The Well-Appointed Desk

This is the last of the Montblanc limited edition inks for the week. I picked up William Shakespeare Velvet Red ($19 for 35ml) at Pen Place in Crown Center. It’s positively lethal to have access to fountain pens and ink and paper within walking distance of my office!

I haven’t quite figured out the logic behind why Montblanc sometimes uses the square faceted bottles, sometimes uses the long rectangular bottles and then sometimes uses these round bottles. I’m assuming certain themes go with each but the Miles Davis Jazz Blue went into the square bottle, which somehow I would have assumed would go into the round bottle like this one with the other “legends”.And I think last year they put the Permanent Grey in the round bottle so that blows my theory too. So… I don’t know? Do you?

Finally, the splotch of ink on this bottle is very unbecoming. Of all the Shakespearian related things you could possibly have considered, a red splotch?

For this review, I’m going to start with the swatches because what I found fascinating was that when I swatched this ink, and I did it twice, the color on the swatch card turned out extremely dark. It did not have much shading either. I thought maybe I had over-soaked the card so I did it again and got the same results. Velvet Red appears to be a fairly dense ink, or it can be. So, I thought I’d like to note that first. Especially, compared to other deep reds like Sailor Grenade and Oku-Yama and Diamine Oxblood and Matador Red.

I also tried very hard to adjust the photo of my writing sample to be as accurate as possible but its always difficult to get exact reproductions and adjust for monitor differences. Velvet Red does hint at the tonal variations present in velvet red. How it sometimes looks very red but will have a brownish undertone. However, that same color variation is also very reminiscent of something else: dried blood. And while that is certainly an overriding aspect of many of Shakespeare’s plays, I couldn’t quite get past the fact that it looked like I was writing with dried blood.

This could be quite handy for a Halloween missive or for the more Gothic among us but I found it a little morbid for my Monday calendar notes. Out, out damned spot!

TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 18 with 7mm guide sheet
• Pens: Empire vintage traveling dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Esterbrook #2442 nib in a Shawn Netwon custom nib holder
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Silver Black Velvet #6 Round 300S, Escoda Prado #2 Round Travel Brush ($16.50)
• Ink: Montblanc William Shakespeare Velvet Red (35ml bottle for $19)

DISCLAIMER: Some items used in this review were sent to me free of charge by for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Montblanc Golden Yellow was released about the same time Lucky Orange came out this spring. Yellow inks are hard to make usable. Golden Yellow turns out to be an exception to this rule.

I had the ink in my TWSBI Mini for several months and was tickled that, even with an EF nib, the ink was a deep enough shade to actually be visible. Really.  I took my sample to two pen shows and let other people try it who were also suitably impressed with the performance. To be honest it is the first and only yellow ink that has ever survived past  the swatch-and-sample phase for me.

When tested with a dip nib, it definitely leans towards a more orangey shade and in a wider nib it also gets a bit “orange juice”-like. There’s shading in the color because it is so light but no noticeable sheeening.

Note to self: be sure to thoroughly and completely clean your nib and feed before switching ink colors because any contamination will be evident with a color as light as Golden Yellow!

The only colors I had in the swatches that were comparable were from Robert Oster Signature. The Yellow Sunset from his line was probably closest in color if a bit more ruddy. Yellow Sunrise was more yellowy and Olive Green was browner.

Montblanc Golden Yellow is a limited edition color so its definitely one to grab while you can if its a color you like. I’m partial to it but as with all Montblanc inks, it is premium-priced.

TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 18 with 7mm guide sheet
• Pens: Tachikawa Model 40 Nib Holder ($6.75) with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Esterbrook #2442 nib in a Shawn Newton custom nib holder, TWSBI Mini with EF nib ($50)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Silver Black Velvet #6 Round 300S (from Dick Blick), Escoda Prado #2 ($16.50)
• Ink: Montblanc Golden Yellow (35ml 30ml bottle for $19)

DISCLAIMER: Some items used in this review were sent to me free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

I have been using Montblanc Lucky Orange in my Franklin Christoph Pocket 45 since the beginning of April. Since it’s an eyedropper filler with a fine italic nib, it could possibly take me a whole year to use up all the ink but I will likely enjoy using it the whole time. I haven’t been a buyer of Montblanc limited edition inks until this year. I missed out on a few of the limited edition colors last year and I ended up kicking myself about it so this year I decided to just buy them. The Lucky Orange was only $19 for the 35ml 30ml bottle. Maybe I have blinders about the pricing  now but with Oster inks at $19 for 50ml bottles in plastic, I feel less bad about spending $19 for pretty Montblanc bottles even if they have less ink in them.

Since getting the Pocket 45, it’s only had two inks in it. First, was the F-C Brown 732 which made me refer to the pen as the “pudding pen” because it looked like vanilla pudding on the outside with chocolate pudding on the inside. Now, with the Lucky Orange ink, it reminds me of a Creamsicle, which is a name that might stick. Next up? Maybe a warm red and it can be Strawberries and Cream?

But back to the ink color which was why you’ve read this far, right? Lucky Orange is a nice crisp orange ink. It writes beautifully and definitely chases away a grey day which was perfect for the cloudy spring we had here in K.C. It is a completely legible color, even in a fine nib. I confess that after all of Myke’s waxing poetic of his love of orange ink, it had not been a color I had given much thought to using. Lucky Orange has definitely given me pause to reconsider. I consider it my gateway orange.

I do have several other orange inks in my collection but I can’t say that I’ve ever done more than swatched or maybe dipped a pen with them. Maybe I just needed the right pen to make orange a color I could use regularly. I don’t think I’d want to put orange ink in an orange pen. That would be a little too much orange for me. Other people, for whom orange may be their favorite color might feel differently. Alternately, orange in a green pen seems a terrible idea. But in a neutral colored pen, orange gets to be the star and I think that’s a great plan.

Lucky Orange is a bit brighter and poppier than Fuyu-gaki which is a bit more reddish-orange. However, if you already have a bottle of Sailor Apricot or Kin-Mokusei, you may not need a bottle of Lucky Orange. That said, doesn’t everyone need a little luck in their life?

TOOLS

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 18 with 7mm guide sheet
• Pens: Empire vintage traveling dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Franklin Christoph Pocket 45 Prototype in Ivory Swirl with a 18K gold fine italic nib
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards
• Brush: Silver Black Velvet #6 Round 300S,
  Escoda Prado #2 Synthetic Travel Brush ($16.50)
• Ink: Montblanc Lucky Orange (35ml 30ml bottle for $19)

DISCLAIMER: Some items used in this review were sent to me free of charge by JetPens. I bought the ink from Anderson Pens with my own money though they are a sponsor of this blog. Please see the About page for more details.