Pelikan Fount India

[dcwaites]

Pelikan Fount India (Vintage)

 

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I found this in the same shop as my ill-fated purchase of Parker Quink Turquoise. I bought this carbon ink to compare with Sailor Kiwaguro ink.

 

Like the Sailor ink, it is a carbon-based ink that is supposed to be safe for fountain pens. I mean, it even says so on the box...

 

My bottle is definitely a vintage one. It is a rectangular bottle with a pen rest on the front part of the bottle. A clue to its age is the 'Made in W. Germany' inscription on the bottom of the box.

 

Interestingly, on the side of the bottle are the words 'Original-Etikett aus dem Jahre 1897'. According to Yahoo Babel Fish, this means 'Original Label from the year 1897'.

 

Ok, here are the performance results. All samples are on Pukka Pad notebook paper, except for the Colour swatches, which are on Windsor & Newton Visual Diary paper.

 

 

Colour

 

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As you can see from the swatches, the Fount India is a more solid, neutral black than the Parker Quink Permanent Black, which is more of a grey than a black. Even where the ink doubles up, the difference is much less than with the Quink Black.

 

 

Writing Sample

 

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The Fount India is to the left and the Quink Black is to the right. While the Quink looks a little blacker in the scan, in the hand, the Fount India is a hard, light-absorbing matt black, while the Quink looks a little bluish.

 

 

Wetness - Medium

 

The Fount India is a medium wet ink. It neither gushes nor skips in all the pens I tried it in. It writes a good, solid, consistent line.

 

 

Feathering - None

 

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The sample on the left is Fount India and the Quink Black is on the right. You can see that there is absolutely no feathering with the Fount India, and a little with the Quink.

 

 

Bleeding - None

 

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As usual, the Fount India is on the left and the Quink Black is on the right. You can see that there is noticeable bleeding with the quink and none with the Fount India. There is a little show-through with that ink, but that is because of the intense light in the scanner. It is almost invisible under normal viewing.

 

 

Shading - None

 

If you look back at the Feathering samples, you can see that there is no shading with the Fount India, compared to a little with the Quink Black.

 

 

Drying Time/Smudging - Good

 

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There is some smudging after 1 second, little after 3 and absolutely none after that. This was done on Pukka Pad notebook paper which has some absorbency. On a hard, smooth paper like Clairefontaine or Stora Enso 4CC, it will probably take a little longer to dry.

 

 

Wettability - Some

 

This ink does wet the metal of pens easily, probably due to the presence of particles of carbon in the ink. This is the same phenomenon that will make mud stick to your shiny car, but clean water will bead and run off. Consequently, there is some nib creep with this ink, but it also makes it easy to use this ink with dip pens.

 

 

Smoothness and Lubrication - Not Much

 

Writing on a single sheet of paper on a hard writing surface, this ink feels hard and rough. Given that this ink is at least 20 years old, and made long before nano carbon technology was available, it is quite understandable.

 

 

Permanency - Good

 

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This is a simple "Write on the paper, let dry for 30 mins, gently rinse under tap" test. The before sample is on the left, and the after sample on the right. As you can see, there is much loss with the Quink Black, but only a little with the Fount India. Even so, I am surprised at how much 'drift' of the ink into the surrounding paper there was with the Fount India. If I remember correctly, there was none with the Sailor Kiwaguro ink.

 

 

Appropriateness - Art Pens and Dip Pens

 

I tried this in three normal pens - Parker 51, Zhenjue 911 and Parker 45. The first two are hooded, and the last has a small, open nib with a simple feed. In all three the nib dried up after less than a minute uncapped. While writing, they were consistent and smooth writers, with no skipping, but the nibs dried up quickly. While capped they tended to dry out in less than an hour unless I put a drop of water in the cap and stored them nib down.

 

The most successful pen I used was a Rotring Art pen. This took longer to dry out when uncapped, and would write instantly even after several hours capped. I assume this pen was designed for inks like the Fount India.

 

This ink works brilliantly with dip pens, even ones like my 'One Dip' pens which are very fussy about what ink they will work with. Because it is a carbon ink it showed zero feathering with dip pens and much reduced feathering.

 

 

Summary

 

Like the ink in my previous review, the Parker Quink Turquoise, this is a vintage ink. It is a fluid, well-running ink that leaves a continuous, solid, dark, matt black line. It claims to be suitable for fountain pens, but my experience is that it would only work well in pens designed for this type of ink.

It does work well with dip pens, even those that have difficulty with normal fountain pen inks.

 

While the running water rinse test shows that some of it doesn't bond physically with the paper, it should still be a good archival ink, as the carbon won't discolour or fade.

 

Now I will have to get some of the modern Fount India to see if Pelikan have improved it in the last 20-something years.

 

 

[R J]

I bought this carbon ink to compare with Sailor Kiwaguro ink.

Thank you for this excellent review. I'll now be eagerly waiting for your take on how present day Pelikan Fount India compares to Kiwaguro.

Edited January 31, 2009 by rica