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A few months ago Fountain Pen Revolution released a new line of inks under their brand - starting with three colours, though it's now expanded to six. These inks, according to their webpage, are made in the US, in partnership with "another small family business". I ordered all three (plus their existing Blue-Black) in late May - then began the lengthy process of waiting for the ink to arrive (via Qatar and Greece!). There was a small amount of leakage along the way (hardly surprising given their circuitous, COVID-affected route) - but apart from a slight discolouration of the labels and packaging, the inks arrived intact. FPR's inks are very pleasant to write with - bright and colourful, smooth-flowing, and more water resistant than I'd expected. The inks are very reasonably priced - $8.50 for a 30ml bottle - and for those who are interested, the bottles have a wide enough mouth to accommodate the largest of pens. Firecracker Red was the first ink I tried: it's a cheerful red that skews a little towards orange (which kinda goes with the name, I think!). The review I think captures my feelings about the ink - suffice to say, I very much enjoy using it! A photo of the review page: All four inks on Rhodia paper: All four inks on Tomoe River paper:

This is the second of four reviews I'm posting, to showcase the new line of inks from Fountain Pen Revolution - I trust you'll forgive a little repetition! A few months ago Fountain Pen Revolution released a new line of inks under their brand - starting with three colours, though it's now expanded to six. These inks, according to their webpage, are made in the US, in partnership with "another small family business". I ordered all three (plus their existing Blue-Black) in late May - then began the lengthy process of waiting for the ink to arrive (via Qatar and Greece!). There was a small amount of leakage along the way (hardly surprising given their circuitous, COVID-affected route) - but apart from a slight discolouration of the labels and packaging, the inks arrived intact. FPR's inks are very pleasant to write with - bright and colourful, smooth-flowing, and more water resistant than I'd expected. The inks are very reasonably priced - $8.50 for a 30ml bottle - and for those who are interested, the bottles have a wide enough mouth to accommodate the largest of pens. Green With Envy is a cheekily-named but cheerful green colour - I'd describe it as a "grass green" if that weren't still too vague a designation! A little darker than J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage, but lighter than Blackstone Daintree Green or Diamine Sherwood Green (see the samples). I probably have more shades of green ink than I need - but I'll happily continue using this one, as it's easily legible without being overly dark, and flows nicely in a fine to medium pen. A photo of the review page: A copy of the water test: All four inks on Rhodia paper: All four inks on Tomoe River paper:

About two and half years ago I bought an ink sack for a repair that I eventually didn’t make. When I intended to use it yesterday I opened the plastic bag and found it almost sticking to the polyethylene bag it had come with. As it looked rather rigid, I tried to pull it and it yielded like a piece of chewing gum. I have known these sacks not to last long, but their shortness of life came as a great surprise to me, as I was planning to keep a couple of sacks in store for resacking my vintage fountain pens. I wonder if their life is any longer in always filled fountain pen. My bike’s tubes have worked without replacements for no less than a decade and I also keep a spare tube ready for years without any problem. Are there any more durable sack# out there? My Parker 51 still fills after half a century of use.

Taccia Cha ink review Disclaimer- First ink review here and would appreciate pointers if I missed something or if there is any information that one needs to know specifically not mentioned here also I lack other browns to compare color big apologies I don't have too many inks. First let me take a moment to address the elephant in the room, box and bottle. Bottle has big mouth for any pens is no issues with filling, but then when ink is low...I don’t know cos I cant see any mechanism to help here..its just a nice bottle. Box is not paper like most inks (not 100% at least) it sure does not feel like one, more durable and stronger with inside fins designed to keep ink from moving around and requires some effort to open as the top acts like a lock (its not hard just not too easy either basically the box does what box should do protect the ink)...not bad considering my waterman came out of box during shipping. I love how they say not to use it for anything other then writing.....makes me want to draw something Taccia Cha is a brown ink with slight hint of redness in it . Its quite nice ink and behaves very nicely on any and all papers that I tried it on. Shading potential though looks a bit questionable in all my test papers but who knows maybe Tomoe river will show some results, but that will have to wait till Christmas not too hopeful here (fingers crossed). Performance is good on absorbent papers and copy papers with all properties being same. Fun fact they draw a tea on cover and its quite accurate one just needs to add ton of tea leaves and burn the tea itself to get this deep brown with reddish hint as per say burnt tea...and I like this..the color not burnt tea . Saturation- good Bleed- none Feathering- none Smudges-none Lubrication-great Ghosting (show-through)- none on most papers apart from cheap guys. Flow- good. Wet/Dry- Its in between wet and dry but tilts slightly to wetter side..nice balance if one asks me. Dry time (approx) - 9-10 sec on 75 GSM copy paper, 11-12 sec on JK cedar 100 GSM paper, 8-9 sec on classmate register (no idea of GSM..I think its 52 from what I remember). I have tried to get as accurate color as I could with pee shooter of phone camera, they are pretty near just color is darker in real by a margin. Water resistance test method was putting drops of water for 30 sec in first sample and 1 min in second sample then wiping with cloth to try to remove the ink. Water resistance is very low (none to be honest). Second test I did not bother as ink wont survive that one (that involves putting ink paper under tap with mug below and letting the ink get dipped in it followed by wiping the paper with cloth to recreate floods or rain case). All in all a very good ink and if you like the color then go for it its great to work with. No water resistance is a bummer but hey Taccia themselves make it clear these are not so no big deal.

Taccia overview: Taccia is a Taiwanese-American brand started in California, that has been recently been bought by the Nakabayashi company. Nakabayashi is a maker of a long list of home and office products who have, under the Taccia brand, begun making fountain pen inks. All Taccia inks are made in Japan. There is some speculation as to whether Sailor makes the Taccia inks, but I have found no evidence to prove this. What I can say, according the the information I was able to gather is that at the time when Nakabayashi bought Taccia and wanted to release inks under that brand, they entered into an agreement with Sailor for the purposes of expert ink consultation. A couple of the Taccia standard line bear a striking resemblance to Sailor Jentle/Shikiori inks. Outside and within the standard line, they have a few unique inks. Also, Taccia inks I have tried do not have that "Sailor-made smell" you are all so familiar with. The Ukiyo-e Ink Series was released overseas in 2019. In March 2020, a second series of 8 inks was released. These are for Utamara Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro. I saw the release post on the Nagasawa Instagram page and emailed them directly for order. As of this publication, other Japanese bungu retailers have received stocks. They were Y1,600 or USD15 for each 40ml bottle of ink. The below translated names in Japanese and English are credited unchanged to Nagasawa Kobe Stationary store. Second Series Taccia Ukiyo-e Includes: 歌川広重（Hiroshige Utagawa） 1.広重浅縹（Hiroshige asahanada） 2.広重瑠璃（Hiroshige Ruri） 3.広重中紫（Hiroshige Nakamurasaki） 4.広重藍鼠（Hiroshige Ainezu） 喜多川歌麿（Utamaro Kitagawa） 5.歌麿紅桜（Utamaro Beni Zakura） 6.歌麿青紫（Utamaro Aomurasaki） 7.歌麿薄墨（Utamaro Usuzumi） 8.歌麿梅紫（Utamaro Umemurasaki） I’ve only opened one of the inks so far, and that is Taccia Hiroshige Ainezu. Now let’s get into the review. Online images are unhelpful. Taccia's own marketing materials do not give a fair representation of any of the inks I've tried. I would have sworn, from seeing their images and sample writing, that Ainezu was going to be a blue-black ink. I was way off. Ink bottle opening will fit large nibs comfortably, they are 40ml glass bottles with metal caps. The packaging is lovely, and far larger than the bottle needs in space to fit, which is nice, as this means the box artwork is easier to admire. Packaging & Bottle Each bottle comes packaged with a sturdy card. I've included both series below. The good stuff. Tomoe River Paper 52gsm White This is a gray ink, through and through. What I am able to cypher from the Kanji is that Ainezu means indigo-tinged gray. The kanji: 藍鼠 藍 ai / indigo 鼠 nezu / dark gray Ink Characteristics 1. Well-behaved 2. No feathering 3. No bleed-through 4. Acceptably wet 5. Smooth flowing, not gushing 6. Good shading in right pen [light to dark gray] 7. Easy cleaning with a few flushes 8. No staining discovered 9. Unexpected water resistance Other Ink properties you might find interesting is the ink goes on as a super-dark gray, almost black. It lightens as it dries which makes writing easy on the eyes. This is the opposite effect of Montblanc Spider Web Grey, which goes on nearly invisible when wet and dries darker. I prefer the former over the latter. As for the sheen, it is seen in the borders between light and dark, and is red and coppery. It does not overwhelm. The ink also looks quite light or dark depending on the paper and pen used. The shading also varies greatly under these conditions. Rhodia Dotpad Life Bank Paper Mead notebook paper / college ruled There is barely any feathering, which is quite good considering the wetness of the pen (and the terrible quality of the paper). It only shows up on close inspection. Even in this image it is difficult to spot. Water drop test Rhodia Water drown and dab test Rhodia Rubbed in and swirled. Pretty good. Both water tests left for 2+ minutes. Ink also dry for 2 minutes. Dry times Pretty average. Comparison Tomoe River Paper 52gsm Cream That's it! I do believe that we should receive this second set at some point, as we have had everything except for the special editions and the jeans ink available outside of Japan. Finally, of the newer ink manufacturers, Taccia is definitely a personal favorite. And I've been on a gray ink kick, so this was a welcome surprise. To be honest, I would't have really minded if it was another blue-black. I like those too. And that's the end of my first review. Hope you enjoyed this. I may do the remainder once I’ve tried them and if this was helpful to anyone. Happy inking and thank you for your time.

