First real ink purchase

[sfeile]

I finally made a purchase that didn't consist of cartridges!
I did order a few replacement cartridges for my metropolitan, as the wife has laid claim to it now, but I made an order from Goulet Pens for myself. I loaded up some of the blue flame in my Scheaffer and it works great.

I've had the pen for a little while now, but have never used it. I bought it from an antique shop, and cleaned it up. That's as far as I got with it until today.
As far as I can tell, the pen is a non-white dot Scheaffer snorkel pen. Would put it between 1952 and 1959. The snorkel does not work properly, but the bladder and nib are just fine. Writes great, but it fills like any other pen instead of the fancy feature.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Nice, Shawn! Have fun getting to know the inks!

 

[sfeile]

Well, coming back to post that my new pen arrived, I realized that I actually misspelled the freaking title of all things.

I played around a little more with the blue flame last night. Mostly weird doodling, but I'm liking the ink so far. I notice I have to lightly shake the pen if it sits for a little bit, or all of the metal flake settles.

So, I have my new Platinum 3776 now! Going to load it up with grape I think to start with.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Well, coming back to post that my new pen arrived, I realized that I actually misspelled the freaking title of all things.

I played around a little more with the blue flame last night. Mostly weird doodling, but I'm liking the ink so far. I notice I have to lightly shake the pen if it sits for a little bit, or all of the metal flake settles.

So, I have my new Platinum 3776 now! Going to load it up with grape I think to start with.

View attachment 792181

I got you covered with the title.

Sweet! It looks nice!

When it comes to the "shimmer" inks, rolling the pen around in your fingers helps to keep the flakes from settling. Shaking the pen can result in ink flying out of the nib, which can lead to stains.

 

[sfeile]

I got you covered with the title.

Sweet! It looks nice!

When it comes to the "shimmer" inks, rolling the pen around in your fingers helps to keep the flakes from settling. Shaking the pen can result in ink flying out of the nib, which can lead to stains.

Thanks Erik!

And good tip, I will remember that.

 

[jovan]

Congrats on the numerous samples you received. IMO samples are best way to find your ink.

 

[sfeile]

So far I have just tried the two diamine inks. Neither one is smearing on my finger as I'm writing, so that is good.
(I'm left handed and mostly side write.) I've tried under-writing, but the way that I have to hold my pen makes under-writing uncomfortable.

 

[Prof. Moriarty]

Enjoy the inks Shawn

 

[sfeile]

So a little update on my thoughts so far.
I have only been scribbling, doodling, and writing some notes and random crap, but here are my uneducated impressions.

I still have the Diamine blue flame still in my scheaffer. I really like that combination. It is a really smooth flowing ink, and even with my small writing, it doesn't seem to flow together in my letters. I'm not sure if I have a medium or fine nib in that pen, but it is working well.

I tried a bit of the Diamine grape in my platinum. I liked that one quite a bit. Even with the ultra extra fine nib, it still flowed smoothly and the color went to the paper very well. No skipping, or missing spots at all that I noticed, but even being such fine lines, still had some nice shading to it.

After I ran the grape out and cleaned my pen, I put in some of the J. Herbin rouge hematite. This one I really wanted to like. I loved to orange color on the samples I saw, but it is looking a bit more on the red side. It also doesn't flow as smoothly from this particular nib, so it leaves it feeling a bit scratchy when I write. Does that make sense?

I still have some of the sample left, so I am going to try it again when I empty the scheaffer with the larger nib. I think it may work better in that one. I'm not going to "write it off" yet, (yeah, bad pun...) but it's not working as well as I hoped for the pen I was intending it for.

Now just to decide which one to try next.

Oh, and the other good news, is none of them have smudged with my writing style so far.

 

[sfeile]

Little revision to the last post.

Apparently the paper I was using the J. Herbin ink on does not pair well in the equation. I was messing around with it some more on a piece of printer paper that I grabbed and it is now the orange-ish color I was looking for, and it writes much smoother.

Going to have to get some good FP paper next income I think.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Good paper can certainly make a difference. That EF nib might be fickle with the Shimmertastic and 1670 inks. It's good that you're getting better results with different paper.

 

[sfeile]

On to some more samples.

I ran the Scheaffer dry. Cleaning that one is a bit of a pain in the butt... The bladder is surrounded by a plastic tube, which is fine, but the vacuum the bladder makes isn't exceptionally strong by any means. So repeatedly pulling enough water into it to make sure it is clean gets frustrating.
Re-loaded it with some J. Herbin pearl noir. In the Scheaffer, it goes on just a little wet for me. It wants to let my letters bleed just a little bit. Nothing major for someone with a normal writing style I wouldn't think, but since my writing is so small it has the potential to make it even a bit more messy. It may work better for me in a smaller nib.

I also ran the Platinum out of the rouge hematite. I don't like cleaning that one either haha. The reddish color just seemed like it took more effort to get completely cleaned out. I know cleaning is part of fountain pens, but this one made me paranoid it was going to stain the converter. I did manage to get it all out though, so all is good.
I re-loaded with some J. Herbin emerald of chivor 1670.
I like this one. So far I think this one and the Diamine grape are my favorites. The emerald is giving me a nice blue/green color with good shading even in the ultra extra fine nib. Has just a slight amount of shimmer to it. Not as much as the blue flame seemed to have, but it makes it just noticeable instead of in your face. Writes very smooth, and no bleeding or smearing so far.
I think there may be a full bottle of this one in my future.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

It sounds like you're having fun with the samples. Samples are your friends. Thanks, for the updates!

 

[CigarSmoka]

Thanks for the reviews so far, you're helping me pick some new ink samples to try out.

 

[sfeile]

I've been a little busy lately trying to help my dad, and getting stuff around so I can start trying my hand at smithing. Got my area and my anvil all set up now. Hopefully the forge in the next week or so.

I did finally run one of my pens dry and swapped to another sample. My platinum now has the Diamine merlot in it. This is a very smooth flowing ink. I'm really liking how well it performs in this pen. It seems to lean a bit more to the red/brown side than a red/purple that I would have preferred, but it isn't a horrible color at all.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

I've been a little busy lately trying to help my dad, and getting stuff around so I can start trying my hand at smithing. Got my area and my anvil all set up now. Hopefully the forge in the next week or so.

I did finally run one of my pens dry and swapped to another sample. My platinum now has the Diamine merlot in it. This is a very smooth flowing ink. I'm really liking how well it performs in this pen. It seems to lean a bit more to the red/brown side than a red/purple that I would have preferred, but it isn't a horrible color at all.

Best of luck with the smithing journey!

If you are liking Diamine inks, then you should check out Diamine Syrah. I think that it has more of that red/purple that you're looking for. I have a Platinum Preppy that's been converted into an eyedropper that I've had filled, and refilled, for the past year with Syrah.

 

[dangerousdon]

Dang Shawn...you are inspiring me to pull out my Metropolitan!

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Dang Shawn...you are inspiring me to pull out my Metropolitan!

 

[sfeile]

Dang Shawn...you are inspiring me to pull out my Metropolitan!

 

[Doc4]