ink

The fine folks over at Fountain Pen Geeks held a giveaway, and I was the lucky winner. Included were a large Moleskine sketchbook, a vintage bottle of Skrip red ink (review forthcoming), and a vintage Esterbrook SJ pen. Dan Smith, one of the administrators of the Fountain Pen Geeks, even included a lovely handwritten note of congratulations. As befits a true geek, he even noted the ink that he’d used to write it: Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo, which is a lovely greenish blue-black.

Rating: 4.5 April 28, 2010 Iroshizuku Momiji is currently my favorite ink of all time. I’m a big fan of red ink – though most people consider it too hard to read on an extended basis, I’ve never had an issue with most of them – and Momiji is currently at the top of my list. It is a deep red ink that falls on the bluish side of the spectrum.

Rating: 5.0 April 10, 2010 Iroshizuku Yama-budo (wild mountain grapes) is a vibrant purple ink the color of fresh grape juice that’s been spilled across a glazed, porcelain countertop. It is brighter and juicier than J. Herbin Poussiere de Lune, which, itself, can be favorably compared to a red wine stain. Like many other Iroshizuku inks, it is quite highly saturated – to the point that it tends to temporarily stain the ebonite feed on fountain pens.

Rating: 4.0 March 28, 2010 Noodler’s Navajo Turquoise is a beautiful, medium-tone blue with a hint of green – very close to cyan, but just a bit darker. It is highly saturated, and I recommend shaking the bottle before using to make sure that the dye has not settled out. It exhibits a nice degree of shading in wide nibs, but is fairly consistent in fine nibs. While this ink is pretty on white paper, its true beauty comes out on cream-colored paper, where its green tones come to the surface – creating a beautiful jewel-like color.

Rating: 4.0 March 18, 2010 Iroshizuku Kon-peki is a beautiful, azure blue ink that captures the tempestuous nature of the wild ocean. It is a highly saturated ink that exhibits a surprising level of shading – representing the light blue of the ocean surface and the deep blue of the bottom of the sea. Because it is highly saturated, it creates a bold line on both white and off-white paper.

Rating: 3.5 March 13, 2010 J. Herbin Vert Empire is a forest green ink with grey undertones. To me, it is invocative of a pine forest in the hazy light of morning. It is a wet ink with low saturation, so it exhibits a tremendous tonal range, depending on the pen and paper used. In most of my pens it displays significant shading, whereas in a wet writer it lays down a very dark line.

Rating: 3.0 March 07, 2010 Noodler’s (Bulletproof) Black is the first bottled ink that I added to my ink collection. I had heard many good things about the ink, and while many of those things are true, there is one major issue that is difficult to overcome. First, Noodler’s Black is as black as night. Pitch black. When poets refer to an inky blackness, this is the ink that they have in mind.

Rating: 3.5 March 06, 2010 Lamy Blue was the first fountain pen ink I used, as it came in the cartridge included with my very first fountain pen – a Lamy Safari. I liked it enough that I purchased a bottle and it remains in my regular rotation. The ink itself is a prototypical blue with moderate shading and saturation. It’s the kind of blue most people would think of when thinking of a blue ballpoint pen.

Rating: 5.0 March 03, 2010 J. Herbin Poussière de Lune (Moon dust) is a deep violet color that reminds me of the shadow cast by a lunar eclipse. It exhibits moderate shading in wider nibs, but is remarkably consistent in a fine nib. It is a moderately saturated ink – especially compared to other J. Herbin inks I own, which tend toward low saturation – so its overall color is affected by the paper it is used with.

Rating: 3.5 March 01, 2010 Iroshizuku Kiri-same (Misty Dark Gray) by Pilot is the essence of storm clouds in a bottle. It runs the gamut from light to dark gray, as it exhibits significant shading in wider nibs. In fine nibs, it tends to run very light – almost too light for normal use. Like other Iroshizuku inks, it flows well, and I have had no issues using it across a variety of pens and nibs.