What's the Fuss: Parker Penman Sapphire

Penman Sapphire Scribble on Staple's Bagasse Tablet

More Sapphire Scribbles on Staple's Baggase Tablet

After all the talk, most positive, some bemoaning and forlorn at the ink being discontinued, raves about its colour, I was offered a bottle--for a price.

It is a beautiful colour, resembles several others, but is perhaps more of a pure sapphire.

But, and there is a but, among those raves were the original complaints about its clogging pens. Sure enough I had it in my white Lamy Safari, B nib, and although I use this pen often, it went unused for a couple of days. While this is generally not a problem with Lamy pens, this time, the pen went all cranky on me. It didn't seem to want to write unless I held it vertically.

When I dipped the pen in some cool water, a sea of blue floated to the surface and I was able to write normally--for awhile.

In my Sailor Sapporo with a music nib, the very same Penman Sapphire seemingly adapted better, didn't exhibit writing nausea and the ink colour looks delicious.

So the moral of the story on Parker Penman Sapphire is while it is a beautiful, luscious color, it is also an ink that contains properties that causes clogging in some pens and probably the manufacturer thought it best to withdraw the product from the marketplace.

I am withholding my own vote as to whether this is a keeper.

PS - I sold the ink for the price I paid for it.