Ink Review: Diamine Peach Haze

As is my tradition these days, when Pantone announces the color of the year, I start looking for ink options to match. This year I have to say I have mixed feelings. Pantone chose Peach Fuzz. The photos are really ethereal and warm looking and just create so much feeling. And then there’s the Pantone chip itself which sort of looks like a bandaid.

But still, traditions are traditions, and I was curious to see what the “peach” world had to offer. So I ordered a bottle of Diamine’s Peach Haze (30ml for $8.00 at Jetpens) to see what was what.

Um y’all? This ain’t no dreamy peach haze. This is straight up neon orange melon. I suppose it might be a little peach-like, but it’s pretty darn bright.

Diamine calls it a bright orangey coral (wait I thought we did coral already?) with low shading. And that’s pretty much what I got. In writing it appears basically one tone. In heavy applications, like in ink drops, you get much darker sections, but in most uses I think you’re getting a vibrant orange.

(Also amusing… when I googled Peach Haze I also found out it’s a varietal of cannabis… now you know too!)

So I looked at a lot, and I mean A LOT, of inks to find comparisons.

First I went to the peachy-pinky, coral end of the realm. As you can see, the corals here are too pink. Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu Gaki is Winter Persimmon, so it’s a slightly different color. And the one I thought would be the best peach representative with it’s reddish and lavender undertones, Sailor Jentle Sakura Mori, isn’t right at all.

Then I went and looked at my oranges and wow, that’s not it either! Sailor Jentle Apricot and Mont Blanc Lucky Orange are closer, but not at all what I think of as peach. And Lamy Bronze maybe works a little in the lighter tones, but not the darker.

I guess part of what I’m trying to reconcile is 1. What color is this ink? Orange? Melon? Neon? and 2. What color(s) do I think a peach ink should be? This one is a new shade for me, but I’m still not sure it screams peach. Guess I’ll keep trying!


DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tutorial: How to refill a Pen or Converter with a Syringe

Tutorial: How to refill a Pen or Converter with a Syringe

(This is an update of a post we did over ten years ago. The links to the photos had broken and I realized that this technique applies to more than just a TWSBI.)

With a TWSBI Eco or 540/580, sometimes they don’t suck up a full reservoir worth of ink when dipping the nib into a bottle. Or… you are down to the last drops of ink or trying to fill from a sample. This problem can also arise with pens that use converters. I often have trouble getting a full fill in my Sailor Pro Gear pens.

When you encounter this problem, its nice to have an alternate method to fill.

What you’ll need:

Depending on the pen model, you will need to either untwist the nib unit (580/540, etc) or pull out the nib and feed (ECO).

Start by plunging about some ink. No need to fill the whole syringe as it could lead to overfilling (that’s why its good to keep a rag or towel nearby).

Once you’ve got ink in the syringe, look and see the small hole at the base of the nib section (where the feed fits into the ink reservoir). That’s where you will put the tip of the syringe and fill the ink reservoir.

I used the Ink-a-pet to hold my pen upright and provide a “third hand” as I inserted the needle and slowly plunged ink into the reservoir.

You can stop filling at any point but if the goal was to fill the reservoir full, you may need to add more ink to the syringe and plunge a bit more.

Once completed, be sure to reattach the nib and feed and clean the syringe.

Filling a converter:

The same technique can be used to fill a converter. Once again, I fill the syringe though I make sure not to put more than 1 or 2 ml since the converter doesn’t hold much ink and too much ink will lead to spillage.

Once again, I use my Ink-a-pet to hold the converter once I filled the syringe with ink. Again, be sure to look closely to see the small hole in the end of the converter that connects to the feed. You want to be able to get the ink into the converter and not all over the converter collar.

Stop filling before disaster occurs and be sure to dab any excess before trying to insert the feed into the converter or it will leak over the outside of the converter and possibly stain the inside of your pen.

Again, be sure to clean out your syringe with clean water and store it safely for your next refill.

Easy, peasy! I hope this helps you use your pens and inks more easily.


DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

Paper Review: Sakae TP Iroful Loose Leaf A5

Paper Review: Sakae TP Iroful Loose Leaf A5

Review by Tina Koyama

A friend who writes with both graphite pencils and fountain pens told me about Sakae Iroful paper. He said it’s made for fountain pens, but he enjoys writing on it with pencil, too. I found that intriguing. At first blush, the two types of instruments seem to have opposing needs: Pencils want at least a bit of tooth, while fountain pens love to skate across smoothness. Can one paper meet both needs? Of course, I was curious. I got a pack of loose leaf paper in the A5 size (100 sheets for $14.50).

Reading reviews of Iroful paper is amusing because reviewers struggle with describing how the surface feels compared to, say, Tomoe River or other papers known to be fountain pen favorites. “Less crinkly and a little more cushioned,” “a somewhat soft feeling and slight texture” are some descriptions I’ve seen. I admit, I’m having the same struggle. I’ll just say that it feels more “velvety” than “glassy.”

For the media tests, I threw on a variety of inks, pencils and art materials, even those that I would not typically use on this paper, just for fun. Nothing bled through, not even the chisel-tip Sharpie. I inked up my Sailor Naginata fude de Mannen with Sailor Jentle Yamadori ink to take a look at the sheen. My scanned page doesn’t show it, but the photo taken from an angle catches it better.

For the sketch tests, I was eager to try graphite first. Granted, I chose a very soft Hi-Uni Deluxe 8B pencil, and softer grades tend to do better on smooth papers than harder ones, but even so, the experience was delightful. I used a Blackwing for the media test, which gave me more of a standard writing pencil experience, and it was equally enjoyable. When I touch the paper’s texture, I can’t go so far as to call it “tooth,” yet there’s enough something there to silently grab the graphite. Drawing feels effortless. By that, I mean that the application of graphite requires no effort; drawing always requires effort. (By the way, the dog I sketched is stationery-related; he’s Ernest Theodore of the Etsy shop of the same name.)

Next I inked up my Platinum music nib with Diamine Eclipse to draw my friend’s cat, Chevrolet. I didn’t notice the “feedback” one reviewer perceived, but the music nib is one of the broadest nibs I own, so it would be unlikely to get feedback anyway. Perhaps users of very fine nibs (none of which I have) would notice some.

Finally, just for kicks, I took a sheet to my neighborhood bakery to sketch a tree through a window. The black pigment ink is a Uni Pin pen with a brush tip. The tree was made with Derwent Inktense water-soluble colored pencils. As expected (and as some of my media tests showed), the Iroful surface is not ideal for showing off water-soluble materials, but it wasn’t unpleasant to use with those pencils. It took the pigment ink beautifully. I’m sure markers would do just as well.

I concur with my friend: Versatile Iroful paper, with its indescribable, toothless texture, can be used equally pleasantly with both pencil and fountain pen (or any other pen, too).


tina-koyamaTina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.


DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.Please see the About page for more details.

Link Love: No Pens or Pencils This Week!

Link Love: No Pens or Pencils This Week!

I’m SHOCKED! There are NOOOOO pen reviews this week. Everyone is talking about ink and paper, particularly plans for their planner, journal or other new year’s record keeping. Which I think tracks with the rest of my life. Even my knitting group has gone deep on planners in the last few weeks. Laura and I have managed to convince our knitting compatriots that Hobonichis are cool and Laura has gone deep in journaling too!

Okay, okay, I won’t leave you without any new pens.

Lamy Special Edition 2024

Jesi found this image of the new Lamy Safari Special Editions for 2024. What do you think?

