thINKthursday
Edelstein Smoky Quartz
Edelstein’s Ink of the Year!
Will you get swept up with Smoky Quartz or will the ink fade away like a puff of smoke.
Edelstein is Pelikan’s premium line of inks and every year they produce a limited Ink of the Year. The Edelstein lineup of colors is lacking a brown and Smoky Quartz fills that spot beautifully. Smoky Quartz comes in the standard Edelstein 50ml glass bottle that is one of the prettiest out there. It is topped with a solid metal cap and comes beautifully packaged in a cardboard box. This review was done with a Sailor Pro Gear F, Lamy Logo B, and on Rhodia No. 18 blank paper.
I don’t know how they got a brown from a name like Smoky Quartz, but it is a beautiful color. In a fine nib, the ink is a rich hickory color that doesn’t display much shading. In a broad nib, the ink shades drastically and it brings with it an assortment of tawny caramel colors. I find that many other browns on the market have a red tint to them, but Smoky Quartz is a gorgeous true brown.
Smoky Quartz performed like a premium ink should. The flow was good, there was low feathering and bleedthrough, and it had good dry times at 20-25 seconds. It is a saturated ink, but had excellent shading with a broad enough nib. There was little water resistance but clean up was easy.
I try to not get overly excited when new inks are released; its easy to think the latest color is great just because it’s new. That being said, I really like Smoky Quartz. Besides the great performance, it has an allure about it the more I use it. With a fine nib, it could pass as a business appropriate ink, but in a broader nib you get a nut bowl of browns.
As with any ink review, the pen, paper, and person doing the writing will influence the way the ink looks. If you’re not sure about a color, try a sample to see if it’s the one for you.
Ink it Up!
Chris
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