Mystery Ink No. 3

[Laura N]

It's hard to believe -- with Mystery Ink No. 2 still going strong -- but it's time to start thinking about another round.

Are there any volunteers for Mystery Ink No. 3?

If you’ve seen the prior thread, you'll know that the wonderful klpeabody and I are once again looking for ink fans (aka guinea pigs) who would be willing to evaluate an unknown ink sample and write about their impressions here.

As before, it’s mostly for fun, and to try something a little “outside of the box,” but it’s also an experiment. Looking at our own ink purchases, we wonder if we don’t approach a new ink with preconceptions based on marketing, brand, scarcity, internet hype, comments by reviewers, photos or scans, etc. And color — in the first thread lots of people mentioned that Mystery Ink No. 1 wasn’t a color they normally like. But we hope it was fun to try something one would never otherwise sample. And so on.

As before, this is not intended as any sort of test, or to see who can guess the ink. In fact, we would like everyone to refrain from stating any guesses about the ink’s identity, to preserve the fun for others who might receive the ink later. We just want to see what people think about an ink with no preconceptions at all.

Here’s what we will do: We’ll send, at our expense, a standard size sample (about 2-3 ml) of the same unidentified ink to five or six members who think it would be fun. It won’t be an ink that’s been implicated in any possible pen-eating problems. But any ink is used with some risk, and so we would counsel normal discretion, as when testing any new ink. Any ink might not like a particular pen. Any ink might stain. So, as always, no ivory celluloid pens.

If you’d like to participate, please post here. Please let us know why you’d like to get the mystery ink. And if it’s not in your profile, please tell us where you live (just the state or country) so we can pick a diverse slate of participants and figure out mailing times. We are aiming for perhaps five or six participants.

It does not matter if you received Mystery Inks No. 1 or 2, or if you’ve never done this before. It doesn’t matter how many inks you’ve reviewed. What matters is you want to do this one. That you think it's fun. That you like to chat online. Everyone has insights to offer. Everyone is welcome. Our only “rule” is that if you participate, we’d like you to put the ink into use relatively quickly and agree to contribute your reactions and impressions to this thread. You don’t need to write a formal or lengthy review at all — just a conversation. Photos or scans are very welcome, and we think they really added to the discussion of the first two inks. Take a look at the first thread to get an idea of how people have been participating if you're not sure how it goes.