Ink:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

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GIVEAWAY: Mark’s EDiT Reading Notebook

In the last few weeks I’ve sort of become obsessed with journaling. So I’m at a crossroads in my life. In many ways I’ve adapted to the digital life. I use Goodreads and Storygraph to track what I’m reading. I have used Ravelry to track my knitting projects. I’ve tried and failed at a variety of ways to record daily events in an electronic format (i.e. blogging on various sites). Ultimately what I’ve decided is that there IS benefit to digitally recording what’s going on, but sometimes I also want to record it in an analog fashion. Here are two use cases.

A few years ago I decided to limit my use of Ravelry. I used to track each and every knitting and spinning project I do there, as it has a rich database that links to patterns, yarns, techniques and more. I could add pictures and it was a highly efficient way to track what I was making (and refer back to it in case I wanted to see what I did, how I did, when I did it, etc.) For the last few years, I’ve tried and failed to set up many systems (both digital and analog) and the problem is that none of them do it as well as Ravelry did. But then I saw this Instagram reel:

And I thought, hey I have a MILLION notebooks (have you seen how many notebooks I’ve reviewed), I HAVE to be able to come up with something good. I bought a mini printer (Polaroid Hi Print – reviews forthcoming) and I’m running with it. I hope to share the journal soon.

Next up to tackle was reading. While I do use a few sites to digitally track what I’m reading, what I’m missing is a way to write about what I’ve read, to process what I think. Less of a public review for prospective readers and more of a way to record how the book made me feel, what it made me think about, etc. I don’t necessarily envision this as a complete tracking of what I’ve read (let’s face it – beach reads often need no further thought), but more a memory of the books I loved or hated. Again, I have a million notebooks and ideas on how to start this – I just need to take the plunge.

Now let’s get to the point of this post: the Giveaway. In mulling over the options, I went out and looked at journals specifically designed for tracking your reads. And I really liked what I saw of the Mark’s Edit Reading Notebook ($28.50 from Jetpens). This notebook seems like the perfect mix of structured information (the data points), and free form sections for you to write down whatever you’re thinking. It has room for:

  • 71 book journal entries
  • 16 dot grid pages for whatever you want!
  • A Favorite Books section
  • A Book Stores section
  • Expenses section with room to record 100 book purchases – you may not want to know (I’d skip this section)
  • An Aphorisms section for remembering 10 favorite quotes.
  • A Fold-out book log for charting out your reading accomplishments over a 12-month period.

This is a slim, hardback volume with a fabric cover, measuring roughly 5.2″ x 7.6″ (13.3 cm x 19.2 cm). The end pages are a plain black and the inside title page allows you to add the dates it covers. The pages themselves are white, featuring a variety of lined and dot grid sections. The whole book is 88 sheets and the paper is advertised as fountain pen friendly. (Note – I did not test the paper since this is a giveaway!)

Are you a reader? Would you like to win this Reading Journal to kick off your 2024 year in books? If so, keep going to find out how to enter!

You are entering the giveaway to win:

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me, what is the best book you read last year? Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Friday, January 12, 2024. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.


DISCLAIMER: The items included in this giveaway were provided to us free of charge by Jetpens. Please see the About page for more details.

Yamamoto Paper Writing Pads: Tomoegawa Tomoe River vs. Sanzen Tomoe River S

Yamamoto Paper Writing Pads: Tomoegawa Tomoe River vs. Sanzen Tomoe River S

We’ve discussed the change in the Tomoe River paper here on the blog and many other bloggers have also done research on the subject. Hobonichi also posted an interview with the Sanzen CEO and Manufacturing Manager and even a post on how Sanzen makes Tomoe River S paper.

At the St. Louis Pen Show, pen friend Andrew purchased two Yamamoto A5 Writing Pads — one was the Sanzen Tomoe River S paper and one was the Tomoegawa Tomoe River Paper. Andrew, Alan T.  and I happily spent the evening alternating between the two papers, testing the ink shading, sheening and absorption. By the end of the evening, we could tell just be touching pen to paper which paper was which.

