10. Diamine

Diamine is a tried-and-true brand with a huge range of colors and multiple lines: the standard line, the 150th anniversary collection and the new Inkvent collections. The prices for each of the collections are so reasonable that I think the inks are often overlooked — and sometimes overwhelming. Diamine has often worked with fans like FPN and Reddit to create custom limited edition inks too. The most recent Celadon Cat was a Reddit fans collab.

The standard line of inks are available in 30ml (about $8 each) and epic 80ml bottles (about $17 each). The 150th anniversary line come in 40ml pie-wedge shaped bottles and sells for about $18 per bottle. Many colors can even be purchased in standard international cartridges (18 cartridges for approx.$9) .

If you’re just looking into Diamine inks and haven’t fallen down the rabbit hole of the Inkvent inks yet, one of the most popular colors is Red Dragon, a deep red with a bit of gold sheen. Ancient Copper is also a popular choice.

9. Pen BBS

Pen BBS is a Chinese online fountain pen community much like FPN in the West. They started creating their own inks and pens pre-2016 (thats the earliest date I have on a bottle of ink) and has continued to produce new colors ever since then. Originally, Pen BBS inks came in massive 60ml faceted bottles with engraved logo caps. As new series have been released the bottles have changed size and shape but the quality and wide range of color options have continued. When the shimmer inks trend first took off, Pen BBS lead the way with the finest shimmer particles and remains one of my favorite options for shimmer inks. June Pearl No. 226 is a delightful pale purple with silver shimmer. If you can find a bottle, I highly recommend it.

Lily of the Valley No. 507 is a great option as well, its a watery green with just a hint of blue. Its another one to keep a look out for. Vanness is clearing out the Pen BBS inks so what’s left is marked down considerably. Get a bottle while you can!

8. Pelikan Edelstein

Pelikan 4001 is a classic ink but when Pelikan introduced the jewel-inspired Edelstein line, they really helped to launch a new era of fountain pen ink fans. As a result of being one of the earliest to create new inks in a wider range of colors, Pelikan Edelstein is often overlooked until they announce their “ink of the year”. The 2023 color is Rose Quartz. Each bottle is 50ml for about $28 per bottle. It’s not the most affordable ink in this list but its a good ink in a beautiful, desk-worthy bottle.

One of my favorite Edelstein colors is Jade, a bluish green. It’s a very pretty, unusual shade. But if you are purchasing your first Edelstein ink, Smoky Quartz is also a great option.

7. Callifolio

Callifolio is an ink made by a French art supplies company.  Each of their ink colors come in a 40ml pie-shaped bottle (just like the Diamine 150th Annivesary inks for about $13 per bottle) or a 50ml refill pouch for about $10.25USD. The palette of colors (or should  say “colouers”) is truly sophisticated and refined.  Inti and Heure Doree (Golden Hour) were early alternatives to the coveted but hard to get KWZ Honey for a short time but now I think that the Callifolio options are a better option for those golden-y yellows without the controversial fragrance of the KWZ inks. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the way KWZ Honey smells but I think I might be in the minority.

If you’re looking for a gateway color from Callifolio, I recommend Gris de Payne (Payne’s Grey), a smoky steely blue-grey color. The previously mentioned Inti and Heure Doree are also solid first-time Callifolio options.

6. Papier Plume

Papier Plume is a small New Orleans pen shop that makes their own inks. They have made many standard colors as well as New Orleans-themed colors and many, many special editions. Their standard 30ml bottles sell for $8 to $10 per bottle.

Get in touch with your inner Nawlins with one of the New Orleans collection colors like one of my favorites, Sazerac, a deep orange that makes me thirsty just looking at the swatch.

5. De Atramentis

DeAtramentis offers over 475 (actually 492 inks according to Vanness Pen Shop) different ink colors including the most insane array of scented inks. If you’ve ever participated in one of the Vanness open house events during the Arkansas Pen Show, you might have been forced to endure one of our “guess the ink stink” games and been forced to sniff Leather, Motorbike, Cannabis, or help us all, Horse. No joke.

