Inky Mishap in a Tux

Fountain pen lovers are sure to enjoy this little story that happened last weekend at my Brother's wedding. I'm sure our readers already know how jazzed we were about the new exclusive Monteverde Formula Red pens that just arrived last week. I got one that has my named engraved (in black) on the red cap and could not resist bringing it with me for the weekend up in Jersey City for my Brother's wedding. Somehow, I already lost the converter, but wanted to fill up before I left the office so I took one of my Levenger converters I wasn't using and filled it up with Private Reserve's Burgundy Mist. After filling the pen, I'm writing with it, making sample entries in both my Moleskine and my Rhodia notebooks to record the color and how it performs in the pen. Very nice. The fine point on the fountain writes more on the extra-fine, much like my Pelikan Fine point does. I bring the pen with me and decide to include it as an accessory to my tux. I put it in the inside jacket pocket, where I had things like my index cards for the best man speech (which I wrote with the pen), directions on how to drive to the hotel, etc. The morning of the ceremony, the groomsmen and myself were downstairs at the hotel bar (what do you mean they don't serve until after noon on Sundays!?) and we got on the topic of pens. Everybody knows I work for a pen company and everyone expects me to have a pen on my person, which is partially the reason why I decided to tote a fountain pen. I take it out of my jacket pocket to let the guys take a look. Someone asks me, "is it refillable?" I say, "Of course!" I screw open the front section to reveal the converter that is loaded with Burgundy Mist. "See," I say as I flick the converter with my finger, "it fills with bottled ink." One of the fellas then points, "Dude, you've got it all over your hands!" Apparently, the connection was loose since I was not using the specific Monteverde converter that came with the pen and ink had been leaking all inside of the barrel and all over the converter. Thankfully, someone pointed it to my attention before I started to put the pen away and touch everything, which would have ruined my Joseph Abboud tux and surely would have cost me a few hundred dollars at the tux rental place. While my Brother shakes his head and gives me a stack of napkins from the bar, one of the groomsmen asks me, "aren't you supposed to be the pen expert? And you have ink all over your hands?" Ha Ha. We all had a good laugh. I'm now wondering if the photographer caught that I had an inky hand. We shall see.

Private Reserve Velvet Black Fountain Pen Ink Review

If you're looking for a rich, dark black ink for your fountain pen, look no further than the Private Reserve formula of Velvet Black. You're not going to have the fraud-proofing qualities of a Noodler's Bulletproof black, but you will get a darker, more saturated black that flows well from the nib to the fibers of the paper. I had a chance to try out the new Visconti Homo Sapiens Lava fountain pen with Velvet Black and had very satisfying results. The flow is excellent. No feathering, but there is a significant amount of bleed-through on the opposite side of the page of my Levenger Circa paper. Forget about using on a Moleskine. Pretty slow drying time at between 2 to 3 seconds. I would recommend using Velvet Black with a fine or extra-fine nib on a heavier-than-normal paper quality. If you have your own experience with this Private Reserve color, please share and let me know what pen and paper combination you use with the ink. What works best for you?

Review : Private Reserve Fiesta Red Fountain Pen Ink

With Mardi Gras coming up, we are in the party mood to review the Private Reserve Fiesta Red bottled ink. The test pen is a Cross Sentiment fountain pen in fine point. As with the other Private Reserve inks that have been reviewed lately, the Fiesta Red color is rich with saturated pigmentation. Not quite a burgundy or fire-engine red, the hue can be best described as a rich, blood red. Drying time is an issue. As you can see by the writing sample, even three seconds is not completely smear-proof. The flow is great and you can see a bit of shading. No feathering, but you can see a bit of show-through on the back of the page. Overall, a beautiful color, but probably best used by right-handed people with a fine or extra-fine nib to prevent as much smear as possible.