****After reading this review please go read my update!****
Made by Scribal Work Shop, Siren
is a lovely shade of blue black. It leans toward teal or turquoise but
a very dark shade. Frankly, I’m in love with the color. After the
disappointment of my last ink purchase I’m super pleased with this color.
It’s the least boring blue black color I’ve ever used. My previous
favorite blue black was Private Reserve Sonic Blue. Siren is a shade or
two lighter and brighter. The ink shades wonderfully in my TWSBI 530
medium nib.
It
dries in a standard amount of time, meaning that larger pools of ink
dry a little slower than the thinner areas. I had no problems with
smudging of ink after a few seconds of dry time. I found the ink to be a
hard starter after sitting out for a few minutes and even after having
the pen capped for a few minutes. That being said, I did have an epic pen
failure. (My TWSBI cap sheared off just above the cap band, so I may
have had some cracks that were allowing the nib to dry out.) After
leaving the pen capped for a few hours with my 540 cap on it, it starts
just fine. (Note: I've now been using this ink for about a week and I'm finding that it IS a hard starter in the AM. I added 2 drops of water to a full TWSBI and am now finding that the additional water solved the issue.)
Lubrication
is a spot where I would rank this ink lower than others. I tested
it across a variety of papers and it’s not as lubricating as many other
inks, even though my 530 is on the wet side. While an ink like
Iroshizuku Asa Gao could be described as ice skating across paper and
Noodler’s Heart of Darkness is akin to gliding, Siren is more like walking through mud. While it’s nice, it’s certainly not a highly
lubricated ink, it’s still not as dry as J Herbin Bleu Nuit.
I
can’t comment on it’s staining but it did clean off my hands with ease.
It doesn’t look to be particularly water resistant either. A few brush
strokes nearly removed it completely from the HP 24lb LaserJet. In the
significantly more absorbent Canson XL some of the ink moved around but
the writing was still legible and the color was retained.
I tested it on a variety of papers with my TWSBI 530 M nib:
- HP Laserjet 24lb- No feathering, no bleed through, some show through
- Field Notes Red Blooded Gridded- No feathering, little to no bleed through, some show through
- Field Notes Standard Plain- No feathering, little bleed through, some show through
- Picadilly Pocket Lined- No feathering, little bleed through, some show through
- Moleskine lined, old- No feathering, little to no bleed through, some show through
- Bandit Apple Carnet PeeWee- No feathering, no bleed through, no show through
- Canson XL Pocket Blue Book- No feathering, no bleed through, no show through
- Tops Composition Book- No feathering, some bleed through, show through
- NEW Staples Sustainable Earth Comp Book- No feathering, bleed through, show through
- OLD Staples Sustainable Earth Legal Pad- No feathering, no bleed through, some show through
I
found it to tbe surprisingly well behaved on dirt cheap paper and even
Moleskine paper. This makes it ideal for some of my uses- note taking in
my upcoming graduate classes and writing out ideas for papers.
It comes in a bottle that reminds me of 1980’s era cough syrup. It’s
brown glass with a white cap that tightens solidly. The label is an
address label that is clearly printed off as needed, lending to the
feeling that these inks are brewed in small batches. The design work is
simple and easily read.
Pricing
is great too, it’s $8 for 60ml of ink or 13 cents per ml; which is the
about the same as Noodler’s ink. Compared to Iroshizuklu at 56 cents per
ml. I purchased mine from Goulet Pens but it’s also available from
Zeller Writing Company and as of this writing (6/20/13) it’s on sale for
50 cents off the regular price.
****After reading this review please go read my update!****
I purchased the ink for this review at my own expense. I was not compensated for this review. Links to the above companies will not lead to any compensation for me in any way, I'm simply a fan of this ink. (If they want to throw free stuff my way I'd take it but I doubt it'll happen.)
****After reading this review please go read my update!****