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I found the following history of Chelpark company in a website. Hope you will find it interesting *made small formatting changes to make it easier to read =========================================================== CHELPARK COMPANY PVT LTD. The Parker Pen Company, manufacturers of ink, was in partnership with a company in south India by the name of TTK. But Parker wanted to find a new partner in India, as they did not wish to continue their association with TTK. That's when Mr. Byford the main advisor to the Parker family approached the Chellaram family to become their partners for India. Mr. Byford and the Chellaram family had an old association, as the Chellaram family were large buyers of Parker products for trade in the west African region. The Chellaram family discussed with Mr. Byford that they were willing to buy the majority of shares of the Parker operation in India but on a condition. The condition being that the Chellaram family would not be involved in the day to day running and administration of the company. And only Parker would run the entire operations. Parker agreed to this condition laid down by the Chellaram family and they both officially joined hands for the India operations. After giving it some thought it was decided that "Quink" had to be given an Indian identity for it to appeal to the Indian consumer. This is when the brand name Chelpark came into being signifying the Chellaram and Parker. This change in name was backed by an advertising campaign in which showed the peeling off of the Parker sticker and a new sticker that read "Chelpark" on it appearing. This ad campaign was an instant hit and that was the birth of this famous company called Chelpark. The first official name of the company after the Chellaram family bought the majority shares was Chelpark Company Limited. Which was changed in 1985 to Chelpark Company Private Limited. And the head office was shifted from Madras (now known as Chennai), Tamilnadu to Bangalore, Karnataka. This long standing partnership of the two business families came to an end around 1968/69 due to the changes in the Indian finance ministry policies. It was not profitable for Parker to continue its operations in India and therefore decided to sell off their entire shareholdings. This is when Chelpark which was initially only known for its fountain pen ink started diversifying into other office stationary products and today it has become a household name in India with its wide product range.

Chelpark is a well known pen and ink manufacturer in India. They had 8 shades of ink in production, few of which have been discontinued. Below is a small handwritten review of Chelpark Crimson Violet. Saturation: Good Drytime: Less than 5 seconds but this can be due to the dry climate of Bangalore or the soaking power of copier paper Feathering: Negligible on even cheap paper Water resistance: Yes

Chelpark is one of the oldest brand of Ink in India. And the company is staring the closure at the moment and it is difficult to get stock of the inks easily now. My earlier Ink reviews are listed as below: BRIL ROYAL BLUE CAMLIN SCARLET RED Chelpark is currently manufactured by PG Stationary in Bangalore and as per local availability following inks can be found in market: Black Blue Black Washable Blue Turquoise Blue Crimson Violet (Old stock available only) Ruby Red Emerald Green (Not available anymore) Sapphire Blue (Not available anymore) The Chelpark Black Ink which i will be reviewing today comes at price of Rs. 20 for 60 ml glass bottle. However this bottle was gifted to me by my friend Prithwijit. Chelpark Black - 60 ml Glass Bottle Its a dye based ink and comes with so called Cleen-X technology which prevents clogging. Chelpark inks used to be most widely used ink in the India but lately the production is on and off and the supply is not regular. Even their are speculation that company is getting closed. This ink is actually not black at all rather the faded black and is very diluted. One can easily say it is more of a grey rather than black. INK SPLASH Chelpark Black - Ink Splash on Bilt Matrix paper - 70 gsm I am pretty much disappointed with the color of this ink. It is no where near black rather it is grey. If one is intending to use the ink as grey one might be pleased. But i am not. DROP ON PAPER NAPKIN Chelpark Black - Ink drop on paper napkin COLOR MATCH Chelpark Black - Color Match WRITING SAMPLES On Century Copy Paper Chelpark Black - Writing sample on Century Copy Paper - 70 gsm Chelpark Black - Writing sample on Century Copy Paper - 70 gsm Chelpark Black - Writing sample on Century Copy Paper - 70 gsm On BILT Matrix Paper Chelpark Black - Writing sample on BILT Matrix Paper - 70 gsm Chelpark Black - Writing sample on BILT Matrix Paper - 70 gsm Chelpark Black - Writing sample on BILT Matrix Paper - 70 gsm On Camlin Kokuyo School Notebook Chelpark Black - Writing sample on Camlin Kokuyo School Notebook Chelpark Black - Writing sample on Camlin Kokuyo School Notebook Chelpark Black - Writing sample on Camlin Kokuyo School Notebook The handwritten samples clearly shows the darkness of color. It is a light grey ink and perform substantially okay with wet medium nib like Jinhao X750.Also we can see a bit of shading on a very lighter side. INK SWABS Chelpark Black - on Camlin Kokuyo Notebook (from top to bottom , 1 Swab, 2 Swabs, & 3 Swabs) Chelpark Black - on BILT Matrix - 70 gsm (from top to bottom , 1 Swab, 2 Swabs, & 3 Swabs) Chelpark Black - on Century Copy Paper (from top to bottom , 1 Swab, 2 Swabs, & 3 Swabs) WATERPROOF TEST Chelpark Black - Waterproof Test It is clear that ink is not completely washed out. The paper directly was run through tap water for 60 seconds. BLOW UP WRITING SAMPLE Chelpark Black - Zoomed in Writing Sample on Century Copy Paper Chelpark Black - Zoomed in Writing Sample on BILT Matrix Paper For more details and review kindly visit my blog : LINK CONCLUSION: The ink is not what you expect from a black ink.Its very faded and not light in color more towards grey. I beleive Camlin Black is far better than Chelpark Black, I beleive this ink can be avoided totally if you are looking for Black Ink but at the same time if you are game for grey ink at cheap price this is for you.

