A Private Reserve look at inks

I said I wasn't especially an ink aficionado, but in this blog I explore a few inks I'm either fond of or trying out.

What I love about some ink brands is their names. This one is 'Private Reserve'. It sounds more like a wine cellar than an ink (although I would recommend against drinking them). Other names like 'Noodlers' and 'Diamine' sound similarly playful or pretentious. Nevertheless, they all carry out their stated aim: they're inks. You write with them.

Private Reserve Avacado (not my preferred spelling but the spelling on the bottle) is one of my favourite ink colours. Here, I've used it in my Omas Green Arco which has a lovely Mottishaw cursive Italic nib. 'What's a Mottishaw?' I hear you ask. All will be revealed in the fullness of time :-) The "Arco" refers to the colour of the celluloid in this pen, which is a sort of silver and green shimmer effect - a lovely looking colour.

The second is Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue, using a Radius Comet in Red Arco. Radius is another Italian brand that emerged in the first half of the 1930s. The comet model was a relatively inexpensive line introduced some time after the war. But this one is a lovely piston filler with ink view window and great coloured celluloid. The ink is quite a wet one (ie. it drys slowly) and I'm still deciding whether I like it or not. My blue of preference is a little more purple in hue than this one (I'll show that on another day).

The final ink is Private Reserve Tanzanite. This is a purple ink. A little hard to see in the pic (which is just an iPhone pic) mostly because the nib on the Pilot Vanishing point pen is quite fine. This is an ink I think I'm going to enjoy playing with. The pen, called the 'Stealth' because...... (wait for it) it's black! is still a fabulous modern Japanese pen. Vanishing point fountain pens (VP) are a lot like ballpoint pens except they're not. They have a click mechanism that urges the nib out of its shell (like a ballpoint), and therefore do not dry out nor need a cap. Their disadvantage is that they have a small ink capacity; and some people complain about the location of the clip (although I have no problem with that).

So, another day has reached its zenith and another blog has reached its close.

Until next tine...