Posts filed under Wearingul

Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera - A Review, Part 2

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

Last time, I did a review of Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera but you may recall that I wasn’t done! Sure, I finished the ink review portion but there was more that I wanted to share, so here we are!

In addition to the inks he picked up at the Atlanta show, Brad also got some other fun swatching items from Dromgoole’s. They include the Wearingeul Color Chart Cards, Instant Film Color Swatch cards, and Clear Chart book/binder.

*Clockwise from upper left: Instant Film Color Swatch cards, Clear Chart Book, and Color Chart Cards.*

100 Color Chart Cards cards come in a plastic card case and measure approximately 3.5” x 2” (90mm x 50 mm). They have a bottle printed on the front as well as two dots on the right, one on top of the other. I’m not sure what the dots are for, so I just wrote next to them. On the back of each card is the word ‘Jaquere’, which is Wearingeul’s sister stationery brand that “aims to provide a better writing experience through Quality Writing”. The Color Chart Cards are available in a Horizontal and Vertical orientation; this is the Horizontal version.

The Instant Film cards come in a pack of 50 and are approximately 3.75” x 2.25” (87mm x 53mm). They have this shiny, slightly textured border around the swatch (not the entire card) and feels similar to the edge of a Polaroid picture.

*Shiny but unobtrusive border around the Instant Film cards.*

I compared the swatches on the Color Chart Cards and Instant Film cards to swatches made on Col-O-Ring swatch cards using both the Wearingeul inks from the last review as well as non-Wearingeul inks - Jacques Herbin Violet Imperial (shimmer) and Robert Oster Napa (non-shimmer). The colors were true to the swatches I had made on the Col-O-Ring.

*Comparison with Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera.*

*Comparison with Jacques Herbin Violet Imperial and Robert Oster Napa.*

Now that I had these swatches done, I wanted to see if they would fit in the binder! I’m calling it a binder even though the pages aren’t removable and it doesn’t have rings. It measures approximately 7.5”L x 4.5”W x 0.75”D (195mm x 110mm x 20mm) and has a pliable but firm plastic cover with a button closure. There are 40 sheets (80 pages) of sleeves, each containing 6 slots (3 on the front and 3 on the back), so you can put 240 swatch cards in here!.

*The binder, also made by Jaquere, was designed to hold the horizontal or vertical Ink Color Chart Cards.*

*It can also fit the Instant Film swatch cards, but the Col-O-Rings are a bit too long. They do fit, but I think the ends would start to curl as you put more cards in the sleeves.*

This is gonna get nice and thick once it’s filled!

*These stickers are “DIY” (Do-It-Yourself) because they aren’t pre-cut. You can cut them to any shape/size you’d like and decorate your binder!*

The Color Chart Cards are available for $6, the Instant Film Swatch cards for $5, and the Binder for $6. They can be found in the Wearingeul paper section on the Dromgoole’s website. I’m still going to stick with my tried-and-true Col-O-Rings for all my swatching, but I might use this for all of my Wearingeul swatches!

(Disclaimer: The Wearingeul products were purchased from Dromgoole’s for a discount at the 2023 Atlanta Pen Show. The Jacques Herbin and Robert Oster inks as well as the Col-O-Rings are my own purchases.)

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Posted on July 14, 2023 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Wearingul, Ink Reviews.

Parings Party: Waldmann Titan Fountain Pen, Wearingeul 7 Colored Ocean

The tactile feel of the Waldmann Titan Fountain Pen is something to behold.

I didn’t know what to expect when requesting this pen from Luxury Brands to review, and that is exactly why I choose it. The Titan is not a pen I would have picked out blindly for myself, but after using it for the past month, I’ve come away impressed.

If you aren’t familiar with Waldmann, we have reviewed a couple of this German manufacturers pens previously, with very positive results. Given that, it should come as no surprise that I feel similarly about the Titan. What does surprise me is that Waldmann decided to make this pen in the first place.

I shouldn’t be surprised, as they are a metal pen manufacturer at their core, but the Titan is a visual outlier compared to the rest of their lineup. And, like the rest of their lineup, they nailed the execution.

Back to my first comment: I can’t get the feel of the Titan out of my head, or my hands. Metal barrel pens ride a fine line between showing off materials and manufacturing, and making a blunt force object far too heavy to write with comfortably.

Titanium is lighter than many other metals used in pen manufacturing, but the manufacturer still has control over the final weight. How thick are the barrel walls, for example? Too thick, and you throw off the balance. Too thin, and you compromise the structure. Waldmann landed on a nice balance and weight with the Titan, allowing for long writing sessions without fatigue, while making a sturdy pen that is built to last.

The sandblasted finish is an added bonus. I like a bit of texture on metal pens, especially in the grip area, and they did a great job with the overall feel. It is a tip-to-tail finish, too, as this pen is all titanium outside the nib, nib housing and feed, and converter.

The only question I have is the use of Bock’s #5 steel nib, instead of the larger #6 model. This is a full-sized pen, and could handle a #6 easily. Luckily, Bock’s #5 is sized like a 5-1/2, so visually it works fine. I simply have to ask the question of why not the bigger nib?

