This ink battle is between Robert Oster Velvet Storm and Lamy Petrol — Lamy’s Safari-matching ink from 2017. The inks weren’t in any pens, but I did use a Sailor Hocoro dip pen with an F nib. The paper is Kokuyo KB loose leaf.
Today’s ink battle is also an ink dupe with two “off-black” inks. Since they’re so dark, I decided to play with them so you can truly see their potential. Inspired by Azizah‘s Inky Messes and Candace‘s Doodling with Fountain Pens classes, I have a truly inky battle.
Ink Battles Explained
Between myself and Jim buying inks, we own far too many. This means I have some inks that are incredibly similar in color. And, because of that, I need to figure out which inks to keep and which to dispose of. Sometimes, I have samples of two or more similar inks that I'm trying to decide which to buy, or if I should buy one ink when I already own a bottle of a similar one.
Enter ink battles. I put the similar inks into pens with the same nibs (two Jowo #6 M, two TWSBI F, etc.), then test them out to see which I like better. Or, I may find out that, when used with the same nib, they’re sufficiently different to keep.
You can assume I have no problems with any ink that appears in an ink battle. I may find, when using the inks side-by-side, that there are performance differences, but the point of the battle is to choose a favorite ink, a "winner". These choices are often subjective, and you may disagree with me.
An ink battle — unlike ink dupes — is between inks I like. I enjoy using them enough to have them in my "for use" ink collection — as opposed to my repository of inks for testing dupes. If an ink performed poorly or caused problems, I wouldn’t keep it. And, if that were the case, an ink battle would be unnecessary.
Reminder: You can find all of the ink battle posts on the tag page.
Unless used in a super fine nib, both Velvet Storm and Petrol are basically black in a pen. But, they’re good for art or dilution. At either side of the top of the paper, I doodled with each ink at full strength and diluted to somewhere around 75:1 (water to ink).
The ink splats all use just ink, but I moved it around quite a bit so you’d see some of the muted turquoise base color. I also added some water drops to get the ink to spread. I don’t remember which splat is which ink, but I think it emphasizes my point about them being dupes that you can’t tell them apart.
Given that Velvet Storm and Petrol are dupes, they’re tied for hue, saturation, and lightness. I like the base color, and both inks are lovely when diluted. For my taste, though, both are way too dark.
Velvet Storm beats Petrol when it comes to complexity. Both in in the water test and doodles — though it’s hard to see in the photos — you can see some purpley-gray that doesn’t appear with Petrol. Neither ink has any special features like shimmer or water resistance
Petrol is, of course, long gone. But Velvet Storm is still easy to find. You definitely don’t need both, so if you have one, I wouldn’t suggest getting the other. But, if you missed Petrol and want to try it, Velvet Storm is the next best thing.
Normally, this is where I choose to keep both or boot one. If it was up to me, they’d both be finding new homes. But, these are both Jim’s inks, so he gets the final say, and he prefers Velvet Storm. Looks like Petrol will be looking for a new home.
Scorecard
Because of its complexity, Velvet Storm just scrapes a win. Although, it doesn’t necessarily matter since Petrol is unobtainium at this point.
| Trait | Robert Oster Velvet Storm | Lamy Petrol |
|---|---|---|
| Hue | 10 | 10 |
| Saturation | 10 | 10 |
| Lightness | 10 | 10 |
| Complexity | 10 | 9 |
| Bonus Points | 0 | 0 |
What do you think? Do you agree with Jim’s decision? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.
Thanks for another “battle”
What is the dilution measure you used?
I used an eyedropper since I was writing with a dip pen. One drop of ink, then many drops of water to dilute to different levels. Also keeps from wasting ink.
I love Petrol and have some but this means I can use it more often because there is a proper dupe 🙂