Hello all, this is my first ink review, so bear with me!

Overview:

Ink: Chestnut (Penman Fountain Pen Colours)
From: Scribblers.co.uk
Price: £4 ($8), 30ml
Feathering: None
Dry/Wet: In the middle
Waterproof: No, but water-based
Permanent: No
Smudge-proof: Dries after 40 seconds

This ink is called Chestnut, and I bought it from the Scribbler's site, where it's listed as a Penman ink.
When the bottle arrived, it said Couleur Surfine on the label, but it works fine in fountain pens, and is water-
based.

Click to view attachment

The ink has a nice flow to it (I wrote the scans out in a Stipula Ventidue 22 (new style) with a 1.1 italic nib),
and dries fairly quickly (although it does still smudge a little bit even after 30 seconds). It doesn't seem to
dry up at all, even when the cap of the pen is off, and produces a very light, gentle line which the scan
actually makes look darker than it is.

No feathering or bleeding on my Ciak paper (and I've written on both sides of the Ciak page so you can see
how much it shades through). Certainly not a bulletproof or waterproof ink, but produces considerable shading
with a broader nib. It almost looks like a more golden version of Herbin Cacao de Brésil which I use a lot
(and looks a little like a lighter Herbin Black Tea, which I don't have any experience of using yet so can't really judge).

Click to view attachment

It certainly looks nice on the cream Ciak paper to me, but I'm not sure it will compete with the 'big browns'
(Private Reserve Chocolat, Noodlers Walnut, Waterman Havana Brown and so on). Still, a pretty ink as the late
summer fades into autumn, not that we had any summer over here in the UK (groan groan...)

Emma

OOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I like very much!!
Many thanks for the review.

Jim

Oh, that's very nice indeed! The Ciak paper is looking good, too.

Neil

The Penman Classical Transparent fountain pen inks are available on ebay and on this site , too.
The names may be different, though. I have their Obsidian Brown and Violet Agate, which I purchased alongside some dip nibs. Nice inks.

Interesting...Scribbler's doesn't carry the Peridot, Blackman's doesnt' carry the Chestnut, and IIRC, the manufacturer doesn't sell retail at all. Wonder if anyone carries all of the colors!

Ann

Thanks for the lovely review! I've been drooling over these inks for awhile. Even the names sound good!

This looks lovely!! Anyone know how to get a hold of it in the US?

Wow very nice combo ink/paper!

Cream paper makes it just a tad more difficult to see precisely the color. How is it compared to Herbin Lie de Thé?

Thanks for all the comments, folks!
More Chestnut coming up...

Sadly, I don't have any Herbin Lie de Thé to compare with the Chestnut, JFT, but hopefully this
third scan shows what the colour looks like on white paper (here on a Clairfontaine Age Bag
notebook).

Click to view attachment

Nice review, nice ink, nice paper and lovely handwriting!

I've got two of these Penman inks, Violet Agate and Hematite Grey, but for some reason they don't seem to be free-flowing enough in any of my pens. My wife now uses the Violet Agate in her (my) 78G.......

Hmm, I think I have a spare cartridge of Lie de Thé. I'll see if I can get it in the post to you tomorrow.

Neil

Thanks, Neil! I didn't know Lie de Thé came in cartridge form.
I'll get some comparative writing samples up when the cartridge arrives.

Emma

Hmm, I think I have a spare cartridge of Lie de Thé. I'll see if I can get it in the post to you tomorrow.

Neil
[/quote]

Here's a brief update, with some other browns to compare against the Chestnut.

Click to view attachment

Edited to improve image.

Very nice!

Neil

Thanks again for the may sample that ink is gorgeous.

Nice review, but I thought that the Penman brown ink was called "Mocha". Is this another incarnation or something?

Juan

This is not about Parker Penman ink.

This is a totally different, little known manufacturer with their own ink line: (Classical Transparent) Penman ink by C. Roberson & Co.

Look at the links povided in the early posts regarding their selections available.

It's interesting that the inks are called Classical Transparent, as the first thing I thought when I received a vial of Chestnut from Emma (who wrote the original review) was that it's a thin, semi-transparent formulation. I don't mean that as a criticism; it's just an observation (and probably one brought about my usual use of thicker, more saturated inks like Noodler's).

Neil

Roberson has also other lines of ink for dip pens and such. The Classical Transparents are simply their dedicated fountain pen inks, it seems to me.

Yes, saintsimon's right - the Chestnut is a Roberson classical transparent ink for FPs, but it is a bit confusing as the word 'Roberson' doesn't appear anywhere on the bottle, just the words Couleur Surfine Pour Stylo. And Scribblers, where I bought mine from, market it as Penman.

It IS transparent though, as Neil says, but dries as a slightly darker shade than it writes.