I have several Levenger True Writer pens that I like quite a bit. My favorite ink in them has been Levenger Skies of Blue and usually in cartridge form. No problems so far in these pens, both medium and fine nibbed. Anyone else have good luck with these inks and if so what are your the favorite colors? /Craig

Until about a month, my favorite ink was Levenger Raven Black, both bottle and cartridge.

Then I came here.

Now I have Noodler's Old Manhattan Black (LOVE IT!) and Noodler's Polar Blue... also-- oh, the question was about Levenger.

No complaints about Levenger at all. I didn't like the Cobalt Blue so much, so I threw it away. (This was pre-FPN, before I knew I could give it someone who would like it.)

So, yeah, was happy with it. I switched cos I like the bulletproof element of Noodler's.

I also like many of the Noodler inks as well as other brands. I was using one of the TW pens today with the Skies of Blue ink and thought how much I liked it. Okay, my thought was to do a comic review such as: "this ink is delightfully tacky and yet unrefined." Good sense and maturity prevailed. /Craig

I like them very much, particularly Cardinal Red, Gemstone Green, and Cocoa. I have no problems with them in True Writer or other pens, but I now use more waterproof inks more often. I like the color of Cobalt Blue very much, but have found that it will smear, even after dry, if a damp hand or object is passed over it. So now it's Baystate Blue, which is brighter and doesn't smear, or Diamine W.E.S. Imperial Blue.

The Levenger bottles are among the best designs ever. Elegant and very practical with the inner cone. I also like the way the color of the ink is written clearly on the bottle, in gold letters no less.

I like Levenger Fireball and Blue Bahama. I'll have to use the Amethyst a bit more to form an opinion on it. The bottles with their cones are my all-time favorite bottles.

Best, Ann

I like Always Greener (it is currently my only green ink), Amethyst, and Blue Bahama, I want to get more of their inks.

The Cobalt Blue is my favorite blue ink. I prefer it in a pen with a fine nib. It has lived happily in my VP for months, now. A thin line in a pen that is stingy reduces the tendency to smear. Not eliminate, but reduce. I do try to be careful.

Always Greener is nice and bright. Fireball is a waker-upper. My wife adores Pinkly.

The only Levenger color I didn't care for was the Grey. I traded that away for something or other.

Andy

I only have three Levenger ink colours: Amethyst, Cobalt Blue, and Cocoa. I've not used them in months. They seem to run thick and "sticky" and I've experienced flow and starting problems on various pens. I also used to use the Cobalt Blue cartridges often when traveling. It's a lovely colour. However, it often required me to tap, tap, tap the cartridge to get the ink flowing freely.

I've had feathering problems with several of their colours, though I don't remember which off-hand (it's been ages since I tried them). Cobalt is just about my favorite blue in terms of colour, and it doesn't feather, but after it's had a chance to evaporate in a pen for a day or two it becomes all but unusable, leaving a sticky line that rivals or beats the worst offenders made by PR or Noodler's. I once let a drop of ink fall from a pen it had been sitting in for a few days onto a sheet of rhodia paper and smeared it about a bit. It was still sticky a day later (and, for all I know, would have been sticky for another year; I threw it away). I tried someone's (Lloyd?) suggestion of mixing it 50:50 with Namiki Blue; that helps enormously, though if you keep it in a pen long enough the stickiness returns, especially as the ink level gets very low. Dilution with water may help too, though I've not tried it myself.

Simon

Amethyst, Cobalt Blue, Pinkly, Cardinal Red, Gemstone Green, Raven Black are all good by me.

I like Cobalt Blue. For some reason, I haven't been able to get it to smear.

Someone bought me the six-pack of traditional colors as a Christmas gift just before the prices almost doubled. I have trouble with Cardinal Red and Cocoa drying and sludging the gills in some of my pens. I have to flush the pens after every fill. I like the colors, though.

The inks are not all water resistant. Five months of weather exposure (full sun and indirect rain) Washed away Cardinal Red and Cobalt Blue. Amethyst and Cocoa turned green, but stayed legible. Gemstone Green and Raven Black faded but remained legible.

Five months of full sun faded Amethyst to blue and Cocoa to green. Cardinal Red faded a lot but remained legible. Gemstone Green faded to blue-green but remained very legible. Raven Black and Cobalt blue did not fade noticeably.

I use the Amethyst in my bank pen. The savings account withdrawal slips are a particularly violent shade of Pepto Bismol pink. The Levenger Amethyst ink on that paper seems to gyrate and crawl around like centipedes on a flat rock. It gives the teller something to do.

I use these inks to decorate the pages in my journals. The nice, bright colors make attractive arabesques, berries, and posies (At the present time, I decorate with Climbing Nightshade a lot). The writing is done in something more permanent.

Paddler

Edit: Grammer, whut it done fer mee!

I am enjoying the mental picture of critters scrambling around on bank papers and the color of data on withdrawal slips; how appropriate! /Craig

Levenger ink is by far my favorite ink, but I must admit that I have only tried a grand total of four inks. All my ink is black (a fact that I want to do away with), and I have used Visconti black, Waterman black (cartridge only), and Monteverde black (not the best). The Levenger Raven Black is my go-to color. I currently have three pens filled with it right now. I have tried the Cobalt Blue, Red Cardinal, and Smokey also. The Cobalt Blue has a very deep color that is wonderful. The only concern with the Levenger inks is that they tend to be on the wet side. They write wonderfully, but you need to watch out for potential bleed through.

-Cody

I like Levenger Cocoa, but didn't care for Amethyst. Gave the Amethyst to my daughter and she's crazy about it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have not had any feathering or other problems, infact, it seems to make one of my pens a little more well-mannered.

Steve

I love Cobalt Blue and Amethyst. I didn't care for Fireball. Those are the only Levenger inks I have tried so far.

Lisa

I bought the Cobalt and loved it! I used it so often that I was using up the bottle, so I grabbed the ole Levenger Catalog and circled the six bottle set and handed it to my sister when she asked me what I wanted for Christmas. But as always happens when you try to get someone to buy you pen stuff it's never the right thing. She got the slightly wilder set instead of the one with the Cobalt in it! However, I really like some of the inks in this set of 6!

The Skies of Blue is great and I love Blue Bahama, I usually don't use black inks and the only gray ink I've ever tried was PR Flannel Gray (hated it!) but the Smokey ink from Levengers is great!! I didn't care for the Always Greener (prefer deeper greens). The fireball red is now my favorite red! However, I don't see me using the Pinkly even though it is a vibrant color.

I just love the bottles with the great filler in the top!

I actually cut my teeth on Levenger ink. I've went through 1 bottle of Cobalt, 2 bottles of Skies of Blue, 1 bottle of Gemstone, and half bottle of Raven black... and then I came here too.

Now my ink tastes have expanded a bit to say the least. I still love some of the Levenger colors. I was a bit discouraged when they had the huge price hike in their inks about 1.5 yrs ago. I still think Gemstone green is one of the nicest green inks I've ever seen.

Dave

I like the Levenger colors, but my favorite, Cobalt Blue, smeared so much that I stopped using it.

Mostly, I have been using the Levenger Parker-style cartridges that I was able to get before they stopped offering them.

Skies of Blue is a bright blue that I like, but lately has been supplanted by my Noodler's fixation. I still had two bottles, and I gave one away to someone at work that I had converted to FPs by giving a gift of a Vanishing Point.