Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

Arguably, one of the most interesting new ink brands is South-Korean Wearingeul. With their series of ink, based on literary themes, they are certainly making a name for themselves. Recently, I bought a few of their inks and tested them. The first one is Path,  from The Color of Literature Project No. 4. A delightful olive green ink, in a beautiful, simple glass bottle. Perfect for personal notes and correspondence. The shimmer makes it less suitable for office in my opinion.When using at least a medium nib, the color and shading come out best.  I have tried the ink on both Tomoe River and Clairefontaine (Triomphe) paper. Stephen King quotes. The ink behaved flawlessly, with a wonderful flow.  Tomoe River 52g Clairefontaine Triomph Drying time is a bit slow, 40 seconds on the Clairefontaine and roughly a minute on the Tomoe River.  Water will ruin your writing, but the ink will remain somewhat legible.  The full characteristics: ...

  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...

Terribly out of season maybe, but it doesn't  make the color less beautiful. Recently Diamine released  colors of their 2019 invent calendar as full 50 ml bottles in a new and very beautiful shape. I had barely managed to avoid buying the inkvent calendar, but buying a few of these bottles I couldn't resist. Jack Frost is a medium blue color with heavy shading, some subtle silver sheen and heavy purple/red sheen. Any nib medium and up will clearly bring out the sheen. The color itself reminds me of a bright, cold winter day. I wouldn't use it in the office, but it is not wildly inappropriate. The ink behaves really well. There is no feathering on this paper, high shading, a lot of sheen, and some shimmer as mentioned. The Splatter makes it visible. Jack Frost is not too wet but has average drying times, writes smooth enough and with negligible show-through. The ink probably likes ice more than water, it immediately smears, even days...

A new caligraphy ink by Manuscript with extreme shimmer. Definitely not something to use in the office but it looked interesting to write some cards with in the upcoming holiday season. This ink is clearly not meant for long notes or letters. A very dark violet or purple with heavy gold shimmer. I find it a hard to use ink. OK to use in a fountain pen like the TWSBI ECO with a stub nib, but a dip pen made the ink feather and spread, even on Clairefontaine or Crown Mill Vellum paper. On Lalo Vergé it was much better. The ink is very wet, causing considerable show-through and even some bleed-through. The drying time wasn't too bad though with 35 seconds. The shimmer smears easily for a bit longer. As can be seen even on this scan, shimmer is gold and very high. A bit of water will keep the ink readable, enough to rewrite. The violet or purple is comparable to Herbin's Améthyste de l'Oural . Diamine's Imperial Purple (no shimmer) is brighter and lighter.  ...

A very bright, in-your-face red. Red as a firetruck, with a heavy dose of silver shimmer. The color certainly lives up to its name. It would be a perfect color for grading and corrections, if not for the shimmer. The shimmer makes it a bit too festive for that. So it's not suitable for the workplace, but for greeting cards, short notes or some personal writing, it will work pretty well. The ink behaves as expected: really good. No feathering, negligible show-through, moderate wetness, good lubrication, and average drying times. Shading is very low and he amount of shimmer is high. It's visible even in medium nibs. With a poster nib it's even too much. The ink doesn't like water.... the ink washes away almost immediately. Funnily enough, the shimmer stays.  Firestorm Red is the brightest red I have. Even Red Dragon is significantly darker. The Rouge Hematite looks much more purple in comparison (that surprised me). Lamy's Ruby is a lot less saturated.  ...

In the last few years Diamine has released a few series of shimmering inks. Fun inks that come in some intriguing colors. After cocoa and night sky, I decided to try moon dust. It is one of the strangest inks I have ever used. It looks like pencil writing but with more bling. As usual the shimmer is high but difficult to catch on a scanner. The ink can be used in an office setting (note taking) but is best reserved for short fun notes and greeting cards.  The ink is well behaved. No feathering, beautiful shading, negligible show-through, wet but not too wet, well lubricated and normal drying times. Shimmer is clearly visible (shake the bottle before filling your pen!), even in medium nibs. The ink can even take some water. Dropping some water on the grid and carefully removing it after 20 seconds resulted in hardly any damage. Apart from the shimmer, which gives it a "pencil look", Moondust is normal gray ink. The difference with Graf von Faber Castell's Ston...

In the past few years Diamine has released several series of shimmering inks. Night sky is one of those ink, a black color with silver shimmer in it. The shimmer makes it a bit of a gimmick of course. You will get away with it in the office (for note taking), but the amount of shimmer is definitely noticeable. It looks a it as if someone wrote with a pencil over your black ink. The color is pleasant to read, which makes it suitable for personal notes. For me, I think inks with  this high level of shimmer are best used for invitation cards, short notes, or maybe greeting cards. The ink is good, but not excellent. No feathering, minimal show-through, some shading, well lubricated and wet but not too wet. Drying time is long, 50 seconds, but it's not unheard of for a dark, black ink. Be careful with fluids. You will still see what you wrote, but you will have to rewrite the page. The amount of shimmer in this ink is quite high, much higher than in Herbin inks.Not so easy to c...