Editing The Pen Addict 499/transcript (section)

== Charcoal Black Ink ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, because as well, like, charcoal black is actually not a color. Like, charcoal... It's not a color. Mm-hmm. You know? And this is called black colors. Mm-hmm. And that's what initially made me laugh, is that black is not a color anyway. Right? Right, right, right. And so, that's funny on its own. But then, two of them don't even have a color to them. Like, Bordeaux and crimson, you can see, like, a red in there. Indigo, you can kind of see... I don't know.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Indigo is probably the second, you know, most colorful. So, it's crimson is a standout in differentiation. Then indigo and Bordeaux, next. And then olive is almost black to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But you can see... I mean, at least in the image, I can see there's a little green in it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But... That's funny. Anyway...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Is indigo a blue-black, basically?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's actually a little dark. They're all a little dark. I shouldn't even... Like, I said that. Like, I didn't even mean to say that. They're all a little dark. Yeah. It's fine. It's fine. But, like, if you're going to charge me $5 a pen for this... Wow. ...you need to come correct on some color disparity here.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I agree.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's expensive. So, that's all. Because I was so excited for these. And I will still use them. I will still love them. And I'll go, hey, look, you know, I can see these colors in here. But I can't help but feeling that they could have done a better job, like, with what they were trying to do. But, I mean, they didn't call these, you know, other colors with black. They called these black colors. So, maybe they're supposed to be dark with just this little tint. You know, maybe that was their idea. But I'll just buy the black Energel for $2 or whatever it is instead of $5 for all of black, right? Like, you're not selling me enough difference to make up, you know, two and a half times the price. So, that's all. Like, I love them, like, just for, like, quality, right? But for what you're telling me these are and the price you're charging me for them, it doesn't quite add up. So, there you go. So, that's my quick.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I actually have an ask TPA question that I brought in today to the document that I think is probably good to ask right now. It comes from Don. Can you explain what makes a blue-black ink truly blue-black to you versus just dark blue? Do you consider any of the following inks to be blue-black inks? Waterman Mysterious Blue, Pelican Edelstein Tanzanite, or Noodler's Aircore Blue-Black? There's two parts to this question.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. This is a good question. And Dan has, oh, excuse me, Don has, like, the right idea, right? Like, I tend to call dark blues any darker than standard, like, royal blue, like the school blue fountain pen ink that, like, Lamy ships as a default or Pelican ships as a default. Anything darker than that, I tend to call blue-black, even though they might be navy blue, right? Or they might just have some dark blue. Okay. Things like that. I tend to call anything with any level of darkness, even if that darkness is only by adding darker blues into the ink, not really blacks a blue-black. And that's just probably my terminology. You're pretty generous. Not exactly. Yeah, I'm pretty generous on that. I'm not very strict. I call Waterman Mysterious Blue a blue-black. And I call Pelican Edelstein Tanzanite a blue-black. I'm not familiar with Aircore blue-black. So I can't say on that one. Um, Waterman Mysterious Blue more so than the Tanzanite, maybe? Um, Mysterious Blue has a big difference between, like, Waterman's basic blue that it looks like it has mixed with black into it, right? Like, not all blue-black inks look like there is more of a black presence of ink in there than just saying, hey, this is a dark blue. Like, I use one of my all-time favorite inks is Mont Blanc JFK. And it's marketed as a navy blue. I just call it a blue-black because I like those shades of darker blues. Um, so I'm trying to think off the top of my head what would a pure blue-black ink look like? And I'm having to think about that because a lot of them call them, like, Sailor is in that line. Sailor's blue-black I think is probably a really good blue with a lot of black in it. Mm-hmm. Um, whereas something like an Aroshizuku, Shinkai, I call a blue-black, but it's really just a dark blue with a lot of character in it, right? But it's just easier to give it that nomenclature and say, hey, this falls into that blue-black category because it's really a dark blue. So it's hard to clearly define unless you're going to go and say this is, like, a 50% blue and a 50% black. Aurora would fall into that category for me. Um, those tend to be your darker blue-blacks. Diamine blue-black, Aurora blue-black, Sailor blue-black. Those are your really dark, dark blue-blacks. Those are the ones I consider to be the true blue-blacks. And those usually don't land at the top of my blue-black ink list because I prefer them a little bit lighter and a little bit grayer. So I'm not sure I answered Don's question at all, but I think about this a lot. And I don't have an answer. I just know I personally categorize a lot of things as blue-black that probably are just dark blues or navy or things like that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Fair enough. Mm-hmm.