Grigio Fumo (Fading Grey) - Stipula

[visvamitra]

Stipula Pen Company originates from Florentine, Italy and was established in 1973. Stipula is a historic term used by the ancient Romans to indicate faithfulness to an obligation. Stipula’s has accepted the obligation to its customers to produce quality pens utilizing ancient themes, designs, techniques and traditions. It sounds nice but from my limited experience with their pens it seems they doesn't really deliver what they promise.

Happily Stipula pens come with a limited lifetime warranty so the buyers are covered in case the pen fails.

Additionally there are rumors that Stipula has some problems and may cease operations. I'm not sure if it's the case but it seems their products availablility on the market (especially european) is limited and only few retailers carry their pens and inks. If anyone has some news / insights about Stipula situation I would appreciate the insights so that this review provides sound informations.

Stipula offers a line of fourteen inks sold in nice glass 2.4 oz bottles. Interesting feature of the bottles is the fact they have light polyethylene seal pushed in the neck of the bottle, visible when you unscrew the cap. The seal (is it correcy english term?) is rather hard to remove without splashing some of ink onto desk, wall, closest entourage.

The colors are:

1. Azzurro (Light Blue)
   
2. Blu della Robbia (Blue)
   
3. Borgogna (Red)
   
4. Grigio Fumo (Fading Grey)
   
5. Grigio Lava (Dark Grey)
   
6. Nero (Black)
   
7. Nottorno Giannutri (Dark Blue)
   
8. Rose (Sweet pink)
   
9. Rosso Fiorentino (Florentine Red)
   
10. Terra di Siena (Brown)
    
11. Verde Muschiato (Musk Green)
    
12. Verde Risorgimento (Bright Green)
    
13. Violet (Violet)
    
14. Zafferano (Saffron)
    

A sample of Fading Grey (Grigio Fumo) was sent to me by Mmg112 - thank you a lot!

The color is rather nice. The ink is saturated enough to be used in all situations and will remain legible. Tfe flow is good and there's some plesant lubrication to it. It doesn't dry out if you leave the pen uncapped for, say, one minute.

I think it's nice grey ink. It won't become my grey no.1 (still searching) but I enjoyed trying it.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

Color range

Rhodia, Diplomat Depeche, broad nib

Leuchtturm 1917, Kaweco Classic Sport, broad nib

Copy paper, Jinhao 599

Water resistance

[Tas]

visvamitra this looks beautiful !

[lapis]

Could end up being one of my favourite greys....

 

Mike

[Tas]

Could end up being one of my favourite greys....

 

Mike

I have that feeling too. Sadly can't find it for anything less than £36 delivered to the UK

[julia239]

This looks very nice.

[rudyhou]

this looks like a great looking grey ink

[fabri00]

Great review as usual .....

The correct translation of the name is "smoke grey" more than fading grey.

[fountainpagan]

I have that feeling too. Sadly can't find it for anything less than £36 delivered to the UK

 

You should contact pensavings, a US vendor at EBay, and see if he can get you this colour. I have bought Musk Green from him. It costed £20, shipping costs included to France, when all the other sell it for £36.

[Tas]

 

You should contact pensavings, a US vendor at EBay, and see if he can get you this colour. I have bought Musk Green from him. It costed £20, shipping costs included to France, when all the other sell it for £36.

 

Thank you so much.

 

I've just contacted them.

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_fingers_crossed.jpg

[fountainpagan]

You are welcome, Tas.

[namrehsnoom]

Fabulous looking grey ! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Yeh hunt for a distributor is starting...anyone knowing a European distributor?

[Tas]

Oh dear

After much anticipation and a fairly hefty outlay to purchase this ink from across the pond, it arrived today . . .

