Frankly Walnut looks reddish brown on Col-o-ring paper but on Tomoe River it looks almost purply. Fascinating.

When compared with other brown inks, many Robert Oster were similar but different. Robert Oster Chocolate is probably the closest but is a bit more red orange in undertones where Frankly Walnut is a little more reddish in undertone.

Everyone looks for different characteristics in a brown ink: some prefer cool browns, others a warmer brown. Some want a more orangey color, or lighter or darker shades. Some might want a brown closer to black. Frankly Walnut provides a new option in the ever-growing rainbow of browns.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Federalist Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Preview: Robert Oster Frankly Walnut (Federalist Pens Exclusive) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

My home state (where I was born and grew up), California, has already been done, and Jesi reviewed it previously:

But I’m still waiting for Kansas, so it’s fun to think about what it could be. Kansas’ state flower is the Sunflower, and I could totally go for a golden sunflower yellow (or would that be too close to New Jersey?) The Kansas state bird is the Western meadowlark, which has a bright lemon yellow belly. If we’re playing on the Wizard of Oz, the colorway could be Ruby Slippers?

Colorverse on the other hand, has their USA Special Series highlighting US cities. My personal favorite there is Fabulous Glistening Las Vegas. a sort of flamingo pink ink with shimmer. When I think about Kansas City, I think about fountains so I could easily see a watery blue. We’re also known for our BBQ (don’t get into a debate about which BBQ is the best – it will only end in a fight!) so we could be up for a burgundy color.

Robert Oster is also tackling Cities of America. According to Jesi’s review, Kansas City’s color has already been decided, along with a few others!

So do you have any thoughts about your city or state inks? If you live outside the US, I’m sure you want country/state/province/city inks as well right? What color do you think your geographical signature ink should be?

The post What’s your state’s Sailor Ink Color? appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

When Pen Boutique originally reached out to me, I got a little confused. I thought they were sending the new North American Exclusive Pro Gear 2022 Pen of the Year Soda Pop Blue ($392 for standard, $280 for Slim). At a quick glance, it’s easy to see how I might mix the two up but there are some key differentiators: Soda Pop Blue has full transparent glitter body and gold hardware. The Bora Bora Waters pen features a turquoise blue material with dark, translucent blue end caps and grip section. The hardware is rhodium plated creating a cool waters vibe.

I confess, I much prefer the color combo and sliver hardware of the Bora Bora Waters over the Soda Pop Blue models.

The full size Pro Gear pens feature a beautifully etched 21K nib. I got the H-MF nib which is the “hard medium fine”. As far as I know, Sailor is the only pen manufacturer to offer a medium fine nib as a standard option. Since Japanese nibs are finer than Western nibs, the MF nib is probably the equivalent of a Western F nib.

Most of the Sailor Pro Gear pens I’ve acquired up to this point have been the Slim variety but having the Bora Bora Waters in my hand made me realize there is not really that much difference in the size of the “full size” Pro Gear versus the Slim. The above image shows the Bora Bora flanked n both sides with my rainbow of Slim models.

Of my Pro Gear Slim models, all of them are from Sailor directly except for the citrus green model which is a special Nagasawa Kobe Pen Style so the nib engraving is different. Otherwise, all the Slims feature the same 14K nibs. So, since the size difference between the full-size and slim models is relatively minor, most of the price difference for a full-sized Pro Gear is for the upgraded 21k nib.

For even more perspective on how small the full size Pro Gear is, above is an image of the Bora Bora Waters next to a Lamy AL-Star, Pilot Metropolitan, TWSBI Eco, Platinum 3776 and an Opus 88 Coloro (which is the smallest of Opus 88’s full-sized pens).

Even posted, the Sailor Pro Gear Bora Bora Waters full-size is shorter than most of the other pens shown.

Writing with the Bora Bora Waters, I realized how much I missed writing with my Sailor pens. I particularly like the 21k nib and I know that makes me a nib snob. While the 14k nibs are amazing to write with, they have some noticeable feedback when writing. The 21k nib reduces the feedback somewhat without creating an unpleasantly slippery writing experience and maintains the fine crisp lines of the 14k nib. It’s a fine balance between a nib that writes smoothly but provides necessary feedback and a nib that makes you feel like you’re ice skating.

Since I do have quite a few other Sailor pens at my disposal, I decided this would be a good opportunity to do a little nib width comparison. Of the Sailor pens shown previously, I have almost a full range of nib sizes (just missing a standard M and B and a Zoom).