They have lovely floral scents as well. And document inks, artists inks, shimmer inks, . But the array of colors is why I stick with DeAtramentis (40ml bottles for about $14) after all these years. My favorite ink from my earliest days of fountain pens in Pigeon Blue but the Deepwater Obsession Black Edition series is a great collection of dark colors. I especially like Black-Red.

4. Kaweco

While the Kaweco ink line is a little smaller than most with just 10 colors, it’s a classic assortment. Previously, the inks came in the 30ml bottles shown above but now the inks ship is square shaped jam jars. These 50ml bottles sell for $11 per bottle.

The Summer Purple, Smokey Grey and Paradise Blue are my favorite shades in the line so if you’re trying to decide where to start with Kaweco inks, I recommend one of these three.

3. Lamy

Lamy’s stock ink line (AKA T52, approx. $12.50 per bottle) comes in the most unique 50ml bottle. The exterior of the bottle includes a channel with an absorbent tape to wipe off your nibs after filling your pen. While there are not a ton of colors in the line, if you need a staple ink, having one of the colors available from Lamy is a great addition to your collection.

Lamy has their posher T53 “Crystal Ink” line but these come in smaller 30ml bottles for approx. $16 each. The colors are more sophisticated but the bottles don’t have the tissue tape.

Both the Crystal Inks and the standard line offered the Vibrant Pink color which is one of my favorites. It’s not super vibrant but provides a stunning pink color. The Vibrant Pink was a limited edition color for 2018 and can still be found if you look around for it. The Vibrant Pink contains some gold flecks which gives off a fabulous gold sheen. Rhodonite from the Crystal Ink line is the same color if you can’t find it in the T52 bottle.

2. Waterman

Waterman inks are the inks I most recommend to people looking for inks that are “safe for vintage pens”. But Waterman inks aren’t just for vintage pens. The line of 10 classic colors have some hidden features at a price that won’t shock your wallet. Several of the 10 colors have some sheening properties including Serenity Blue Audacious Red and Tender Purple. Each 50ml bottle costs about $12. If you’re looking to have a couple tried-and-true inks that can be used in any pen, you can’t go wrong with Waterman.

…and finally…  1. Monteverde

Monteverde is by far one of my favorite inks. It’s well-behaved and some of my favorite ink colors are from Monteverde. Its not an ink that people talk about in rhapsodic tones but I do. It’s inexpensive, there are some amazing colors. The box sets of 10 colors in 30ml bottles ($100 pr set)  are great gateways for new ink collectors too.

Monteverde inks are available in 30ml (MSRP $10)  and 90ml bottles (MSRP$20) so ints relatively inexpensive to purchase a small bottle and, if you really love an ink, 90ml for $20 (or less) is a deal. A couple years ago, Monteverde had a brief issue with a couple colors of ink having mold or scumming issue but those have been resolved. Unfortunately, it has given a lot of folks pause before purchasing. I spoke with a representative from the company earlier this year and he assured me the problems have been resolved and any bottles with issues were replaced with no questions — even when people insisted they had issues with bottles that were not actually from the affected batches. That said, there’s no reason to hesitate in purchasing ink from Monteverde.

Monteverde inks are also available in standard international packs of 12 for approx. $6 each, not all colors are available in cartridges but this gives some great color options for on-the-go needs.

If you’ve not tried a Monteverde ink before, I recommend either California Teal, a great green-teal with sheen or, my favorite ink, Birthday Cake.

California Teal was a favorite sheening ink a couple years back but as more ink makers have created sheening inks, people have forgotten about California Teal. I still think its one of the best sheeners. Its a deep green that has a hint of blue and a red sheen. It looks good, even in fine nibbed pens.

Birthday Cake is a deep, muted purple ink is the perfect balance between a unique, unusual color and a good everyday writer, even subdued enough for the office. Birthday Cake has been my go-to ink all year and I may have to invest in one of the 90ml bottles.

There are lots of other ink brands I could have mentioned here. Which under-appreciated inks would you include in a list like this?

The post Top 10 Under-Appreciated Ink Brands appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

I did some really questionable illustrations (no judgement, okay!) using the ink on different papers to see how the color behaved and no matter what I did, the ink was orange.

This is the collage illustration I did. I wasn’t going to share it because I thought it turned out really wonky. Bob convinced me to post it anyway. I combined the Lamy Bronze with my favorite black ink, Platinum Carbon Black.

My AL-Star Bronze isn’t really Bronze anymore but I inked it up anymore — in the spirit of consistency. It has an EF nib on it. That’s not really what you want to know about though, is it? It’s my EPIC urushi sparkly, shell pink Carolina Pen Co custom Lamy AL-Star. Whatever you do, don’t ask for one of your own. It’s one of four priceless urushi Lamy Safari/AL-Star fountain pens he has ever created and will probably ever create.

When compared with other orange inks, Lamy Bronze is very similar to Montblanc Lucky Orange, Monteverde Topaz, Pelikan Edelstein Mandarin, Sailor Jentle Kin-Mokusei, and Robert Oster Pen Addict Fire on Fire. It’s similar in price to Topaz but the other inks are more expensive so Lamy Bronze is a good alternative.

I did discover the perfect use for Lamy Bronze: painting a portrait of our newest rescue cat, Ollie. Thee drawing is based on his first adventures on the couch. He is all legs and very orange. I don’t like the water droplet under his chin though. Sigh, my drawing mojo is WAY off this week.

In the end, while I would like Lamy to be a little more experimental with its limited edition inks like the Petrol, this specific color is a nice addition to the Lamy line-up.

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 18 with 7mm guide sheet, Artezea Watercolor Sketchbook A5, Pack of 2 (No Longer Available), Stillman & Birn Softcover 5.5 x 8.5″ Epsilon Sketchbook ($17.99)
• Pens: Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib Holder – Model 40 ($8.25) with Zebra G Chrome nib ($13.50 per 10-pack)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Schraff Fineline 3000 #3 ($34.50 <– my most extravagant brush but seriously, how much have you paid for a pen?)
• Ink:  Lamy Bronze ($12 for 50ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Goldspot Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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When I first heard about Lamy’s new Crystal ink line I was excited because, hey, new ink! Even when the Lamy showed the colors of the ink line in their advertising, I remained excited.  But when I started to see swabs of the colors, my enthusiasm started to wane since the colors seemed to have issues: one was a repeat of a special edition (Rhodonite), another missed the purple mark (Azurite) or colors that are very close to other brands (Amazonite). However, there have also been winning colors in the line (Agate) that are quite original.  I would place Lamy Crystal Obsidian ($14 for 30mL at Vanness) in the latter category.

The band at the bottom of the cap blends in with the black ink of the bottle, but I appreciate the detail. The is packaged securely within the box and should have no trouble with broken bottles during shipping.

I love the look of the bottle and they store nicely next to one another, but the bottle itself is not particularly shaped well for filling a pen. If you are filling a converter, the shallow bottle is quite nice.  Filling directly into the pen, whether it is a converter pen or a piston filler, the bottle presents a challenge.

Lamy Crystal Obsidian is a lovely ink that gets the deep black from the blue section of the spectrum.  However, during normal writing, there was no indication of the blue undertones.  Obsidian is a deep, true black.

The dry time is longer than I usually see with Lamy inks, taking about 30 seconds to dry.  You can see where I became impatient above! 

The only time I experienced any indication of possible bleed-through was when I dropped water on a heavy patch of the ink.  Although some of the ink did wipe away, this was excess dye.  Lamy Crystal Obsidian should be quite readable even after a liquid dunk.

Obsidian is a semi-precious volcanic glass that can hold an incredibly sharp edge.  There is no sheen with Obsidian, although the edge could be said to be present in the crisp writing – in other words, no feathering.

