Inky T O D - Color Swatches - Gray And Grey - Please Post Your Pictures And Tell Us Your Thoughts

[Jan2016]

Birmingham Steel Building Smoked Iron:

Grayish brown, brownish grey... :-)

 

[ErrantSmudge]

Monteverde Smoke Noir. This is a really interesting grey ink. I haven't tried it with many papers yet, but so far it is proving to be a relatively "flat" ink, i.e. it doesn't shade a whole lot - at least not on Clairefontaine. I did manage to get an olive colored sheen which shows up on Clairefontaine (but not captured by the scanner).

 

It goes down dark, and lightens to its medium-dark gray as it dries. It has a warm cast to it. And it is a fast-dry ink on Clairefontaine.

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by ErrantSmudge

[amberleadavis]

Sorry that I missed the gray ink link. Thanks for sharing!!!

[amberleadavis]

http://www.sheismylawyer.com/2017_2_Ink/06-June/slides/.jpg

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

I've posted in the wrong Inky TOD, apologies. I still have to choose a grey ink to try!

Edited May 11, 2018 by RoyalBlueNotebooks

[Torrilin]

[amberleadavis]

Well thank you! I like the ghosty.

[Torrilin]

Thanks! The ghosts are a fun drill.

[amberleadavis]

Well, since you suggested the pencil comparison, here is Super 5 Frankfurt.

 

http://heismylawyer.com/2018-2/2018-05/slides/Frankfurt-Pencil.jpg

[Torrilin]

Yeah I kinda hate pencil for smearing, and the more an ink pushes my pencil buttons the less I like it. So grey can get iffy very easily. Kiri-same is usually ok. Wet pens are better.

[amberleadavis]

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of pencil colored inks.

[Sailor Kenshin]

For those who love a nice medium gray, here is one that may appeal to you:

 

I just got MV BB as a replacement ink, and I DO count it among my grays. I also have Smoke Noir; it is exactly as Errant Smudge says.

[aardvarkbark]

Old post resurrected, I realize, and I have no samples, but for the benefit of those who find this searching grey/grays --

 

Diamine Grey is my favorite grey. Not too dark, not too light, not too brown, not too blue. #2 pencil grey.

 

Noodler's Lexington is my favorite if-I-wanted-an-ink-that-looked-like-pencil-I-would-have-just-used-a-pencil grey.

 

If we were talking men's suits or trousers -- Diamine Grey would be my spring/summer, Lex would be my more charcoal fall/winter ones.

Edited March 31, 2019 by aardvarkbark

[uceroy]

I have only one grey inked at the moment: Lamy Agate. I love it!

When wet, it's a warm grey, but when it dries, it is a neutral grey with a tinge of green. My photo doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid

 

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd479/uceroy/2019-04-01%2019.52.48_zpsd8qfm1mk.jpg

 

I have Diamine Silver fox, but haven't inked a pen with it yet, idem dito for Sailor Chushu 🤐

[VivaTerlingua]

I love grey! Disregard the Callifolio inks at the bottom... they are much bluer than I remembered

 

 

Personal favorites are Iroshizuku Fuyu-syogun, Akkerman Hofvijver Gris (I bought a bottle of Diamine Grey this week since they appear to be the same ink), and Callifolio Gris de Payne. Birmingham has quite a few nice greys which are all very (VERY) subtly different, and I wish they would restock Jeff Goldbloom Independence Grey!

 

Although I really do prefer colder greys as illustrated above, I do need to round out my go-tos for this color. Montblanc Oyster Grey, Kobe #31, and Kiri-same are all very nice warm greys, but the perfect warm grey still eludes me.

Edited June 29, 2019 by VivaTerlingua

[DrDebG]

Stipula Calamo Fading Grey - one of my favorites. Just a nice, balanced grey - not too dark and doesn't lean any particular color direction. This ink behaves very well, is moderately lubricating, moderately wet, does not bleed through even cheaper papers, doesn't show through, but has little to now water resistance. Overall, this is a great ink.

 

Sorry for the poor photo - the ink is slightly darker than the image below.

[Enkida]

Caran D'Ache Infinite Grey is one of my favorites; I, too, got it at 50% off because without that discount, it's a bit over my desired ink price range. On the opposite end of the specturm, Diamine Graphite is also a beloved favorite grey and much more affordable. What I happen to snap of a picture of in direct sunlight was a third very lovely grey, colour-wise in a EF nib rapidly approaching a light black though: Sailor Jentle Chu-Shu. Wonderfully soft and cusiony to write with; definitely leaning cool as the CdA grey does, though less (no?) green undertones in it. The Graphite, by comparison, is much warmer and definitely greener.

 

[pgcauk]

I really like grey in a swatch, especially when there is an underlying hue (I have a "grey rainbow"!), but once I have it in a pen it tends to get underused. In practice, I'm just not sure I enjoy it as a writing color.

I do like me a good Taupe, so maybe I just like my greys warmed up a tad!

Anyway, I'm currently very happy with this one, Sailor Manyo Shirakashi. It doesn't look grey here, but when I'm writing with it I find that is my first impression, especially in the paler sections, with green, brown and blue coming in behind!
Ambiguous!

 

[chromantic]

On 6/28/2019 at 9:34 PM, DrDebG said:

Stipula Calamo Fading Grey - one of my favorites. Just a nice, balanced grey - not too dark and doesn't lean any particular color direction.

Sorry for the poor photo - the ink is slightly darker than the image below.

 

Wow, mine is waaaay darker than that, not Take-sumi dark but getting close. As you say, though, truly neutral, and even shows some shading, not as much as Saffron or Light Blue (or even Musk), but some. I notice that on cheap paper it does feather just a bit, more so than the other colors.

 

Like pouring over black reviews before settling on Take-sumi, I looked at a lot of grey reviews before I finally ordered this and couldn't be happier. It's a great match for my M405 Stresemann.

 

[inkstainedruth]

18 hours ago, pgcauk said:

I really like grey in a swatch, especially when there is an underlying hue (I have a "grey rainbow"!), but once I have it in a pen it tends to get underused. In practice, I'm just not sure I enjoy it as a writing color.

I do like me a good Taupe, so maybe I just like my greys warmed up a tad!

Anyway, I'm currently very happy with this one, Sailor Manyo Shirakashi. It doesn't look grey here, but when I'm writing with it I find that is my first impression, especially in the paler sections, with green, brown and blue coming in behind!
Ambiguous!

 

Interesting.  On my screen it looks more like a sepia brown ink than a grey one.  (The only one that really looks grey is Kira-same... (De Atramentis Cement looks greyin the writing sample but greenish grey in the swab; Fog looks blue grey or blue black; and the Birmingham ink like a murky green).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth