Yazeh Ink Reviews

  J Herbin Terre de Feu Ink Review # 164   Originally posted on FPN: Dec 25, 2024   Ink:  Terre de Feu Brand:  J Herbin Country:  France Availability:  10 / 30 ml bottles and cartridges. Pens Used:  Pilot F3A (EF / semi-flex), Lamy Safari (EF / F / M / B / Stub 1.1), Jinhao 450 with fude nib not shown, and Waterman W2. Description A reddish brown, which is named after the Tierra del Fuego (land of fire) archipelago at the southern tip of South America. According to J Herbin: " This brown ink has a red tone a reminder of the burnt lands and vast deserts where nothing ever grows. " I was really looking forward to this ink as a drop of it on a bill was winking at me from my desk. However, the writing experience was the opposite of what the many positive reviews I saw online had led me to expect. It refused to flow in most of my pens. Reviewing this ink was the equivalent of being in a Star Trek mirror universe. Everything was the opposite for me. Ink...

  Diamine Hells Bells (German Exclusive) Ink Review #  163   Originally posted on FPN: Dec 18, 2024   Ink:  Hells Bells Brand:  Diamine Country:  United Kingdom Availability:  30 ml / 80 ml bottles. Pens Used:  Pilot Kakuno EF, Kaweco (EF / F / M / B / BB), Osmiroid Copperplate nib. Description This is another German exclusive, named after the 1980s AC/DC song. I bought my sample from Fountainfeder in Germany.  The only thing I liked about this ink was re-discovering the music of AC/DC. You can read more about these inks and Diamine Guitar series on the Nick Stewart website, and why it has a "metal sheen": https://nickstewart.ink/2022/07/08/hells-bells-its-master-of-puppets-stephan-lucht/ Ink is a dark teal with a red sheen. It's a finger stainer; my fingers were not happy with all the scrubbing. However, it's easy to clean out from pens and surprisingly has short dry times and is very well-behaved on copy paper. For some reason the BB n...

  Octopus Write & Draw Brown Seahorse   Ink Review #  162   Originally posted on FPN: Dec 11, 2024   Ink:  Brown Seahorse Brand:  Octopus Fluids Write & Draw Country:  Germany Availability:  50 ml bottles. Pens Used:  Sheaffer Targa F (reverse), Lamy Safari (EF / F / M / B / Stub 1.1), Kanwrite Desire with Ahab nib. Description This is a gorgeous, complex grey/brown with hints of burgundy, a match made in heaven for a dry pen and Japanese paper. Unfortunately, I misplaced the chroma, but judging by the other Octopus Write & Draw inks, it likely has a single colour component. It is very wet, well-lubricated, and  one of the fastest drying inks I ever used, which explains why there's some bleed through / ghosting on Rhodia, even more so than on Hammermill. Writing Samples (scan) I used respectively a Sheaffer Targa F reverse, Lamy Safari, and for the final flex lines I used a Kanwrite Desire with an Ahab semi-flex nib. For...

  Octopus Write & Draw Orange Monkey Ink Review #  161   Originally posted on FPN: Dec 4, 2024   Ink:  Orange Monkey Brand:  Octopus Fluids Write & Draw Country:  Germany Availability:  50 ml bottles. Pens Used:  Lamy Safari (reverse EF, EF / F / M / B / stub 1.1), Osmiroid Copperplate nib. Description A slightly "neon-ish" light orange pigment ink by Octopus. Like most orange inks, it is slightly below average in the lubrication department with dry EF nibs, but otherwise a pleasant writer. Ink is kind of flat under artificial LED lights on most papers, but it goes crazy on Iroful paper with shades of peach, yellow-orange up to red. There's a silver sheen like most Octopus inks under artificial light on some Japanese papers, especially Iroful. It is legible, but a wetter pen, a wider nib, and of course good paper might be advantageous. Cleaning was easy, but I recommend a little dunking in a cleaning solution. Octopus has a host of wa...