Wearingeul Tick Tock Croc
Ink Review #62
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Wearingeul Tick Tock Croc is a medium green with light blue undertones. There’s mild shading with a soft cut between its light and dark tones where the ink pools, and with larger nibs, a darker outline around the letters. On Midori, that dark outline became a dull red sheen around the edges of the letters instead. While that same red sheen is visible in the ink droplets and ink splat, I wouldn’t call this a sheening ink and your mileage may vary. If sheen is what you’re looking for, many other similarly colored greens will easily sheen if you want them to.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Tick Tock Croc performs well. The bleed-through on Kokuyo was minimal and only observable with the largest nib sizes, and there wasn’t any noticeable bleeding or feathering on the other test pages. It should perform great on most fountain pen-friendly papers. Similarly, the dry times were surprisingly great. Outside of one instance on Tomoe River, the dry times never exceeded 15 seconds. The water resistance was also good: while the ink washed away quickly, there wasn’t any clouding and it left behind a very legible grey shadow of everything that was written.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Unfortunately, Tick Tock Croc’s performance in the pen leaves something to be desired. The ink has a dry-medium flow, but I experienced constant hard starts with the fine, medium, broad, and stub nibs during my tests on all of the papers. The experience didn’t change when I tried it in different pens. In every scenario, the ink seemed to dry too quickly in the nib. There wasn’t a lot of lubrication either. It doesn’t feel like you’re writing with a completely dry nib, but I would have liked it to be a lot slicker. On the positive side, cleaning was easy and it only took a single soak and flush to clear this ink from the pen and nib units.
Performance in a pen: 6.510
Performance on paper: 9.5/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 2/10
Shading: 6/10
Dry time: 9/10
Water resistance: 4/10
Ease of cleaning: 8.5/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
Regrettably, Tick Tock Croc is somewhat of an anticipated letdown for me. I knew it would be the same blue-green that I’ve seen a million times over, and it is. Barely distinct. On the other hand, it’s also the perfect choice. It’s exactly what it’s supposed to be: a color inspired by the crocodile from Peter Pan. And you can’t have a Peter Pan-themed ink set without the crocodile — that would be outrageous. What other options did they really have? Maybe it would have been better if more creative liberty was taken in making this color. Coupled with the fact that it didn’t even perform that well, I’m sad to say that I just can’t recommend this ink.
Written 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook with a Franklin-Christoph Model 03 (SIG Medium)
Comparisons:
Other inks in this set:
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 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook