Author: Wei

Lennon Tool Bar Ganlan on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 19 October 2021
No Comments on Lennon Tool Bar Ganlan on Rhodia

Ink

Lennon Tool Bar is a Taiwanese company founded in 2014. Their focus is on producing and promoting the craft of indigo dying. Then they started producing fountain pen inks, and were known for their beautiful blue inks.

Ganlan is an ink from Lennon Tool Bar’s Indigo Series. On Shigure Inks website, it is described as a dark blue colour mixed with a tinge of reddish shade. Based on the description, you might think the ink leans a little purple because red + blue = purple. I didn’t notice any red or purple in normal writing, but the ink is less blue than some other blue inks. This is a lovely colour which (in my opinion) looks better on white-coloured papers.

In writing, this dark grey-blue ink has a wet flow. There is shading and no sheen. On Rhodia paper, there is a tiny bit of feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Lennon Tool Bar Hard Rime on Midori MD

Post author By Wei
Post date 16 October 2021
No Comments on Lennon Tool Bar Hard Rime on Midori MD

Ink

This ink colour inspired by the look of hard rime freezing on the leaves of coniferous trees. Having spent all my life in a place without seasons, I have no idea what hard rime means. From Wikipedia, rime is a type of ice that “forms when supercooled water liquid droplets freeze onto surfaces”. Compared to soft rime, hard rime is denser, less milky and has a comb-like structure.

This muted grey-green ink conveys a sense of cold quietness and isolation. This is a colour that would work well in a professional setting. I really like this colour and felt it is a pity that Lennon Tool Bar released it as a Winter 2019 limited edition ink.

This ink has a wet flow. There is shading and no sheen. On Midori MD paper, there is no feathering and no bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Birmingham Pen Company Life

Birmingham Mountain Laurel on Life Schöpfer

Post author By Wei
Post date 14 October 2021
No Comments on Birmingham Mountain Laurel on Life Schöpfer

Ink

Birmingham Pen Company is a small family-run business that makes fountain pens and fountain pen inks. While the company started with fountain pens, it seemed their focus is now on inks.

Mountain Laurel is part of the Crisp Formula collection where the inks were designed to work well on a variety of papers. This ink is a very pale dusky pink when wet and dries to a slightly darker shade. I believed the colour was inspired by the mountain laurel flowers which ranges from white to pink. In wet nibs, you might notice a halo, which looks like a dark green thin outline, around the strokes.

The ink has an average flow. There is shading and no sheen. On Schöpfer, I didn’t notice any feathering or bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Ferris Wheel Press World Craft

Ferris Wheel Press Pink Eraser on World Craft Freiheit

Post author By Wei
Post date 12 October 2021
No Comments on Ferris Wheel Press Pink Eraser on World Craft Freiheit

Ink

Ferris Wheel Press Pink Eraser is a lovely pink colour that does resembles the colour of pink erasers. I don’t like the dry flow of the ink which can cause the pen to feel scratchy on certain papers. It has shading and no sheen. There is no feathering and a little bleedthrough on World Craft Freiheit paper.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Birmingham Pen Company Muji Planting Tree

Birmingham Salt Water Taffy on Muji Planting Tree

Post author By Wei
Post date 9 October 2021
1 Comment on Birmingham Salt Water Taffy on Muji Planting Tree

Ink

Birmingham Pen Company is a small family-run business that makes fountain pens and fountain pen inks. While the company started with fountain pens, they have moved on to making in-house inks.

Salt Water Taffy is part of the Swift Formula collection where the inks were designed to be wetter than average and performs well in a wide variety of fountain pen. This ink is a bright, neon pink that has a slight orange undertone. The pink is very saturated and readable even under dim light. However the colour is so bright that my eyes feel painful looking at the words for too long (but I admit that this is mostly psychological).

The ink has a very wet flow. I think the ink will be more suitable in the finer or drier nibs. Due to the wetness of the ink, it will perform well on some papers and worse on others. On the Planting Tree (also known as Planted Tree) paper, there is a little shading, no sheen, a lot of feathering and a lot of bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

New Chiffon Cream Pilot Yamamoto

Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki on Yamamoto Ro-Biki

Post author By Wei
Post date 7 October 2021
No Comments on Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki on Yamamoto Ro-Biki

Ink

Pilot Iroshizuku is Pilot’s luxury line of fountain pen inks. The inks are consistent and well-behaved, garnering many fans. For a while, I hold off buying a bottle because they are more expensive compared to other ink brands. But of course, “expensive” is a relative term, and there are also ink brands that are much more expensive than the Iroshizuku line.