My review unit sports an Extra Fine (hooray Bock nib markings!) and writes perfectly for me. My usage has run the gamut from planning, journaling, scratching notes, and, inked with the brilliant Wearingeul 7 Colored Ocean, has worked flawlessly every time I uncapped the pen thanks to the internal plastic liner that seals it upon closure.

How did I decide on 7 Colored Ocean for this pen? Well, what color ink would you have chosen? Literally anything would have matched the titanium barrel, so when you can choose everything, how do you choose anything? I ended up going with this Blue Steel vibe, despite running bright green, hot pink, orange, and purple shades through my mind before settling on this one.

I think I made the perfect choice. 7 Colored Ocean isn’t breaking new ground on bright blues with darker shading and a hint of red sheen, but dang if it isn’t perfect for this pen. I lean towards this color a lot with my finer nibs, and the results usually pay off. This could be an all day, every day writing combination.

The Waldmann Titan is a limited edition of 200 worldwide, and is currently priced at $385 at site sponsor Pen Chalet. It’s expensive, but every part of this pen feels worth it to me. It’s hard to imagine a better built pen that what Waldmann has done here. Add in a $22 bottle of Wearingeul 7 Colored Ocean, and you too may end up with a pairing party of your own.

(Luxury Brands USA loaned the Waldmann Titan to The Pen Addict for review purposes. The Wearingeul Ink was purchased from Vanness Pens at a discount.)

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Posted on July 10, 2023 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Waldmann, Wearingul, Fountain Pens, Ink Reviews, Pen Reviews.

Wearingeul Macbeth & The Phantom of the Opera - A Review, Part 1

I was very excited when the Bossman picked up Wearingeul Macbeth and The Phantom of the Opera at this year’s Atlanta pen show for me to review, but only getting to it now. Sorry! To make up for it (and also because it’s fun), I decided to make this review a two-parter. Don’t worry, I won’t leave anyone hanging about how these two inks performed, so without further ado…

*Wearingeul Macbeth (left) and The Phantom of the Opera (right) I love that the mask is a sticker than you can peel off, if you so choose!*

For Macbeth, I used the clear TWSBI Go with a Medium nib and a TWSBI Swipe with a Medium nib for Phantom for the writing samples in the notebook. For the other writing samples, I used the Kakimori steel dip nib on the Col-O-Ring cards, as well as the 52 gsm, 68 gsm Tomoe River and Cosmo Air Light 75 gsm papers.

*Macbeth is a medium grey ink with light purple shimmer. The included “swatch” is much more purple than the actual swatches.*

*Writing sample and swatch on 68 gsm Tomoe River Paper.*

*Writing sample and dry times on 68 gsm Tomoe River Paper.*

*Chromatography didn’t travel very far and was mostly light grey with a little bit of pink.*

Macbeth had an average flow, which was surprising, since grey inks can sometimes feel a little dry. It was well-behaved in the TWSBI Go with decent shimmer in my writing sample and no clogging. I had expected it to dry pretty quickly but it took ~40-50 seconds to dry on 68gsm TR. It would definitely dry faster like Rhodia, copy paper, Cosmo Air Light or with drier or finer nibs.

I don’t have a lot of grey inks, let alone many that were very similar to Macbeth, so I picked some that might be more readily available: Wearingeul Me in the Mirror (grey with silver shimmer), Montblanc Oyster Grey (cooler tone, less blue), Diamine Snow Storm (probably the most similar in color and shimmer), Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun (a bit too blue and too light but kind of close), Kiri-same (too brown).

*Phantom is a medium dark, slightly denim-leaning, blue ink with dark red sheen. It is not a super sheener but the wetness of the pen/swatch will influence how much red you get.*

*Closeup of the subtle red sheen around the edges.*

*Unlike Macbeth, Phantom’s chromatography traveled very far and probably could have kept going. It starts off as a purplish grey, transitioning to pink and then a bright blue/cyan.*

The Phantom of the Opera had a much wetter flow, which you can tell by the broader line that the Swipe Medium nib laid down (the nibs are the same as the Go/Eco, but there can always be minor variations between nibs/feeds). I was expecting it to take much longer to dry, based on how much smearing there was at the 40-50 second mark but it was dry by 60 seconds. One of the annoyances of some sheening inks is that it could smear long after it has dried. But not so with Phantom. I smeared it with my (dry) finger several minutes after letting it dry, and again the next day (as I’m writing this) and there was no smearing!

Inks similar to The Phantom of the Opera:Pure Pens Westgate Hotel, Anderillium Flying Squid Blue, Fanyantan #24-B The Sea, Inkebara Midnight Blue (this and the remaining swatches are a bit lighter), KWZ Walk Over Vistula, Krishna Paakezah, Organics Studio Ralph Waldo Emerson Twilight Blue.

Wearingeul Macbeth and The Phantom of the Opera can be purchased for $20 and $21, respectively, for 30 ml at Dromgoole’s. Wearingeul keeps coming out with a lot of great inks, so I’m glad they are available in a reasonable 30 ml size.

That concludes this first part of my review of Wearingeul Macbeth and The Phantom of the Opera. Tune in again next time when we see what else is up my sleeve!

(Disclaimer: This ink was purchased from Dromgoole’s for a discount at the 2023 Atlanta Pen Show.)

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Posted on July 7, 2023 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Wearingul, Ink Reviews.