Before I start complaining, I just want to say that I am NOT including shimmering inks in this discussion. Sheen and shimmer are two different things, people. Let’s just get this out of the way up front:
Sheen = Ink takes on a different color (1) at different angles (usually after drying); (2) around edges; or (3) where ink pools
Shimmer = Glittery particles added to ink for sparkle (like J. Herbin and the Diamine Shimmertastic inks…although J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor has both sheen and shimmer, and I do mention that one below)
And if you’re a fan of analogies and/or vampires:
Shimmer : Sheen :: Twilight : Necroscope
Yeah I know, that doesn’t make any sense. I just wanted to cram Necroscope into the conversation. If you like vampires and haven’t read that series, you should. Faethor & Thibor would eat those other glittery sissies for lunch and laugh the entire time. Wait…what was the point of this? Oh…ink. So keep in mind as you read this that I’m not talking about the shimmering inks. Or in other words: Don’t consider the glitter!
So when I first heard about inks that sheen, I was intrigued. Inks that change color under certain circumstances? I could maybe get behind that. I considered it a desirable property, and wanted to try some. So I tried some. And quite honestly, I find the whole thing pretty annoying.
One of the first sheening inks I played with was Emerald of Chivor. It’s a dark teal ink with some glitter in it and some wild red sheening in the areas where ink pools. It’s kind of a specialty ink for artsy use, and the glitter and sheen make it interesting. Snazzy, even. I probably wouldn’t use it in a pen, though, especially one for work. I put Emerald of Chivor away and went about my normal inky business.
Then I got a gift certificate for Christmas and decided to get some Sailor inks. Based on color samples from around the innernets, one of the colors I picked was Yama-Dori. I love dark teal and turquoise inks, so this one was a no-brainer. It came in and I immediately grabbed my Rhodia pad and a couple Q-Tips and went to work. I LOVED IT! The teal color is just fantastic. I filled up my Lamy 2000 with it and started writing. When it dried and I was like, “Where the hell did this red ink come from?”
The beautiful teal was gone, and in its place was this wicked dark teal hiding behind a sheen of glistening ruby red. From most angles, it looks purple. Purple. Not teal. Purple. Booooooo!
It was at this moment that I decided that maybe sheening inks aren’t so hot after all.
I’ve been testing out lots of inks lately (I went a little berzerk with ink samples), and I keep running into these blues and teals that have bright, ruby red sheens to them. I don’t really care for red inks…and I certainly don’t need an ink that attracts witches. Some of these colors are just phenomenal on their own, but they’re ruined for normal use by the sheen. This whole business is starting to irritate me.
I could probably deal with a verrrrrrrrrrry slight amount of sheen where you see a brief glint of another color when you look at it at juuuuuuuuust the right angle or under the right light. And the sheen color should compliment the base color, too. If I had a deep blue that had a slight green or teal sheen when the light hits it just right…that would be really cool. Or a black ink with a slight blue or purple sheen? Yeah…I think that would be nice.
But a red sheen on a blue ink? Gaaaaaah!
Seriously, if I buy a dark teal, I want it to be dark teal when I’m done. I don’t want teal that turns red or purple. If I wanted red or purple, I would have filled the pen with red or purple.
I buy an ink for the color that it is…not the color it becomes.
Although my samples are drastic and the photos accurately show what I see, this is very much a “Your Mileage May Vary” situation. Sheen depends on a lot of things, including the nib grade, how wet the pen is, the paper used, etc. Just because these inks behaved this way for me doesn’t mean you’ll have the same experience. Just sayin’.
So where do you stand on the issue? Do sheening inks make you happy or do they make you pine for the original color? Hit up the comments and let me know!
The sheen in your example made me covet that ink. I have the Emeraude de Chavor, but I don’t use a wide enough nib to get any sheen out of it (and rarely much shimmer).
Thanks for reading, DiAnne! I know sheen is subjective: some love it and some hate it. For me, I decided I’m not a fan when it interfered with my enjoyment of the original color. They’d be great for Christmas or birthday cards…But not for my everyday writing.
Very interesting. I think sheen inks might be useful for signing documents – you just need to get proper to fit legal requirements (at least in general). Using rare inks may be considered as one more proof of signature validity and sheen will help with fast identifying of that.
Oh, I like that idea! I wonder how many of them are permanent/bulletproof. An ink like that would be great to load up in a signature pen.
You know, using absorbent paper will pretty much kill the sheen. Cheap copy paper will not show sheen and the benefit is that you will save money. Win-Win !!.. 😉
Hi JKJ. Thank you so much for reading and for taking the time to leave a comment. You’re right about the absorbent paper eliminating sheen. The unfortunate side of the equation is that cheap copy paper also introduces spread and feathering with most pens and ink. If given the choice between feathering and sheen, I’d take the sheen.
Well there’s a spectrum of absorbency. Decent non-FP-specific paper won’t bleed with a wider range of ink. Drier nibs, my preference for any ink, also either eliminate or limit sheen.
You oughtta try Robert Oster’s Fire & Ice ink (if you haven’t already). It’s a deep blue, sort of teal, and on the right paper (Tomoe River, Rhodia, etc.) it has a gorgeous red sheen. It also shades all over the place. I love the extreme shading and sheen of that ink. Sorry you don’t like sheen; it’s one of the things most prized by collectors in fountain pen inks. But to each his own! It took me lots of practice on several different types of paper until I finally obtained and could see the coveted sheen. Now that I’ve finally seen it, I seem to see it everywhere. It’s one of the features I really like in a good ink. Another is shading. Nowadays, I almost don’t even buy a new ink unless it has some of those special features. It’s funny how my taste in inks has changed since I started collecting fountain pens. Two to three years ago, I wasn’t even aware of shading and sheen. Thanks for a good review.
Thanks for your comments, Debi. It’s not so much sheen itself that I dislike, but when the sheen takes over and obscures the ink’s base color… Or when it’s a wildly different color (most specifically, I just don’t care for bright, shiny red sheen on my blue and green inks). Thank you for reading!
Thank you. Everything you said is how I feel about sheen, but I thought it was just me. Now shading on the other hand… that is one of my favorite things about fountain pens.
Thanks, Erika! Sheen has its place, but I prefer that it doesn’t obscure the ink’s base color during normal writing. Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to leave a comment!
Whereas before people even had a name for it (90s?) I called that ink “unevenness” and is was one reason I didn’t like the way FP writing looked, and a reason I looked for EF nibs on the dry side. Sheen I like, but I have bad luck with it showing up, much less overwhelming the base color, even on Rhodia.
In my Fine Sailor nibs Yama-Dori is just Yama-Dori, and I like its sheen, which shows off in rare cases and proper light. Used paper: Rhodia dotgrid and some others. It’s a combination of the nib manufacturer and type, and the paper type (not only its quality). And I agree with you, I need to have the base color and to see sheen on some occasions.
The other side of this moon: in the Soviet Russia there were some cheap inks and rollerball refills that sheened like crazy. It’s worth noting that we could buy only this cheap stuff, any other inks and refills just didn’t arrive to our shops. So we are trying not to get close to this particular effect, making the ink look cheap and crappy. Private Reserve blue inks may stay on the frontier of this effect while Sailor and Iroshizuku look great. (In fine Japanese nibs.)
Hi Snusmumric. Thank you for taking the time to leave me a comment. Thanks for the heads up on fine nibs. I typically stick with fine and extra fine nibs and most sheening inks only give me hints of sheen. I don’t know if there’s something up with my bottle of Yama-Dori, but I get more sheen than real with any pen I use. It’s kind of crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen ballpoint ink that sheens… That would have been cool to see! Thanks for reading & Happy New Year!
Add 10-20% water and/or more absorbent paper and sheen goes away. It’s from dye crystals that form when ink pools get concentrated as they dry.
Ahhh, the shading, the sheen…had to revisit this subject again when I saw people still talking about it. I love them both so….So much, that I started printing in my journals instead of writing in cursive. Printing creates pooling because of lifting the pen on and off the paper. So I’ve been working on my printing style, trying to get it fluid and nice and neat. It really is fun. Did I mention I’m a total fountain pen GEEK? hehe
Hi Debi! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Every once in a while, I find an ink with a sheen color I really like (Monteverde Ocean Noir has a gorgeous copper sheen that’s pretty spectacular). What I’d really love is a blue ink with a green sheen. Most have red…green would look nicer against the blue, I think. Thanks for reading!
Just send me all the sheen inks you don’t need😊 I’m experimenting lately and I have to agree with you on nib grades and paper types. I purchased 3 different diamine sheen inks and the sheen shows up only when I use a 1.1 stub and absolutely nothing close to what other folks have demonstrated on ink blotting paper.
Sometimes sheen is too much however there is always dilute with water. Take OS Nitrogen, way too much sheen but with a little water much nicer. It can be somewhat of a sheening and shading ink with just the right concentration. One thing though is does really depend on a number of factors, the dilution must really to tailored to a specific pen but the results can be worth it.