Ink Review: Pelikan Edelstein Ink of the Year 2017: Smoky Quartz

[Chrissy]

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Today I’m reviewing a sample of the latest Pelikan Edelstein Ink of the Year for 2017 Smoky Quartz

Smoky Quartz is an unusual brown ink.
When you first write with it you can see that it’s an earthy, olive brown, although when it’s completely dry it seems to exhibit just a little more red.
I found it was a nicely wet ink that had really good flow and lubrication while I was writing with it.
I didn’t see any spread or feathering on most of the papers I tried it with.
With broader nibs it looks much darker.
It showed through on some of the papers I used. See the pictures.

Smoky Quartz is nicely saturated, especially with my M nib. It exhibited some shading with the M nib in my Pilot Capless or VP. I didn’t see any sheen.

I found it behaved very well, and I really like it. I didn’t experience any clogging or clean-up problems with it. In fact clean-up was very easy. It washes off hands with soap and water.

It exhibited good water resistance.

I found it difficult to compare Smoky Quartz with other brown inks that are similar. Many of those that I have are either darker or lighter, with more red, or more grey. The closest ink that I found to match Smoky Quartz is Noodler’s Walnut. So for those of you who really like that colour, but might prefer a different brand, Smoky Quartz is my recommendation.

It has a really interesting chroma that shows a mixture of several dyes including grey, blue, orange and yellow.

• This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but it shows good water resistance.
• Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used a M nib, this ink dried after 16 seconds.
• No smear after dry.
• It has good flow and I found it smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.
• It is available as a limited edition in either 50ml glass bottles or standard international cartridges.

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