Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

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: