Robert Oster - Motor Oil

Robert Oster - Motor Oil - Ink drop

This is Motor Oil from Robert Oster. I love black, but I’ve never been a big fan of standard black inks. I prefer creamy off-blacks, or cool greys, something with both lights and darks to give the ink personality. Motor Oil has all the complexity that I look for, making it a very interesting ink!

At Robert Oster, they categorize this as a brown, and from the splatter, I can see why. However, to me, it really acts like a complex black in writing. Like its namesake, it’s a black filled with brown, green, and yellow influences. With good shading, this ink drops its mask and reveals the swirling contrasts that bubble underneath. It’s quite lovely, and so much more than a standard black.

Robert Oster - Motor Oil - Ink Swatch Card

As a writing ink, it’s consistently good, but it has its own demands before it shows you its secrets. Strokes were clean and crisp on both premium papers and office copy. However, shading and sheen varied wildly. Shading was good on coated papers, but weakened significantly on uncoated premiums and office copy. There were hints of sheen edging on coated papers, but nothing on the others. Drying varied a bit, but on all of the premiums it was between 10-20 seconds, and only 5 seconds on office copy.

Robert Oster Motor Oil is a lovely writing ink, and it performs well on a wide range of papers. However, I strongly recommend coated papers (for me, Kokuyo and Mnemosyne were best) to enjoy the greatest variation in shading. Personally, I’d like to see even more contrast in the shading, but it’s certainly a very attractive ink, and a nice writer. If you’re looking for a replacement for standard black, this is a great choice from a great maker.