Robert Oster Jewel in the Crown: Ink Review

Robert Oster's Jewel in the Crown is a lovely new edition to their line up. With distinct shading and a healthy dose of shimmer, this fountain pen ink may be the crowning jewel in your collection.

Ink Review 

Supplies Used:

• LAMY AL-star with medium steel nib
• Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, 80g white paper
• Tomoé River 52 gsm white paper
• Leuchtturm1917 80g notebook

Smear Test (Dry Time):

• 10-15 seconds – Most Robert Oster inks dry pretty quickly and this one is no exception. At 10-15 seconds it's one of the faster drying shimmer inks around and leads to a relatively dry feel on the page — more on that later! 

Drip Test (Water Resistance):

• Low - Not water resistant at all! This doesn't come as much of a surprise but the q-tip drips and swipe nearly removed the ink entirely. It did however, leave us with some lovely chromatography — you can see the red and blue components washed out of the ink. 

Saturation:

• Medium – "Dusty" comes to mind with this ink and it shows in some of the lighter and thinner lines. With a thicker dose of the ink, say from a larger nib, you get a richer color. On more absorbent paper, the ink looks much more saturated as well — the writing sample on Leuchtturm1917 illustrates this nicely. 

Ease of Cleaning:

• Easy – The ink itself is easy to clean but this is a shimmering ink, so something like soft bristled brush would be best. Regular bulb syringe flushing will definitely remove the ink but the shimmer will stay in the feed. If you can at remove the feed from the housing unit/ grip section, that will be a good place to start to clean all the shimmering particles, but I recommend fully disassembling your pen for this kind of cleaning, but only if you're comfortable disassembling and reassembling your pen. And don't do anything that would void any warranties! 

Shading:

• High – A truly beautiful shader. The color is very hard to pin down as it goes from a mossy dark green to a light rich brown down to an almost clay like red. The coloration instantly reminds one of a tarnished silver bowl or bracelet. Mixed with the shimmer, you get multiple layers of shading and coloration.

Flow:

• Low – Robert Oster inks are known to be quite dry and this one is no exception. Unlike some shimmer inks that use a wet flow, their inks have a more metered flow that aids in the shading you get on the page. Pair it with a larger nib in a wet writing pen for maximum fun.

 Packaging and Aesthetics:

• Robert Oster bottles are made of recyclable PET bottles are manufactured in Australia’s first carbon neutral plastics plant. While their bottles aren’t particularly thrilling, they do offer a very tight seal, a dark coloration to protect the ink, and a nice shiny sticker to let you know what you have.

If you're interested in similar colors, check out our Swab Shop where you can compare colors side by side.

Summary:

Robert Oster Jewel in the Crown is an excellent example of a well-executed shimmering ink. Combine it with lovely shading and you can coax more coloration out of this ink that you may think. Shimmering inks in the green/brown tint are often not the first choice but this one is a real diamond in the rough and will definitely add some spice to your writing! 

This color is available in 50ml bottles here as well as our 2ml sample.