Hey everyone, hope you and yours are safe and healthy. Has anyone used Birmingham ink and if so, what was your experience with it and what colors would your recommend? Thanks!

First off, I wanted to give a big shout out for everybody that was able to attend the Dromgoole's Dallas Pen Show 2 weeks ago! We were extremely happy to put on an event like that, and you all helped make it a successful event. It was so great to get to see everybody! With that said we are doing a similar show in San Antonio November 6th-7th!. The show will be located at the Doubletree by Hilton San Antonio Northwest right off of Loop 1604 and I-10. 6809 N Loop 1604 W, San Antonio, TX 78249 There will be a special room rate of $82/night if signed up before the end of October, if you have any issues please reach out to us and we will be happy to assist. Copy & Paste this link in your browser to book your room! https://doubletree.hilton.com/en/dt/groups/personalized/S/SATJRDT-DRM-20201105/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG The show hours will be as follows: Friday November 6th 10AM-7PM Saturday November 7th 9AM-4PM The show will not be quite like the normal show due to Covid. We are taking many precautions in relation to this. Due to Covid the number of tables are greatly reduced, and meet all CDC guidelines and social distancing procedures. Hand sanitizer will be placed all around the show in addition to face coverings being required. We will have face shields available at no charge at the door. There will also be restrictions in place as far as number of people allowed in the show, so a line could form. We want to make this show as fun as possible, but we are doing everything we can to make it a safe show for all vendors and attendees. Attached is a flyer we have created that has a list of current vendors that have committed to attend, we expect to have some more as time goes on. Kirk Speer (Penrealm) will be on site offering nib grinding/tuning services!

Hello everyone, This is my first post back after being away from FPN for a very, very long time and I come seeking your help. I need a new blue ink. I was in love with Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Blue ink (see review here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225885-montblanc-meisterstuck-diamond/) and I am drawing to the end of my supply. I liked its' subdued colouring and how it shaded. In a way it sort of reminded me of old recipe Sheaffer Blue. So I now seek your collective knowledge and help. What blue do you suggest I use that either: 1. comes close in appearance/replicating the beloved Diamond; or 2. New colour blue but has good shading and lubrication qualities. Thanks for your help, P

I write relatively long durations, but it is not writing 100% of the time. There will be brief pauses, when I will be reading or reflecting, with pen being held open in hand or resting on desk. It is a distraction to close the pen every time when there is a need for 30 seconds pause in writing. Most of the time, ceiling fan will also be on. Under these circumstances, how can I reduce the drying of ink on the nib as much as possible? Will any choice of type of nib (fine vs broad) or type of ink (dry vs wet) or adjusting ink flow help reduce drying? What do you do in such circumstance? Thanks in advance.

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Below is a written review of Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo. The name stands for 'Moonlight' and is a teal leaning deep blue. I quite like this pen for work related writing (little though that is); but it is a tad unsaturated in quite a few of my pen, so not quite a favorite - I'd rather it was a tad darker - the Krishna Sea at night is a similar teal leaning blue, but one with lot more sheen and leans the other way on the saturation spectrum - the color is dense! I find it works best in a wet fine nib, though for this review I used a Sailor Sapporo with a B nib, to highlight the beautiful shading.

I have had this Diamine Sargasso Sea sample for reviewing for a while. I looked at this sample and thought how similar it looks to Diamine Blue Velvet. However, after I started writing with it, I started to see that it leans a little more towards the red end of the colour spectrum than Blue Velvet does. I like that about it, and I would happily live with both colours. Notably though, Blue Velvet is more expensive because it's one of the 150th Anniversary inks. This is an excellent dark to medium blue type. It varies according to the type of nib used, and looks darker when written with a F nib than it does when written with a stub or wider nib. It could be used as an every day blue ink. It's an excellent performer. I'm not 100% happy with my Pilot CH92 F nib, because I find I get much more feedback from it than I do from my other F nibs. However, it loved this ink. It felt well lubricated and flowed across the page beautifully. I could have carried on writing with it for ages, but wanted to look at the writing with the stub nib too. I was surprised how different the colour looked between these 2 nibs. This was a slow-drying ink and exhibited much show through and bleed though on my thick 100g/sm paper. If you are content with that then I can recommend it.The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink, but there is some water resistance.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a 1.1 and a F nib, this ink only took 17-20 secs to dry. That's common on this smooth, thick paper.It flows through the pen very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or cartridges.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price

Monteverde's revamped line of inks recently got my attention for their comprehensive lineup of clear, distinct hues, as well as good value. A 90ml bottle can be had for about $13-$15 USD from the better known online retailers in the United States, making it a very good deal. Monteverde touts their "ITF Technology". From Monteverde's promotional material, here's how it claims to benefit us writers: At my recent visit to the 2017 LA Pen Show, Monteverde gave a free bottle of Malibu Blue ink to all show attendees. A company representative had all their inks available for sampling with swabs, as well as show discounts. I brought home four bottles of Monteverde ink, and post-show I've purchased a few more online:Malibu BlueCapri BlueHorizon BlueSapphire BlueMonteverde also offers two blues I am missing: Caribbean Blue (turquoise), and a Blue-Black. I am posting individual reviews for each of the four Monteverde inks I have. I filled a variety of pens with these four inks, with nibs ranging from fine to double-broad stubs. Here's a snapshot from my Bullet Journal Ink Log, showing the pen/ink assignments and a writing sample from each. Monteverde Horizon Blue This is Monteverde's Parker Penman Sapphire workalike. It is similar to Diamine Blue Velvet and Visconti Blue. Here is how it appears on Clairefontaine paper. Color/Saturation Horizon Blue is a deeply saturated, "pure" blue. It doesn't lean to purple or green. Shading/Sheening Horizon Blue has a light amount of shading on Tomoe River. A little bit of red sheening can be seen in the Tomoe River sample. Flow Horizon Blue is a well-behaved ink. I had no skips or hard starts on the initial flow. Horizon Blue came in second place for flow amongst the four inks tested. In my Sheaffer Prelude with M nib (a wet pen), it comes out wet but not too wet. Lubrication Like the other Monteverde inks, Horizon Blue has good lubrication, but has some stiction at the start/stop of a pen stroke. In my Clairefontaine bullet journal, my Sheaffer Prelude squeaks as I write! Dry Time Dry time is moderate, between 25 and 30 seconds on Clairefontaine paper from the Prelude. Feathering Horizon Blue performs well in the feathering test on cheap office paper. Bleedthrough There is a medium amount of bleedthrough on the other side of the page on the cheap office paper. Water Resistance Horizon Blue probably performed best of the four Monteverde inks, but still it is not a water-resistant ink in the 10 second immersion test. Before After Comparison with Other Inks Here is a tile comparing Horizon Blue with other medium blue inks. NB: The Parker Penman Sapphire is from a diluted sample and so isn't quite true in terms of saturation.

Reportedly, Private Reserve is one of the companies that paved the way to the overabundance of ink colors we have now, as early on there were mostly the basic inks available, such as basic blue-black, red, green, turquoise, brown, black, and blue. PR inks come in a multitude of different hues. The original creator and owner of the ink company passed away, and the company is now under new ownership and management. I personally became very interested in Private Reserve Avocado a while ago, after seeing its fantastic color range on some others' reviews when used for drawing. Behind its very slightly olive green exterior hide many other hues! The brick-terracotta red color is one of them, and it is the most water-resistant component of this ink. So when you use a water brush over Avocado, a red color is revealed! This ink is very well-behaved in writing. The ink flow is moderate to creamy, and lubrication is good. This ink is really good for maintaining fine lines for drawing and for hairlines. It's well-saturated, but not too much. There is no sheen. Instead the ink has an attractive matte appearance that works well on all paper types. This ink is great for any nib type: from super extra fine to broad. Shading is fairly low, and the lines are solid and well-defined, dark enough even when very fine. In writing, this ink is a pleasant hue of fresh, botanical green. Very restful on the eyes and also imparts an uplifting feeling for me personally. Scan: Fabriano Bioprima 85g ivory-tooned paper with 4mm grid: Scan: Tomoe River 52g White Scan: Nakabayashi Logical Prime notebook, coated ivory-cream-toned paper: (Totally misspelled Rikyu-Cha) Close-up photographs: Look at that "chromatography"! Personally I like this ink a lot; glad I have a large bottle.

Reportedly, Private Reserve is one of the companies that paved the way to the overabundance of ink colors we have now, as early on there were mostly the basic inks available, such as basic blue-black, red, green, turquoise, brown, black, and blue. PR inks come in a multitude of different hues. The original creator and owner of the ink company passed away, and the company is now under new ownership and management. Ebony Blue has been on my radar for a while. I love dark teal inks, but I'm usually pretty picky about them in person. Ebony Blue is a kind of turquoise mixed with black, and possibly some other hues in between, which results in a dark but more "clean" hue teal-black. What I mean by clean is that it's not muddy, brown-tinged like, say, Sailor Jentle Miruai. Depending on pen, paper, and illumination this ink can look more blue-teal or more green-teal. The flow is one of the interesting characteristics of this ink: it feels "creamy" to write with. I like this tactility of the ink. It does not feather nor bleed through any of the decent-to-good paper I've used it with. It has pretty decent water resistance too: while it won't look neat if you splash water on your writing, a clear, dark gray line remains behind to salvage content. There is metallic magenta sheen. This ink will work in all types of nibs: from ultra extra fine to broad. Shading becomes increasingly more prominent with broader nibs. If you use broad nibs with this ink, I recommend uncoated and more absorbent paper. It's more smear-prone on Tomoe River with broad nibs. Scan: on Fabriano Bioprima 85g ivory-toned paper with 4mm dot grid Scan: on Tomoe River 52g White Scan: on a 100g A6 uncoated paper (the first GvFC Gulf Blue should read "Cobalt Blue" instead) Scan: on Tomoe River 52g Cream paper (the first GvFC Gulf Blue should read Cobalt Blue instead) Close-up photographs:

