Birmingham Pen July 2018 Ink Subscription

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Today we are looking at July's Pen Parcel, aka the Birmingham Pen ink subscription. Every month five new, 5ml samples hit my mailbox.

Left to right, Lamy Safari Petrol-M, Lamy Al-Star Pacific Blue-M, Kaweco Al-Sport-M, Pelikan M800 Renaissance Brown-M, Pelikan M805 Stresemann-M. 

Left to right, Lamy Safari Petrol-M, Lamy Al-Star Pacific Blue-M, Kaweco Al-Sport-M, Pelikan M800 Renaissance Brown-M, Pelikan M805 Stresemann-M. 

Swabs:

Southshore Lister is a light dusty blue with silver shimmer, Cornflower is a medium blue, Carmine is a maoonish red, Coffee Bean is a light brown, and Root Beer is a dark brown.

Southshore Lister is a light dusty blue with silver shimmer, Cornflower is a medium blue, Carmine is a maoonish red, Coffee Bean is a light brown, and Root Beer is a dark brown.

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In large swabs, the ink does take a very long time to dry.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry time: ranges from 40-70 seconds.

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: low-mostly on Tomoe River paper.

Other properties: low to medium shading, no sheen, and one shimmer ink. Southshore Luster is the only ink that has shimmer.

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was lots of feathering in every nib size as well as bleeding, so I would not recommend these inks for cheap paper.

Comparison Swabs:

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for mobile RSS): Nemosine Blue Snowball Nebula Twinkle, Birmingham Southshore Luster, and Organics Studio Glycine Blue. Click here to see the Birmingham inks together. Click here to see the blue inks together. Southshore Luster has more green in it than Blue Snowball.

Noodler's Legal Blue, Birmingham Cornflower, and Birmingham Polar Bear. Click here to see the blue inks together.

Birmingham Piano Girl Pink, Birmingham Carmine, and Birmingham Southern Portal. Click here to see the red inks together.

Diamine Espresso, Birmingham Coffee Bean, and Colorverse Space Laika. Click here to see the brown inks together.

Sailor Jentle Doyou, Birmingham Root Beer, and Robert Oster Motor Oil. Click here to see the brown inks together.

I used a Midori MD Notebook. The inks had an average to slightly dry flow.

I used a Midori MD Notebook. The inks had an average to slightly dry flow.

Overall, Southshore Luster has some nice shimmer, but it's the only ink so far that's clogged my pen to the point where I had to take it completely apart and flush it before I could use it again. I appreciate that they are branching out and trying new things. Out of this set, Coffee Bean is my favorite-it's a nice color and has some nice shading as well.

Disclaimer: I purchased this ink myself, and all photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links.