Review: Maruman Mnemosyne Word Cards for Ink Swabs

March 21, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

As I got back into fountain pens, my ink obsession got quickly out of control. I plan on sharing inks with friends and family, and wanted to be able to show them the color without having to ink up the pen. I'd seen a couple other pen bloggers out there who use the Maruman Word Cards, so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon since I've yet to find anything else that didn't require me to hand cut larger sheet to keep them portable.

Funny enough, these cards are not meant for ink swabs despite how well they work for that purpose. They're actually designed for memorization. "Mnemosyne" is the personification of memory in Greek mythology. When you open up the Word Cards, the first card is a bright yellow stock that reads "Mnemosyne; The ancient Greek goddess of memory," along with some Japanese writing that I wish I were able to translate. From what I understand, kids in Asia have to memorize a lot of different language characters, so these are used extensively over there.

As far as the cards themselves, there are 100 cards on a ring which opens allowing you to move them around and organize as you wish. The paper is a watercolor stock that is toothy and not smooth, and is fairly thick. Surprisingly, despite the thickness, the whole ring of cards weighs next to nothing. I was actually surprised to see how big they were when I received them. The pictures online would have you thinking they are a lot smaller -- in my head I thought they would be about 50% larger than the keychain reward cards that you keep on your keys; but they are in fact about 4"x2". They really are the perfect size for ink swabs.

The ink on these is pretty close to its color on regular paper. It tends to be a tiny bit duller than ink would appear on a Rhodia or Clairefontaine page as they're a bit more absorbent. Though, for my purposes - and likely most ink catalogers - they are just fine.

Pretty accurate representation of the ink color

Maruman makes a lot of other paper products that play well with fountain pens. I'm liking these so far for a quick glance to show someone an ink color, or to look back for my own reference, so I definitely recommend them. I picked mine up for $4.45 on JetPens.

Pen Review: Pilot Metropolitan

March 19, 2015 by Lori Beck in Pen Review

Ink: Noodler's Nightshade
Paper: Rhodia dotpad 80gsm
Pros: Inexpensive, comes with a converter, weighted well, SMOOTH nib, several color options
Cons: Grip is a tad thin

The Pilot Metropolitan has become a household name in the pen world. At $15 including a converter, you would wonder what the catch is. Really, there is none. I would venture to say this is one of the best, if not THE best fountain pen for newbies.

The Metro is not at all cheap feeling; the barrel is made of brass, giving it a great weight and balance in the hand, unlike nearly every sub-$20 pen. That is not even the best part of the Metro; what will surprise you most is the nib. This nib is buttery smooth. You'll be hard pressed to find a nib this smooth on a sub-$30 pen. In fact, I own some fairly expensive pens that aren't nearly this smooth. The medium nib compares well to most 0.7mm gel pens - a Japanese compares to a German fine like what you would find on a Lamy.

Some folks have an issue with the grip section of the Metro. It is a little thin for long writing sessions, but for me that is easily overlooked. I use the pen for more of a workhorse pen that I can throw in a bag, and don't tend to write long sessions with it.

All in all, the Metro is a must-have for fountain pen fans. For veterans it's a great throw around workhorse pen, and for beginners it's a low cost, high quality introduction to fountain pens.

Note - if you don't care for Pilot's "cleaning converter" that comes with this pen - $5 will get you their Con-50 twist converter, which I like much better. Also, if you like a stub nib, the Pilot Plumix stub nib will fit the Metropolitan.

Ink Review: Diamine Oxblood

March 17, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Diamine Oxblood
Pen: TWSBI Mini EF
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm

The name "Oxblood" certainly fits this ink. It is a deep red with hints of brown, which gives it a dried blood look. It's very popular among fountain pen users, and rightly so. It's well well behaved on my Rhodia pad, no feathering or bleedthrough. There is some minor bleedthrough on standard copy paper, but even with that, the feathering is minor for cheap paper.

When I was deciding whether or not to get this ink, I was toying with whether to get Oxblood or Diamine's other popular deep red ink, Red Dragon. I grabbed a couple sample vials from Goulet Pens to compare. The two inks are very similar, but Oxblood has more brown tones, while Red Dragon is a true, deep red. Oxblood has fairly low shading, though there is some, while Red Dragon had practically none. Though I loved Red Dragon, I ultimately chose Oxblood to buy a full bottle of because it had more character on the paper. Keep a look out for a review of Red Dragon soon!

An 80ml bottle is $12.95 from Goulet Pens or a similar retailer. Definitely worth adding to your arsenal - it has been my favorite red so far.

Thanks for reading!

Ink Review: Noodler's El Lawrence

March 16, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Noodler's El Lawrence
Pen: Lamy Safari EF
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm

As much as I love a good black ink, I am a fan of "non-traditional" black inks. Noodler's El Lawrence falls into that category. Noodler's (read Nathan Tardiff) is famous for creating inks with lots of different properties or characteristics, which is why I am such a huge fan. El Lawrence is a part of the UK series of inks and is based on Lawrence of Arabia. The bottle features a photo of him on his famous motorcycle - another cool label by Noodler's.

The ink essentially looks like used motor oil - when spread across the page, it is dark "dirty" brown, which I think is very cool. I wrote this review using my Lamy EF nib, which still writes a very thick line - so unfortunately the brown doesn't stand out quite as nice as it would in some dryer pens. The ink behaves very well on my Rhodia pad, no feathering or bleeding. Shading is minimal, if there's any at all, which is typical of a lot of Noodler's inks. I'd heard people say this ink isn't well behaved, but I have yet to experience that at all.

El Lawrence on a paper towel - Definitely a used motor oil look

I will definitely be using this in my regular rotation. A bottle from Goulet Pens or a similar vendor is $12.50 for a 3oz bottle.

Thanks for reading!