When I purchased the two Chelpark Sona pens from Mr. Subramaniam of ASApens way back in Feb,2014, he requested me to give feedback about these pens. Well, I did inform him on call, but a written review never happened. My bad! Then on 28th Dec,2014, I came across a Lincoln, from Beena. Another Indian piston filler. After looking at the pen I knew I had to do a review of these two pens, much like a certain Mr Brown with his shootout series. Read on. First Impression: Both pens are packed similarly. I mean you can change the wrappings & the boxes and that wouldn't make any difference. The packaging is good enough, pens are housed into a hard plastic box which is inside a cardboard box. No problemo! Looks & Size: The two pens are almost identical twins, had it not been for the caps & the gold ring. A few more dissimilarities showed up when I dug deep. But I'll pull the rabbits one by one from the proverbial hat. I Compared the pens with a Lamy Safari, so you'll get a rough Idea about the size. I dont own a scale so can't tell you how it weighs. But they are made of plastic, and weigh roughly similar to a NoNonsense (with a piston converter). My guess may be off by a few milligrams. Can't help! They are easy to hold and write. I personally prefer pens with a bit more girth, but I can adjust. Good enough in my books. Nib: Yes, the rumors are true. Both pens sport a screw in nib-feed assembly. I don't own an Estie (Do you have one to pass on?) so I can't tell you if the assembly are interchangeable. But look at the pictures below. It's possible to make a frankenpen out of them (and NOT two!). The nib on the Lincoln is a shade thicker than the Sona and this is the first time I am seeing an Indian medium nib in that Lincoln. I don't have enough competency to tell you, but I don't think there are more Indian pens with M nibs. Perhaps Hari317 can shed a bit more light. Both nibs are smooth with a bit of pleasant feedback. I did not do the figure 8s on buffs before scrawling a few lines, but maybe I shall with the Beena. Just my preference. Price: The Chelpark Sona used to cost 110 INR (<2 US$ current) in July 1996. The Lincoln's price was (is) 180 INR (<3 US$) when packed in June 2013. I think even at the price of 245 INR (<4 US$) (ASA), Sona is a cheap and wonderful pen. I can not say the same about few Walities that costs around the same. But they are a different category. The Lincoln is also a steal. Thumbs up to both. Personal Thoughts: I'd recommend this piston fillers to anyone. Not too long ago, I saw a few old German Piston Fillers (School Pens) up in the PIF section. I can't remember the name, but I think these pens can give hard competition to them. Food for thought Mr. Brown # Disclaimer 1 : Not affiliated woth Chelpark/Beena. # Disclaimer 2 : My post is not intended to hurt anyone. # Disclaimer 3 : Mods, I was unsure if to post this in India & Subcontinent or here. Please move if need be. Your constructive criticism is always welcome.