Ink Swatching || Robert Oster Inks 

Awesome video, Sarah! I loved watching you swatch, and I love your style too. It really shows off the color range so well. Maybe some of the colors you aren’t fond of for your vintage pen might fine there way to a TWSBI one day. 😹 A favorite dark green leaning brown ink of mine is Diamine Salamander. It has some interesting shading properties, and can look dark green with a hint of tan. It’s a little bit of a wetter ink than Robert Oster tends to be, and I’ve heard Diamine can be okay in vintage pens. Sorry to penable you more. 😹 Some of these colors, like Khakhi, are going on my wish list. I look forward to seeing the next in the series! Thank you so much for sharing. 🧡🖋

Very helpful in choosing my next Robert Oster. Thank you. You may be just beginning but you're doing just great. Thank you! Can't wait for the blues and purples...

This was helpful! I just ordered some ink samples yesterday. I ordered Motor Oil and imagined it would be a brown/black, but your swatch shows so much green, but I like it! My personal faves from your swatches are Motor Oil, Graphite, Melon Tea, and Copper

So fun! I used to play with ink samples from Goulet Pens. They used to have a monthly ink sample subscription where you got five inks all centered around that month's theme. It was the best. 😊🖋 An unsolicited tip: if you're worried about tipping over your sample while you're using it, you can cut out a small square of stiff cardboard (like 3" by 3" or so) and cut a hole in the middle to hold your sample, and it will make a wider base to prevent tipping. I'm pretty clumsy so this saved me a lot of spills😅

these are so fun - I missed the other video you were talking about, so i'm going to have to check it out. I find ink swatching to be SO satisfying. Vanness is awesome. My favorite Robert Oster ink, or actually, ink in general, is Robert Oster Sydney Lavender - it's so complex, and depending on the pen/nib, it looks like a completely different color each time. sometimes it looks dusty purple, sometimes it looks grey, sometimes there's some pink or blue that shine through. it's SO interesting... not sure if you picked that up in your purple selection, but it's one to look out for, imo! :)

So nooowwww I got a running list of samples I haaveee to try 😩 I think the one that really caught my eye from your swatches here was the Gold Antiqua, but all of these were gorgeous 😍

Where do you get your vintage fountain pens and how do you now which ones to buy? I would love a video about those!

Oh my goodness, what an exquisite palate of inks. I’m in love with them all, together. They’re so lovely!

Thanks. Enjoyed your video. A friend gave me a couple of vintage Sheaffers, and I got Herbin Bleu Pervenche for the one that still writes because it has neutral ph. Read somewhere that the more neutral inks are appropriate for the older pens.

Hello again, Sarah! I was delighted to find that you also do fountain pen videos! I learned so much from watching this. I was into fountain pens ✒️ a while back, and have just recently resumed my passion with them. I have many samples that I’d ordered in the past, but I had never really understood swatching, and the method you presented here just had me so excited. Now I can’t wait to try it for myself! I think I’m going to order one of those Author Notebooks to get started. Thank you so much for sharing all this gorgeousness! I look forward to diving deeper into the hobby, and into your videos. Have a wonderful week! 🙂 Meline

Currently in love with the Eucalyptus Leaf ink! I just bought a ton of Robert Oster ink samples, too, with different results...try out the Marone Mustard :-)

I just got my first Ink Samples as I upgraded from Pilot Metropolitan to my TWSBI eco. Robert Oster’s Thunderstorm is AMAZING. The shading is so beautiful. And as a lefty, dries very quickly and didn’t smear. And the Copper looks so beautiful! I do wish you would do a smear test. That’s VERY helpful.

Love that Graphite!!

Loved this video!!!! Now I want ink samples!🙄

Great video Sarah. Question. What do you do with samples you do not like?

Graphite was my fav on the brown page! I also really loved that J Herbin color. Why vintage pens? Many of the nibs are worn out and the filling systems, especially the bladders have to be replaced. I just want my pens to work out of the box! I don’t want to mess with anything. During this coronavirus lockdown I have purchased over 75 fountain pens and I’ve been doing a LOT of ink swatching too! I have a claire CS TN that I use as my swatch book with a Midori insert and it’s been a joy collecting samples from Vanness, Jet Pens, Goulet Pens (before they stopped shipping) and Lemur Ink and Pen Chalet and Pen Boutique! It’s so soothing! I love my dip pen too! Thanks for sharing all your colors! Can’t wait to see more of these!

I love your inks I am a black ink woman but I watercolor all my pages so maybe that is why. It is cool you use a q tip! LOL. I am also a TSWBI ECO person I like the extra fine nibs. Are you inks Watersoluble?

Thanks for the swatches. I love that copper color (but I like the pinks and maroons ), so I just ordered a sample 😀

Also, have you checked out the swatches from mountainofink or nickstewart.ink? I use them prior to buying samples so that I can better choose colors in my personal wheelhouse

I highly recommend checking out Dromgooles. They have an active Instagram too. Great shop here in Texas. They just added vintage pens to their site as well. I totally understand not wanting to buy the moonman when trying to build your vintage collection. I had been eyeing one because I was wanting a fountain pen that was just for art and could stay with my art stuff. So when I seen a combo that had converter, EF tip, & dip nip all included under $25 it was a cloud parting sunlight streaming, Angel's singing moment lol. Thanks for the swatches I've been wanting to find some neutral colors. I need to buy some sample packs to play with in my art journal. I watch a few artists who use inks just like watercolors and they just make me drool!

Thank you for showing all the ink samples dried. Some videos you don't get to see the last few inks in their dried state. I loved Toffee!

I hear you. As far as samples are concerned, Vanness is my go to. They give you 4ml at the price that people charge for 2ml and have super fast shipping. the only inks they don't have that I'm interested in are troublemaker inks.

Sarah! All I’m doing is watching and writing down samples to get!

The only bottles I have are Platinum Pigment Ink Brun Sepia (browm), DeAtramentis Document Ink Fog Grey (blue), and DeAtramentis Document Ink Urban Grey (gray). I chose these three since they're good, neutral colors, and they're waterproof 🙂 I got 2 from JetPens & 1 from Goulet Pens. I also got some pretty ink samples to use with my dip pen so I don't have to worry about my fountain pens clogging up.

Thank you! I've been sooo interested in brown inks lately too and Robert Oster is definitely one of my top favorites. I normally get my samples from Goulet Pens but I've been deprived lately haha I need some samples before I go for full bottles. I try to always sample so I don't end up with a full bottle that I never use that cost me $$

Thank you so much. I've wanted some new greenish, brown inks to try and do many of these fit my requirements. Khaki is khaki, but I think RO spells it KHAKHI which is a bit silly.

Both Vanness and The Pen Outpost sells sample vials with 1-2 ml more than Goulet does, and The Pen Outpost is cheaper on many of his inks but his selection isn’t as broad.

I am looking forward to the rest of the story....

I love this!! Have you gotten any of these since this video?

Motor oil and graphite does look green i'm swayed to consider.

Very cool

I go anywhere where they have my particular ink..... Ive had to learn the hard way that your Favored places wont have them and pushing you to another.... therefore im .... dang it I had a pen pun!... on the "nib of my tongue"