I decided to start with the Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki. A long time ago, Myke Hurley, co-host of The Pen Addict podcast, said that this was the only ink he used in fountain pens. Although he had expanded his ink collection since then, I believed that he still used the Kon-Peki ink in his pens.

The Kon-Peki (also known as Deep Azure Blue) is a beautiful medium blue that some would describe as a cerulean blue. It has a wet flow and lovely shading. There is no feathering and bleedthrough on the New Chiffon Cream paper used in Yamamoto Ro-Biki notebooks.

I really enjoyed writing with this ink. There is a quiet feeling of joy with each stroke and somehow my handwriting looked better. It felt as if I could go on writing forever. I look forward to trying the rest of the ink in Iroshizuku line.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Lennon Tool Bar Leuchtturm1917

Lennon Tool Bar Pineapple on Leuchtturm1917

Post author By Wei
Post date 5 October 2021
No Comments on Lennon Tool Bar Pineapple on Leuchtturm1917

Ink

Pineapple is an ink from Lennon Tool Bar’s 2020 Spring Limited Series. The chinese words on the bottle’s label (as can be seen on Shigure Inks website) refers to the Hokkien name for pineapple. The name literally translates as “fortune comes” so the pineapple is a very popular fruit during auspicious events like Chinese New Year or the launch of a new business.

The Pineapple ink is yellow, obviously. I feel this colour too light and had a hard time seeing what I was writing. It has an average flow with shading and no sheen. On Leuchtturm1917 paper, there is no feathering and a lot of bleedthrough. I guess, as consolation, the ink is so light that the bleedthrough is hardly noticeable.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Lennon Tool Bar MD paper Midori

Lennon Tool Bar Saira on Midori MD

Post author By Wei
Post date 2 October 2021
No Comments on Lennon Tool Bar Saira on Midori MD

Ink

Lennon Tool Bar is a Taiwanese company founded in 2014. Their focus is on producing and promoting the craft of indigo dying. One day, they started producing fountain pen inks, and were known for their beautiful blue inks.

Saira is the name of the 2019 Autumn Limited Series. Saira is the scientific name of the Pacific saury fish. On the bottle label, there is another name – 秋刀魚 – which is the Japanese name. In Mandarin, the words literally translates to “autumn knife fish”. I’ve always thought 秋刀魚 to be a beautiful name. The first word indicates the best season to eat them, for autumn is the time when the fish are at their fattest. The second word represents the knife-like body shape of the fish.

I had eaten the fish a few times at Japanese restaurants. It is usually served grilled, maybe sprinkled with some salt and lemon juice. The meat is fatty and flavourful. There are a lot of small bones so one needs to eat it slowly and carefully.

This ink is medium grey in colour and has a wet flow. There is little shading and no sheen. On Midori MD paper, there is no feathering and no bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Diamine Rhodia

Diamine Eau de Nil on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 30 September 2021
No Comments on Diamine Eau de Nil on Rhodia

Ink

Diamine Eau de Nil is a medium teal colour ink that leans more blue than green. It has an average flow.

On Rhodia paper, there is shading and no sheen. There is a little feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.

Diamine Rhodia

Diamine Ancient Copper on Rhodia

Post author By Wei
Post date 28 September 2021
No Comments on Diamine Ancient Copper on Rhodia

Ink

Diamine Ancient Copper is a burnt orange ink with a wet flow, some shading and no sheen. In places where the ink had pooled, it looked brown.

I enjoy the wet flow and the colour of the ink. The orange-brown range of this ink makes me think of rust, but ancient copper sounds better than rusty metal, doesn’t it? In this writing sample, I spelt “ancient” wrong. For some reason, I forgot how to spell when I write in all caps. Does anyone else have this problem?

On Rhodia paper, there is a little feathering and a little bleedthrough.

Writing Sample

This is written with a TWSBI ECO-T medium nib.

Below are a couple of photos of how it looks when it is written on both sides of the paper.

Disclaimer: This ink was purchased by me and all opinions/photos are my own. This post was not sponsored.