Sunderland Machine Works

If you are looking for the best machined pens money can buy, then Sunderland Machine Works needs to be on your radar.

The MK1 is a personal favorite of mine. The aluminum body is lightweight and durable, the cap posts securely, which is rare for a metal pen, and the anodized colors, such as blue, red, and orange, are striking. Did I mention there are no exposed threads? That too. They are hidden in a very unique way, which I’ve only seen Sunderland Machine Works pull off.

Any Pilot G2 refill will fit, such as my favorite Pilot Juice refill, as well as the screw-in Montblanc cartridges, such as the rollerball and fineliner.

This is a wonderful pen that is well worth checking out. My thanks to Sunderland Machine Works for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 241 - Art Makes People Mad

Radio Raheem gets it

Myke and I stir it up this week, digging into the new release that is the Baron Fig Askew. There is love, and there is hate, and there is not much in between. We couldn’t ask for more in a podcast topic!

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

Blue Apron: A better way to cook. Get three free meals with free shipping.

Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code INK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Casper: Because everyone deserves a great night sleep. Get $50 off with the code ‘penaddict’.

Bung Box Sweet Potato Purple Ink: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Bung Box inks, which are made by Sailor, are truly to-die-for inks. I hoard my First Love Sapphire (review here) in its gorgeous bottle for special occasions.

Because Bung Box inks are so expensive ($43.00 per bottle at Vanness), it’s hard to shell out the money for one of these inks, especially now that they are packaged in the boring, regular-shaped Sailor bottles.

Photo credit: Vanness

Still, I am fascinated by the Bung Box colors, with awesome names like “Clown Tears,” “Fresh Oranges of Lake Hamana,” and “Ink of the Witch.” Samples cost $5.00 for 4ml at Vanness, so I ordered 4B (which seems to be many people’s first choice for a blue-black ink; Jeff reviewed it recently) and Sweet Potato Purple.

Sweet Potato Purple is a lovely, deep burgundy ink. It is one of the most interesting inks I’ve done chromatography on, with shades of pink, purple, orange and blue—so much complexity.

In my ink tests, it dried fairly quickly, so I would call it a medium-wet ink. It is not waterproof. It doesn’t exhibit much shading or sheen in my tests with a TWSBI stub nib.

But in the ink splats you can see some pretty green-gold sheen.

In wide nibs, the ink shades and sheens beautifully.

I tried to find some close matches to this ink, considering how expensive it is. The closest is Diamine Tyrian Purple which I reviewed here. But Tyrian doesn’t have the depth or complexity of Bung Box Sweet Potato. None of my other purple/burgundy inks were even close.

So, even though it hurts my pocketbook, this is one ink I’m going to have to purchase.

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