Parker Penman Sapphire

[Prettypenguin]

I love the color, but my Duofold hated the Penman inks. Royal/cobalt blues are my favorite. I need to try all the different takes on it and see if they work better than the original in my pens. I liked your review, dneal.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I think it says a lot when an ink is known by just its initials.

I'm on the love side. I've shared out a lot of it over the years, and will doubtless continue to do so, but I try to always have at least one unopened bottle around.

I always thought that meant Post Post Script. 😉

[welch]

blue ink

Blue ink that glows.

[welch]

Nice blue ink

Great glowing blue ink that still surprises...and I have used it for about 15 years.

[karmachanic]

Scribe Indigo?

[dneal]

Reportedly that's the reissue, from the same Parker chemist/employee/whatever.

[Jon Szanto]

Scribe Indigo?

I've used it and it is a very good parallel ink, with actual roots in the development and making of PPS.

You know, PPS is one of those perennial topics that pops back up. This thread is from just a couple of years ago, and in it I have a comment that mentions an article (actually 2 parts, in two issues) that is an interview with the creator of the ink, which appeared in the PCA "Pennant" in 2020. Whether or not one or more influencers had anything to do with it, the Penman series was certainly seen as a 'high-end' ink at the time, and likely had it's own cachet right from the start. That the Sapphire is the one that has caught the most attention over the years is certainly due to it's visual aspects.

[DrPenfection]

Excellent review, dneal. Thank you for taking the time to do this. And I, for one, appreciate your methodology for reviews. I have never had the pleasure of having a bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire, although I would have thoroughly enjoyed it since it is one of my favorite colors. I have tried a bunch of others that are similar in color and even tried making my own.

Then I found Scribe Indigo.

As likely everyone here knows, Scribe inks were developed by Dr. Leighton Davies-Smith, one (or maybe the only) developers of Parker Penman inks. At least that is he told me when I reached out to him a few years ago. Very nice man.

I have purchased a couple of bottles and have found it to be excellent ink and very, very close to Sapphire in color. I have not had any problems with the Scribe ink that others have reported with the Parker Penman Sapphire (i.e. clogging). I also purchased the Garnet and Jamocha and love them both.

I would be interested in your comments on Indigo when you receive it, dneal.

Edit: It appears that Chrissy did a review on Scribe Indigo here on fpgeeks. https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...-Scribe-Indigo

[Jon Szanto]

...developed by Dr. Leighton Davies-Smith, one (or maybe the only) developers of Parker Penman inks.

Yes, I think it was pretty much his project at Parker.

[dneal]

I would be interested in your comments on Indigo when you receive it, dneal.

I got it maybe a week ago? It was already in the index, and Chrissy's review is thorough.

Bottom line, similar color and I agree with "not as concentrated" - but that could be due to age. It's another "close enough".

I've never had the drying up problem with PPS.

[bunnspecial]

Thanks for the great review!

This ink was discontinued when I was not quite yet a teenager(I think if the 2000 date is correct) and even though I knew of fountain pens, this sort of detail wasn't on my mind. I took a serious interest in FPs when I was in graduate school, around 2011/2012, and I heard of this ink, found out what it was, thought I'd like it, but spending that much on a bottle of ink even then was incomprehensible to my mind and paltry grad student stipend. I had a local source for PR inks, and after many suggested American Blue as a similar ink, I walked out with a bottle of that along with a Lamy 2000.

When I was fortunate enough to acquire a bottle of it a couple of years ago-at a not small cost-I fell in love. I've since had the chance to acquire several more bottles, several put back unopened but one "home" and one "work" bottle for use. I have enough that I've passed around the love and given a few samples here and there.

For me, though, one of the pure bliss FP moments is when I load a B nibbed 149 with it and just write. Actually to me it goes with one particular 149-the first one of the type I bought. Now my Italic Edge is loaded with it, which might be a bit too much for the pen, but oh well it's still fun.

So thanks again dneal for sharing your thoughts on this legendary ink.

[bunnspecial]

Re: the Scribe inks-

I bought the full set as soon as I learned of their availability. Learning just who Leighton was, I reached out to him and he offered a Zoom meeting. We spent an hour talking ink chemistry in general(which was the whole reason I wanted to pick his brain if he was willing), and actually not that much about the Scribe inks specifically. Among other things, though, we did talk about Solv-X

He did mention to me that Penman inks were really intended to be paired with the new Duofold. I love and use Duofolds, particularly the first gen ones, and if you have you know that they are notorious for dry-out thanks to the vent under the clip(my newest one-probably late 2010s production-lacks a cap vent).

He confirmed, however, that he'd intentionally formulated the Scribe inks to be less concentrated than their original Penman counterparts to make them less fussy. My experience is that it does seem to have worked, and my Duofolds seem to handle the Scribe inks better than they do Penman. With many of them, I don't notice a big difference compared to their Penman counterpart unless I'm looking side-by-side at writing samples. The only one to me where it's really noticeable is Emerald/Malachite, where Emerald can shade black out of a wetter pen(and on good paper) and Malachite just seems to hit a really dark green under the same conditions. If one really wants the black effect, there's a PR ink whose name escapes me that's pretty darn close although not quite a color match.

There's always a bottle of Indigo on my desk at home, and I use it without much thought. Penman gets a lot more careful consideration. I actually should order another bottle or two of indigo...

[Chrissy]

Visitors to the Space City Pen Club Zoom meeting were also treated to a talk by Leighton that included much about his Parker Penman series of inks that were originally designed to be used with modern Duofolds. I love the colour of PPS ink but think that now it's gone Scribe Indigo will easily fill the hole left in the market. At least for US buyers. I remain unsure about the availability of Scribe inks for International users.

[blopplop]

I've got an old partial bottle PPS. Gonna have to break it out now.

[USG]

I bought all the Penman inks when they came out. I still have some Penman Sapphire left in a bottle as well as some unused cartridges. I used it in my Pearl and Black Duofold. Never liked the color. Anyone who's had the real Penman Sapphire and has washed it out of a pen knows that it is a very saturated turquoise ink, which at the time was a big turnoff. I've mellowed over the years but never used up the bottle or the cartridges. Omas Roma 2000 was more to my liking. A lot of the writing samples I see around are not the original color, so there's that.

I have some pics but I can't get them to post.

IMG_3303 500.jpg

I didn't like the Green at all and never used it. I put it in the back of my ink drawer and forgot about it. This is what it is now.

IMG_3036 500.jpg

[Chrissy]

I bought all the Penman inks when they came out. I still have some Penman Sapphire left in a bottle as well as some unused cartridges. I used it in my Pearl and Black Duofold. Never liked the color. Anyone who's had the real Penman Sapphire and has washed it out of a pen knows that it is a very saturated turquoise ink, which at the time was a big turnoff. I've mellowed over the years but never used up the bottle or the cartridges. Omas Roma 2000 was more to my liking. A lot of the writing samples I see around are not the original color, so there's that.

I have some pics but I can't get them to post.

To post your pics from your computer go read FAQ^^^ Reading and Posting messages > Attachments and Images and use the Manage Attachments feature.

[USG]

I bought all the Penman inks when they came out. I still have some Penman Sapphire left in a bottle as well as some unused cartridges. I used it in my Pearl and Black Duofold. Never liked the color. Anyone who's had the real Penman Sapphire and has washed it out of a pen knows that it is a very saturated turquoise ink, which at the time was a big turnoff. I've mellowed over the years but never used up the bottle or the cartridges. Omas Roma 2000 was more to my liking. A lot of the writing samples I see around are not the original color, so there's that.

I have some pics but I can't get them to post.

To post your pics from your computer go read FAQ^^^ Reading and Posting messages > Attachments and Images and use the Manage Attachments feature.

Thanks, I'm getting the hang of it..

[Chrissy]

I have some pics but I can't get them to post.

To post your pics from your computer go read FAQ^^^ Reading and Posting messages > Attachments and Images and use the Manage Attachments feature.

Thanks, I'm getting the hang of it..

You certainly did. Great.

[TSherbs]

That's kyber crystal in that bottle.

[Chrissy]

If I had that bottle of Emerald "crud" I would be trying so hard to reconstitute it into decent ink.