Archive for August 2022

This was one of my first inks. Maybe not the very first, but it was probably one of the first 3, and they were all Private Reserve. When I first got into fountain pens, back in the 90s, there was only one store I knew of that carried them. Paradise Pen. And there weren't many ink brands there. This was the one that seemed to have the best price and the most colors available.

Since that time, the brand has changed hands at least twice. It's now owned by Yafa, who own or distribute several stationery brands. They brought back lots of the original colors and added a few new sets as well.

Black Cherry, and the rest of the Private Reserve lineup, are saturated inks with really wet flow. You'll want to put these in a nib that can handle that sort of thing. Grab those dry pens!

Written Review

Close Ups

Chromatography

That bright blue that shows up in so many chromatography strips is here! In a maroon? Weird.

Copy Paper Test

It's not great on copy paper, but that's to be expected on this paper with an ink this wet.

Tomoe River

Wheat Straw Paper

Color Comparisons

Video Review

This new line of Sheaffer ink is pretty great. Bling has a subtle shimmer, but it's certainly there even if you won't always see it. What you'll always see is a really nice grey color. It also works well on the fountain-pen-unfriendly copy paper I test on. That's always a nice surprise.

Another nice surprise is that the new bottles are a throwback to the vintage Sheaffer bottles with the built-in ink well. They were before my time, but I always liked those bottles. I have a few from my Grandmother's things, and I think they're neat.

Written Review

Close Ups

Solid pricing, too.

It's not very water resistant, but it certainly has some resistance, and you'd be able to read what you wrote if you spilled something on it. Yet another good quality.

Chromatography

This grey ink jus has grey in it. That's neat and unusual.