Ink Nix Gets the Ink Off Your Fingers

Lily at JetPens graciously sent me this product to review.  Prior to opening the package, I had never heard of Ink Nix before but had always secretly hoped that something like this existed.  Yesterday, I bought a beginner's Speedball calligraphy set at my local art store.  I had so much fun playing with the various nibs and experimenting with what they could do.  Unfortunately, I also made a big mess.

Enter Ink Nix, the world's best ink remover.

I could not open this bottle fast enough.  When I did, I was surprised to find a very thick, pasty and gritty mixture inside.  It look much like an apricot facial scrub that you would find in the health & beauty section of the drugstore.  It also looks much like my kitchen countertop.  

The directions on the bottle were brief, but to the point and accurate.  Take a little bit of the Ink Nix mixture.  Rub in on the portions of your hands that are caked with ink.  Then, when you start to see the ink coming off, simply add a little water.  It's pretty simple actually.  As soon as I added a few drops of water, the ink came off.  Without a hitch.  I had to scrub a little bit, but not long at all.  In fact, the whole operation was very quick.

My fingers, especially the middle one, were loaded with Diamine Graphite.  That particular finger needed an additional small application of Ink Nix, but after that, it was gone.  Take a look.

Thank you, Lily, for sending me this product!  I am very grateful, because the day I decided to play with dip pens for the first time, I also had a dinner date.  I had no idea that my hands would end up looking like they did.  I would have been a little embarrassed to go to dinner looking like that!  Ink Nix was a bit of a lifesaver yesterday.  Otherwise, my date would have been asking me if I had just come from changing the oil in my car.   :-/

From a woman's perspective, I would have a nice tube of hand cream on standby when using Ink Nix.  I found it to be a little bit drying, and I have naturally dry hands to begin with.  I add that, not as a negative, but as a "nice to know" tidbit.  The fact that it can be somewhat drying is not all that surprising to me, but considering that it takes the ink right off your hands allowing one to go from "dirty" to "dinner" in about the span of five (5) minutes, it's a small price to pay.  It's all good!

Thank you, again, to Lily!  I am grateful for your generosity.  

LAMY Joy 1.1 and 1.5: A Comparison

I received these Lamy Joy italic fountain pens from Lily at JetPens, who was gracious enough to send them to me for review on my amateur little blog here.  I have had a lot of fun with these pens, as I have been curious about them for some time, now.  Until this point, I have been using LAMY italic nibs in my regular LAMY Safari fountain pens.

LAMY Joy is typically used for calligraphy, or sketching (if using an extra-fine nib), and it is shaped differently from the iconic LAMY Safari because the barrel of the pen is slightly longer and tapered, which contributes to ease of use when engaging in more creative activities.  Below, the LAMY Joy is featured on the left with black body and red clip; LAMY Safari featured on right with red body and black clip.  Note that the caps look similar, but the barrel on the Safari is round-ish and somewhat blunt, whereas the Joy features a narrowed tapering.

Otherwise, the overall properties of the LAMY Joy are quite similar to the LAMY Safari fountain pen which many of us have grown to love.  It has the shaped grip section for easier handling, it is a cartridge/converter fill, features an ink view window, and is capable of swapping nibs with Safari, and several other LAMY fountain pens such as Vista, Studio, Pur, and others.

This review focuses specifically on the LAMY italic nibs.  I decided to do a side by side comparison of the 1.1 and 1.5 italic nibs using Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun (greyish/blue/black) and Pilot Iroshizuku Kiri-Same (a pinkish/brownish/grey).  I had a lot of fun completing this review, and learned quite a bit along the way.

I am by no means an expert calligrapher, or expert on any matters pertaining to fountain pens or calligraphy.  However, this year, I decided to improve my handwriting which led me to the world of italics and calligraphy.  As mentioned in other posts, I have been using Fred Eager's "The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting" and he teaches improvement in handwriting through the teaching of italic and calligraphic principles.  I have by no means been terribly disciplined, as he encourages practice every day, which I have not been doing religiously.  That being said, I do practice and have seen improvement by following the exercises.  In fact, the other day, someone told me that my handwriting actually looked "stylish".  I took that as a compliment.  Thank you, Fred Eager.  =)

So, getting down to the review: I decided to engage in my regular handwriting exercises but using both pens instead of the 1.5 italic, which is generally recommended.  As a beginner, I found that the 1.5 was much easier to use than the 1.1 for the purposes of completing the exercises.  The 1.1 is much finer, and actually required more exacting skill to use.  I had to focus a little bit harder to achieve the same effect.  However, when it comes to general handwriting, the 1.1 is far better and easier, and just plain more fun.

