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 Ink at the Heart of a Fountain Pen 

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3 Oysters -Delicious Purple Gray

4/11/2019

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3 Oysters inks are made in South Korea, they are pH neutral made from water-based dyes so are not permanent.  Apart from that there is nothing more I can tell you about the inks despite many hours searching the web, one website may have been helpful but it was all in Korean.
3 Oysters have had an understated creep into the consciousness of pen and ink addicts.  Colorverse also from South Korea burst onto the scene a couple of years ago.  It seemed as if everyone wanted them and reviews sprang up overnight.  3 Oysters have been around similar length of time but if you look online a lot of the reviews have been done this year or the end of last, people only now seem to be appreciating the inks. 
I have been coveting the inks for many months but did not want to get stung by postage.  I recently had to buy some new nibs, as I was paying postage I bought some inks at the same time.  I bought purple grey from their delicious collection (the standard inks) and a limited edition ink (review later).   
I paid US$16 for 38ml = 42c/ml, I suspect if you wanted to search you may pick them up for less elsewhere.  Just about every American online retailer of inks seems to be carrying 3 Oysters.
For once there will be no potted history / explanation behind the name as purple grey speaks for itself.  I used this ink for day 19 of the September 30 inks in 30 days challenge.




I couldn't get this far into a review without a photo.
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The ink comes in a 38ml bottle in a very simple box that has a cut out so you can see the label on the bottle. 
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The bottle is glass and has a corner missing so the bottle can be placed on an angle – good for display purposes???
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Its not a bad camera angle, the bottle is designed to do this


The label on the bottle is a simple sticky label which is not that well stuck.  The label catches on the edge of the box every time I put the ink away.
It shouldn't be a big deal but it is annoying.
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On opening the bottle you can see it’s a purple ink more than a grey ink. 





Chromatography confirms this is a heavily purple based ink.  There are some darker shades at the base giving the ink its dusky quality but the rest is quite bright I can see pink, violet, purple and even indigo.
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Col-o-ring


On col-o-ring it is a dusky purple, I wouldn’t really call it grey however suspect purple grey ink sounds better than dusky or muted purple.  It looked washed out on Tomoe river.


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Tomoe
The closest inks in the shade range I could find are from the Birmingham Pen Co, Homestead Steel Works Slag Gray (darker) and Alternator Crimson (browner).
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Despite the swatches highlighting the purple tomes when used for writing its is what I would call a grey ink.
I have been using the ink in a cheap Chinese pen (Wing Sung).  I find the Chinese pens extremely good value for money, I do prefer them with a medium nib and this pen has a fine nib.
I started with Midori paper.  The ink has a little shading and looks quite grey.  There was no feathering or show through.  Dry time was on the slow side
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This was followed by copy paper.  This is the quality of paper I have been using at work for the last couple of days.  As with the Midori the grey of the ink is more apparent than on the swatches.  Shading is a little more obvious.  Dry time was better.
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The last paper was Rhodia and the shading was lovely.  This is a nice ink on a good paper, the initial colour lacks any WOW factor but for day to day use the shading on this paper makes it more of a pleasure to use.   As with the previous samples this is definitely a purple GREY ink.
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I tend to like a little drama in the colour of my inks but if you are into muted dusky tones then the 3 Oysters inks should appeal.  This ink has enough purple in it to keep me happy but is muted enough for day to day use. 
I would like to buy more 3 Oysters inks but realise I should wait until someone in Australasia decides to stock them as postage from the USA makes the cost prohibitive.
In summary –
Saturation – moderate
Shading – yes on really good quality paper
Sheen – no
Flow - good
Nib dry-out – no
Nib creep – none
Start-up – immediate
Feathering – nil on any of the papers used
Drying – slow at 25-30 secs
Cleaning – easy
Water resistance – did not test as no need to , inks are made from water based dyes they will simply wash out of any paper
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