Search the Community

This is not a review, nor anything that resembles it. These are only personal impressions, the result of the comparison between a series of orange inks that I have collected over the years. The excuse to put them (roughly) in comparison came from a Christmas gift from my daughters, who made me find a bottle of Hiroshizuku yu-yake under the tree, a beautiful gift and a wonderful surprise. Here is the comparison: Of the five orange inks, the two Montblanc are the most saturated, with a margin of advantage for the beautiful Mahatma Gandhi, who is also the lightest of the group. It is an ink that almost does not present any shading, not even with a wide pen like the one used in the script (italic 1.9 mm), but with an excellent flow. It is lively, very cheerful, closer to a "clementine" (Citrus x clementina) color than a true orange. When I open the bottle cap, along the glass lip of the bottle I can see a certain deposit of a bright orange powder. I'm not sure what it is, but it makes me think of a pigment in suspension in the ink. For this reason, I never leave any pen loaded with this ink. I use it, then I wash the pen and put it back. The bottle is the classic 50ml Montblanc and it is now really hard to find, if not at an unreasonable price (on eBay, bottles have been sold for over 120 dollars, ie 2.4 $/ml). Following is the Lamy Special Edition 2015 Copper Orange, launched a couple of years ago together with the beautiful Al-Star pen in aluminum of the same color. As the name well says, it is an ink closer to copper than orange, a sober, rather "dark" color, with beautiful shading even with a nib of average generosity (like the Italic 1.1 of the Lamy Al-Star Copper Orange, which I used in the sample). It has a good flow, but it is not excessively liquid. I had the Lamy Copper Orange loaded with this ink for almost a year, without any problem of deposits. Of the whole group, it is the only ink that was available only in cartridges of the type T10, 1.2 ml. The box of 5 is worth around 7.00 dollars (1.4 $/ml). Kaweco Sunrise Orange. It is a dark "orange", a few steps from an orangish hazelnut. It is an extremely matte ink, of an opacity that in a certain way resembles that of a tempera, almost without any shading. Of consistency slightly denser than that of the other inks tested, it behaves very well with nibs with abundant flow, a little less with the drier ones. Kaweco offers it in a very traditional 30 mm bottle, at about 12.00 dollars (0.4 $/ml). The "Chanel" of inks, Iroshizuku yu-yake ("sunset"). It is an ink with a medium-high flow, with excellent contrast on the paper and extraordinary shading, warm but not excessively saturated (a feature that I prefer in every type of ink) and sufficiently "dark" to be easily read on a page of text. Among other things, it will be my new ink for proofreading of our scientific journal. Pilot proposes it in a beautiful, sober, essential and practically perfect 50 ml bottle (it even has a small conical recess on the bottom of the bottle to insert the tip of the nib so that it does not slip while loading). On Ebay, it costs from 30.00 to 40.00 dollars, depending on the seller (0.6-0.8 $/ml). Montblanc Ink of Joy. As well as Mahatma Gandhi, Ink of Joy is also a vivid and clear orange (just a darker shade), with medium flow and good shading, also visible with a medium nib, and very saturated. It is, for my taste, a little light to be used for normal writing, and I usually reserve it for short notes or greeting cards, where it makes an excellent figure. It leaves a dense, intense orange powder on the edge of the bottle when I remove the cap, and I suppose it is a pigment originally suspended in the ink. Ink of Joy therefore enters my pens exclusively to the need. What I do not use it, I empty it again in the bottle and wash the pen. Fortunately, I was in Italy when this ink came out and I bought it in a Montblanc boutique for 18.00 dollars (0.6 $/ml). The last time I saw it, it was on eBay where a “lucky” buyer bought a used bottle for only 125 dollars (about 4,1 $/ml)! That's all. I'll go back to my pens and inks ...