Hello dear FPNers, Today I have something new, something German, something menthol green for you: Moctezuma 1 Pierced Sky is one of the most recent inks released by Montblanc. This ink is a complementary part of new Patron of the Art series: Homage to Moctezuma 1. It is a limited edition ink, and it has a 50 ml cube shaped bottle, which is a pretty standard bottle shape of Montblanc. I suppose this ink is very close to J. Herbin Vert Reseda, but a tad darker than it. Another similar ink is Edelstein Jade. Unfortunately, I have neither of them, because this cannot be called as my favourite shade of turquoise. However, I have Diamine Dark Green and Visconti Green, both of which are also pretty close to Moctezuma, I suppose. Here is a comparison of three inks on white Tomoe paper: They are very close indeed. But before describing the differences between 3 inks' colours, maybe I should mention about some important ink properties: Saturation: Moctezuma has a medium-to-low saturation. It is not as washed out as Herbin Vert Reseda, but still lacks some saturation in my opinion. Sheen: There is definitely no sheen with this ink. Maybe only if you pour down huge amounts on Tomoe, you may see a little bit of sheen. Shading: It has a high shading capacity, I loved it. Obviously not as much as a KWZ Honey, but still very nice shading. Wetness: Moctezuma is a dry ink, as most of you could easily guess, because most Montblanc inks tend to be so (except Elixir line, they are the wettest inks I have ever seen). It is not the driest ink in the world either; not as dry as a Pelikan 4001, but definitely on the dry side of the spectrum. Unless you have a vintage pen with an ebonite feed, or a modern pen which is tuned to write wet, most people wouldn't like this dryness combined with medium-to-low saturation in EF/F nibs I suppose. Check this out again: Lamy Safari M nib's output is not amazingly washed out, but not very legible either. I am more of a BB/OBB guy. I don't use fine nibs very often, but if I do, personally I would like to see a bit darker, or brighter line. The colour choice is already dangerous: it is a pastel menthol green, not most people's first choice of colour to easily read the written, so at least it should have been a bit more saturation in my opinion. About dryness of ink: I suppose both Montblanc and Pelikan specifically keep their nibs' tippings wide, to have them larger surface area when in contact with paper, which makes them smoother. And then they need to adjust their own inks to be a bit more viscous than a regular ink to make it flow slowly through the tines, compensating the thick tipping material's large surface and making the pen write narrower, so keeping the promise of theoretical nib size. I don't know. It is a choice of company. Pilot succeeds in having narrower tippings be smooth, maybe not as smooth as their German counterparts but still quite smooth. And they see no problem in producing a much wetter ink. I suppose most people would trust in Iroshizuku line's fluid properties more than they do for Montblanc inks or Edelstein inks in an indefinite case of which ink to use in an unfamiliar pen. I remember having hard times with some Montblanc and Pelikan inks in my EF/F nibs. Whatever. Note that the pen I used for Moctezuma is Sailor Progear Ocean with 21k Music nib: Mr John Mottishaw cut its tip into a beauuuutiful cursive italic, smooth and crisp, and tuned it to be quite a wet nib: So the wetness of nib would be able to balance the dryness of ink, I thought. Same triple comparison is also done on 80 gr white Rhodia paper, which is the industrial standard of pen world, I suppose.. Let's see the differences between 3 inks above. Here are some close shots of them on Tomoe again: Moctezuma is the lightest of them. Diamine Dark Green is a bit greener than Moctezuma, with a bit more red dye, and it is more saturated. Visconti Green actually has a very similar green-blue ratio compared to Moctezuma, but it is much more saturated. And the red dye content is definitely higher in Visconti, as a result it seems darker with some nice sheen. Sometimes I love writing with over-saturated feeds. They show the full potential of an ink. Also, if you have a moderately wet nib, it gives a clue about how the colour would be seen with a wet nib, especially with a vintage nib. A close shot of writings made with over-saturated feed on Tomoe: Lovely sheen with Visconti Green to be noted. Same thing for Rhodia: It can be said that Moctezuma gives a nice colour with a very wet nib, preferably a vintage one. Some other ink properties: Feathering: Not detected, not likely to feather. In this term, quite a well behaved ink. Bleeding: Not detected, not likely to bleed. In this term, quite a well behaved ink. Showthrough: Some distinct showthrough on Tomoe but every ink has a showthrough on Tomoe, so it shouldn't be a criteria I think: On Rhodia, it has minimal showthrough. Quite well: Note that heavy swabs or parts written with over-saturated feed will of course have showthrough, and even bleedthrough. It is normal. The concentration on normal writing should be the way in judging showthrough/bleedthrough. Water Resistance: Meh. Not so much, but who cares?? Not me, definitely.. Before water test on Tomoe: And after water test: It cannot be said that the writings have gone completely, but they are not legible either. But this situation does not bother me. Actually, I like inks which are not resistant to water. In my experience, they are much easier to clean than water-proof inks. And considering that I am obsessive while cleaning pens until water comes out completely crystal clear, this ink is a nice choice for me. I haven't tried to clean it from my pens, but I am sure it will be cleaned quite fast. CONCLUDING REMARKS If you are into menthol green colour, you will definitely like this ink. Note that it is a bit pale, pastel colour, not very vivid.With very wet nibs, it has a lovely hue of an exotic lagoon at its best. I live in an inland location, but I felt like I am in Maldives.Doesn't have sheen or shimmer, but has a nice shading.Montblanc Moctezuma 1 is not the most unique colour in the world. There are some similar colours like J. Herbin Vert Reseda, Pelikan Edelstein Jade, Diamine Dark Green, Visconti Green, etc.. You may consider them also.Price is about 35 Euros, same as Montblanc Petrol Blue. It is definitely not a cheap ink, but not the most expensive one either. I am not sure if it deserves this price. I would buy it anyway since I am an ink nerd, but I may not buy the second bottle. Besides, alternatives are much cheaper, and this ink does not have amazing specifications in terms of colour.With over-saturated feed, it provides a much more distinct, vivid colour, which means if you are likely to buy it, consider using it in your wet pens, preferably gushers or vintage pens. No need to afraid of cleaning from vintage pens. Hope you enjoyed. Thank you..

