De Atramentis: Archive Ink

May 10, 2013

In my quixotic quest for the perfect black ink I made it to testing the Archive Ink (Archivtinte) from De Atramentis. I couldn't see a review in the index so here are my notes.

The ink has a neutral dark colour and is intended as a cheaper alternative to their Document inks for daily use. (It is only about 16% cheaper so I don't know how much that will actually matter to buyers.) Unusually they do not actually elaborate on what, exactly, "archive" means for this ink, not even (as far as my rusty language skills can see) in three very long paragraphs on the German language version of the site, except that it has (with the Document ink) the highest light-fastness score of their inks.

What I like: Neutral dark colour. Waterproof.

What I don't like: Not smear-proof!? Maybe more feathering than the Blue-Black Document ink and about the same bleed-through.

Hope this is helpful.

June 23, 2013

That is helpful - thanks for the review!

June 30, 2013

Nice review. Have you tried it in any other nibs? Perhaps it doesn't bleed as badly in a nib that's smaller than the 1.1 you reviewed with?

July 1, 2013

Nice review. Have you tried it in any other nibs? Perhaps it doesn't bleed as badly in a nib that's smaller than the 1.1 you reviewed with?

No, I have only tried it in the 1.1 which is my standard nib size. I am sure a finer nib would help, but because of the smearing I would go with one of their document inks or a registrar's ink instead.

July 8, 2013

Looks like a nice charcoal inkwith great shading thanks for sharing

December 27, 2019

Hi!

I've been using this ink for several months now and I really like the way it flows and its general behaviour. But, lately, I've started to notice that the Jowo two-tone nib on the Italix has started to lose its golden finish. Has this happened to anyone else?