I find that the difference between my custom ground EF needlepoint and the F nibs are minimal. The MF is a little bit wider but even with my small handwriting, the line is not so wide as to blot out my letter counters (the insides of a’s and e’s, for instance).

The Music nib is considerably wider but when compared with other music nibs, the Sailor music nib is not overly wide.

The Robert Oster Bora Bora Waters Ink (Pen Boutique Exclusive)

Along with the Sailor Pro Gear Bora Bora Waters fountain pen, Pen Boutique also had Robert Oster create a matching ink. If you want someone to make you a water-inspired ink, you want Robert Oster involved. So it was a wise move.

Robert Oster developed an exclusive ink color to coordinate with the pen, aptly named Bora Bora Waters (50ml bottle for $17).  The color is a bright aqua blue with a little sheening around the edges of letters and a whole lot of shading.

When compared with some of Robert Oster’s other aqua blues, Bora Bora Waters has some of the sheening of Blue Water Ice but the lighter shading of Blue River. When compared to other brands, Diamine Turquoise is similar as is Pelikan Edelstein Topaz. Lamy Pacific Blue is a little lighter.

If you have as extensive an ink collection as I do, you may not need another aqua blue but if you’re looking for one of Oster’s epic aquas, this one is a good option.

As for the Bora Bora Waters fountain pen, if you’ve never tried a 21k gold Sailor, this would be a great place to start.

Final little detail is the new logo on the box. It definitely caught my eye so I pulled an old box to show the difference. Do you like the new logo?

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Sailor Pro Gear Bora Bora Waters Fountain Pen (Pen Boutique Exclusive) ($392 for the Standard Size)
• Ink:  Robert Oster Signature Ink Bottle Bora Bora Waters (Pen Boutique Exclusive) (50ml bottle for $17)
  

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DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Pen Boutique for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Fountain Pen Review: Sailor Professional Gear Bora Bora Waters (Pen Boutique Exclusive & Robert Oster Bora Bora Waters Ink) appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Robert Oster has started to release inks inspired by various cities in the United States. As of today, seven inks have been released:

Napa, California- a deep wine red
Chicago, Illinois- steely, snow-inspired blue
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma- a grassy plains green
Kansas City, Kansas- a golden brown inspired by the wheat belt
Miami, Florida- a blue-green inspired by the water
New York, New York- bright red for The Big Apple
Las Vegas, Nevada- a shimmering purple inspired by the glitz of Las Vegas

I purchased my samples from Vanness where they were $3.00 ($3.75 for Las Vegas) for 4mL and the bottles run $18 for 50mL ($26 for Las Vegas).

Oklahoma City is a grassy green color, somewhere between Robert Oster Lemon Grass and Robert Oster Grun-Schwarz. This is going to be one that Ana likes!

Napa is a fabulous burgundy – very much a wine color.

Chicago. This one is probably my favorite (other than Las Vegas, because, of course, it’s purple)This is an ink that shows multiple layers of color – not quite multi-chromatic, but almost. It is very close in color to several vintage iron gall blue-black inks.

New York is a bold red lighter than Robert Oster Red Candy.

Kansas City is a great ink for shading. I would say ripe wheat is about right for this color description – a brownish gold.

Miami is an ink that I had expected to be more turquoise. Like Chicago, it is close to several vintage blue-black iron gall inks but it leans much more towards the blue side.

The swatches I had seen of Robert Oster Las Vegas looked nothing like the color that came out of this sample. Las Vegas is a mid-lavender with plenty of sparkle – either silver or a pale blue. Although the sparkle is hard to see in this photo, the second photo below is better.

WONDERFUL sparkle. Amazing purple. This ink makes me feel like I’m 8 years old again.

I mentioned that Chicago and Miami both looked like vintage blue-black inks – here they are side by side.

Below are swatches of the seven inks on Tomoe River Paper:

And Las Vegas shimmer close-up on Tomoe River paper:

The seven inks on Cosmo Air Light paper:

And the Las Vegas shimmer shot on Cosmo Air Light paper:

Tomoe River paper is on the left and Cosmo Air Light paper on the right. The difference in how color shows on the two paper types still amazes me – on CAL, Miami is darker but Chicago and Napa are lighter.

So there you have it! Robert Oster Cities of America inks:

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided at a discount for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Ink Line Review: Robert Oster Cities of America appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.