Hey everyone, I primarily use and change inks in my Pilot Metropolitan frequently; but I've never had to rinse and re-ink within a day. Does Diamine tend to run on the dry side or did I just get a drier than usual batch? The ink in question is the shade: Soft Mint. Thank you for any input you can provide.

I won't add much to previous fantastic reviews of this ink, such as the ones here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/335816-gulf-blue-graf-von-faber-castell/ But I will add my subjective impressions of using this ink and some more scans and photographs. Graf von Faber-Castell makes a luxury line of inks in beautiful, heavy glass bottles that will decorate any writing desk and will draw the eye. Despite the high price, the bottles contain 75ml of ink, so price per ml is actually reasonable. Considering other brands that sell in 20-30ml bottles for lower prices, but you get 2-3 times less ink. The packaging overall is top notch quality (personal note: I love the scent of the thick paper the box is made with, or maybe it's the ink used to print the graphics on the box). In my experience with 10 colors of GvFC ink, all are a varying degree of low lubrication and dryness. Some might be "liquidy" coming off the nib, but the overall ink flow will not be high. Colors like Moss Green, Cobalt Blue, and Hazelnut Brown are more saturated and a bit more lubricated. Deep Sea Green and Gulf Blue have little to no lubrication and are very dry, and so they benefit from juicy pens with smooth nibs. Or else you will feel every imperfection of your nib and texture of the paper you write on. Recently I have come to appreciate dry inks for the look they can provide if they are made of different hues of constituent dyes. This is the same type of dry flow and lack of lubrication one might find with certain translucent, multi-hue Sailor Manyo, Sailor Ink Studio, Troublemaker, and other inks of that nature. I am guessing the lack of surfactants, low saturation, and low lubrication are necessary to achieve color separation within a line, because some dyes flow farther than others, thus separating into gradients. Graf von Faber-Castell Gulf Blue is a multi-hue powder blue ink. It reminds me of blue hydrangea flowers, with areas of pale aqua-sky blue in dry areas and shifting to lavender in more saturated areas. It has a similar idea to Troublemaker Milky Ocean, but Milky Ocean is comparatively more purple-shifted and slightly more saturated. I highly recommend broad or cursive italic/stub nibs for this ink to get the most of the color gradient effect. The wetter your pen, the better, both for the smoother writing experience and for the ink to be more prominent on paper. Here is a scan of a mini-review sheet, paper is ivory-toned Fabriano Bioprima 85g with 4mm dot grid: Graf von Faber-Castell claims their inks are indelible. You can go back and forth about the ISO standard the brand uses, but in practical terms, the ink has some but low water resistance. The purplish line remains behind if you dab the wet writing with a paper towel quickly, and you might be able to read the original writing if the lines were thick enough, as you can see on the scan above (the grid lines are very faint compared to the cursive italic writing). The ink is pale to begin with, and the remaining lines are even more so. Here's a scan of some blue-turquoise inks next to Gulf Blue on ivory-toned Nakabayashi Logical Prime notebook paper: Photographs: On Tomoe River 52g "white" in a Hobonichi Cousin planner: Fabriano Bioprima 85g, using water brushes: Comparison with Troublemaker Milky Ocean: Milky Ocean: Milky Ocean:

I have a bottle of the Raduga Blue & I I would like to know if people find it on the thick side for fountain pens? Or maybe it does not flow as well?

I like old ink (and pens) This is not a secret Why? Because when vintage ink was made, it had to WORK. Period. It wasn't boutique or eccentric. Fountain pens were PENS, not bling (ok, some were bling, but they still had to function as pens, without fail!)So badly behaving ink was an impediment to writing!People were FAR less likely to tolerate misbehaviour, be it bleeding, feathering, clogging of pens, etc. Think of it this way:What do you do when you are FORCED by circumstance to use a ballpoint, and then that ballpoint doesn't work within the first 5 seconds or so?That's right, you throw it in the freaking garbage, swear about how bad ballpoints are, and grab another one. (and maybe even another one after that...) Back in the day, ink was likely the same way. If you loaded your pen with ink, and more than once that ink let you down?...There's a pretty good chance you threw it out and bought a different ink! As such, Vintage ink was made when it HAD to work. And that brings us to today's ink Waterman's Patrician Purple (note the 's in the name) My bottle is NOS I purchased on eBay in Jun/Jul 2020 and was manufactured in Montreal. Bottle, box and Aqua/Pastel Blue Sentinel Snorkel used for testing Colour Swatch Rhodia Webnotebook (paper is slightly off white in real life) Chromatography done twice to verify resultsText is transcribed below for searchability and due to terrible handwriting 21 Jul 20Waterman's Patrician Purple 2oz bottle fromeBay Jun/Jul 2020. Bottleis NOS from the 1950's (i think)This ink is pale/washed out. I'm notsure how much of that is due to age.The flow is average/dryand the ink is wellbehaved as expected fromWaterman's. After itdries this ink seemsto grow on you withits understated nature.[Dry Times]Would buy again?Maybe/NA Waterman's Patrician PurpleEco 1.1 MMAqua Sentinel Shading: Low/MediumSaturation: LowFeathering: NilSpread: NilBleed: NilCleaning: P.I.T.A [water tests] Notes: Yes, it's that water resistant! It's alsoa PITA to clean. Onlya couple of hrs in theEco and it had started to stain/leave a residue. Clairefontaine paper (very white paper) Waterman Waterman'sTender Purple Patrician PurpleSheaffer SheafferAqua/Pastel Blue Aqua/Pastel BlueSnorkel Sentinel Snorkel Sentinel The quick brown The quick brownfox jumps over fox jumps overthe lazy dog the lazy dog1234567890 1234567890 Twsbi Eco 1.1 mm The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog 1234567890 The chromatography should have been a clue as to how much of a PITA this ink was going to be to clean out.(think Noodler's Rome Burning) Purple inks of course have a reputation for staining, and this one certainly lives up to that reputation.That said, I guess that was much less of a concern when the overwhelming majority of pens were NOT demonstrators. If you can't see the inside of the pen... how would you even know it was getting stained!? So that's it. That's Waterman's Patrician Purple It's hard to find, can be expensive, the colour is washed out and will somehow still stain your pen! But hey, at least it's well behaved on paper!

Diamine released few more inks exclusively for the German market. The five lovely warm colours are inspired by guitars - see them on this Instagram picture. I like the idea and I like the colours. Some nice packaging for the complete set would be even better. So far I know, the Fountainfeder e-shop is the only shop selling them right now. I expect this will change soon.

