF and 1.5mm nibs. As has already mentioned, nib sizes as well as induvudual pens (you can add paper and lighting as well) do make a difference to what the ink looks like. I think a couple of dip pens would give a pretty good representation. My biggest problem with using the TWSBI was gettnig all of the water out in between colors. But I liked being able to see how the ink would feed and clean and a dip pen or simply dipping a FP will not yield that information. It all depends on what you want to get out of your samples. WIth an infinite amount of time and equipment to possibilities are endless.

KrazyIvan
October 2nd, 2013, 08:41 AM
I fill several pens with the ink and have a notebook for testing. The nibs range from fine to 1.1 mm. I get a better idea of how the ink will react to different nibs.

Roefisher
November 24th, 2013, 06:23 AM
Been a while since my previous posts :( but I have been into my pens and all things stationery since and getting my handwriting back up to scratch.

I spent a day sorting out my inks and making a few colour/writing samples. As others have said, it does indeed take a writing sample to get a nice idea of how the ink will perform compared to a swab. I used a glass pen and it was wonderful to see how different inks performed with it. There were a few inks which really don't like these pens and just about stubbornly refuse to load while others load easily to write and write :)

Main thing is, I have a useful reference here at home for my ink and it's handier than looking at the bottles on a shelf, then trying to pick one!

Cheers again for the earlier help - much appreciated!

Mark

kaisnowbird
November 24th, 2013, 07:39 AM
Every time a pen gets inked and enter into my daily carry, I make a quick entry in my bullet journal. Just the name of the pen and ink combo. Over time, I can easily go through my bullet journal and see all my ink writing samples over time.

jde
November 24th, 2013, 10:11 AM
Every time a pen gets inked and enter into my daily carry, I make a quick entry in my bullet journal. Just the name of the pen and ink combo. Over time, I can easily go through my bullet journal and see all my ink writing samples over time.

This is what I do as well. Often I have pages for specific shades. I often use favorite lines from poems to write out for the journal. Over time I get to see what different nibs look like with the same inks.

I'm in the camp that feels swabs are not helpful. Although they are pretty.

jacksterp
December 6th, 2013, 08:41 AM
I like swabs. I like writing samples. I like ink.

For me, swabs are a truer indication of ink color and samples are an indication of behavior.

It seems difficult, to me, for either or both to really determine how an ink will work (or not) in your specific pen(s) until you put it in each pen.

everybodylovesbacon
December 6th, 2013, 10:21 AM
I always use the same dip pen---a Ranga ebonite dip pen with a feed---as well as a swatch using a cotton swab. I keep all of the samples in the great little Mnemosyne books, which seem tailor-made for this purpose: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/9645578123/ !

What a fantastic idea! I need to order one of those now. Thanks for sharing.

VertOlive
December 21st, 2013, 08:25 PM
I'm happy that I started an ink journal right with the first sample I ever got. The journal is not so sophisticated, just a dot grid notebook with an entry for each sample. The name of the ink, some squiggles and crosshatching, a snippet of writing are what I enter.

Now I can look back and have at least something to compare as I search for the perfect blue, brown, red or whatever.

Besides, it makes me feel so satisfyingly geeky!

Runnin_Ute
December 29th, 2013, 06:50 PM
Name of the ink & pen/nib - normally in cursive which is what I write in most. Sometimes I cross hatch or something as well. I do each time I fill/change color in a pen. Often I will date the page it is on.