I found Lamy Crystal Obsidian to be a delightfully black ink that needed to be a part of my obsession collection. True black inks are hard to come across, especially one that is easy to clean out of a pen.

My favorite black has been Sailor Kiwa-guro even though it can be difficult to fully clean out of a pen.  Since it is pigmented, it is water-resistant but needs extra attention while cleaning. Kiwa-guro also has a bit of a sheen which keeps it from looking truly black in some lighting.  I’ve also had the same issue below with Platinum Carbon Black – some lighting makes the black look faded (although it doesn’t appear so in person). Lamy Crystal Obsidian, however, seems to absorb any light thrown it’s way.

I highly recommend Obsidian as a valuable addition to your ink line.  I have kept a pen inked with it since purchasing my bottle – I always seem to find a need for black ink throughout my day. Plus, how hard can it be to use up the smaller 30mL bottle!

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Today we continue down the path of Lamy Crystal inks.  I picked up two of these cute bottles at the Dromgoole’s table in Atlanta during the Atlanta pen show; Lamy Azurite and Lamy Agate ($16 each for 30mL).

I have noticed a trend across many ink brands towards more well made but smaller bottles. I am not sure yet if I like this trend, especially for inks that I love. However, the less ink in the bottle means it is easier to achieve an empty ink bottle; this also means less guilt about collecting multiple colors.

I love the detail Lamy put into these bottles including the band at the bottom of the bottle which matches the ink color.  On the Agate bottle, this is hard to notice since it is also the color of the metal cap.  But it is there!

In testing Lamy Crystal Agate, I chose a TWSBI Eco-T with a 1.1 nib so I could see the shading at its best and I think this was a great choice.  Agate is an ink that loves to shade and the contrast between the two tones is beautiful.

In the writing sample below, Agate has medium flow (neither wet nor dry) and it dries at a good pace to keep up with my handwriting (approximately 20 seconds). I noticed that as I wrote, the ink was a warm gray as I wrote but changed to a cool grey with green undertones as it dried.  This can be a good trait as it is fun to watch, or it can be negative if you find yourself unable to stop watching ink dry!

There was no bleeding or feathering on my paper (I used a Birmingham Pen Company Tomoe River notebook).

When you look closely at the swatch, the gray ink shows a few of its component colors; blue and green. I have found that gray is usually a very complex color in ink – not just a washed out black.

This can be seen more clearly on Col-o-Ring cards along with the shading of Agate.  There even appears to be a touch of purple at the edges of the darkest areas.

Comparing Lamy Crystal Agate to other swatches in my collection showed that it is closest to Diamine Silver Fox (one of my favorite gray inks) although a few shades darker, more in line with Diamine Graphite in darkness level.  Neither Diamine ink shows the complexity that is present in Lamy Crystal Agate, however.  To compare the shading and the mixture of color, I threw ink a swatch of Papier Plume Bayou Nightfall.

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about Agate.  The bottle is beautiful and well designed containing a reasonable amount of ink; the price, although higher than standard Lamy inks, is still at the lower end of ink prices and the ink itself is lovely. I’m glad I picked up Agate and plan to add it to my standard rotation.

I think the Lamy Crystal inks have been an amazing addition to their standard line-up and I’m glad they’ve been added in permanently.  If you pick up a bottle, you may find yourself wanting to display it as well!

• Papers: Birmingham Pen Company A5 Slim Notebook ($8.99)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
• Ink: Lamy Crystal Agate (30ml for $16)

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me.  For more information, visit our About page.

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This last weekend I had the great privilege of attending the Atlanta pen show for the first time. I had a wonderful time (one that I will recount in another post, very soon), however, I was very impressed with one ink that I picked up during the show.  The ink is Lamy Crystal Azurite. I hadn’t been able to find a bottle at most retailers, but I did come across this ink on the Dromgoole’s table ($16.00 at Dromgoole’s store). One of the many benefits of attending a pen show!

