Anderillium Flying Squid Blue
Ink Review #10
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Flying Squid Blue is a dark cerulean that shades with a soft gradient in cursive and a crisp cut when writing in print. There’s also a lovely red sheen around the edges of where the ink pools. It’s not the sheeniest ink, but it’s very easy to see in most writing conditions.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Flying Squid Blue performed well. There was some bleeding with the higher nib sizes on the Kokuyo paper, but otherwise, I didn’t experience any feathering or bleed-through on the others. This ink should be fine on most fountain pen-friendly papers.
The dry times were average, but better than I expected for a sheening ink. The larger nibs all dried in a normal 20 seconds, but the finer nib took slightly longer than normal, ranging anywhere from 5-20 seconds to dry. Because this ink has a sheen, there’s always a chance that it may smudge from residual moisture on the hand.
When exposed to water, the color clouds over, but there’s still some visible writing left over. It’s messy, however, and the legibility may vary.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
For such a saturated ink, Flying Squid Blue performed exceptionally well. There was a wet flow that was consistent across all my test nibs. The ink felt well lubricated, providing for a silky glide while writing, but not so slick to take away tactility. Given the high saturation, I expected to run into hard starts, but I never experienced any hard starts, skips, or stops during the tests. The ink also kept up well during extended writing, without any noticeable drops in flow.
The cleaning experience didn’t take as long as I expected for a more saturated ink, but it still took 2 sets of soaks and flushes (compared to the usual 1). Still, there weren’t any stains or traces of color or residue left over in the barrel of my test pen or nib units. With that said, I would advise caution when using this ink with demonstrators and lighter, easily stainable pen colors.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper (white, 7mm ruling) with a medium nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream, 7mm ruling) with an extra fine nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream, 7mm ruling) with a medium nib.
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 9/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 5/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 7.5/10
Water resistance: 4/10
Ease of cleaning: 7.5/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
In a catalog featuring many already impressive and noteworthy inks, Anderillium has one that still manages to stand out to me above the others. It’s a visually striking color, and I love the light but distinct sheen. It’s not overdoing it, and because of that, it has a lot of the flair of a sheening ink. It also means it doesn’t have a lot of the drawbacks of some of the more high-sheen inks, such as drying out in the nib too quickly when you lift off while writing. Even without the sheen, the base color is vibrant and eye-catching. This was one of the colors that immediately caught my attention and drew me to the Anderillium table at the DC Pen show, and after having plenty of time with it, I’m even more impressed. I’m looking forward to including this ink in my rotation in the future.
Written on 52gsm Tomoe River paper with a Retro 51 Tornado Raw Brass (medium nib).
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook