My Ink Testing Kit

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

Over the years writing for Pen Addict, I’ve done many ink reviews. typically using whatever pens I had on hand. But over time I’ve accumulated some tools that I use for all my reviews. Plus, I decided to standardize how I do ink reviews so each one is more consistent.

I realize that not everyone wants to do in-depth testing of their inks (even I don’t go so far as calibrating my screen for exact color matching or swatching every single ink in my collection). But, for anyone who is interested in going beyond the occasional swab, here are the tools I use.

Paper

Although in the past I used the Maruman Septcouleur notebook for my ink tests, I switched to a Rhodia dot spiral because the Rhodia brand seems like a more popular choice among pen addicts. This is the paper I use for my primary pen testing pages.

I also test inks with a Tomoe River notebook (because this is such a popular paper) and the MD Cotton A4 plain for large lettering.

One of these days I’m going to shell out the money for an ink bottle stamp that I can use on my pen testing page. Until then, I drew my own bottle on my iPad, exported it into a Word document, duplicated it, and printed it out on regular copier paper. I paste this in the corner of the Rhodia page to add visual interest.

For ink swatches I use the wonderful Col-o-dex cards from Well-Appointed Desk. The paper is excellent for swatching. Plus, I love putting everything into my Rolodex where I can organize the swatches by color.

Another tool I use is chromatography paper. I ordered a set off of Amazon, but you can just use coffee filters or even paper towels. I like the strips I bought because they are consistent. I cut them in half, poke a little hole in the top, stick a piece of dry spaghetti through the hole, put tap water in a glass, and let the ink do its thing.

Pens

I use several pens to test my inks. Two instruments that I’ve used consistently in all my ink reviews are my Kaweco straight nib holder with a Brause Blue Pumpkin nib and my Handwritmic Ruling Pen. The Kaweco/Blue Pumpkin is for writing the ink name and creating swirls on my Col-o-ring Rolodex swatch cards. The Handwritmic is for big juicy lettering to test for shading and sheen on the MD Cotton paper.

I wanted to provide consistent examples of a fine, medium, and broad nib in all my reviews. That’s hard to do if you’re using different brands of pens. So, I decided to purchase some pens just for ink testing. After researching various possibilities, I chose the Lamy Vista ($29.60). Although I could have gotten some piston-filler pens for around the same price, I wanted a brand with a converter because they’re easier to clean. Pilot Metropolitans were first on my list, but they only come in fine and medium nibs. So, I purchased three Lamy Vistas in fine, medium, and broad, and one Lamy converter ($5.00), which I can easily move from pen to pen as I test the ink. This way I have a consistent writing sample with a western fine, medium, and broad nib.

Other Tools

An obvious additional tool is a cotton swab. I go through a lot of these with each review, swabbing the Col-o-dex cards and the ink testing page.

Another tool that comes in handy for making ink splats and doing water testing is a fine-tipped pipette. Although it’s disposable, I use it over and over, rinsing it out in between uses. My first one developed a leak, and I’m now on my second one. These are quite inexpensive and you can buy them in bulk (as in 200 pipettes!) from places like Amazon.

I found a toiletries holder at Target where I store my supplies. I love this one because it has a variety of round tubes to hold my pens, chromatography strips, and cotton swabs.

The last tool is my camera. I use an Olympus OMD EM1 with a 60mm macro lens for all my reviews. I shoot in our Florida Room using natural light, though occasionally I use a light box (but setting it up is a pain and the cats always climb in and get hair all over, so . . . yeah). In order to get semi-accurate color, I have to brighten the exposure when I take the photo and when I process it in Lightroom.

So, there you have it: my wondrous ink testing kit!

(Most of the above supplies were purchased with my own funds. A few items, such as the Col-o-dex Cards and Tomoe River Paper Notebook, were provided by a retailer for Pen Addict reviews.)

The Pen Addict Podcast: Episode 366 - A Beautifully Told Story

Stranger Things, via Netflix

Season 3 of Stranger Things dropped today, and while I will have to wait a few weeks to get chills up my spine from the show, you don’t have to wait to hear what Horror Stories we have to share from our listeners this week.

Show Notes & Download Links

This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:

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Maruai Basic Notebooks Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

At this point, most people are familiar with pocket notebooks — pen addicts and non-addicts alike. The popularity of Field Notes in the last several years has opened the flood gates for lower quality, lower cost alternatives in big box retail stores, and it's because the pocket notebook is an invaluable tool. Well, I recently learned that there are pocket notebooks, and then there are pocket notebooks that can fit in the pockets of those aforementioned pocket notebooks.

The Maruai Basic Notebooks line is a selection of miniature notebooks that are even smaller than the standard 3.5" x 5.5" size with which we're all familiar. The "Mini" Notebook comes it at a whopping 3.2" x 2.2", while the "Pocket" Notebook is a much larger 4.1" x 2.4". While both notebooks are quite diminutive in size, they have a lot to offer in quality and easy-to-store-literally-anywhere-ility.

Let's start off with the common aspects of these two notebooks. Both share the same quality paper, which is a pleasant ivory color. I don't know the actual weight of the paper, but it performs about as well as the standard Field Notes paper. I wouldn't say it's fountain pen friendly, but it holds up pretty well. For gel, ballpoint, and hybrid ballpoint inks, it's fantastic. The paper is smooth with a small amount of texture, providing a pleasant level of feedback.

Both notebooks also come with the same color options — Black, Orange, Yellow, Green, Gray, and Navy. The colored covers are simply that — each color uses the same paper and line type, unlike other brands that use the color to indicate the line style on the paper.

The covers are also made of the same robust, textured material. They aren't smooth, and the subtle texture feels great in the hand. They're the weight of a very light cardstock, very similar to other pocket notebook brands.

As far as similarities go, that's the end of the road. The differences at this point aren't gigantic, but they might certainly sway your preference outside of the size option alone.

Starting with the (adorably) smaller Mini notebook, it offers 48 pages in a twin-staple binding. The paper on this size is all blank, so you don't have any decisions to make on that front.

At just over 3 inches tall and 2 inches wide, it shares the dimensions of a credit card. Sure, it's a lot thicker, but that's pretty impressive. Like JetPens claims, you can store this notebook in a credit card slot of a wallet. This shows just how many options you have when it comes to storing this little guy. In fact, it's so small that it becomes prone to being lost. It can easily slip into places other items can't, increasing the likelihood of misplacing it or mysteriously vanishing.

The binding (which is on the side of this notebook) and cover are well made, but once you start using this notebook, it will not stay closed.

Moving on to the larger cousin, the Pocket notebook is only slightly larger, but it also sports a sewn top binding, which completely changes the usage options (at least for me). I've always been a huge fan of top-bound notebooks, and this unique size has been interesting to use.

With 64 pages of 5mm grid paper, this notebook offers the structure many crave. While it won't fit in a credit card slot, it's still incredibly small and capable of fitting places other notebooks can never dream of. I've really enjoyed using this notebook over the Mini because it seems to be easier to use when writing and jotting down quick notes. That might be because it's larger, is top-bound, or a combination of both.

The Mini comes in at $4 and the Pocket is $5.75. This is a premium price considering how you can usually pick up a three-pack of notebooks for around $10 from other makers, and the paper quality isn't amazing by any stretch. To me, this is a niche notebook that fits a size criteria that other notebook makers simply aren't offering at large scale. If you have a specific use for these notebooks and their diminutive size, I'm sure they'll serve you well! As far as notebooks go, they perform quite well for jotting down notes and disappearing when not in use.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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