Pilot Juice Gel Ink Pen 12 Color Set Giveaway

I have been very happy with the Pilot Juice since it was introduced earlier this year so I figured it was about time I spread the wealth. Here is how you can win a 12 Color Set of the Pilot Juice from JetPens in either 0.5 mm or 0.38 mm:

1. Leave one comment on this post between now and Thursday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. You are limited to one entry. This contest is limited to US residents only.

2. For this contest, I will pick one winner at random from the comments section of this post. The comments will be numbered in the order they are received, i.e. the first comment is #1, the second #2, and so on. The Random Integer Generator at random.org will be used to pick the number of the winner.

3. The contest winner will be posted on Friday, August 16th. The winner will have one week to email me via the Contact link at the top of the page.

Thanks and good luck!

Help Wanted - Thank You All!

The response to my Help Wanted post last week was amazing and overwhelming. I expected a high volume of excellent responses and WOW did you guys deliver. This made my job narrowing it down to one nearly an impossible task, but the choice has been made. I hope to be able to introduce you to the new writer in the coming weeks as soon as we sort out final details.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my call for help. I apologise that I couldn't reply to everyone directly but you can be sure I read and appreciated every single response I received. Pen Addict readers are the best!

Pelikan Edelstein Onyx Ink Review

I feel completely normal owning every blue ink variation on the planet, but have little to no interest in black inks. Why is that?

The obvious answer is that there is very little variation in black inks besides dry time and lubrication. I'd say that's true, but if I'm being completely honest I'd say they are just boring. Give me one good black ink and I'm set for life.

As my fountain pen friends know all too well, finding that one good ink is the challenge. Is Pelikan Edelstein Onyx "The One"?

I nearly eliminated this ink right out of the gate because of the hints of brown and purple I saw when inking up my TWSBI Mini 1.5 mm stub for the first time. The one thing I want out of my black ink more than anything is darkness - it needs to be pitch black. It came out on the page nice and dark but dried with more grey than I like to see.

That bears the question: What is the deepest, darkest black ink currently on the market? Noodler's Borealis Black gets my vote, along with the amazingly similar Aurora Black (bottle purchased, review pending). Not only are those two inks darker than Onyx, they cost about half as much. The only plus on the Onyx side of the ledger is dry time - it's probably half that of Borealis and Aurora.

If there is another black that you think is darker than Borealis I would love to hear it in the comments.