Robert Oster Old Book Smell
Ink Review #85
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
This ink is part of the Cozy Comforts set exclusively from Endless Pens.
Overview
The color/properties:
Robert Oster Old Book Smell is a medium, almost burgundy, brown-red. It has a hint of fogginess or smokiness that gives it a slightly faded look. There’s not a lot of tonal variation, but there’s still some light shading around areas where the ink pools, and in some cases darker, black edging around the shaded areas.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Old Book Smell behaves better than I expected based on the feathering in the swatch, but there wasn’t any feathering on any of the test pages, or even the ink splat/droplets. The bleed-through on the Kokuyo sheet was minimal as well. It’s possible that it could get feathery with a wet enough pen, but in my experience, this ink should be gentle on most fountain pen-friendly papers. The dry times were okay: they never took longer than 20 seconds to dry, but the finer nib sizes took slightly longer than average, especially on Leuchtturm paper. The water water resistance isn’t great. Water exposure causes instant pink clouding, and while there’s some legibility left, it’s messy.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Old Book Smell has a medium-wet flow, and it has an adequate level of lubrication, but it also felt very dependent on the paper I was writing on. It felt less lubricated and almost dry on the Rhodia, Maruman, and Kokuyo papers, but felt wonderful on Midori MD, and Tomoe River. I also had a lot of skipping with the extra fine nib on Maruman, as well as some hard starting on the Kokuyo with the broad. It was otherwise an excellent writing experience, but keep in mind that your mileage may vary considerably depending on the pen/paper used. You might have to try it in a few different pens to get that perfect experience out of it. The cleaning process was easy and only required a basic soak and flush to clean the nib units, and there wasn’t any color or residue left in the pen.
Performance in a pen: 8/10
Performance on paper: 8.5/10
Color saturation: 7.5/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 7/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 9/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
Old Book Smell is one of those names that gets my attention immediately. It’s great! The name brought all kinds of things to my imagination before I even saw the color. I had imagined the faded, oxidized yellow-brown you might find lining the shelves of an old bookstore, but in reality, the color is far from it. Old Book Smell takes on a warmer, almost nostalgic charm. It’s leathery and gives a sense of the old-fashioned. It’s kind of elegant, and yet this ink is still so cozy. If it isn’t obvious by now, this ink is right up my alley, and I haven’t hesitated to add it to my regular palette.
Written on Midori MD Paper with a Retro51 Tornado (medium)
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 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook