I think I may have a problem

[KKay]

The list has been updated again, on page one. I am trying to decide about the Diamine-Amazing Amethyst. I have it on my approved list. But I think it may get taken off. It did great on my Pilot Prera F nib. But on the Collier F nib, it didn't seem to have enough lubrication. The color is very nice, and the shading is awesome in a wider nib. It does feather a little on printer paper, and even the Apica Premium, in the pooled up areas. It shades beautifully on Clairefontaine, and Tomoe River. I think overall it performs better on Clairefontaine. It looks better on Tomoe River. (most inks do, in my opinion) I am most likely going to take it off the list. I will probably decide this tomorrow, after looking it over again. I thought about R&K Cassia, but I don't think it will shade enough for me.

[KKay]

I've updated post 4, from page 1 of this thread. I have one friend locally who collects old fountain pens. He gave me a Sheaffer pen from the late 1940's, and some Sheaffer-Emerald Green ink. The ink is in the old style bottle. It had some rust in the lid. I am going to have to get that off of there somehow. The color of that ink is very pretty. I also tried the Sheaffer-Peacock. Both inks are very beautiful. Someone sent me the Yama-budo. (with a couple more as well ) I just got that in the mail today. I worked on that Sheaffer nib. The pen is a Sheaffer-Craftsman Touchdown. (vacuum filler) It has a black plastic body. (made from polystyrene I believe) I did quite a bit of work on the nib, and now it writes buttery smooth. I am trying to figure out how to get the minor scratches out of the body. The pen is very light, and I really like it. The nib writes better than all of my "new" pens.

Well I got the rust off as good as I could, from the Sheaffer ink lid. I used Simichrome first. Then I used the Miracle Cloth. It still has some discolored areas, but I don't think it is coming off. That ought to keep any rust from developing again, for a very long time.

[bluesea]

What great luck on the Sheaffer!

[KKay]

I don't know if you meant the pen, or the ink. But it was a very nice gift. He loves the old fountain pens the most. He has quite a collection. He bought a Waterman from somebody for a good price. The Sheaffer came along in the deal. I am not sure if that is the same person he got the ink from or not. Today he tells me he got a hold of some Sheaffer-Lavender ink. He put a new sac in the Sheaffer pen for me. My friend only uses fine nibs, as he and his wife both have small handwriting. The Sheaffer is a medium nib I believe. But with this wet ink in it, it seems very close to a broad. The tip of the nib looked like a piece had been snipped out of it. You could only see it, with magnification. Plus it was scratchy. It took a lot of work, but it was well worth it. The nib says 14K, and I've never used a gold nib before. It is not gold plated either, at least it doesn't say it, if it is. He bought two Watermans in a very close time frame. His wife got one, and he got one. I don't know the model. They both are gorgeous pens. The Sheaffer is a work horse. I could not believe how incredible it is to write with. Maybe it is the gold nib. Maybe the old pens do write better, I do not know. Maybe I just lucked out in the way I smoothed it. I think it took about 4-4.5 hours of working on that nib. I want to work the minor scratches off of the plastic, and get it glossy again. The nib is incredible, and the pen is very light, and extremely well balanced for me. It also posts very well too.

As far as the ink goes, it is such a lovely color. I am a green ink fanatic anyway. It did seem to have a bluish tint to it. When I first used the pen, the ink reminded me of Edelstein-Jade. Once I refilled it, it had a little more green look to it. Still the ink as old as it is, was still quite colorful, and you'd never know it was old. I do not know if rust fell in it. Tomorrow I will try to put a flashlight on the bottom of the jar, to see if I can find any rust sediment on the bottom of it. I thought about filtering it. But if I do that, it may take some of the pigment out, making the ink lighter. Maybe I could just use a syringe and pull out all the ink, and put it into another bottle, and then get rid of any rust that settled to the bottom. I think that might be the best option.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Those vintage Sheaffer pens are wonderful, and what a nice gift---including the re-sac!

Polishing the scratches....maybe someone in the repair forum would know?

[KKay]

I guess I didn't know there was a repair forum. I better go luck at it. Thanks for the recommendation Sailor.

[KKay]

Diamine-Claret and Diamine-Amazing Amethyst were culled from my approved list. Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-budo was put on the approved list. I am getting closer. I tried Diamine-Midnight, and it is very nice in a Japanese fine pen. I will have to try it in a wider pen before long. Mainly I have to go through some more turquoise samples. I have been doing sampling for four months now! I couldn't believe it when I checked the date, when this thread was started.

I decided Diamine-Sherwood Green had to go too. I like the Mont Blanc Irish Green better. I have 2 purples and 2 blues (on approved list), one of each will have to go. After that it will be very hard to cut my list. I still have more samples too.

