Birmingham Pen March 2019 Ink Subscription

Today we are looking at March's Pen Parcel, aka the Birmingham Pen ink subscription. Every month five new, 5ml samples hit my mailbox. Sometimes the inks become available as singles on the Birmingham website about a month after the subscription, sometimes they are just test colors. These five are not available yet, but if they become standard colors, you can find them at Birmingham Pens.

Swabs:

Left to right, Chipotle, Bourbon, Aluminum Oxide, Parrot and Sapphire Tributary.

Writing samples:

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

Dry time:

The inks took 20-40 seconds to dry.

Dry time: 20-40 seconds

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: Medium-there was feathering on Rhodia and Leuchtturm in most of the nib sizes.

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: Low-there was some bleeding in the flex nib.

Other properties: low shading, no sheen, and no shimmer. Each of the five had just a little bit of shading.

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

Comparison Swabs:

Chipotle is similar to 3 Oysters Seal Brown. Bourbon is similar to Platinum Classic Sepia Black. Aluminum Oxide is similar to Robert Oster Graphite. Parrot is similar to Diamine Jade. Sapphire Tributary is similar to Jacques Herbin Bleu Austral. Click here to see the Birmingham inks together.

I used a Bond A5 (Tomoe River 68gsm). Top to bottom, I used: Pelikan M805 Stresemann with a medium nib, Pelikan M800 Renaissance Brown with a medium nib, Pelikan M400 White Tortoise with a medium nib, Pelikan M600 Vibrant Orange with a medium nib, and a Lamy 2000 Black Amber with a fine nib. All of the inks had an average flow, but the consistency was a bit thin, almost watery.

Overall, the colors are ok but none of them really stand out to me. I’ve mentioned the watery flow in the last few months’ subscription reviews, and March’s has the same watery flow.

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