Ink Review: Rohrer & Klingner "Scabix" (1:1 Scabiosa & Salix Mix)

April 10, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Rohrer & Klingner "Scabix" (1:1 Scabiosa & Salix Mix)
Pen: Pilot Custom 74 F
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm

I was perusing Instagram one day, and came across a post by Brad Dowdy of an awesome greyish, blue-purple ink. I didn't recognize the color, but I was in love with it nonetheless. After I finally caught up on the Pen Addict podcast, I discovered this was Brad's "Scabix" mix - equal parts Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa and Salix.

Both Scabiosa and Salix are Iron Gall inks. Iron Gall ink is made from iron salts and tannic acids from vegetable sources. They are typically blue, purple, black or brown in color and have a high level of permanence. The ink is slightly acidic, making many folks worry about damage to their pens; however, modern Iron Gall is FAR less corrosive than vintage iron gall inks. A true vintage Iron Gall would destroy a pen very quickly. In modern pens, modern Iron Gall ink will not do damage so long as you practice normal pen maintenance.

One of the coolest things about Iron Gall ink is that once the air hits it, it begins to oxidize and changes color slightly, giving it a slight greyish tone. Don't worry, it won't change dramatically; it just gives the ink some character. Scabix (or, Saliosa if you prefer!) is a perfect mix of a blue-black ink and a grey purple. It gives a vintage feel, which I really like - makes you think back to the inks that our constitution, or other significant documents were written with. Scabix has fairly quick dry time, and behaves amazingly well, even on cheaper paper.

Scabiosa and Salix by themselves are great inks as well - keep an eye out for reviews of them soon! You can grab a bottle of both Salix or Scabiosa at Goulet or a similar vendor for $12.00.

Ink Review: Noodler's Operation Overlord Orange

April 08, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Noodler's Operation Overlord Orange (V-Mail Series)
Pen: Lamy Safari EF
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm

Operation Overlord Orange is one of several vintage inspired inks from Noodler's V-Mail series. The V-Mail series of inks have a very interesting story behind them. In 2011, Noodler's obtained some sealed, viable bottles of ink with dates on them ranging from 1939 to 1945. Most of the bottles had very patriotic labels on them, and referenced the term "V-Mail" which originates from around WWI. Nathan Tardiff reverse engineered these inks to create his V-Mail series.

There's something really awesome about using a vintage inspired ink. The fountain pen itself is a "vintage" tool that inspires nostalgia in its own right, but adding a vintage ink to the mix takes you back to times when no one thought of computers, phones, tablets and text messages. There's something really great about that. Op. Overlord Orange isn't the flashiest color out there; it's subdued and has minimal shading, but the story behind it certainly makes up for that. I've read a lot of somewhat harsh reviews on this ink, but I found that I really enjoyed it. The shade of orange is perfect for writing; not too dull and not melt-your-retinas bright. It behaves well on Rhodia and other FP-friendly papers, though it does feather a bit on cheaper paper.

The bottles are just as interesting as the story behind the ink - they have a cream-colored label with Royal Airforce planes silhouetted on them. Very minimalistic, but very appealing.

I'll be anxious to get ahold of some more of the V-Mail series inks to review. If you are interested in trying them yourself, you can pick them up from Goulet or a similar retailer for $12.50.

Ink Review: Noodler's Air-Corps Blue Black

April 06, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Noodler's Air-Corps Blue Black
Pen: Lamy Safari EF
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm

Noodler's Air-Corps Blue Black caught my eye very early on as a very interesting green/blue ink. I tend to avoid blue inks for whatever reason - I'm still not sure why - but I do love blue-black inks. Air-Corps Blue-Black is a bit closer to a green-black than a blue-black, but if you squint at it on paper, it'll kinda jumps back and forth between the two. That phenomenon is one reason that I really love this ink.

Being as dark as it is, ACBB has very little shading, though that doesn't take away from its character. It's a great ink for the professional environment; it's subdued, but different enough than your typical blues and blacks. It behaves well on my Rhodia pad, with no feathering, bleedthrough or ghosting. Cleaning from my Z24 converter was a breeze, though I will say I didn't have the ink in there for too long.

I highly recommend this ink, especially if you are like me and like inks that stray from the "norm." You can pick up a bottle from Goulet or a similar vendor for $12.50.

Nib Tuning by Pendleton Brown

April 03, 2015 by Lori Beck in Pen Review

After hearing tons of people rave online about how awesome their Lamy 2000s were, I decided that would have to be my next big pen purchase. So I grabbed one from Goulet Pens and excitedly inked it up only to find, like many people, that my nib was horribly scratchy. In addition to the scratchiness my EF nib was writing more like a M - very bold for my taste. I debated sending it back to Goulet, but knowing that most Lamy 2000 EF nibs have these types of issues, I knew that would likely result in a new EF with the same problem. So I decided to look into some nibmeisters.

Brad Dowdy over at The Pen Addict had good success with his 2000 from Mike Masuyama. I shot Mike an email and he let me know that he was about 11 weeks backlogged. As much as I wanted to have my pen worked on by him, I just didn't want to wait that long. I considered Richard Binder as well, but I'd heard that "Binderized" nibs were notoriously overly wet and wider than what they should be, so that scared me off a little. Then I remembered Pendleton Brown's name being mentioned on some of the Goulet Q&A videos, so I went over to his website and saw tons of great information on his services and pricing. I shot him an email and had a response in a couple of hours.

Pendleton explained that the Lamy 2000 EF nib has so little tipping on it because the iridium is more expensive than gold right now. In his words, "they are practically 'painting' the F and EF nibs with 'iridium' right now." Despite that, Pendleton was confident he could get my nib working much better; so I dropped it in the mail to him and requested that he put it in the expedited queue.

Just a few days later, I had an email in my inbox from PB letting me know my pen was finished. He sent some awesome pictures of him writing with it, all adorned with the distinct PB smiley faces.

I PayPal'd him my payment and it was in my hands two days later. I opened up my pen, gave it a quick cleaning, and loaded it up with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrun. The first stroke on the page was like using a whole new pen - the overly wet, bold line was now a nice EF/F line, and the scratchiness was better.

Though the scratchiness is markedly better, there is still some "tooth" to it. I mentioned this to PB and he replied that light force is best when using the Lamy EF & F nibs. I admittedly have a fairly heavy hand when I write, though I don't feel like I push down like I would with a gel pen. I also noticed that the act of writing sometimes caused the nib tines to misalign - I asked PB if that is a common thing with these Lamy nibs, and he said he thought that the nib could be sliding around as I write and that he could fix it free of charge if needed. In all honesty, I was not ready to send my new pen back off to be worked on again - I've been dying to use it all week. It's also not as bad as I'm probably making it sound as I write this - it's still a very great writing pen, and not at all a displeasure to use. So I plan on using it for a while and if I have any further issues with it, I'll drop it back in the mail to PB. Despite the headache this pen has caused me up front, I still consider it my 2nd favorite pen, next to my Pilot Custom 74. Keep an eye out for a full review soon!

All in all, I am very happy with Pendleton's service - he is very professional, realistic, informative and always took the time to wish me a good week or a blessed day. I will most certainly utilize him in the future for nib work. His prices are very reasonable - $45 for general smoothing/adjustment, and an additional $20 to expedite.