Ink Review #88

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

Overview

The color/properties:

Robert Oster Dusky Pink is a medium deep rose-pink. I noticed a hint of blue undertone as well. It’s mostly visible in low lighting or off-viewing angles. It offers some light shading, but there’s not a lot of tonal variation and shaded areas are only marginally darker. You may get darker edges around the writing or the shaded areas if you can lay the ink down heavily enough, but it’s not a very wet ink to begin with. The ink shows more-or-less the same on most of the papers I tried it on, but on Midori MD it looks noticeably pale and washed out compared to the others.

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

Performance on paper:

Dusky Pink is pretty gentle. There was minimal spot-bleeding in the Kokuyo notebook (and it was limited to the broad and stub nibs) and no feathering or bleeding on the other test pages. It should be perfectly fine on most fountain pen-friendly papers under most conditions. What was shocking was the dry times! It was almost always dry within 5-10 seconds, and for the 4 cases where it wasn’t, it was still dry within 15. The dry times are unexpectedly some of the best I’ve seen in a long time! As for the water resistance, it isn’t as great. There might be some legibility left over but it’s faint and somewhat messy to read after water exposure.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Performance in the pen:

Dusky Pink has a dry flow and for the most part, the lubrication is dry as well. It certainly wasn’t the best feeling ink in either the needlepoint nib or the extra fine, but, with the fine and medium nibs, I don’t think it was that bad. I still wouldn’t call it wet or slick, but it was smooth enough. For dry ink, it could be a lot worse (No, really, so much worse). Of course, the flow and lubrication started to drop by the time I got to the broad nib. There weren’t any hard starts or skips, but the lack of lubrication became more noticeable and unpleasant, and it wasn’t much better with the stub or architect nibs. The cleaning process was easy, and a single soak and flush was able to clean each of the nib units and the pen, without leaving any noticeable residue or traces of color.

• Performance in a pen: 7.5/10

• Performance on paper: 9.5/10

• Color saturation: 5/10

• Sheening: 0/10

• Shading: 5/10

• Dry time: 10/10

• Water resistance: 3/10

• Ease of cleaning: 10/10

• Shimmer: None

My personal thoughts...

I was a little worried to start this review because I had heard that Dusky Pink would be dry and unpleasant, and while I can certainly see where those claims would be coming from, I have to disagree, at least partly. It’s definitely not a wet ink — visibly, it even looks dry, and it’s nib picky, but I’ve genuinely enjoyed my time writing with this ink. That’s a huge relief too because I love the color. There aren’t a lot of pinks that I would choose to write with often, but this is an easy one for me. It’s deep, moody, and unique; somewhat mysterious and cold, yet I still find it cozy. It’s not the right ink for everyone, and maybe finding the perfect writing experience is a labor of love, but what can I say? I love it.

More images/info:

Tools and materials used in the writing samples:

• A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.

• A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad

• A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook

• A Midori MD A5 Notebook

• A 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

• A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

• A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook