Join me as I check out my reward from the SSC Kickstarter! Excuse the fast talking and shaky hands - I had a cup of coffee right before recording and I'm not used to being caffeinated in the middle of the day. But this couldn't wait!
Story Supply Co website here.
How is it November already!?! This is how I know that I'm starting to get old, when months seem to just fly by. But, it's not so bad since November is going to be devoted entirely to inks here, with a focus on oranges and browns to celebrate Thanksgiving coming up. The first is this ink, which is part of the Chesterfield line sold through xFountainPens. The Chesterfield inks are rebranded Diamine inks (FPN thread here), so I will do my best to figure out which of those inks they match up with. There is a spreadsheet that was made by a member on FPN, so I will go off of that and if things don't seem to match, I'll hunt around until I find what does.
I've spoken before regarding my feelings towards the color orange. This one falls into the side of the orange spectrum that really irritates me, so I will be glad to get it out of my pen soon. On the other hand, it is a super bright, well saturated orange, which could have a place if you are grading or editing.
The intense saturation means that shading is not pronounced, at least not in a finer nib. The ink was pleasant to write with, with no hard starts or feathering or bleeding. There was some nib creep and my understanding/observation is that this is not uncommon with orange inks and not something to worry about. As you can see above, it has no water resistance, but it fared well with both liquid and dry highlighters (though I cannot understand why you would want to highlight such a retina-searing color, but hey, you do you).
Fire Opal was also well behaved in a Pitch Black Field Notes, so this could be an ink you could use in your daily carry.
Now, the spreadsheet I linked above matches this ink with Diamine Orange. I grabbed that and a few other oranges from the Goulet Pens Swab Shop tool, so let's see if that is indeed the case!
I would definitely agree with that match. There is a bit of difference in terms of color correction in the scans, but I think the telling sign is the underlying red hue present in both the Chesterfield Fire Opal and the Diamine Orange.
Like I said, this ink gets on my nerves hardcore. But, it was otherwise a nicely behaved ink and I can't complain about it except for the my bias against the color. You also get a pretty nice discount buying the Chesterfield vs Diamine, at $10/100 mL for Chesterfield and $15/80 mL for Diamine. Of course, neither of those prices is outrageous, but why not save a few dollars if you can? The biggest difference is that the Chesterfield comes in a plastic bottle rather than glass, and my experience with those bottles is that the neck is quite narrow. Thus, it might be best if you have another container to decant into, or you are planning to syringe fill.
This ink sample was given to me as a gift and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions expressed above are my own, and you are free to disagree if you like.
PS - I've decided to start taking my quotes that I put in reviews from my current favorite songs, so that you can all see what horrible taste in music I have. Anyway, I'll try and remember to put a link to the song referenced at the bottom here, in case you want to take a listen. They won't necessarily relate to the ink being reviewed, so sorry for any confusion there.
Let's take a look at how the Tombow 8900, Mono Professional, and Mono 100 stack up! Below you can find the handwritten review that I showed in the video, as well as some pictures that show the color of the 8900 a bit more accurately.
PS - sorry for the little bits of dust/fuzz that can be seen sticking to the pencils in the pictures and video. I noticed them while I was editing, but alas, that is the price you pay when you film on beautiful wood floors.
These pencils were given to me as gifts from various sources (you know who you are, and thank you very much again) and I am not being compensated for this post in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with me if you like.
Have you heard about the CartoGraphite website? Not only do they have a super cool logo, they also have a map that compiles the locations of stationary and pencil stores submitted by readers. I submitted the local art store here on campus, and if you know of someplace special, you should drop them a line.
Anyway, what inspired this post was a really cool infographic they put up today on how to pick a wooden pencil based on some simple yes/no questions. Of course it doesn't cover some of the brands that are tougher to get here in the States, but it's a good place to start if you want to pick some pencils for yourself or a friend.
There's a much better version of the chart on their website, so head over there and check it out! You can either click on the image and that will take you there, or use this link.