Lamy’s new line, the Crystal inks, are quite a bit of fun.  Even though the line has taken the color names from heavily used semi-precious stones as so many other manufacturers have done previously, I enjoy the names much more than the usual Lamy labels.  Blue-Black, Red, Green… This was a big step for them and I am happy with it.

The packaging for the ink is wonderful and quite secure; plenty of high-density foam and cardboard to hold the bottle in place. The glass bottle and metal lid are beautiful and a pleasant change from the larger bottles from Lamy, although they don’t have the detail of the blotting paper roll underneath.  However, the colored band at the base of the lid is nice – it also matches the color of the ink closely.

I wasn’t able to wait until I arrived back home; I swatched Azurite after the show on Sunday night, excited to see my newest purple ink. As the ink dried on the Col-o-ring card, I fell in love.  Look at the beautiful sheen!

One of the questions we always get with purple sheening inks is, how close is it to Lamy Dark Lilac? So here is the comparison shot:

There’s not really a close match here.  Dark Lilac is on one end of the purple spectrum, towards red.  Azurite is on the opposite end, as close to blue as possible without being shut out of purple completely. The word “Blurple” may apply here, but I would count this still solidly in the purple (or more accurately, violet) zone.

I pulled several color samples to show the color of the ink and the sheen quantity. In my opinion, Azurite is closest to Rohrer & Klingner Cassia, although slightly more saturated.

Although these two inks don’t have the same level of sheen, they are quite close in color to Azurite, so I included another shot with Bilberry and Charoite. Monteverde Charoite is a fairly close match to Azurite (and also from Monteverde’s gemstone collection).

I had no trouble with bleeding or feathering (the slight look of feathering here was actually because of pets getting too close) and the ink was of average flow, not too dry or too wet.

Azurite does seem to take a bit longer to dry, but only when used in large amounts such as my scribbling or when I pool the ink.

During ordinary writing, the dry time clocked in around 15 seconds.  But don’t let your cat walk across your writing when trying to show the beautiful sheen! Honestly, my cat doesn’t do well with purple ink.  Her paws look much nicer with turquoise.

I love the new Lamy Crystal Azurite.  I know that many retailers are out of this color at the moment, but the good news is that the Crystal inks are part of Lamy’s permanent line.  So just be patient – it will be available everywhere very soon! If you would like to purchase this from Dromgooles, you may need to contact the store.  The option doesn’t yet seem to be available on their website. Don’t worry – they are all wonderful people.

• Papers: Birmingham Pen Company A5 Slim Notebook ($8.99)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
• Ink: Lamy Crystal Azurite (30ml for $16)

Disclaimer: All items in this review were purchased by me.  For more information, visit our About page.

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Kindness is a lovely bright pink ink, with a green sheen in heavy applications.  It is darker than bubblegum, but lighter than magenta.

While it appears a bit lighter on the Monteverde site, I found it to be a kind of cherry-leaning pink.

In darker applications I definitely got a green sheen, and in between so many lovely shades of pink.

Sadly, as with other Monteverde inks, this one isn’t very water resistant. It is, however, a nice ink, not too wet and not too dry.

In terms of color comparisons, it is probably closest to Lamy Vibrant Pink in its intensity, but also approaches Colorverse Lights on Ceres and Red Shift. It is quite different from KWZ Raspberry that is a much bluer pink.

This year I seem to have been taken over by a small girl’s love of pinks and purples, and I’m definitely going to load this up in a pink pen and enjoy it!

• Paper: Crossfield Journal ($24.00) and Maruman Mnemosyne N182A Inspiration Notebook A5 ($10.50)
• Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80).
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
• Ink: Monteverde Emotions Kindness ($8.00 for 30 mL)

Laura is a tech editor, podcaster, knitter, spinner and recent pen addict. You can learn more about her knitting and tea adventures on her website, The Corner of Knit & Tea and can find her on Instagram as Fluffykira.

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