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View Full Version : Just received a bottle of Hero #232 Blue-Black by mistake. It's an IG ink!



mhosea
January 31st, 2014, 09:53 AM
I know that a lot of FP users in the US may be familiar with Hero inks, but I wasn't. Recently, I became aware that some Hero inks have become readily available at still quite low prices on ebay (which is to say, at a small multiple of their price in China), and being a blue ink kind of guy, I ordered #233 Blue to see what it was like. What I received was #232 Blue-Black. I didn't notice until I started writing with the ink. The rapid change from blue to dark blue-black was unmistakable, so I checked the bottle and realized that they sent me the wrong ink.

I don't have a lot of experience with IG inks. I bought ESSRI and eventually stopped using it because it was too dry for me (and because it coated the sample vial I was filling from, rather than directly from the bottle, with a tough black precipitate). This ink appears to be much like ESSRI but possibly less dry and more lubricious. Having only tried it in one pen as yet, I cannot be sure. I inked a old steel-nibbed Eagle Pen Company pen that was sitting on my desk at work, clean and dry, and it happens to be a nice smooth and wet writer, so I will have to try the ink in other pens. Be that as it may, my initial reaction, other than not being particularly fond of the color, is quite favorable. In this pen it seems wet and lubricious enough. As expected, a rinse test showed very little ink movement, probably just a bit of residual blue dye, only enough to create a faint bluishness around the still dark letters. There is some shading with this pen, both on FP-friendly paper and on a regular Mead spiral notebook (somewhat absorbent but not too bad).

So, I presume IG ink lovers will want to try this ink if they haven't already.

I wouldn't normally cross-post to FPN, but not much is said about this ink, so I will make an exception in this case.

Dreck
January 31st, 2014, 11:44 AM
Good to know. Hitherto I had been more of a Black or Brown ink kind of guy, but I ordered a sample of Chesterfield Archival Vault on a whim and fell in love with IG. Since much of my writing occurs in my gradebook, I prefer a fine nib with a fairly dry ink, & IG seems to fit the bill. Since recently rediscovering fountain pens, I am always looking to increase my knowledge and experience base.