Homer Greek blue, Montblanc

You can't really go wrong with a decent blue.... without any real competition blue is the most popular fountain pen ink color and fits both personal and professional use. For me, blue ink has always been a little bit dull. I like many blue shades but they bore quickly. After one or two days of blue I really want to go back to a color for note taking that makes people frown... I know, the available colors go from very light blue to almost black. With sidesteps towards teal, green or violet. But still.

Recently I added Montblanc’s Homer Greek blue to my collection. It is a limited edition ink that comes in the well known stylish square bottle (50ml). A beautiful bright color, it is quite dark when wet, a lot lighter when dried up. I kept it in my pen for four days and wrote dozens of pages with it. I cannot deny it, this is one of my favorite blues now. It perfectly fits the time of year (late Spring).

Its behavior as you would expect from a Montblanc ink. Perfect in a medium nib Parker Duofold, a little bit dry in TWSBI's. Nice beautiful shading, no feathering, no show through on quality paper.
Perfect for business and profession use and the ink is a pleasure to read, even in long letters or notes.

My first impression was that this ink comes very close to Iroshizuku's Kon Peki. It's not. It is much lighter. Montblanc's Miles Davis comes quite close. J. Herbin's blue azur is significantly lighter and wetter as can be seen in the comparisons.

N.B. Written on Original Crown Mill Vellum paper

Around the World in 80 Days, Montblanc

Visiting Paris last month, I couldn't resist visiting the Montblanc flagship store and pick up a bottle of ink. Around the World in 80 Days is a limited edition ink, part of the recent collection about Jules Verne's description of Phileas Fogg's adventure. Nicely packed and in the well-known beautiful bottle. The ink is someone between blue and green, increasingly green in a wetter, broader nib. As such it is suitable for both the office as well as personal notes and correspondence. Personally, I like the ink best in finer nibs. It seems more dark and blue that way. I have tried the ink on both Tomoe River and Rhodia paper. The ink behaved flawlessly and feels a little bit on the dry side. Drying time is neither slow nor fast, 40 secs on Tomoe River. On Rhodia paper On Tomoe River (52g) The ink doesn't handle water very well, even after a few days the ink smears easily when some water drops are applied. Careful! The full characteristics: F

Orange!!

It's Spring, we just had King's day and the European Championships football are being held next month. More than enough reasons to fill up some pens with orange inks. I was surprised to see I had gathered eight inks in the past few years that qualify as orange. Some true bright orange, some leaning more towards red or brown. Which one is your favorite? Written on Tomoe river, 52g

Kikyou, Sailor Manyo

A few months ago this new ink series by Sailor was announced. Based on flowers, in a stylish 50ml bottle. What I see is not a flower, but an ink that is stormy blue with a hint of green. Teal? Maybe, but in my opinion it's darker than that, scans and monitors can be slightly deceiving. This ink can be a work horse. Very suitable for note taking, definitely works in the office, but also for personal notes and correspondence. The ink writes like a dream. It's not very wet, but smooth and extremely well-behaved in any pen. Just the combination crown mill vellum paper and a poster nib (as you can see), leads to some feathering of the ink. Drying times are simply fast, with just 12 seconds on this paper! Shading is low. Water resistance is low. Even after days it smears easily with just a tiny drop of water. I called this ink a work horse. It is, and an expensive one. Even though it's wonderful ink, it's simply not special enough to justify the price. Yonaga (Sailor)

Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

Search This Blog