Parker "17" Lady Review

So I tried my hand at my first video review, give it a look.

And here are some pics of the pen for detail

Ink-Sane Sunday #1 Private Reserve Electric DC Blue

J.Herbin Stormy Grey got me started on a search for the perfect sheeny ink. While SG sheens like no ones business, I feel like it is cheating when it comes to sheen, because it has metal particles in it and it is not actually a property of the ink. I think I hit a home run with this ink though. I love dark saturated blues with a little shading, and DC Blue is exactly that. The Ink has no feathering, bleed through, or any major issues on my Clairfontaine paper or my 97 cent Walmart paper. The one issue I have had is that it will smudge is you get sweaty hands when you write, which I do. While it does have some smudge problems, I think everything this ink offers is worth having to be slightly more careful when you write. The sheen on the ink is a little more elusive than I expected. I wasn't able to get any to show up on my Clariefontaine paper, and the sheen that was on other papers was subdued yet still stunning. This is now going to be my go to blue ink, and I would suggest it to any one. Now for those pics, and remember the ones with the sheen are on a different type of paper. 

Ink-sane Sunday!

So I am going to be kicking a weekly ink review entitled the Ink-sane Sunday! This will be a different ink review up every Sunday right here on my blog. Next Sunday is going to be the first of of the Ink-sanity and I cannot wait to start this new trend on my blog. Hope yall like it.

J. Herbin Stormy Grey Review

That right folks here it is, the elusive, lustful, engrossing, and of course sheeny  Stormy Grey. I have been captivated by various pictures and reviews of this ink since I discovered it. When I first got the ink I was very surprised at how small the bottle was, for some reason I had made it out in my head that there was going to be this huge elaborate bottle that I could barely fit on my ink shelf. When in actuality it is about the same size of a standard Waterman ink bottle. The bottle itself is almost as pretty to look as the ink is. The glass design, along with the string held in place with a wax seal bearing the numbers "1670" and the wax seal cap really make for a pretty looking bottle. Once I inked up a pen with this ink I couldn't contain my childlike joy. When I put pen to paper my initial thought was  "This is it?"  On my first few lines I barely got any gold sheen to come through and I was rather disappointed. But as I have used the ink more I have learned that this ink is a lot of things, but it is not consistent. Since the sheen is not an actual property of the ink, and instead a foreign object added to it, you will not get massive sheen on everything you write. Around 60% of writing has minor little gold flakes in it that add a nice sparkle to the writing and 40% of the time you will get that super heavy sheen that we have all already seen. When it comes to other inky attributes this ink performs flawlessly. Great flow, minor shading, no feathering, shade/bleed through is obsolete, and it is very waterproof. The best way to describe the ink is pencil lead, but that is not an exact match. To us Fountain Pen nerds we will all know better than to mistake this is a pencil, but to the untrained eye I could see someone guessing this to be pencil writing. The ink has absolutely nothing wrong with it at all, and is about as close to perfect as I have seen an ink be. I know this has a steep price of 26$ but you can always test the waters with a sample. The ink stays out of stock for a while, and is only in stock for a few weeks but I would highly suggest trying to snag a bottle when it comes back up in stock. And if I have not convinced how great this ink is yet hopefully my pictures will. Enjoy.

TWSBI Vac700 Review

A special thanks to my friend Amberleadavis on Fountain Pen Network for letting me borrow her pen for this review. Thanks Amber :)

Appearance & Design (1-10) - TWSBI always does an extremely good job with the looks of their pens. Very modern and sleek look to it, while still being reserved and calm. I love it. Score (10/10)

Construction & Quality (1-10) - Some issues I had with my Mini is that it had a few minor construction issues that lead to me feeling the pen was more fragile, no such issues are present in the Vac 700. This pen has been through quite a beating, having been shipped to multiple people and used by them all, and still  works as if it was brand new. Again no complaints here. Score 10/10

Weight & Dimensions (1-10) - So my first thought when I pulled the pen out of it's packaging was "Dear God this pen is huge." Here are the dimensions: length capped -  147mm, length uncapped - 134mm, weight 32g, and here is the big one, length posted - 175mm. That's right 175 millimeters. Just to put that into perspective a Montblanc 149 posted is 165 mm posted. This pen is definitely not messing around. The huge size feels really good in hand though, and make it feel like you are using a pen worth a lot more than just 65$. I would give this a higher ranking, but I can definitely see some people not liking it due to size, so Score 7/10.

Nib & Performance (1-10) - This nib has had some work done to it by ArtsNibs, but exactly what that work was I am not sure. The Vac700 has been historically plagued by dry nibs, and this one is not (big) exception to that rule. The nib is wet, but I would like my broads to be wetter than this. I think the nib has also been turned into a sort of stub, but also with that I get a lot of scratchiness on right strokes unless the nib is positioned correctly. But when the position is right the nib is buttery smooth and a joy to write with. Score 6/10

Filling System & Maintenance (1-10) - As the name suggest, this is a vacuum filling pen. Which is super cool. I have had no issues with the vacuum wearing out, or the anything really being wrong with the system at all. Since it is a TWSBI you can fully disassemble the pen, so this one gets full marks here. Score 10/10

Cost & Value (1-10) - I am not exactly sure what to do here. I love the pen and want one of my own now, but I just don't know if it is worth the 65$ asking price. Nothing is wrong with the pen, but I just don't think I make a connection with it. Score 6/10

Conclusion (1-10) - So the selling points of this pen are it's really cool filling system and massive size. If that attracts you than this pen is a no-brainier. All in all I really enjoy the Vac 700, but I think I will stick to the standard piston filling TWSBI's for now. Final Score 8.1666/10

And now the pictures.

Pelikan Edelstein Topaz Review

Pen - Kaweco Sport classic (converted to eyedropper) Medium Nib
Paper - Clairefontaine 90gsm
So as you may know from my past reviews of Edelstine inks, I really like them. This ink is not exactly one that I would have thought I would enjoy. I normally go for higher saturated blues, instead of the more "turquoisey" ones, like Topaz. But this ink really is a good one. It is light and fun, but still easily readable. It was extremly well behaved on Clairefontaine paper, and was very controlable on some cheaper papers as well. It is also capable of having a red sheen, but you really nib to dump it on there for it to be visible. Waterproofs was very poor, which is a trend for this brand, but that doesn't bother me so bad. The only real gripe I have with the ink is its lofty price, but it will definitly not persuade me away from getting a few samples of it every know and then. I would suggest picking up as well, it is a superb ink. And now for the pictures, enjoy :)