Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

  Purple by Raduga. A Russian ink and a brand that stems from the Soviet era. As I have been told it is the default ink in Russia. It's a standard ink, no frills. So why did I buy it? Curiosity mostly, and because I didn't have it yet. It's not available in the Netherlands, but I stumbled upon a Ukrainian seller on eBay.  The ink surprised me. A deep medium dark purple that writes nicely on all sorts of paper. It's best handled with care because it will leave its marks easily. Pleasant enough for longer readings and writings. A true work horse that can easily be used for work notes, personal notes and letters. There is neither shading nor  feathering, it dries fast and the lubrication is good enough. The ink is water resistant; once dry it is hardly affected by water. Drying times are below average, 38 secs on Tomoe River paper. The characteristics: Feathering None Shading None Show th

Paakezah, the first ink in Krishna's S series. In their own words, the S series is the flagship of this Indian brand. The bottle is not only a beautiful eye-catcher on your desk, its design makes refilling pens easy and clean. The ink itself is a moderate dark blue with a huge amount of (red) sheen. Too much sheen for a business letter, but definitely suited for taking work notes and any personal writing or correspondence.   The ink is smooth and wet. I didn't like it much in my wet Parker Duofold, but in a TWSBI Eco (B nib, cursive italic grind) it was very pleasant to write with.  The amount of shading is high and immediately shows the sheen too, especially on Tomoe River paper. Just to give an idea of the amount of sheen, two pictures of the same text, under different angles. The sheen is already quite visible on the left image, but when turned, the text apparently changes from blue to red. No feathering. The ink

  Wondrous Winterberry, part of the 2020 festive series by Canadian brand Ferris Wheel Press. It's hard to miss Ferris Wheel Press' advertisements, they even did a Kickstarter project for new colors, but I never tried them until now. The packaging is amazing indeed, it does look beautiful.  But at the end of the day it's the ink that counts. The color is a beautiful subdued red with some brown. For the holiday season they have included gold shimmer. For personal notes and letters the color is quite good and remains pleasant to read, even for longer writings. It's not an ink to use in the office. The ink behaves quite well, the shading is minimal and lubrication is good without being really smooth. The shimmer is subtle, but clearly visible. Drying time - on Tomoe River 52g paper - was 55 seconds which is average. Don't let water come near to your writings, it's very efficient in erasing all, even after several days.  The ink characteristics:

  A new Herbin in the 350 series. Medium dark green with silver shimmer. Not an ink to use in the office, but certainly an ink to use in personal correspondence like postcards and brief notes.  The ink behaves quite well, the shading is beautiful, but lubrication could be a little bit better. Especially for a Herbin ink it's quite dry. Drying time - even on Tomoe River 52g paper - was only 35 seconds. Don't let water come near to your writings, only the shimmer has some water resistance.  The other characteristics: Feathering None Shading Moderate - high Show through Negligible Wetness Dry-Moderate Lubrication Could be better Shimmer/sheen Silver shimmer Price/ml € 0,44 Vert Atlantide reminded me of Moss Green (Graf van Faber Caste

Following last week’s post of autumn inks, today a selection of fifteen brown inks. Although some of them can easily be used throughout the year, brown inks are most often associated with the fall. Warm inks that give a melancholic feeling. The fantasy  of writing handwritten letters or stories,  overlooking a Scottish lake. The fireplace warming the room. Outside it is wet, cold and foggy. The bright autumn colors are gone. Winter is approaching fast. As any list, this list is incomplete and could easily have been different. Why did I leave out SBRE Brown? Or Herbin’s Cafe des Iles? Let me know what your favorite is!

September. Autumn has started on the northern hemisphere. The evenings are longer, the nights already cold and the days more chilly. Yet, there is still plenty of sunshine and the leaves are starting to turn yellow, brown, and red.  So what ink colors match this early Fall season? I’ve compiled a list of ten suitable colors. Fully aware that any list is arbitrary and unfair to some beautiful colors that I left out. To name a few, Montblanc’s Homage to Victor Hugo , Diamine’s Macassar , Herbin’s Lie de Thé or Cacao du Bresil , and KWZ’s Capuccino . Yes, these are all brown inks. Too early in the season. I guess I will have to write a brown ink special in a few weeks.  The colors that did make it to the list are more colorful, resembling the sunshine and colorful leaves. In random order Yama-guri (Iroshizuki), Oxblood , Autumn oak, Pumpkin, Burnt Sienna (all Diamine), Rosso antico, Red fox , James Purdey & Son single malt (all Montblanc), Habanero (Noodler’s), and SBRE Brown (PW Ak