Ink Review: Kobe #3 Sepia

June 23, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Sailor Kobe #3 Sepia
Pen: Kaweco AL-Sport (F)
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm
Shading: low to moderate
Saturation: high
Flow: wet
Dry Time: 11 seconds

I've not had the privilege of using any Sailor inks up to this point. When I discovered Ink by the Ml, that opened up an easy avenue to try some without spending on a full bottle that I wasn't sure I would like. I was drawn to the Kobe line from Sailor in all honesty by the name. Kobe, Japan is a place I've always wanted to visit, so the Kobe inks were the first ones I checked out.

Kobe #3 Sepia is a nice reddish-brown ink that flows exceptionally well. When I first inked it up and wrote with it, I had a tiny bit of water in my feed from a cleaning, and the ink came out a tad bit diluted. The diluted color matched my Anthracite AL-Sport perfectly, so I was a little sad when I realized that the ink was actually a much darker chocolate brown. I still love the color, but I think I might mess around with diluting it just to see if I can reproduce a shade that matches my pen.

#3 Sepia is a highly saturated ink, so there's not much in the way of shading, but it makes up for it in its smoothness and wet flow. Dry time isn't bad at around 11 seconds for a fairly wet-writing F nib. I didn't see any feathering or bleedthrough, though there was a little bit of spread.

Chromatography shows the ink to have some black, pink yellow and red in it. Very neat combo. The color is unlike any other I have currently, but it's lighter than El Lawrence, and browner than Green Gold. It shows up as a chocolate-brown in swab form.

I'm very impressed with Kobe so far. I can't wait to try more colors. I think I might go ahead and pick up a bottle of #3 Sepia just so I can play around with diluting. If you're interested in a bottle for yourself, Vanness Pens sells Kobe, or you can get a sample from Ink by the Ml.

Thanks for reading!
Lori

Ink Review: KWZI Iron Gall Green Gold

June 22, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

KWZI Iron Gall Green Gold
Pen: Kaweco BRASS Sport (F)
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm
Shading: low to moderate
Saturation: high
Flow: medium wet
Dry Time: 11 seconds

(*edit* I originally assumed Dav was a man but she very sweetly pointed out her gender to me when we spoke today. Thankfully she was more than forgiving of my mistake!)

KWZI was an ink brand that I'd not heard of yet until a friend told me about the website Ink by the Ml. If you've not heard of this site, please, take a moment and go check it out, I'll wait. Done? Awesome (you're welcome)! Dav is the woman behind the amazing site that offers samples from not-so-common (at least if you're in the US like myself) inks from around the world, and is a pleasure to deal with. Highly recommended! I immediately found several samples that I wanted to try, a few of which were from the KWZI brand.

KWZI is developed in Poland by a fellow named Konrad. He is a chemistry graduate and fountain pen user who'd been making inks for himself since 2012 - he wanted to increase the saturation of one of the inks, and his research eventually led to him developing his own line of inks for the public. His line features some of the most amazing colors I've seen. KWZI features colors that you just can't find elsewhere, some of which are Iron Gall that stray from the typical blue-black or Diamine Registrar's, or the blue or purple of Rohrer & Klingner.

I love the color green, and have found that I have a fascination with iron gall inks. Not because of the permanent properties, but because of the roots of iron gall ink and its history in our country and the world as the ink that many historical documents were written on. KWZI IG Green Gold is quite unique. The first thing you'll notice is that the ink is a very bright green when first laid down on the page - I liken it to Iroshizuku Chiku-rin. Immediately after you start writing, though, it will begin to oxidize before your eyes and turn a deep golden green color. It's amazing how fast the color changes. Before you can write out an entire sentence, the first words are starting to darken. This is starkly different than other iron galls I've used, (Registrar's & the R&Ks) as those don't darken nearly as much and do so over a much longer period of time.

IG Green Gold immediately after swabbing

Aside from the things that make it unique, IG Green Gold is a very nice, well-behaved ink. I find it to flow very nicely, and it doesn't feather at all on typical fountain-pen paper. It is highly saturated, so shading is only moderate at best, depending on how wet your pen writes. If you notice on my written review, my pen (a Kaweco with a less than desirable feed) was writing very dry until I did the ink splatter, so you can see a difference in the way a pen will write being dry vs. wet with this ink. Unintended, but it worked out! The ink has a fairly lengthy dry time at 18 seconds, though it was with a wetter writing nib that had been recently "primed."

The ink doesn't really compare to anything I've seen yet - hence why KWZI is such a draw to folks; but here are a few that are somewhat close. I find Diamine Safari is decently close, though not really comparable. KWZI's Green Gold (non-iron gall) is close, but still quite different.

