“Flaneur” is easily my new favorite word…
From around the web this week…
And a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to ya whether you’re Irish or not.
Note that the sidebar was updated in the calligraphy section this past week. A big thank you goes to Kate Gladstone for some fine suggestions.
Just a few but they are good ones…
Nathan Tardiff, grand master of the Noodler’s realm, never ceases to invent new colors and types of inks. For that he deserves the highest marks. But the colors that have been around for years are no less worthy of note. Dick Egolf of Luxury Brands USA kindly sent three fan faves for review. What could an inkophile do but accept the opportunity and set to work.
The trio includes Beaver, Purple Martin, and Tiananmen. Brown, purple, and red are workhorse colors so they were easy to incorporate into my rotation. My Levenger True Writers leapt at the opportunity to test new inks and away we went.
Noodler’s Inks Meet Levenger True Writers
Fair warning that my scanner lamp is dimming so colors are not as they should be. For better color renditions, go to NoodlerInk.com.
Noodler’s Beaver, Purple Martin, Tiananmen
These are clean, saturated colors. No dramatic shading or other exotic properties but the flow is especially well-suited to a fine nib on smooth paper. The True Writers were perfect mates especially on Rhodia Bloc No 16 paper. My Apica 6A10 daily journal was a good match, too. There was a small amount of feathering on Staples (pineapple) bagasse paper and in a Mead composition book with Tiananmen. Moleskine performed as expected. The full-sized image of the Mead composition book shows feathering with a number of inks. Caveat emptor on that one.
Noodler’s Ink Test On Rhodia Paper
Noodler’s Ink Test On Staples Bagasse Paper
Noodler’s Ink Test On Moleskine
Mead Comp Book Ink Test
Should you be as silly as I was this past month and forget that Beaver was in a pen that got no use, well, it might not start up instantly. All it took was priming the flow to get it back on track. No damage noted.
My three-pen leather case stocked with these new friends and a pad of paper would carry me through any day. Brown for work, purple for personal notes, and deep red for edits that don’t scream. Now if I could just find that pen case…
This may be a first. Every link is pen, ink, or paper related. Aficionados, indulge…
Matching ink to pen to paper can be a long process and one that never ends. If this doesn’t convince you, nothing will. The sample below was started at least five years ago so rest assured I did not have 51 pens inked at the same time. Mind you that would be a lot of fun but even for me that’s over-the-top. My absolute upper limit was thirty during a heavy testing phase and it is not likely to get repeated. Well, at least not any time soon.
The stationery is Original Crown Mill Cream Laid from a close-out several years ago at Kate’s Paperie. The cream color has influenced the inks and given most of them an appealing warmth. The scans are unretouched so do not take the colors as accurate. What you can see is ink performance relative to the pen and texture of the paper. J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche with a Sailor 1911 fine is especially attractive but many others are lovely, too.
J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche on Original Crown Mill Stationery
None of this is condemnation of any pen and ink duo. Those that did not perform well on this particular paper, do perform well elsewhere. But keeping a running record, reminds me which ones not to use in future. With a good flow of ink, Crown Mill does take forever to dry so be prepared to wait and wait and wait.
G. Lalo is another laid paper that is good with fountain pen ink as you can see in my review from 2009. Both brands of paper do best with a fine nib but there are exceptions like the two Mike Masuyama custom nibs with Noodler’s Ink in Beaver and Golden Brown.
My Original Crown Mill came in a box of 100 sheets and envelopes but these days comes in a pad of 50 sheets. The paper may have changed in the ensuing years and remarks on FPN and other websites indicate that it is currently more friendly to fountain pen ink.
Crown Mill can be found at Goulet while G. Lalo is available from a variety of sources including Kate’s Paperie and European Paper. Even my local art store carries it, not that I will need more stationery any time soon.
Warning: Click the images at your own peril. They are humongous!
Original Crown Mill Laid Paper Test Page 1
Original Crown Mill Laid Paper Test Page 2
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Inkophile