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Speaking of inks, I love this Sailor Tea Time Fika Coffee ink. And this is problematic for a lot of reasons.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' One, it came and went, like, in a snap. Like, if you blinked, you missed it. It was, like, a limited series. And apparently I wasn't the only one that liked it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's a brown ink that might be the brown ink that I've always been looking for. You know, I've talked over the years about how I want to love brown inks, but I've never completely clicked with one to want to, like, have a bottle or continually have it inked up in a pen. And, like, one of my not blue-black, blue-black inks that I always seem to have inked up. I want that brown ink for me. Like, I want to settle on a brown ink that I really love. It turns out it's this one that's inaccessible pretty much. So it was a small bottle, expensive, limited run. 18-milliliter bottles, like, 20 bucks or 20 milliliters for 18 bucks or whatever. It was expensive. It's great. It's just freaking fantastic. It's just this dark, rich brown. Like, it's not light, but you can see that it's brown ink. Unlike if, hey, there's the ink that Energel needs instead of the black one. Brown black. Put that in your list. Take black out and give us a brown black. So that's the one you need. Um, it's great. And now I'm not going to get it anymore. And that's okay. Because in the past, I would buy multiple bottles of ink, right? But this has given me a color and a shade of ink that now I can go look for in other colors to try to match, right? So this is why I don't chase, like, limited edition inks at all. Um, because I used to do that with, like, Sailor Apricot in the past or Sailor Sky High. Well, it turns out that your own company might re-release the same exact ink a few years later. And you'll live without having, you know, the perfect orange ink for a few years until it comes back again. Or maybe you make your own. Whatever. Whatever. This brown ink is my brown ink. And it is no longer available. Like, I don't even know how it became available, when it became available. I looked into a bottle, like, at the moment it was available. And now I can't find it anywhere. And I almost hate mentioning it. Mentioning it? Mentioning it? That's a hard word to say. You got it. Third time's a charm. It's good. Like, if I, this is the ink I've been, brown ink I've been looking for, for daily use. And I'm really, really, really happy with it. I just, you know, I'll finish this bottle. And, you know, we'll see what other comparable brown inks I can find. So that's a challenge to all of our listeners out there. If you happen to have Sailor Tea Time Series Fika Coffee ink, see if you can find one that's exactly the same. I don't know. It could be easy. It could be hard. No, use your ink. Don't hold on to it. No, hold it. I'm going to, I'm going to drink it. It's coffee ink. It's not scented though. It's probably for the best. Mmm, definitely. It's definitely for the best. It would not be on my list if it was scented, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I appreciate the scent when I want the scent, but I don't want flannel of it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't ever want scented inks.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't mind scented markers. No, I don't want them. Mmm.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I don't want them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No scent whatsoever. Like, what's a, what would be a great smell? Like a, you know, fresh cookies baking. Like, you wouldn't want that on an ink. Yeah, I wouldn't either.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I don't, see, this is, it's why I also don't like, like those automatic air fresheners. So yesterday, I visited my mom yesterday, because it was my birthday this week, right? So I went to visit my mom yesterday. Happy birthday. Thank you so much. And we were sitting in the room, and then she has one of those automatic air freshener things, you know, like every now and then. Yeah. And I hate it. And we were sitting there, and she's like, I don't like this smell. And I said, well, what are you, why is this here then? She's like, well, I don't want to waste it. It's like, but you don't like the smell. Nobody else likes the smell. It's like an attack every 10 minutes or whatever. Why do you have it? You know? I don't understand those things. Because a lot of the time, I end up finding, like, if there's, like, a bunch of family over or whatever, I end up, like, grabbing a chair, and I always tend to put it down basically where that thing is. And every now and then, I turn around just at that moment, bang, in the face.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. What's the smell? What was the smell of this one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I have no idea, man. It's some floral nonsense. I was going to say, was it floral? Yeah. And it was terrible.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. Florals are strong. So, anyway, scented inks, I get. Like, I understand. But I'm like you. I just, I've used some that you go back to the page, and there is still a scent there. And then that's when I, that's a challenge. That's when I'm just like, that's enough for me.