Jinhao finally released fully clear, not tinted, Jinhao 20 colorways. It looks like it has something in the plastic. Bubbles? Glitter? Who knows. I ordered a silver and a gold. We'll see how they do, sealing-wise. Hoping I win the QA/QC lottery again. Now maybe I'll be brave enough to drill/cut a little window through the nib unit so I can actually see the ink level. #FountainPens #FountainPen

Tono + Lims - Star Light Series: Antares Another good & very usable fluorescent ink! It's sort of a dark magenta or fuchsia color depending on the paper. On Iroful it's lighter, on Midori and Col-o-ring it's darker. Under UV it glows brightly, and each paper brings it out differently. On Iroful the glow is more red, col-o-ring is more purple, and Midori is more pink. The text glows especially brightly on Midori, as expected. #SwatchWednesday #FountainPens #FountainPenInk

Endless released an "upgrade kit" for the Endless Phantom retractable pens to fix several issues people had with them. $7.50 USD and you get $7.50 USD in store credit, plus free shipping. They have good ink and paper, so I'll end up using the credit eventually. Mine are still behaving OK but I'm always up for ways to further improve the seal. Having spare gaskets, repair tools, and a "free" fude nib unit is a nice bonus.

Endless Stationery

Upgrade Kit for Phantom Retractable Fountain Pen - *GIVE 7.5 GET 7.5*

Upgrade Kit — get $7.5 back in store credit.It’s a simple give-7.5-get-7.5, making the upgrade essentially free for our Kickstarter backers. We...

#FountainPens #FountainPen

For Swatch Wednesday, one of my first Akkerman inks: Out of the Blue. Akkerman bottles are fun and useful with their inkwell/marble neck, only downside is size. Just when you think you have enough "blue w/red sheen" inks, along comes an even better shade of blurple. On Iroful the blue is particularly pleasant. On col-o-ring it's appears much more purple, and Midori is a nice balance. The sheen doesn't come out much in writing except on Iroful. #FountainPens #FountainPenInk #SwatchWednesday

Was using the Jinhao 20 this morning and it started writing a bit thin and turns out I ran it out of ink again. Not dry, just empty. So I refilled it and I'll keep it in the rotation. Still not sure if they refined their design or I won the QA/QC lottery, but either way, I'll take it. Haven't had a single problem with this one after having so many issues with the 10. Now yet again I wish they'd actually sell the completely clear (not tinted black) demonstrator version. #FountainPens

For Swatch Wednesday, a trio of Colorverse ink samples I was gifted last year in the exchange. The teeny tiny bottles are fun, but not very useful. I had to pipette ink out into an inkwell even just to swatch them, no dip pen fit in the bottle. As for the inks, Martian is decent but IMO, Supergiant and Red Horizon are better. Life on Mars has good chromashading, but Edge of Night is better. Dust Storm is a miss for me, too mustardy (like Sunbeam) #FountainPens #FountainPenInk #SwatchWednesday

Seeing a lot more swatches and writing samples of Diamine Lady Grey and in writing it's mostly too light and gray, so I'll probably skip it. I rarely use gray inks, and it doesn't seem like its other component colors would come out unless a pen put down a huge amount of ink. Doesn't seem worth the hassle. Maybe next year's Reddit collab ink will be better. #FountainPens #FountainPenInk

Yet another new TWSBI ECO coming, "Cosmo w/Onyx". They sure do love cranking out a ton of these. This is the first one of the marbled versions that has been remotely tempting to me. I'm curious if the green in the mix is fluorescent. They'd probably have mentioned if it was glow-in-the-dark. #FountainPens #FountainPen

I swatched several inks over the weekend so I could try out new things: New stamps, Hocoro ink bladder, and the Midori "swatch cards" I made by cutting up sheets and stamping them. Also tried using a swab in addition to the glass dip pen for the main swatch. This sample of Endless Alchemy Magic Peach Fuzz was free from JetPens and I'm glad I tried the sample because I didn't care for it. Far too pale and not a color I like, subtle shimmer is nice though. #FountainPens #FountainPenInk

The most difficult part of working with fountain pens is resisting the temptation to drink all the yummy-looking liquids involved. "Do not consume the green glowing liquid" sigh, fine, whatever... #FountainPens