Tintenlabor Alpstein

[yazeh]

Tintenlabor - Alpstein

 Ink Review # 200

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 🧾 Description

 

Tintenlabor is a Swiss ink company specializing in Iron Gall inks. What differentiates this ink from other brands is that you would know the iron content. 

 

The samples were sent to me by the Ink-Meister David. 

 

Alpstein is an ink for the iron gall weary. It has only 1 g/L of iron content, compared to the 3/4/5/6 g/L for other inks.  

 

It mimics the limestone peaks of Alpstein mountain range in northeastern Switzerland.

 

 

It has a dry flow, below average lubrication and it would benefit either from a wet pen or soft nib. Ink is pencil grey. It had difficulty to keep up with the wet ebonite feed from the Karas Customs with a very wet feed from FPnibs. But over time the flow adjusted. I used two barrel fulls of inks. 

 

If there’s oxidation, it’s faint. Ink is water resistant but not waterproof. 

 

It needs a right pen, paper to shine. Cleaning was easy, a few flushes and voilà.  

 

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 🧪 Chroma

 

 

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 ✍️ Writing Samples (scan)

Rhodia  / Iroful

 

 

 

Midori  /Tomoe River 68gsm

 

 

 

Hammermill 20lb  

 

 

 

 

 

 📸 Photo

Rhodia/ Iroful

 

 

 

Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm

 

 

 

Hammermill

 

 

 

 🔍 Comparison

 

 

 

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 💧 Water Test

 

 

 

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 🎨 Artwork

Punk 

Inktober yearlong challenge 2025, I interpreted punk in the sense of late 1940s and 50s. More specifically from The Wild One with Marlon Brando, and then added a modern twist to it with my cat & mouse theme (graffiti].  

Ink is Tintenlabor Alpstein

4 Artist Silver marker 

and Red Sharpie

 

 

 

Bus stop

Inspired by inverted ink bottle as a bench with my cat & mouse theme. 

There’s a nod to Montblanc 146 (bus line number) and Alpstein mountain range.

 

Tintenlabor Alpstein, Schokolade (Brown Black), Moodtape Grand African (Green) and FaberCastel blue Water colour crayon, Talens Mixed Media paper. 

 

 

 

Me & My Guy! 

A playful ink drawing inspired by the 1930s song “For Me and My Gal.” The title came after the drawing, flipping “gal” to “guy” for a lighter twist.

Note the gorgeous colour variations when applied liberally. 

 

Tintenlabor Alpstein, Talens Mixed Media notebook. 

 

 

 

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- Pens Used: Pilot Kakuno EF,  Kaweco (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.9) , Karas Vertex FPnibs full flex ebonite extra wet feed. 

- What I Liked: Doing ink washes. Chroma and sketching. 

- What I Did Not Like: dry flow and paleness.

- What Some Might Not Like: It’s a pale grey, not wet, not lubricated. 

- Writing Experience: Meh! I would say, it’s best on a Peter Pauper style paper. 

- Pros: Great ink for artist. And sketching. 

- Cons: dry flow. 

 

 🧷 Ink Characteristics

 

- Shading: Yes

- Ghosting: A bit o.n copy paper. 

- Bleed Through: As above.

- Flow Rate: Dry

- Lubrication: Below average but not scratchy. 

- Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. 

- Start-up: Ok

- Saturation:  Pale

- Sheen:  No. 

- Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line:  Did not notice.

- Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice.

- Staining (Pen): No. 

- Clogging: No.

- Cleaning: Easy

- Water Resistance: Good. 

 

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 🛒 Availability

 

- Available in 30/50 ml bottles.

https://tintenlabor.mycommerce.shop/products/alpstein

 

Note: Postal restrictions may affect shipping to certain countries, including the US.

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 💬 Closing

 

I can’t say I was wowed by this colour for writing, however, the artist in me was wowed with the gorgeous grey washes. This is great ink for monochromatic drawing. It’s also a great ink, for those who want to use Iron gall inks but are weary of the cleaning process. 

 

No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review.  

 

Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier.

 

 

 

[LizEF]

Thanks, @yazeh, for another great review.

 

That little tinge of color in the chroma is cool.  I say it's an old dude with his grey hair standing on end.

