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This forum is so useful and helpful; this is my small contribution. I noticed a few posts of late comparing grey ink to the colour of writing with a pencil. So I decided to do an actual comparison (see the images below). Diamine Grey really does look quite close to the colour of a pencil lead (of course, this will depend as well on the pencil used and how hard you press - I used a 2B lead for my comparison). This is my only grey ink, but I'd be interested to see how other grey inks compare... after I've finished off this bottle first of course! I'm the type of person that uses a black ink more than any other colour, but I find this ink is a nice change for personal note-taking. All ink components of the review were written using a LAMY 2000 with a fine nib.

Be sure to see the review for Bosphore here. http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_146.jpg http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_145.jpg http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_147.jpg

Has anyone had the problem with Perle Noire turning grayish in colour? I have my Lamy Safari 1.1mm stubb inked up with J herbins Perle Noire. After the initial inking when the feed is swimming in ink, the colour put on the page is a very deep rich black with absolutely no shading whatsoever. After a few pages the colour seemingly turns grayish with some shading. It's no longer the deep black black black like I was expecting. It's not a flow problem I'm pretty sure because the nib glides across the page. The ink is just less saturated than what I was expecting. Has anyone experienced this with this or any other black ink???

I know there's already been a superb comparison of green that included these three inks, but I wanted to add my own -- since the reviews of Zhivago seem so variable, from "just black" to an obvious green. Clearly Zhivago is greener that Graphite but not as green as Evergreen. Colour laid down is not far from the "fresh" evergreen before it lightens over 24 hours. I have tried diluting Zhivago. It does not make the ink any greener; the end result is something even closer to Graphite, though a tad greener. And ye gods, Noodler's ink smells.

I'm surprised that I never posted this review. OOPS. Generally, I don't use black or gray inks. Because Tyler at Organics Studio sent inks for the Fade Olympics, I inked up my pens and started doodling to get the OS inks in the window. Alas, not all the inks made it into the 2013 line up, but they will appear in the 2014 windows. Anyway, this gray ink is wonderful. Depending on the paper, I saw more shading. The color is a keeper. So, here are my doodles. http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inklings/slides/2013-Ink_611.jpg And here is how it reacts to water. http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inklings/slides/2013-Ink_611c%20.jpg

Here's another newer ink that hasn't got a lot of color samples online yet. It's a nice gray color on the cool end of gray. Good wet flow. Some water resistance. No misbehaving. Dries pretty quick. I've been trying to decide whether to get Albert Einstein ink from Montblanc in a full bottle. I got a sample through some magical series of events, and tried it. I was wanting to see if I would like this one better. Honestly, I like them both. Einstein is a more neutral gray than this one. Sadly, it looks like I'm going to have to get both.

This one has been near the top of my Looking for Rationalizations to Buy list for a while. Unfortunately, there's no place I've seen that sells samples. Fortunately, I bought something from FPN classifieds and the seller kindly threw in a fistfull of samples, this one included. So, Einstein. He was known for having gray hair. And this is gray ink. I guess that's the connection. Or it could be *relatively* black. Either way, we come to gray ink. It's got a pretty good flow. About like any good ink. It's definitely gray, and not just watered down black, which I worried about. It has some water resistance, which is nice. Overall, there's nothing really really special about it. It's a good behaved gray ink that doesn't completely run away in the sight of water. It's nice to write with. I'd take some. But sadly, I can't really rationalize getting Einstein fan crazy over it, unlike De Atramentis Sherlock Holmes or Organics Studio Edgar Allan Poe. I wish they'd done something more special for Einstein.

http://yoonhalee.com/images-inks/diamine-pr-blue.png This looks more blue-black than blue-gray on a more absorbent paper, like the cardstock I was using earlier but didn't think to scan/photograph. On Clairefontaine, this is pretty much what you get. I wish it were one of the more colorful blues, but I can't fault how well-behaved it is in this pen.

I don't have many inks that are 'just' grey so I thought this one would be an interesting addition to my hoard collection. Also, I was curious about a grey colour in a series called 'chromatics'… In summary: Use this on absorbent papers, not Rhodia et al unless you are trying for a very specific look. With that caveat, this can be a useful ink for casual note taking and informal messages, even in an office setting. Your message will seem much less forceful than with a black ink, so consider it for situations where consensus-building is important, e.g. voluntary sectors. With a very wet writer (like the Platinum Century John Sorowka custom nib in the samples) you could absolutely use this for corporate signatures, especially, perhaps, if you want to subtly distance yourself from the message. Love letters seem unlikely. Review: Soak test: Rhodia No 18 dotpad again: Rhodia R paper: Stock 'cartridge' paper (apologies for the corporate branding! It was the only pad I had to hand!): Apologies again for corporate pad (but it is what I write most of my text on). (If you want to calibrate your monitor, the blue in the logo is Pantone Blue 072 U.) The Lamy nibs are both the Z50 steel nibs. Hope this is useful to someone.

Hi FPN, Recently I'm thinking of using an FP + gray ink to replace mechanical pencils in taking lecture notes. I need to keep the ink gray in order to distinguish "in-lecture" notes from post-lecture additional notes, yet the lack of permanence of pencil lead is getting on my nerves, so I'm wondering if FP + gray ink is a suitable substitute with this purpose in mind. Mostly my notes will be in the form of annotations on printed powerpoint slides as opposed to sheets and sheets of writing. I'm wondering which of the inks mentioned in the title, when written from a Pilot fine nib (there's no negotiating this), resembles pencil lead more. I'm concerned that Gris Nuage may come out too light in a fine nib, yet I've heard that Fuyu-syogun is a wet one among Iro inks and may feather/ bleed. So I'm wondering if anyone can give a comparison of the 2, in terms of performance in fine nibs, wetness and if possible, water resistance and fade resistance. (Kiri-same is not really my cup of tea.) Given my locale, it is not cost-effective to try out samples, and J. Herbin and Iroshizuku are the only brands with gray inks that are locally available. Since MB Albert Einstein is only limited edition, it is out of consideration, and MB Oyster Gray is not always available, but if anyone can comment, I'd welcome it too. Thanks a lot!