Jump to content

Ink Review: Scarlet Red by Camel


diarcher

Recommended Posts

Camel Scarlet Red fountain pen ink has been on my collection for almost a year now. A friend of a friend from India came to visit the country for business, and kindly brought us this bottle of ink, along with a Hero 329, Hero 360 and boxes of tea. :)

 

01B Camel Bottle Uncapped.jpg

Scarlet Red and other Camel fountain pen inks are made by the same manufacturers of Camlin fountain pens in India. Production of the Camel fountain pen ink began as early as 1931 in Bombay, as an alternative to the Western ink brands available in India at that time. Camel fountain pen inks are dye-based inks and contains Camli-Sol 100, which Camel claims to clean the pen as the ink flows through it. Available in black, royal blue, green, violet and red, Camel fountain pen inks also claim to write consistently and to have good storage life, which is true because for a couple of months, my bottle of Scarlet Red was on my study table which was near a big window, but the heat and light coming through it did not alter the ink's consistency, color and brightness. The only downside to this product is the ink bottle's cap. It would have been better if the cap was made of plastic rather than metal, which is what's on it now.

 

Camel Scarlet Red reminds me so much of the cherry and strawberry-flavored red snow cones that we used to have in my grandmother's house during summer vacations. Back then, we called them 'snow-balls', and they were served on Lola's peanut butter and jelly glasses. :) My cousins and I would run to the big mirror in the grand room and look at each other's pouting red lips. :)

 

Camel Scarlet Red's color is also similar to Kool-Aid's cherry and strawberry flavors, and to the unforgettable red Kool-Aid man. Who could forget him and his red, happy face? On the non-food scale, Camel's Scarlet Red is very, very similar to Pilot G2's red gel ink (see my comparison of the two ink colors in the photos below).

 

02B Camel Bottle and Box with Indian script.jpg

This side of the box has the Hindi translation of the English text written on the other side.

In the previous photos, the color of the ink inside the bottle is hard to tell - it looks black! So I placed the bottle directly in front of a lamp and here it is looking every bit red. :) The bright light also revealed the words etched on the bottom of the bottle, which says, "60ml Camel".

 

05B Camel Bottle Against Light.jpg

Here is another exposure with the bottle tilted down to reveal the red ink inside.

 

04B Bottle Bottom .jpg

Camel Scarlet Red is an excellent ink from Camlin. It has great flow, and made the previously dry writing Pelikano Junior a wet writer. The color is also great, perhaps not the perfect red, but an excellent red that is perfect to use for highlighting and writing short notes. Shading is not very clear in these photos, but Camel Scarlet Red has minor shading especially when used on wide italic nibs. (My apologies for the wrong spelling of the word 'quotation' in this photo.)

 

07B Camel on 2 Notebooks.jpg

Camel Scarlet Red stands out as a bright red on the white Rhodia paper. There is no feathering and bleed on this paper. On Scribe's ivory-colored paper, the red looked a little subdued and not as bright as how it appeared on white paper. There is also feathering and bleed on this notebook.

 

Here is the back page of Scribe paper showing minor bleed when I used the fine-nibbed Pelikano Junior.

 

10B Back side of Scribe.jpg

Camel Scarlet Red is the first ink that got me thinking, if not worried, about its drying time. I wouldn't want to smear whatever I've written using red ink, and thankfully, it dries faster than most of my wet inks at less than 15 seconds.

 

11B Drying Time.jpg

Camel Scarlet Red ink is not yet available in the US, from what I have heard and read, but it's not available here in the Philippines, either. The Camlin website says the inks are available in 500ml and 60ml bottles, for 56INR and 12INR, respectively.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 5
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Ondina

    1

  • diarcher

    1

  • Ed Ronax

    1

  • mehandiratta

    1

Reviews about not so well known inks here at the forum are always of special interest. This looks like a fantastic, vibrant red with a touch of pink ( at least in my monitor). Shame about the feathering and bleeding on the lower quailty paper. 500 ml sounds about right for a teacher, specially at that price. Camlim inks sounds quite an interesting product with unique colors, and several Indian members have reported good behaviour in the long run.

I would be interested in knowing more about the water, UV and aging characteristics of the line.

You have a beautiful handwriting, clean and soothing to see. Reviews that include more than one paper type/color are specially useful for me, many thanks, very good and interesting one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review, this is indeed a fabulous vibrant colour, thanks.

And how can this be, because he is the Kwisatz Haderach.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

i love the color.... i am currently using this for marking the corrections in documents and drawings.

very amazing bright red color....Rich actually

vaibhav mehandiratta

architect & fountain pen connoisseur

 

blog | instagram | twitter

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the terrific review and for show casing some of the inks that many use, but we don't see very often here on FPN. I think I have samples of this one waiting to be scanned from the fade olympics.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...

Hello diarcher and Forum.

 

diarcher, thank you for the review. I like the color of Camel Scarlet, but I have had a problem with it.

 

I bought a bottle of (Camlin-Kokuyo) Camel Scarlet back in 2017. I like the color and was pleased with it until a few months ago. It was coagulating in the bottle, forming a film on the bottom which could be lifted up like a sheet with a hypodermic I use as a sort of eyedropper for filling cartridges. I also noticed congealing within a cartridge. The blob of congealed ink is heavier than the rest. So, when the pen was held vertically to write, the blob moved down to the feedpoint of the cartridge. I had noticed irregular flow in one of my pens using this red ink. When I cleaned it out and switched to Quink the problem vanished.

 

Just received a bottle of Noodler's Red. I am hoping it will not have this same problem with congealing.

 

I have used Camel Royal Blue with no surprises. That's why I tried their Scarlet.

Edited by hankosaurus

 

Henry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...