[KKay]

Diamine-Grape was eliminated in the purple category. That means Diamine-Imperial Purple won the top purple spot. I thought I had two blues to choose from. But I found another blue sample I forgot I had. It is approved. But I will have to put the Midnight, and Majestic Blue in a wider nib, before selecting a blue. Sargasso Sea was tried in both a fine nib, and a wider nib. Slowly but surely, I am doing the final selecting.

[KKay]

I now have a blue. The Sargasso Sea was a gift from Naimitsu! I believe that makes the 16th color now in my possession.

[KKay]

I took Diamine-Majestic Blue off of my approved list. I like the color better than Midnight. I tried both in a wider nib pen. The Majestic Blue did great, up until the ink got low. Then it started acting up. Sadly I took it off the list. So at this point, Midnight is my second favorite blue ink. It does have some powerful pros, such as drying time. Plus it cleans much easier than Sargasso Sea. I just filled the pen with Midnight a while ago. Once I use it up, I will put the Sargasso Sea in that same pen. I have had other samples given to me. So my list will most likely change some more. I am not in a hurry, since I can't buy anything anyway. The Iroshizuku Yama-budo is still growing on me. I really liked it, but now that I have used it for a while, I love it. I think in the future, I will most likely get it. I also hope to get the Mont Blanc-Irish Green, and Faber Castell-Hazelnut. I am about ready to clean out a couple more pens. So more inks will be tested pretty soon.

[amandajacquie2]

Sounds like a big problem indeed.

[biscuit]

I took Diamine-Majestic Blue off of my approved list.

Too bad, Majestic Blue is a really nice color.

[KKay]

The problem is trying to keep my ink purchases from getting out of control. I had to narrow it down. For me the answer was posted in this thread. SAMPLES, lots and lots of samples. I had only planned to buy one blue ink, for example. But sometimes you have samples given to you, or you hear of another great blue...then you want to sample that too. Sometimes the list shortens, and other days another is added. I have whittled the list down to less than half. So yes, this thread is what helped me to accomplish that. I underestimated how beautiful some of these inks were. So I did not meet my goal of 12 inks. But I have found a way to not just buy whatever looked good at the moment. I have almost tried every color that was on my original list of wants. There is very little left to try from that list. I also had 3 bottles as gifts. I have bought samples, and people have given me samples. So I hope that helps explain it.

Sounds like a big problem indeed.

[KKay]

I took Diamine-Majestic Blue off of my approved list.

Too bad, Majestic Blue is a really nice color.

Biscuit, I know what you mean. It made me sad to cut that particular color. I loved it and that sheen was incredible for me. But I want an ink to perform for me extremely well too. That ink is what made me think I would possibly get more than one blue in the future. But the ink gave me some starting issues with the Pilot F. Then I flossed the nib, and it performed great. Then I put it in the Pilot CM, and it performed flawlessly up until the ink level was low. I reread reviews, and some mentioned clogging. I did move the pen around some, but didn't think it needed the same treatment as a Shimmertastic ink. I had several cases towards the end of that ink, where it momentarily would not write. I went back and looked at writing I did with that ink. I felt a pang of loss over that color. I wanted it, and that lovely sheen, but didn't want the clogging issue. In time I will probably be happy with that decision. I can make an exception for a gorgeous ink now and then. But there are too many that have great lubrication, flow, and no issues... so I had to be reasonable about it. That particular pen has not given me one tiny bit of trouble with ANY ink I've put in it, until I used the Blue Majestic. The Midnight has a little more flow, and has not given me any trouble yet. I already knew I loved the Sargasso Sea. So Midnight took the 2nd place spot for now. Recently I've had other blue samples given to me. (among other colors) I am still not finished testing turquoise out either. So I like to test an ink, before I invest. Now I am stuck with testing for the time being. There won't be any investing in any for an unknown time. That is sad. But at least when money does become available, I will be ready with my wish list. (or maybe I can hint at which inks I want to my family to get for a future birthday gift)

[KKay]

Okay I have completed the 3 blue ink tests, I have been working on a while. I came to no clear decision. Each of them had something I loved, and didn't love. So, I decided if I mixed all 3, and add a little water, I might get what I was looking for. I have the full bottle of Sargasso Sea, but didn't have much of the other two. (they were sample bottles, and I'd used a good bit of the ink in them) So I happen to have a large sample bottle, and decided I must try this. First I mixed Midnight blue with distilled water alone. Then I added it to the large sample bottle. Next I put in Majestic Blue, then finally I added the Sargasso Sea. I shook it all up, lightly. So 1/2 of the mix was Sargasso Sea, 1/4 was Midnight/distilled water, the last was 1/4 or close to that of Majestic Blue. It is very close to what I wanted, on Tomoe River paper.

