A Fountain Pen Day Give-Away!

Hi Folks!

Fountain Pen Day (Nov 6th) is nearly upon us, and Anderson Pens is sponsoring a give-away on your favorite blog: Inkdependence!

This is a Delta Unica in a Limited Edition color just for Anderson Pens. I reviewed the first LE of this Unica last year, and it's a pen that is still in my daily-use rotation. The nib is great, the size is comfortable, and the weight is just right. Not to mention, it's super good-looking.

The Unica that you'll receive won't be the red. Those are all gone. Yours will be this cool dark green. I don't have a Unica in this color, but I do have a Fusion 82 in the same acrylic, and it's beautiful.

You'll get to choose Fine, Medium, or Broad, and the Andersons will ship you the pen.

 Photos courtesy of Anderson Pens.

  Photos courtesy of Anderson Pens.

 Tell your friends and neighbors to get over here and enter to win this pen.

****Commenting was broken for the blog for a while (maybe a LONG while), and the required fix erased all of the previous comments. Blerg. If you commented previously, then I've got a record of it, and if you couldn't comment before, I hope you can now! ****

Win a Delta Unica for Fountain Pen Day!


 Terms & Conditions:

1. Winner will be chosen at random by Rafflecopter.
2. US shipping addresses, only.
3. Please do not use giveaway or empty accounts. Winners will be checked for verification.
4. The giveaway will end on Nov 6th at midnight (EST). (Fountain Pen Day!)
5. Winners will be notified Saturday.
6.Winner must respond within 48 hours, or a new winner will be selected.
7. Please don't unfollow immediately after the drawing. That gives me a sad.
 

Franklin-Christoph's Tenebris Purpuratum

 

This is the second of the new Franklin-Christoph inks that I have to review. It's the one that I was least excited about, originally, but it's a darn good ink. The color is a sneaky sort of purple that looks really dark from the nibs that I used it in. They were all medium nibs of one sort or another, but those were the only ones that I managed to free up for some reason. Oh well. It's a pretty solid selection of medium nibs, anyway.

Check out the pictures below and let me know what you think about this one. 


Written Review

I took all of these pictures indoors in a light-tent with full-spectrum bulbs. They look like the true colors on my monitor.

Close-Ups!

The shading that you'll see on these examples won't show up as well on copy paper, but you can see that below. The Ondoro's nib is the wettest of the three, the Levenger's the smoothest, and the Metro's the driest. That all of them look very similar is a testament to the ink, I think.

I really like the picture below. This ink is just the sort of dark purple that I actually like.

The below is the little sample bottle that I got of this ink. You can't buy those from F-C, I don't think, but maybe it's something they'd do in the future. Really, though this ink is priced well in the full-sized bottles, I think. It's enough ink to last a long time, and the glass bottle is high quality.

Color Comparison

I didn't have any other purple inks in pens right now, so I cant' show it side-by-side with other purples.

Copy Paper Test

There are a couple of places where this ink is feathering and bleeding a little on the copy paper, here. Mainly this is from the Ondoro, and that's to be expected (since it's a wet nib).

I've got another couple of pictures for you on this paper test stuff. The ones below are written on the very middle-of-the-road paper that my university gives out at functions. It's not great, but it's not terrible, either. Rough, but kind of thick. American blue performs a little better, but that's the medium nib on a Kaweco vs the medium nib on the Levenger True Writer Select (I think). No real bleed on this paper either.

Chromatography

Mnemosyne Card

Below is Anderson Pens Wood Violet

Amethyst is the same sort of color, I think. It's way more expensive, though.

Video Review and Water Drop Test

So, not a lot of water resistance on this ink. There's a little bit, but it's a very light blue that's left behind. It's not water resistant as a purple.

Check this ink out at Franklin-Christoph's website or at Anderson Pens. They price and bottle are the same, so take your pick.



***This ink was provided free of charge by Franklin-Christoph for review. The content of the review, is all mine.***

Aurora's Ipsilon Fountain Pens

Have you used Aurora pens? It was a brand that I would see at pen shows, but not many other places.  Lisa Anderson had said that she loves them, but I hadn't really gotten my hands on any until I got this amazing care package of pens from Kenro.

Aurora is a 4th generation family company that has been making pens in Italy since 1919. Every part of the pen is made in that factory. Nibs, feeds, everything. That includes cartridges. That's pretty impressive to me. According to Ryan at Kenro, the Ipsilon line is the best selling collection, and it comes in a ton of styles. These acrylic pens are the base model, and you can get them with gold nibs and sterling silver, if you like. I particularly like the Satin finish, I think. When I get myself one of these it'll probably be satin. Maybe orange? Yeah. Probably. All of the parts are interchangeable, so get a few and make yourself a rad Franken-Pen.



Specs:

I've just gotten a caliper, so I'll add that the width of the section is about 9mm. That's about a millimeter smaller than I really prefer, but it's certainly wide enough to use comfortably.

Packaging:

I'm not generally a fan of packaging, but the Ipsilon's packaging is solid. The box is functional and good-looking. The side folds down a bit to make it easier to remove the pen case, and that's a good touch. I do wonder how much that box adds to the price of a pen, though, and whether people would rather just save a few dollars on each pen than have a box.

The leather box that houses the pen, though, is seriously good. You can't hide a cartridge under the platform, but this whole box smells like new-car-leather smell. Italians know leather.

Each of these pens came with a cartridge and a converter. It's a big cartridge. Similar to a Lamy or an Int'l long size cartridge, I think. Unfortunately, Aurora uses a proprietary sizing, and int'l cartridges/converters won't work. I have read online that the Cross carts and converters will fit these pens, but I haven't tried that myself.

Appearance:

It's a classy look, folks. The gold plated furniture isn't usually my style, but I dig it on this pen. I don't know why, but I do. Maybe it's something about the resin colors or the symmetry of the pen, but whatever it is it works. 

This black version really shows off the style of the Ipsilon. The cap is thick, the end of the barrel is slightly tapered. The clip is bold without being outlandish. That band in the middle is a great accent.

The band around the middle reads "AURORA" and "ITALY." That's about the only branding on this pen.

What's your favorite color? I think it's the red, for me.

Body:

You can get these pens in many different styles. These are resin with a brass inner sleeve. I assume that the other styles have that same brass sleeve to add some weight.  The resin on these pens feels expensive. It's thick and opaque. It feels durable. The edges are smooth and well-crafted. Just an excellent fit and finish.

Nibs:

The nibs on these pens are made in-house by Aurora, and they're mostly very good. I loved the fine and extra fine nibs; the medium was very good. The broad and the italic had a bit of an issue when I originally got them, and even the replacements aren't perfect. The broad is a little toothy, but it works just fine. The italic is about a 1.2mm, and the tines seem a little convex. It works okay, and it's a true, sharp italic, but it can be a little hard for me to write with.

It's a little odd that these weren't quite as good as the smaller nibs, but I suppose the line had to fall a bit short somewhere.

You can see that the tips of the broad nib are a little wonky. It made writing a little toothy, but not bad.

I included two shots of the italic nib. The shot above shows just how chiseled this italic nib really is, and the below shows the convexity I was talking about earlier. I think it would work better if it were actually flat, but that doesn't seem to be the way that these are made.

Writing Samples:

Comparison:

The Ipsilon is a smallish pen, but it doesn't feel small or cheap. It feels solid and expensive, unlike some other pens that I could name.

Wrap-Up:

These are pens that I like much more than I thought I would. The parts are well crafted, the shape is great, and they're just the right weight and balance. There were a couple of nib issues, but nothing too terrible, and they were mainly sorted out quickly.

I generally try to advise buying a pen that I haven't, myself, bought. This time I will. It's a great pen, and I see one in my future for sure.

You can find these at several retailers including Anderson Pens and Pen Chalet.

Video Review:

There are 5 pens to talk about, so this video is extra long. Like, more than 20 minutes long.

Noodler's Dostoyevsky

So, I met John and Carol (of Luxury Brands USA) at the DC Pen Show, and they very graciously sent me a couple of inks to review. The first one is this Noodler's ink that I hadn't heard of previously. That might seem surprising unless you consider the sheer number of inks that Nathan at Noodler's creates. Is "gazillion" a real number? I kinda hope so. 

 Dostoyevsky is a light blue ink that is really close to being a turquoise, I think. It flows just fine, doesn't dry out in the nib, and the color is interesting. It's just a little too light for me, I think. If it were more saturated I might be all over it.

Written Review

If the written parts were more like the ink smear, I'd really like this one, I think. It looks more complicated there then it does from the nib.

You'll see that it looks different from the Lamy nib than it does from the Ondoro's nib. I think the Lamy had some other ink in there, and it contaminated that writing sample. The rest of the review was written with the Ondoro.

Ink Swatch

Why not show it again? This seems to be how it looks best.

Another writing sample:

The Bottle

Word Card

Copy Paper Test

 I can't decided whether it looks better on Rhodia or on copy paper. As I said in the written review, I'm really on the fence with this one.

Chromatography

Water Drop Test and Video Review

This ink actually seems a little hard to find. Jet Pens lists it as a part of the Russian series, and they list it as an Eternal ink. That might be incorrect, though, as the ink doesn't do well with exposure to water. Goulet doesn't seem to have it. Anderson Pens doesn't seem to have it. Weird. You may have to do a little work to find this one if you're looking for it.

**Anderson Pens has it in stock now.**

Disclaimer: This ink was sent to me as a "press sample" by Luxury Brands USA. They distribute Noodler's ink, but they don't sell it to the public (as far as I know). No