The Well-Appointed Desk

Following the success and enthusiasm over the gold fleck-filled Stormy Grey and Rouge Hematite, J. Herbin reformulated the 1670 Bleu Ocean to include gold flecks as well. I was really excited about this change because who doesn’t like sparkles?

I love the shape and look of the 1670 series bottle. Its a square glass bottle with a wax seal label and “wax sealed cap”. The cap is not actually wax sealed, its a traditional threaded twist cap but the cap is covered with a faux wax material so it looks like wax. I think the bottles are gorgeous and I love the details that have been added to make them look special. I have not tried to get ink out of the bottom of the bottle yet but I imagine it will not be easy. I suspect that to completely use all the ink i the bottle, I’ll have to use a syringe or transfer the ink into another container to access the ink as the opening will not be convenient to dipping a pen after multiple uses. That said, its really pretty.

As with the other versions of the 1670 ink, the gold flecks will settle to the bottom of the bottle and will require some stirring, shaking or rolling to redistribute the gold in the ink. I’ve heard folks mention that if they fill a pen with any of these 1670 inks, they will often roll their pen on a table to keep the gold flecks from settling in the reservoir.

The ink color is actually a darker blue than most of the “true blues” in my collection and the addition of the gold flecks makes it even more appealing. The gold was quite noticeable in my swab sample, more so than with either the Rouge Hematite or Stormy Grey.

When I painted the title, I got really excited about this ink. It sparkled, there were lots of color variation and I really liked the color. All this enthusiasm took a nose dive when I dipped my Esterbrook 9314M Medium Stub into the ink and the ink softened around the edges as I wrote. It didn’t bleed or feather per se, but it smooshed all my writing together making the line edges indistinct and filled in the counters of my letter. I dipped my pen in the ink and then wiped the nib of excess just once but the ink continued to display as runny and soft to the end of the page. I can’t imagine how much this would bleed or feather on lower quality paper instead of the Rhodia stock I used!

Does this photo sum up my  feelings about the new formulation of Bleu Ocean? Yes it does.

I was so excited to be able to choose a bottle of P.W. Akkerman ink at the Vanness table at the Atlanta Pen Show. For the past year, Akkerman has been “the ink” to acquire. And Vanness is the only place to get the ink in the US. So being able to peruse the quickly depleting stock at the pen show and seeing the ink sample swabs in person was a dream come true. I only purchased one bottle because (1) its pricey stuff ($30/bottle), (2) many of the colors had already sold out before I found the Vanness table and (3) I couldn’t make a sound decision to save my life. I really need to make a spreadsheet of all the inks and colors I have so I know what colors I have.

One of the most striking features of Akkerman is the extremely unique bottle. Its a very tall bottle with a long slender neck. Inside the neck is a ball that allows it to block the flow of ink back into the larger bottle reservoir. So, to ink up a pen, you tip the bottle slowly upside down and then right it so that the neck area fills with ink. This should be a very effective way to get the most mileage out of the bottle without a lot of trouble. And it looks really cool!

I’ve been on a bit of a purple/black kick recently so I picked up a bottle of the Akkerman#15 Voorhout Violet.

Voorhout Violet is definitely a purple/black color. In my swashy brush testing, there’s a nice array of dusty purply tones and a distinctly warm undertone. When writing however, the ink appears almost black and then lightens a little as it dries for that more of the purple tones show through, particularly with a wider nib. There’s a bit of shading but because the ink is so dark, its pretty subtle.

The ink behaved well and dried in a reasonable amount of time. I write my samples at a standard writing pace to test “real world” usage and I use Rhodia paper which can slow drying time a bit. But overall the performance was very good.

Oh, I forgot to mention the noticeable “lacquer” odor when I opened the bottle. It wasn’t a noxious smell but it was notable in that there was a smell. Most of my inks don’t have a noticeable smell, the exception being Noodler’s inks which have a similar odor to the Akkerman. Once I dipped my pen and closed the bottle, I no longer noticed the odor but I wanted to note it.

When compared with my growing arsenal of purple/black inks, the Akkerman is not notably distinct to the other colors I have. Private Reserve Ebony Purple is very similar. In writing, I’m not sure I’d be able to distinguish one from the other. Kaweco Summer Purple is also quite similar in color. And both the Kaweco and Private Reserve inks are considerably cheaper.

I’ll continue to use this ink and try it in an assortment of different pens and under more diverse writing conditions so I may feel differently about this ink in a few months. Right now though, I’m sort of “hmmm” about this color.

That said, I think the Akkerman inks are a good array of colors and worth the investment for the unique bottle alone. I will be trying more Akkerman inks in some of the more popular colors like #5 Shocking Blue and #24 Zuiderpark Blauw-Groen. I’m also itching to try the wildly yellow-green #28 Hofkwartier Green. I could always use more green ink, right?

Check out Ed Jelley’s review of Voorhout Violet for a different perspective.

One of most unusual items that I picked up at the Atlanta Pen Show was to bottles of Callifolio ink in Olifants and Grenat from the fine folks at Vanness Pen Shop. Actually, the official product name is French, L’Artisan Pastellier Encre Callifolio. But can we agree to just call them Callifolio inks?

The bottles for the Callifolio inks are absolutely identical to the bottles that Diamine is using for the 150th Anniversary inks — the pie slice wedges. The labels on the bottle are simple white labels with black printing. It’s not the most interesting packaging but I’m not going to judge this particular book by its cover.

Callifolio offers over  30 different colors in either the 40ml wedge-shaped bottles or in 50ml foil refill pouches. The refill pouches can be used to refill an existing bottle of Callifolio inks or poured into any ink container (like a TWSBI ink bottle or a vintage inkwell). One of the most appealing thing about the Callifolio inks are the price — just $11 per bottle or $8 per foil pouch. I could buy FOUR foil pouches for the cost of one bottle of Akkerman ink.

I picked the Olifants color because I just love the teal-y blue/blue-black inks so I wanted to try a Callifolio ink in a color I’d use regularly. There was some nice shading to the color and a bit of a halo.

Olifants dried quickly and with my fine stub testing nib, there was no feathering or line softening. I did test the ink on Rhodia paper so there may be some different results on lower quality or lighter weight paper but my initial reaction is that Callifolio is making good inks at great prices.

I did not test for waterproofness but I will do a little follow-up in a few days with more of my experience with the Callifolio inks but for general performance, I’ m quite pleased with this ink.

The Olifants color is a bit more green than Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo and a bit bluer than Sailor Jentle Yama Dori. But with the wide price difference, Callifolio inks are a reasonable substitute for the more expensive Japanese inks.

I’m really pleased with my purchase so far and I can’t wait to review the Grenat color which is not a color I normally buy.