I loved the color of Sargasso Sea, but don't like the staining, and hard to clean aspect. I also liked the little sheen it had.
The color and SHEEN of Majestic Blue was incredible. It had a little clogging issue. Once I emptied the sample bottle it was in, I saw it had stained that bottle badly.
Then comes Midnight. The color is nice, but not nearly as nice as the others. It has something they do not. It performed incredibly, with NO staining issue or clogging whatsoever. Plus it has good shading.
Add a bit of distilled water to dilute some of this high saturation, and maybe it will also help with clogging and staining issues. (a little better beats no better at all)

When I mixed this I found that Midnight seemed to totally disappear from the ink. The color was very nice, the flow was great, lubrication really good. The shading was good, not extremely high, but good enough. The sheen is there, but only shows good on Tomoe River paper. I already know how I'd tweak it, if I had more of the two blues I'm lacking. But I have plenty more of the mixture I made. I have enough ink to fill a pen several times.







So do realize I wrote slowly for the sample writing, which made more shading and sheen, then my usual/faster writing. The pen was a stub, and it has more flow then a western fine. My next try with this ink I've made up will be in a western fine. I would like a bit more sheen, and less distilled water. So I think adding a little more Midnight would be good, and more Majestic Blue would be good. Sargasso Sea is most likely a perfect ratio. If I can tweak this right, this will be my perfect blue ink. I will be looking at the converter in a while, to see if it is staining up. (I hope not) I also wrote with this on Triomphe paper. I saw no sheen. It had shading, but not nearly as much as the Tomoe River paper did. I also used this ink on printer paper, it did well. Very little shading and no sheen, but no bleeding either. So I never thought I would be mixing ink, but here I am...MIXING INK.

[Sailor Kenshin]

You can totally see the red sheen in that writing sample.

[KKay]

Sailor, yes you can. That is the Tomoe River paper. With that paper and pen, you could leave it as is, and maybe cut the water just a tad. It would be good as is. But I write faster, especially with cursive. That means less sheen, and shading. So with a western fine, I would probably need more Majestic Blue, but not a lot. I don't need extreme sheen, clogging and staining. So it will require a little more tweaking, to get it just right. But in the photos I provided, it is just about perfect, with that combination. (IF I write slow that is)

The sheen in the photos is a perfect balance that I am looking for. The color is just about right too. I am very pleased with my first attempt at mixing an ink, so far.

[Sailor Kenshin]

You went about the ink-mixing in a pretty detailed, scientific way. Impressive.

[KKay]

Thank you Sailor. I was trying to optimize the good things about each ink, and minimize the negatives. In order to have an overall outstanding ink for me, I had to cut back on some things I liked, in order to get a great ink. Each had things I loved. I would just increase the Midnight, but then the blue would be a bit too dark I think, even though performance would just go way up overall. If you add more Majestic Blue for sheen, you most likely will need to up the distilled water, to combat the negative aspects of that ink. The pictures above show a happy balance. (for me) I get shading, sheen, and performance...with this mixture. (and less staining) Also no hard starts, or clogging... With all of this in mind, this ink is a total win. It just needs a little more tweaking. I have already got my Edison Collier ready to go for it's test. That may make me rethink tweaking. I will update after I've tried this.


UPDATE: I put the ink in the Edison-Collier. It did very well in that pen. The shading is better in that one, than the stub nib previously. It shows shading much better on the better paper of course. It had very good shade on Triomphe paper. I saw maybe a tiny bit of sheen, but not good at all. But when I put that same pen and ink on the Tomoe River paper, it did outstanding. The shading, and sheen were exactly what I had hoped for. I will have to contemplate tweaking this at all. (except maybe a TINY bit less water) If this ink was to be used on less than good paper, you may want to make an adjustment. I will have to keep using the pen and ink, and see what I think. At this point I am more pleased than before. On Tomoe River paper, the sheen was much more pronounced, and exactly what I was striving for, with the western fine. (but definitely NOT overboard)

Clairefontaine showed great shading, with a very small amount of sheen.
Apica Premim had good shading, with no sheen that I could see.

This ink is perfect for Tomoe River paper with the western fine nib.

[KKay]

Diamine-Havasu Turquoise was added to the approved list. I think I may like Topaz just a little more. But is the money difference worth it? That is a good question. I only have one more turquoise sample to do, and that is Diamine-Blue Steel. I will test that one, when an appropriate pen gets cleaned. Just a few samples left now. I updated the list on page one.