I also found that the 1.1 almost did not look like an italic per se when compared to the 1.5, and I did not see as much shading in the 1.1 either.  On the flip side, the 1.1 is much smoother and of slightly better quality than the 1.5.  I say this, and feel confident in doing so, because I have heard this remark echoed in other reviews and posts on the Fountain Pen Network, and elsewhere.  In the end, both are a "joy" to use, and I would not hesitate to use either when practicing my handwriting, or in personal correspondence, or journaling.

Here are a couple of samples so that you can see some of the differences for yourself:

The paper used here is Strathmore Calligraphy 400 series.

Here is another sample on Rhodia.

Again, on Strathmore Calligraphy 400 Series.

Handwriting practice with LAMY Joy 1.5, Iroshizuku Kiri-Same, and HP#24 paper.  HP#24 showed slight feathering with Kiri-Same, but was otherwise a pleasure to use.  Much more shading and line variation is apparent with the 1.5 italic nib.

A closer look: LAMY Joy 1.5 with Iroshizuku Kiri-Same.

Handwriting practice with LAMY Joy 1.1, Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun, and HP#24 paper.  No feathering here.  Shading and line variation is apparent, but not as dramatic as the 1.5.  

(Side note: please kindly overlook the fact that I misspelled "cacophony".  Much appreciated.)

A closer look: LAMY Joy 1.1 with Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun.

As far as the inks are concerned, both Kiri-Same and Fuyu-Syogun were a pleasure to use, and display the shading and behavior properties that Iroshizuku inks are known and loved for.  They are both gorgeous colors and shade beautifully, but when used here, it was simply more apparent with the larger nib size.  

In conclusion, I highly recommend LAMY Joy.  I much prefer it for handwriting practice and calligraphy because the tapered barrel does give a bit more "grace" to the writer, shall we say.  It's easier to use, allowing the writer to achieve more exacting precision with this type of writing.  Overall, I was more pleased with the shading seen with the 1.5 nib, however I enjoyed the 1.1 a bit more since it was smoother and simply glided on the paper.  I will be using both nibs again, but will likely incorporate the 1.5 into my handwriting practice and the 1.1 into my journaling and personal correspondence.  

Thanks again to Lily at Jet Pens for for being so gracious and sending these pens!  The inks used were from my own stash, but can be purchased at JetPens also.  

Cheers!

-kp

Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo (Moonlight) / Diamine Twilight / Rohrer and Klingner Verdigris

*9/15/2012:  Note to reader: please also refer to my review Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo: Revisited.

This week I decided to try a new ink in my TWSBI, so I chose Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo (Moonlight) since it's darkish, blue-black nature would be appropriate for office and otherwise. I used this ink daily, throughout the week, and was happy with its overall performance, but, in the end, I'm not entirely crazy about the color.

In particular, I have been most curious about this dark green/blue/black "family" of inks, and decided to include some swabs of Diamine Twilight and Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris. All three inks are new to me, and Tsuki-yo is the only one of the three that I've used extensively up until this point. I had imagined these three to appear so similar as to be almost indistinguishable. But that's not the case at all. I was surprised at the results of the swab test: compared to Twilight and Verdigris, Tsuki-yo almost comes across like a dark turquoise. To my eye, at least.

Tsuki-yo performed admirably for me this week, including on cheap Staples legal pads that we use at work. However, I won't be rushing to buy a bottle of this one since I much prefer a darker blue-black.

Interestingly, the R&K Verdigris went down on the paper a very greenish, blue-black but dried a dark blue with a slight violet undertone to it. Of the three, Twilight strikes my fancy because it reflects a nice balance of dark blue-black with only a slight hint of green, and also has a bit of sheen to it. Ironically, while Diamine Twilight is named after the evening sky, it really reminds me of ocean waters.