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_stipula_calmo_faging_grey_grigio_fumo_swatch.jpg

 

visvamitra, hae you labelled this review correctly? Mine defo says Fading Grey (Grigio Fumo) but looks remarkably like your review of Dark Grey (Grigio Lava)

 

I like it in a Cacao de Brazil kind of way so there is a silver lining

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_cacao_de_brazil.jpg

* UPDATE - after playing around with this all afternoon . . . Yuk This has none of Cacao de Brazil's charm. It dries up all pinky and lifeless.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Tas

[lgsoltek]

Oh dear

 

After much anticipation and a fairly hefty outlay to purchase this ink from across the pond, it arrived today . . .

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_stipula_calmo_faging_grey_grigio_fumo_swatch.jpg

 

visvamitra, hae you labelled this review correctly? Mine defo says Fading Grey (Grigio Fumo) but looks remarkably like your review of Dark Grey (Grigio Lava)

 

I like it in a Cacao de Brazil kind of way so there is a silver lining

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_cacao_de_brazil.jpg

 

Hmm... You are right. Yours is a warm grey like in Vis' review of Grigio Lava, not the cold grey in this review.

 

However, yours looks quite similar to what penchalet reviewed on their website: https://www.penchalet.com/blog/stipula-fading-grey-ink-review/

 

And the Grigio Lava that penchalet reviewed is much darker and doesn't look like Vis' review at all: https://www.penchalet.com/blog/stipula-dark-gray-ink-grigio-lava-review/

 

So the question is: What is the ink that Vis reviewed here?

[Tas]

 

Hmm... You are right. Yours is a warm grey like in Vis' review of Grigio Lava, not the cold grey in this review.

 

However, yours looks quite similar to what penchalet reviewed on their website: https://www.penchalet.com/blog/stipula-fading-grey-ink-review/

 

And the Grigio Lava that penchalet reviewed is much darker and doesn't look like Vis' review at all: https://www.penchalet.com/blog/stipula-dark-gray-ink-grigio-lava-review/

 

So the question is: What is the ink that Vis reviewed here?

Well, that's stopped me in my tracks. I like the grey visvamitra shows here a lot and had serious thoughts of forking out and buying the "other" but that looks way too purple to me in the pen chalet's review you pointed out.

 

Looks like the search for perfect grey goes on.

(kind of wishes I'd bought Papier Plume's Oyster Grey instead )

 

* I can concur that removing the inner plastic sealing cap effectively sends ink in almost every direction

Edited April 29, 2017 by Tas

[lgsoltek]

Well, that's stopped me in my tracks. I like the grey visvamitra shows here a lot and had serious thoughts of forking out and buying the "other" but that looks way too purple to me in the pen chalet's review you pointed out.

 

Looks like the search for perfect grey goes on.

(kind of wishes I'd bought Papier Plume's Oyster Grey instead )

 

* I can concur that removing the inner plastic sealing cap effectively sends ink in almost every direction

 

"Warning: Do not remove inner sealing cap unless naked in bathtub."

[mmg122]

Oh dear

After much anticipation and a fairly hefty outlay to purchase this ink from across the pond, it arrived today . . .

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_stipula_calmo_faging_grey_grigio_fumo_swatch.jpg

 

visvamitra, hae you labelled this review correctly? Mine defo says Fading Grey (Grigio Fumo) but looks remarkably like your review of Dark Grey (Grigio Lava)

 

I like it in a Cacao de Brazil kind of way so there is a silver lining http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_cacao_de_brazil.jpg

* UPDATE - after playing around with this all afternoon . . . Yuk This has none of Cacao de Brazil's charm. It dries up all pinky and lifeless.

 

 

I rechecked both grey inks from Stipula and compared them to the inks reviewed by Vis from samples I sent him. Both Stipula grey ink samples were correctly labeled. Could Stipula have labeled the inks incorrectly? Sure...but doubtful.

 

Mary

[chromantic]

I just received this. Mine is the cool grey shown in vis' samples. Been leery of trying greys, thinking 'weak blacks', but this is definitely 'grey'.