Scarlet - Toucan

[visvamitra]

Toucan fountain pen ink is Australian made fountain pen ink that comes in 14 colours that can be mixed with each other to make your own custom coloured inks. The inks are formulated from water soluble dyes with no harmful additives and pH is supposed to be neutral (7). At the moment the inks are offered in glass 30 ml bottles.

These bottles are really nice and fun. They look quite small, I would say it's the smallest 30 ml bottle I've used. I don't think they're particularly practical, especially for those who use mainly big-nibbed piston-fillers. With C/C pens you can always use syringe and fill cartridge/converter with it. With piston - fillers it's more complicated and some nibs will be just too big for this jar.

These inks are made by Tintex. The full line consists of fifteen colors (that, interestingly are described as Technical drawing Inks on Tintex website and marked as such on labels):

1. Aqua
   
2. Black
   
3. Blue
   
4. Bright Green
   
5. Crimson
   
6. Gold
   
7. Magenta
   
8. Orange
   
9. Primrose
   
10. Royal Blue
    
11. Scarlet
    
12. Sienna
    
13. Turquoise
    
14. Umber
    
15. Violet
    

Scarlet is really nice red ink. Wetness is more than decent and the ink is saturated enough for me. No feathering or bleedthrough observed. I rather like this one.

Ink splash

Software ID

Color range

Tomoe River, Kaweco Classic Sport, broad nib

Leuchtturm1917, Kaweco AL Sport, broad nib

Rhodia, Wahl-Eversharp Doric

[Barkingpig]

As always you give us a new ink & a honest assessment of it; thank you for showing an ink that is surely a nice alternative to the many more expensive & well known examples of red ink. I will always wonder about MB Winter Glow, which has received so many high praises; in a current offering on Ebay @ $75 a bottle, it is nice to see one that is obtainable for many users.

[chromantic]

Wow, that's a really nice red, vis, deep red color with out any pink. I may have to try this one.

[Jamerelbe]

In my experience you need a wettish pen / nib combination to get the best 'performance' out of these inks: in the TWSBI Diamond Mini I had inked up with Scarlet recently, it was a little more 'washed out'. In the right kind of pen, though... it's a vibrant "tomato red", that verges just a little towards orange.

[senzen]

Great review, stunning red ink.

[lgsoltek]

I love what I see here! Now where to get some in Europe...

[visvamitra]

La Couronne - I got it there.

[praxim]

So that is what they did with the spare little Vegemite jars.

[praxim]

That is quite a red. Perhaps Tintex/Toucan is where I could next look for inks, or venture into playing with mixes. As a child, any effort I made in that direction produced brown. Aided by software, I may do better now.

[lgsoltek]

La Couronne - I got it there.

 

Right... Thanks Vis. They go by the name Tintex in La Couronne.

[Jamerelbe]

That is quite a red. Perhaps Tintex/Toucan is where I could next look for inks, or venture into playing with mixes. As a child, any effort I made in that direction produced brown. Aided by software, I may do better now.

 

@Praxim, they're currently available in Australia directly from the Tintex website, or from JustWrite pens (www.justwrite.com.au). Shipping from the latter is cheaper - and the price per 30 ml ink bottle is similar ($5.45 vs $5.25), if you buy 2 or more. Of course, if you want to buy the stuff in 200ml or 2L bottles, you'll have to order direct from the manufacturer!

[praxim]

Thanks, Jamerelbe. I recall now seeing them when I was on their old site several months ago. I think I bought their useful little pen tuning kit -- sizes of brass shim, rubber grip pads, micromesh in a little card case. Given I bought some Oster inks rather than Blackstone, I had not been back since then. Also, back then I was far less likely to imagine experimenting with my own inks. Who knows, it may prove cheaper than buying pens.

[Uncial]

I don't know how you did it but you got a much deeper colour out of it than I did. I loathed this ink with a passion when I tried it. I think my very strong negative reaction to it was because it reminded me so much of the ink out of bland red Bic's and overly zealous school teachers. It probably needs a broad, wet nib to bring some interest to it; in a fine nib it's plain awful.

[visvamitra]

Yes, it may be the nib - so far I used it only in broad one (but that's the size I use 95% of the time).