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.
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.
Copy Paper Test
That's solid performance on this trash-tier copy paper. Most things wetter than a ballpoint will bleed straight through.
Nock Co Note Card
Sometimes I write lyrics to test out papers. This one seemed appropriate.
Sheaffer has recently introduced a new line of inks, and it seems like the Skrip line might have been discontinued. These new inks come in a 30ml glass bottle that includes the inkwell that older Skrip bottles used to include. I'll have some pictures of all of that further down this page.
Coastal Blue is a real nice teal. I think it's a nice representation of coastal waters off of a tropical island or some such. The flow is a little on the dry side, and it sometimes felt a little anemic from the nib I was using for it. That translates to good performance on bad papers like my 20lb copy paper.
Written Review
Close-Ups
No real water resistance on this ink. A coastal ink that should maybe stay away from the coast.
Chromatography
Copy Paper Test
This one is good for copy paper. Not many inks can resist bleeding through this terrible paper, but Coastal Blue stays on the side it belongs on.
Tomoe River Paper
Wheat Straw Paper
The Bottle
These bottle have the built-in inkwell that the old Sheaffer bottles had. It's a nice feature, though it's a little on the shallow side for some
larger nibs. Unlike the Sailor bottle's plastic inkwell, the built-in
Sheaffer version is off to the side so it doesn't get in the way if
you'd rather not use it. And it will for sure help when the bottle gets
low on ink.
I also want to point out that inner cap lining. It's a small thing, but I really like that the foam which seals the lid is secured to the lid, itself. It won't just stick to the top of the bottle if you haven't opened it in a while. Small things that make your life easier.
Comparable Colors
There are lots of colors in this space, but these were the closest I found.
Pilot has new inks! Along with, and separate from, the new additions to the Iroshizuku line of inks, Pilot has introduced three new pigmented inks under the "Tsuwario" name. These inks are advertised as being lightfast and water resistant. I haven't tested the lightfast-ness, but you'll see the water resistance in the images below. It's really impressive.
I first saw this ink on a PenAddict Twitch stream and the warnings on the ink's listing seemed pretty dire. They list pens, converters, and lacuqers that you shouldn't use with this ink. I can't think of any other fountain pen inks that have those kinds of warnings. Most inks just say to clean them more often. Or not to drink them. From the Stilo&Stile web page for this ink:
"Pilot does not recommend to use this ink with Urushi lacquered pens, Pilot Custom 823, Pilot Heritage 92 and Pilot Justus 95."
Those are pens with filling systems and nib units that are a bit more difficult to clean, so that makes sense if the ink is a bit high-maintenance. The bit about not using it in urushi pens, though, is odd. The ink mostly stays inside the pen, so I'm not sure how it would hurt those. Nonetheless, that's what they say.
Knowing that it might be troublesome, I put it in a pen with a very maintainable converter and nib unit situation. The Franklin-Christoph 55 is a great pen, and the JoWo nib unit can be taken apart if I really need to in order to clean it out. Fortunately, all I've seen is maybe just a little bit of a stain in the converter. The nib has never dried out. There's been zero clogging.
The color, flow, and performance is all good so far. I like it. Thanks for sending me a sample, Chad!
The Written Review
Close-Ups
The picture above was taken after my water test. As you can see, it's pretty perfect. Pour water on this text with wild abandon.
Chromatography
Copy Paper Test
It's not perfect on copy paper, but this paper is not at all fountain pen friendly. It's that stuff your office buys in bulk for the copier.
.jpg)
.jpg)