Chromatography shows only greenish-blue, yellow and the faintest hint of grey. I'm curious as to whether that grey is due to the iron gall property, though I can't be certain. I let this one soak a bit too long so the greenish-blue is almost gone, but hopefully you'll get the gist.

Being an iron gall, I know you'll be wondering about ease of cleaning. I've had the ink in my pen for a little over a week now, and just flushed it with no issues. I'm not one to keep an ink in my pen for months, so I caution you to practice good pen maintenance with any iron gall ink that you use. I find them to be stubborn but not impossible even when I've left it in for a few weeks.

I highly recommend you check out KWZI if you can. The line has some great variety of color, with lots of uniqueness. Also check out Ink by the Ml - not affiliated with either, just a happy customer.

Thanks for reading!
Lori

Ink Review: Iroshizuku Ina-ho

June 20, 2015 by Lori Beck in Ink Review

Iroshizuku Ina-ho (Rice ear)
Pen: Lamy Safari (F)
Paper: Rhodia Dotpad 80gsm
Shading: high
Saturation: low to medium
Flow: wet
Dry Time: 9 seconds

I've had my eye on Iroshizuku Ina-ho for quite some time now. I always looked at it whenever I placed an order, but never got a sample. For some reason the color was different enough to draw my attention, and eventually I did break down and get a sample. I am very glad that I did.

Ina-ho or "rice ear" is a very unique ink. Its a pale brown color with some distinct gold tones and is an AMAZING shader. I would never have thought that I'd fall for a brown ink, but I really love this one. I love it so much that I may end up getting a full bottle.

Aside from it's awesome shading characteristics, Ina-ho has a great dry time at around 9 seconds from my Lamy F nib. Being an Iroshizuku ink, it flows very nicely and doesn't feather or bleed in the slightest. The ink really glides across the paper, which is a big draw for me.

Chromatography was very interesting for this ink. It has some blue, pink and yellow - if you're into easter colors, you'll love the chroma sheet!

You're getting some sneak previews of inks I haven't reviewed yet here, but Ina-ho compares closest to Noodler's Rome Burning as far as the inks I currently have. I haven't decided yet which one I like better, but I'm thinking Ina-ho will win out.

All in all, Ina-ho turned out to be a very pleasant surprise for me. I think I'll look into checking out more gold & brown ink colors. If you're interested in a bottle for yourself, you can get the full size bottle for $28, or a mini bottle (15mL) for between $10.50 or $14 at Vanness Pens or JetPens respectively.

Review: Cain Cigar Box Pen Case from BamaPens

June 19, 2015 by Lori Beck in Accessory Review

You may remember a little over a month ago when I reviewed my OSOK and Hoyo de Monterrey boxes from BamaPens. Shortly afterwards John reached out to me when he read on my review that he'd forgotten to put the rubber feet on my OSOK box. He immediately made it right and sent me some rubber feet in the mail to apply to my box. I was very pleased that he would go to the trouble of doing that, completely unsolicited by me.

In speaking to John at that time, I asked him if he happened to have any boxes like the ones he's sold Brad Dowdy with the glass top. A glass top box was what I'd really wanted as a nice display for my pens. He said he had exactly one left, and offered it to me with whatever color lining I'd like. He was also nice enough to offer a small discount as a returning customer, which I thought was an awesome gesture.

After about a week or so John emailed that he had completed my new box and sent it on its way to me. Just like last time, the packing was impeccable - it would have taken a small explosion for this thing to get damaged in transit. He also sent along another nice note with my purchase.

As much as I loved the OSOK box that I purchased from John, this is the one that I fell in love with. For the price, you can't beat this as a pen display box and it's got a bit of a rustic feel to it.

I noticed that the glass on the box was a bit scratched up, but I kind of expected that given that it's intended purpose was to house cigars. I'm sure the manufacturing tolerances on these things aren't the tightest when it comes to things like scratches and scuffs. The box has some nice stamped logos on the top and sides, which I really liked. The "Cain" logo itself kind of appeals to me.

The front of the box has a nice indention so that you can easily open the lid. The inside has 10 pen slots that John has covered in a nice black felt that I chose. He offers both felt lining and suede in various colors on his website. I really love the black lining in this box as it allows the pens to stand out. John also applies a foamy rubber sheet to the bottom to prevent the box from sliding around. I found it to work really well.

Once again I was very pleased with my purchase from John. If you're looking for storage and/or display boxes for your pens, I highly recommend you check out his website. If you're looking for something that's not on his site, be sure to shoot him an email because I've found that he has more in stock or readily available than he has time to list on his site.

Thanks for reading!
Lori