Yazeh Ink Reviews

Private Reserve Vampire Red   Ink Review #  141   Originally posted on FPN:  Aug 21, 2024   Ink:  Vampire Red Brand:   Private Reserve  Country:  USA Availability:  60 ml bottles and cartridges.  Pens Used:  Lamy (Reverse EF, EF, F, M, B, 1.1), Noodler’s Nib creaper. Description According to the Private Reserve website, it’s a “deep, intense brown with red tone.” To me, it’s the gorgeous colour of a 50-year-old rusted water pipe, with strong shading and a hint of gold sheen on Iroful paper. The sheen disappears over time. It is not a colour I would associate with vampires, unless they’re into ultra-processed oxidized blood. 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️ This ink is a snob. It thoroughly dislikes cheap paper and loves water to excess; it disintegrates with a drop of water. If you have Diamine’s Ancient Copper or J. Herbin Café des Îles, you probably won’t need this one. I was afraid the ink had stained the Lamy converter, but after a few flushes, ...

Noodler’s Eel Red Rattler’s Red   Ink Review #  137   Originally posted on FPN:  Jul 31, 2024   Ink:  Red Rattler’s Red. Series:  Eel. Brand:  Noodler's Country:  USA Availability:  90 ml bottles. Pens Used:  Pilot Kakuno EF, Lamy (EF/ F/M /B, 1.1), Unknown flex nib.  Description I’ve been looking for a good water-resistant red ink for some time, and I bought a bottle on impulse for its purported cleaning properties. While the section of my Kakuno was noticeably cleaner after two weeks, it didn’t remove a big blue stain. I should have left it in longer, but there were other inks waiting impatiently to be tested. Despite all that, this is a gorgeous red with decent water resistance and long dry times. It hates copy paper. I prefer it with EF–M nibs. As I use it mostly for drawing, it’s perfect for me, but it’s not for everyone. Chroma It's very complex and lovely to look at for ink nerds Writing Samples Rhodia Midori Tomoe River...

Noodler's Rachmaninoff   Ink Review #   116   Originally posted on FPN:  Feb 23, 2024   Ink:  Rachmaninoff Brand:  Noodler's Country:  USA Availability:  90 ml bottles. Pens Used:  Pilot Kakuno EF, Lamy Safari (EF, F, M, B, 1.1) Description I have been putting off this review for quite a while, as I love the composer and dislike the ink: a colour made for Barbie with the consistency of Pepto-Bismol. I’m assuming this atrocious colour was chosen because of the composer’s lovely lyrical melodies. If that’s the case, then it shows an absolute misunderstanding of the music. The Composer A bit about Rachmaninoff, one of the greatest composers and pianists of the early 20th century. He was born in the Russian Empire in 1873 and died in Beverly Hills, USA, in 1943. Rachmaninoff’s music was slightly out of sync with the musical trends of the era, and critics often panned his music for being too lyrical. This is from the 1954 edition of Grove’s D...

Noodler's —La Reine Mauve   Ink Review #  109   Originally posted on FPN:  Jan 8, 2024   Ink:  La Reine Mauve Brand:  Noodler's Country:  USA Availability:  3 oz (90 ml) bottles. Pens Used:  Pilot Kakuno EF, Lamy Safari (EF, F, M, B, 1.1), Osmiroid Copperplate nib Description This ink could be the doomed sister of Kung Te-Cheng. They have the same distinct scent, viscosity, and behavior. The colour is not "mauve" in my book. This ink is more expensive than typical Noodler’s inks. It's supposedly guillotine-proof, though I wouldn’t dare to test it, in the regard.  😀 It isn’t as bad as I thought, but I won’t recommend it to people who are not used to permanent inks. I recommend it for well-sealed pens that can be easily dismantled and cleaned and dunked in a cleaning solution for 30 minutes. It is pen-, nib-, and paper-dependent. It bled through Tomoe River 68 gsm, Mnemosyne and copy paper with all nibs. It’s best on Midori, Rhodia a...

Noodler's — Socrates   Ink Review #  108   Originally posted on FPN:  Jan 1, 2024   Ink:  Socrates Brand:  Noodler's Country:  USA Availability:   3 oz (90 ml) bottles. Pens Used:  Pilot Kakuno EF, Lamy Safari (EF, F, M, B, 1.1) Description This is a gorgeous purple, very wet, but alas with long dry times on coated paper. Despite that, I enjoyed using it for sketching with a Japanese EF nib or journaling in my Peter Pauper notebook with its thick absorbent paper. I would recommend it only with finer nibs on coated papers and with any nib on thick absorbent paper. It is surprisingly very well-behaved on copy paper. Like most purples it has the tendency to stain clear sections, and I had to resort to a cleaning solution to clean my pens. This is pricier than the normal lineup of Noodler’s inks and I believe it was originally destined for the British market. Permanent Ink Note:  Permanent inks are best used in well-sealed pens tha...