In keeping with my theme of doing things because I was told I can't... Parker Superchrome Jade Green! Yes, the slightly LESS deadly ink invented to replace Parker "51" ink! If you are not familiar with Parker "51" ink and the story behind it, please feel free to see my reviewsTunis Blue: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/354212-parker-51-tunis-blue/?hl=%2Btunis+%2BbluePan American Green: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/353661-parker-51-pan-american-green/?hl=%2Btunis+%2Bblue So, now that everyone knows why "51" ink had to go the way of the dinosaurs, let's take a look at its replacement!Launched around the same time as the new Aero-Metric (1948ish) version of the Parker "51" pen, the advertising for Superchrome was VERY bright and vibrantIt even went as far as to explain how this magical ink would soak into the paper and dry nearly instantly, instead of by evaporation!Here's the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US2528390NEAT! Ok, so what happened then? Why is this called the "slightly less deadly" ink? and why can't i find it in stores!? Because it was discontinued in 1956 ok, but WHY!? Well, Parker started getting warrantee claims on their new Aero-metric "51"s... a lot of them... seems the alkalinity of Superchrome was actually eating up breather tubes!And they were made of STERLING SILVER... eventually, replacing them starts to get expensive ya know! you can read more about "51" and Superchrome here:http://www.richardspens.com/ref/care/51_ink.htm My Bottle is a slightly later bottle, the first ones came in a cool metal tin! According to the Parker "51" book, my box was designed around 1949And was awarded an honourable mention by the Folding Box Association of America! Wow... really!? the FBAoA!? no way! Yes way! it says so on page 145 of the Parker "51" book! here is my box and bottle pictured with my green Parker "51" Special Demi There was some sedimentation in the bottle, much like the Tunis Blue bottle, but much less of it, and not stuck to the bottom of the bottle.As with the Pan American Green, don't worry, I shook the bottle excessively in order to try and get those precious dyes back into suspension (not solution)! ok, but what does it look like on paper you ask? well I'm glad you asked, cause that's the whole point of this shindig! (Typed Text follows for search-ability, and because my handwriting is atrocious!) Rhodia Webnotebook, paper is slightly off white in real life 15 Jul 20Parker Superchrome JadeGreen. Bought 3oz bottleon eBay Jun-ish 2020. Thisis the second deadliest inkin history. Only the inkit replaced (Parker "51") isworse! Meant to "dry" nearly instantly it was designedto soak into the paper. Toobad it also ate sterlingsilver breather tubes...More teal than Green, buthat may be due to the age of the bottle. Some dryout when left over night in a pen(Dry times in a Wing Sung 601 and a TWSBI Eco 1.1)Would buy Again?N/A Parker SuperchromeJade GreenEco 1.1mmWing Sung 601Shading: Good/Very GoodSaturation: GoodFeathering: NilSpread: NilBleed: NilCleaning: Easy/Medium (Water tests, dripped and dabbed vs rubbed with a wet Q-tip) Notes: Colour is very close to Diamine Marine. FlowsOK. Pan American Greenis much greener.*Leaves a white crust/residue! (On the feed and nib, Seen well after cleaning and drying the Eco. So that white residue on "51" Feeds? yeah... probably from this ink!) Clairefontaine Notebook paper, paper is VERY white Parker SuperchromeJade GreenTwsbi Eco 1.1 mm stubThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.1234567890Clairefontaine PaperDry Times 30 25 20 15 10 5 1Wing Sung 601Drytimes: 30 25 20 15 10 5 1 The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog1234567890 Parker SuperchromeJade GreenDiamine MarineJade Green Marine So that's it. That's Parker Superchrome Jade Green. It's a lot like Diamine Marine, except you know, super expensive, hard to find, and will kill your pen!While also leaving a weird white residue on your nib and feed... yay!

Hi, I have just acquired an Esterbrook in a job lot of old pens and would like to bring it into use. It currently has an empty old Esterbrook cartridge fitted. Can anyone advise what cartridges will fit? It is much longer than the 'common' cartridges you see around. Also from an environmental perspective is there a filler e.g. pistion filler I can use? Not sure what model, but if I can work out how I will post a picture in this part of the forum. Just been looking at Esterbrook.net and think it is a CX-100 model with a red barrel :-) Many thanks, Julian

Hi! So I have some gradual experience with fountain pens from the last time I wrote on this website. My favorite fountain pens that I have found to be a very smooth writing experience for me are the Pilot pens. I especially love the Prera and I hope that Pilot makes more of the solid-color body ones cause they are my favorite. Anyway, those pens are the ones that really work with me. I tend to use a medium nib on the Pilot fountain pens. Now I know a Japanese medium=western fine. However, I find that Western fine can be too scratchy and that Western mediums can be too broad. I want to find a fountain pen that has the same line consistency as the Pilot mediums found in the Preras, Cavaliers, and the Metropolitans that I use. Even my one Kaweco Sport that is medium is an ideal line for me. So I've been looking at Watermans because I just got a rollerball from them and absolutely loved it, but I wanted to try out their fountain pens since I heard that they are of good quality. However, I'm driving myself mad about the nib and which one I should get. Maybe I'm just overthinking things, but I don't want to get a medium with it being broad and me smearing it because I drag my pen across the paper. However, on the other hand, I don't want to get a fine in case it's too scratchy and the line isn't what I want. Please help me!!! I want to be part of the Waterman gang Also, was wondering if the Waterman, specifically the Havana Brown is fast drying or if Waterman inks are fast-drying inks in general. The Pilot inks are wonderful for me, for it never smears even if I brush my hand over it. However, Kawecos aren't really fast-drying inks which I am very surprised about. I thought they were, so I'm wondering if Waterman is fast-drying. I hope it is in my favor! thanks again for the help! looking forward to your responses!

Is there such a thing as a fountain pen friendly iron gall *recipe*? Not a mass marketed commercial ink. I assume it would have to be without gum arabic at least.