 

Oh, this actually looks quite nice for writing.  Prefer it on white paper, though. (Though the photo of Midori looks better than the scan, so who knows...)

 

Look at all those different shades of grey in your swatches!!   Whoa!

 

Love the sketches!  And they really show off the ink well.

 

PS: It looks like you put the Hammermill scan where you meant to put the Rhodia/Iroful photo.

[yazeh]

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Thanks, @yazeh, for another great review.

 

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

That little tinge of color in the chroma is cool. 

It's lovely.  

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

I say it's an old dude with his grey hair standing on end.

You mean like the filmmakers hairdo,  David Cronenberg & the departed David Lynch.  

 

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

 

Oh, this actually looks quite nice for writing.  Prefer it on white paper, though. (Though the photo of Midori looks better than the scan, so who knows...)

Midori is difficult to scan and more difficult to color correct.  

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Look at all those different shades of grey in your swatches!!   Whoa!

 

Yep, I'm in a grey phase, thanks to you know who.  

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Love the sketches!  And they really show off the ink well.

 

Thanks @LizEF. I take my time with some inks. The process is more layered and fulfilling.  

29 minutes ago, LizEF said:

PS: It looks like you put the Hammermill scan where you meant to put the Rhodia/Iroful photo.

Thanks! Corrected. 🙏

[LizEF]

38 minutes ago, yazeh said:

You mean like the filmmakers hairdo,  David Cronenberg & the departed David Lynch.  

Yes, but after sticking their fingers in outlets!

 

39 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Midori is difficult to scan and more difficult to color correct.  

Amen to that!

 

39 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Yep, I'm in a grey phase, thanks to you know who.  

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Yes, but after sticking their fingers in outlets!

They look more or less like that, without the electricity.  

[inkstainedruth]

@yazeh Interesting....  I would not have expected a grey ink to be an IG ink.  Not sure if I need this one or not, but it's definitely piqued my interest.

Thanks as usual for the comprehensive review and fun artwork.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sailor Kenshin]

Hmmmm.... chroma is more fish than dragon.

 

Gris Nuage and Kaweco Smoky, I've got those.  Plus other grays.  Alpstein seems a bit warmer, more brown, than Alpennebel.

 

Iron gall ink... apart from the one I made by accident, I believe I shall instead admire what @yazeh has done: the quotes and artworks, which are wonderful.  Thanks for the review!

[yazeh]

6 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

@yazeh Interesting....  I would not have expected a grey ink to be an IG ink.  

Same here. Most  "real/true" IG inks oxidize into variation of grey, charcoal and black, i.e., humid climates and of course depending amount of ink and paper. My 4 year old  Essri swatch is grey now. I wonder if in 100 years, it'll turn into brown, like sketches by Rembrandt (I believe) ?

6 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Not sure if I need this one or not, but it's definitely piqued my interest.

Your wallet is safe thx to the tariff confusion.

 

6 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Thanks as usual for the comprehensive review and fun artwork.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Thanks Ruth. Your comments and stories are much appreciated. You could write a book about them. 🙏🙏🙏

[yazeh]

5 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Hmmmm.... chroma is more fish than dragon.

🐟 

 

5 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Gris Nuage and Kaweco Smoky, I've got those.  Plus other grays.  Alpstein seems a bit warmer, more brown, than Alpennebel.

Yes, it is. Grey is an unusual "color". You.could have blue, green, yellows, purples hidden with it. This ink is perfect ink for your lovely miniatures.

5 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Iron gall ink... apart from the one I made by accident, I believe I shall instead admire what @yazeh has done: the quotes and artworks, which are wonderful.  Thanks for the review!

This is one of the easiest inks to clean.

 

[InesF]

Thank you, @yazeh, for reviewing this new version of the grey Tintenlabor IG ink, for citing European authors¹, for Bus Stop, Punk and for bringing cat and mouse to equal eyes height!  

It is only some hours now, but you make me feel back home again! 👍 

 

While most of the IG inks feel like low or not at all lubricated, they have nevertheless some charm. However, grey is not a preferred ink colour, I will stay with the Petrol IG 1g/L.

 

I will now have some extended reads ... so much happened in almost two months. 

