First in a Rotring with a medium nib (not new) and then in a Lamy Safari with a new bold nib. I noted almost a year ago in the Rotring that the flow wasn't good. Then I forgot about that. Fortunately, I noted it on the box.

Now, after thinking it was the new Lamy bold nib and babying the thing for hours (flushing, cleaning, pressing, new ink), I've concluded it's this ink.

Just changed to another ink in the Lamy, and it's great. So, though it's a pleasant and subtle scent, I think it's probably destined for something other than a fountain pen.

I just received this ink in a box of 12 cartridges. I was looking for a waterproof black ink to use in my Sailor calligraphy pens (used for sketching), and based on much research and reading many good reviews about this ink, as well as its successful use under watercolors, I decided to buy it.

I’ve tested it on the following papers: 1) Arches Watercolor (sheet), Natural White, 90lb, cold press; 2) Canson Montval Watercolor (pad), 140lb, cold press; 3) Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media (bound book), 90 lb, 4) Canson Art Book One Sketch paper, 67lb; 4) Bee Professional Series Pen Sketcher’s (pad), 70lb; and 5) Hewlett Packard Office Paper with ColorLok Technology (ream), 20lb.

On all of these papers, even with letting the Sailor Nano Ink Ultra Black dry for several minutes, I would definitely NOT plan to use it for line under watercolor. It leaves a grey wash on all the papers tested, some more than others. While it doesn’t run/beautifully wash like the ink that comes with the Sailor pens, it’s kind of the worst of both worlds.

It is also not as black as the ink that comes with the Sailor calligraphy pens (that’s a nice black!), and it’s a warmer color. In fact, in comparison with these pens/inks, I’d say this Nano ink lacks “character”, or “oomph”: Herbin Perle Noire (in a Rotring pen), Uni-ball Vision Fine (roller ball), Copic Multiliner 0.5, Platinum Carbon cartridge ink in a Platinum Carbon Desk Pen, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, and the aforementioned Sailor ink that comes with the Sailor DE 40 degree Calligraphy Fountain Pen. (I don’t know what ink that is as it’s not specified anywhere).

So I am pretty disappointed. Since I’ve used one of the cartridges for testing, I can’t return this to Jet Pens. I am glad I did not purchase this ink in a bottle for $33! Anybody want 11 cartridges of this?

A bad batch (?) or just bad? And needs some improvements. I bought this last fall, and Hole No. 1 basically wouldn't sharpen anything. So a friend at the store where I bought it, switched the blade for me. That used one of the spare blades. Now it mostly works, but I really didn't get four working blades. At the same time and same store, I heard that another customer bought 10 at a time (to use as gifts!), and returned 4 of them; I believe it was for the same reason.

I'm not that impressed with the actual sharpening that this does, but I think the concept is wonderful. Here are the things (besides a dull blade) that get in the way of functionality for me:

1) It's hard to see what you are doing: the shavings quickly cover up the blade on the left side, so you really can't see when you've gotten the pencil point to the stage where it's time to switch to the right blade. The blue color makes the interior dark, so another hard to see factor. In addition, the etched/embossed branding on the plastic cover also reduces visibility.

2) The spare blades are at great risk of falling out when you empty the shavings. That's happened to me twice, and the first time almost made me throw the whole thing away. I had emptied the shavings into the trash at a "food court", so you know it wasn't nice trash. As I was walking away, I noticed the spare blades were gone. Fortunately, I was able to go back and find the blades caught in some paper and retrieve them.

When one blade is DOA, and if you lose the other replacement blade because of poor product design, I think it's time to find another sharpener, despite the wonderful concept.