After this experiment in July, I kept thinking about the experience and realized I needed to share the results with a bigger audience so I purchased one of each of the Yamamoto A5 Writing Pads to be able to recreate the experiment for you as well as add in an old Elia Note A5 notebook which I know uses some of the original Tomoe River produced on the old No. 7 machine. The Tomoegawa Writing Pad contains the paper produced on the No. 9 machine as is the last paper produced in the Tomoegawa factory before the equipment and branding were sold to Sanzen. As is discussed in the interview mentioned above the CEO and manager at Sanzen help to explain how anything and everything can effect the quality of the paper both in production and afterwards. Heat, humidity, the pulp. and the water used in manufacturing can all effect the final result.

As such, I wanted to be able to both experience and try to explain the differences. My goal is not to make people covet or go in search of marked up “vintage” Tomoegawa Tomoe River paper. What I wanted to do is establish what the differences are and, in the end, establish that while the Sanzen Tomoe River S is different from the previous iterations, it is still, by far, some of the best fountain pen friendly paper available.

Above are MOST of the tools I used in testing. I wanted to test both fountain pens as well as felt, gel, liquid ink, as well as folded nibs and dip pens in order to see the full scope of paper capabilities. Since the new Sanzen Tomoe River paper is featured in the Hobonichi planners, its important that the paper handle a wide assortment of pens since so many people use the planners, not just fountain pen people.

Fountain Pen Tests:

In my first round of pen tests, I didn’t notice huge differences between the papers. All line weights and colors were pretty consistent. The Sanzen may have shown a bit more green in the Sailor Hinoki multi-chromatic ink but it could also be how I put the ink down so, despite efforts to be scientific some differences may be user error.

The only noticeable difference was some feathering in the dip pen test but dip pens are not used by most people. And the Sanzen paper seemed “drier”. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s most noticeable with the Pilot Parallel writing sample and how there are more rough edges comparatively.

In the longer writing sample, it became more evident that the vintage Tomoe River (Elia Note) creates a broader line with the HF Sailor nib when compared to the Sanzen Tomoe River. This solified my theory about the Sanzen paper being “drier”.

Heavy Ink Application:

When using a folded nib (and Robert Oster Torquay) the Sanzen paper created a slightly lighter color and finer line. The color is relatively consistent on all three papers.

Another folded nib sample on all three papers make the dry quality of the Sanzen more evident. The wobbliness of the edges may have to do with the slightly more tooth (texture) in the paper. The vintage Elia Note paper is the smoothest and the Tomoegawa paper is in-between.

The color fidelity is pretty consistent on all three papers. None had bleed through issues but the show through was pretty similar. The paper is only 52gsm so dumping this much ink is bound to cause a little showthrough.

Other Pens:

On the Elia Note paper, the smudges are the only indication that this paper takes a bit longer to dry than the other two.

With other pens tested, the only notable issue was the Uniball ONE 0.38. The ink looks — oily? The black ink color was more notable than the light green color but the color is quite light.

All three papers show a little granulation, particularly in the light pink Pentel Sign Pen. This is an odd effect but none of the brush pens feathered so its probably not a male-or-break for most people.

Pencil on all three papers was actually okay. It will smudge a little bit if you are left handed or are working in a hot, humid environment.

My final opinion:

As the Sanzen version of Tomoe River paper is the only option readily available, I think its a good option. Is it the same as the Tomoegawa paper made on the old No. 7 machine? No. But the Sanzen version is not BAD. It’s just different. It’s a little drier and a little toothier. Over time, Sanzen may adjust things or replace rollers or blankets (those felt sheets that soak up the water) and the overall texture of the paper may shift slightly, for better or worse. But, given all the other alternatives currently available (and not being discontinued, I’m looking at you, Cosmo Air Light), I think continuing to purchase and support the efforts of the Sanzen company are in the best interests of the stationery and (particularly) the fountain pen community.

Yamamoto Paper A5 Writing Pads can be purchased directly on their web site (¥1760 per pad) or through Etsy ($21 per pad).


DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.