 

 

 

^{1) I didn't expect such a serious statement from Giacometti (one of my favorite artists of Surrealism). I feel nicely surprised.}

[yazeh]

2 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @yazeh, for reviewing this new version of the grey Tintenlabor IG ink, for citing European authors¹, for Bus Stop, Punk and for bringing cat and mouse to equal eyes height!  

You're most welcome. I try to be varied and try to relate the quote to the ink's name or origin.

2 hours ago, InesF said:

It is only some hours now, but you make me feel back home again! 👍 

 

 

2 hours ago, InesF said:

While most of the IG inks feel like low or not at all lubricated, they have nevertheless some charm. However, grey is not a preferred ink colour, I will stay with the Petrol IG 1g/L.

 

2 hours ago, InesF said:

I will now have some extended reads ... so much happened in almost two months. 

So many things. It's been a busy two months.  

2 hours ago, InesF said:

^{1) I didn't expect such a serious statement from Giacometti (one of my favorite artists of Surrealism). I feel nicely surprised.}

Well, I can't be sure of the veracity of these quotes, as there are so many on the internet. Here is another one, by him: "In a burning building I would save a cat before a Rembrandt." ~ 

[Black16]

Thanks for the review! I feel like this ink could work quite well with my vintage Conway Stewart pen (CSI stub gold nib) but I do not use it frequently so it might be worth buying something that I'll be able to use in a few more pens. So far from what I've read about almost any of grayish inks it seems most of them are dry, am I correct? I'm also looking at Herbin's Gris Galet now, it seems deep and saturated.

[yazeh]

Just now, Black16 said:

Thanks for the review! I feel like this ink could work quite well with my vintage Conway Stewart pen (CSI stub gold nib) but I do not use it frequently so it might be worth buying something that I'll be able to use in a few more pens. So far from what I've read about almost any of grayish inks it seems most of them are dry, am I correct? I'm also looking at Herbin's Gris Galet now, it seems deep and saturated.

No not really. Diamine's Graphite is quite wet, so is Lexington Gray. Also dry inks are best suited for wet/ very wet pens.  

[Black16]

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

No not really. Diamine's Graphite is quite wet, so is Lexington Gray. Also dry inks are best suited for wet/ very wet pens.  

Okay so Noodler's seems to win again, I might just give up and go buy his Lexington Gray then

[InesF]

19 hours ago, yazeh said:

Well, I can't be sure of the veracity of these quotes, as there are so many on the internet. Here is another one, by him: "In a burning building I would save a cat before a Rembrandt." ~ 

Ahhh, that's much more Giacometti-like!   

[yazeh]

On 8/31/2025 at 7:41 AM, Black16 said:

Okay so Noodler's seems to win again, I might just give up and go buy his Lexington Gray then

I haven't reviewed it yet as a writing ink. I used it as a drawing ink. I liked it for it's fast dry times.  If you want I can attach a video review of 5 grey fountain pen inks for drawing. Though, these reviews focus on artistic, and not writing needs.

 

[yazeh]

5 hours ago, InesF said:

Ahhh, that's much more Giacometti-like!   

😺

[Black16]

On 9/1/2025 at 1:03 PM, yazeh said:

I haven't reviewed it yet as a writing ink. I used it as a drawing ink. I liked it for it's fast dry times.  If you want I can attach a video review of 5 grey fountain pen inks for drawing. Though, these reviews focus on artistic, and not writing needs.

 

Will be glad to see it! I've got Rome Burning finally and the dry time is amazing - almost instant.

[namrehsnoom]

Great review, and even greater drawings. Well done!

Looks like a fine ink for artwork. A pity it's so dry when writing. Being so low on iron gal content, this is one I might risk to try. The water resistance would make it a good ink for the workplace. And the dryness might be a plus when using it on the cheap copy paper you typically find at work. I'm tempted to give it a try. 

[yazeh]

 

3 hours ago, Black16 said:

Will be glad to see it! I've got Rome Burning finally and the dry time is amazing - almost instant.

I'll post a review. I'm a bit off Noodler's for now, because of non-ink reasons. Sad, as I have reviewed so many of his inks.  

On the other hand I recently posted a new Hosia Ink Studio review, which you might like.