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Kala inks are based in Taiwan and make mostly pigment inks, the Gemstone (variations on grey), Abstraction (variations on Khaki, Grey and Purple) and Tribute to Neon (highlighter), They have also 3 series of dye-based inks, as of now (2023). This is my first pigment ink from this brand. According to https://geology.com/minerals/scapolite.shtml "Scapolite is a name used for a group of aluminosilicate minerals that includes meionite, marialite, and silvialite" No comment Now about the ink. Chroma: Kala Scapolite belongs to the Gemstone series. It is a dark green, grey. With finer nibs it’s almost black. It needs a drier, wider nib, in order to enjoy the green. It reminds me of Noodler’s Zhivago or dark El Lawrence. Comparaison: Ink is very wet, to the point I can easily write/sketch in reverse with a European fine nib. I am not a fan of pale/ pencil greys or grey blacks. Initially I thought, I should have gone with a paler green, grey, yet I’ve been refilling my Lamy Safari, constantly with it. I really like writing and sketching with it. Writing samples: Rhodia TR 68 gr Photo of the scan above: Marumann Midori Cheap Paper (Front) Cheap paper (back) This ink is water resistant but not 100% waterproof. Rubbing or washing it will spread the green dye, which makes it perfect for washes. A simple wash on Canson Water colour paper: A sketch I did for inktober (shadows) - Note I used a wet brush to float the green dye about. (my apologies to Georges de La Tour) I had to use a pen cleaner for the Safari. Note this was after the half a day of soaking in water.... Ironically the Pilot didn't need that much cleaning... · Pens used: Lamy Safari (Fine/ Medium /Broad) /Pilot Kakuno (M), Kanwrite Ultraflex /TWSBI Go Stub, · Shading: Only wide a fude nib. · Ghosting: Yes On cheap paper · Bleed through: Yes, with absorbent papers. · Flow Rate: Very wet · Lubrication: Great. I enjoyed reverse writing with a Japanese M · Nib Dry-out: Not noticed. · Start-up: No problem. · Saturation: Dark. · Shading Potential: Only with a fude nib…needs a dry pen · Sheen: Faint · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not noticed · Nib Creep / “Crud”: No · Staining (pen): No · Clogging: No. · Cleaning: Lamy Safari needed a pen cleaner. · Water resistance: See for yourself · Availability: 30 ml bottles Comments appreciated but not obligatory

Blackstone Barrister Black is a new ink from Australian Vendor Justwrite It is a nano-carbon pigmented black that, like others of its class, is permanent, solvent-resistant/proof, and very well behaved. When I first got the ink for testing, it was labelled under it's pre-release name of Black 11.40, but having been released it is now called Barrister Black. On even poorer quality paper (old stock Reflex) there was no bleeding or feathering, so this is a very well behaved ink. As you can see, it is a deep, solid black, less matt and more glossy than the normal nano-carbon ink like Sailor Kiwaguro. On paper it looks more like Noodler's Heart of Darkness. I was able to test it by soaking samples in various household solvents, as below. So, for those of us in Australia who find that Sailor Kiwaguro or Noodler's Black/HOD are too expensive, or for those who want a carbon black ink that has an almost glossy look, this is a good alternative.

Afternoon everyone. Lockdown and terrible sleep patterns have me at a minor stage of madness, so at 5 this morning while I was considering grabbing the air rifle & silencing some of the birds that had apparently gotten hold of megaphones to sing their dawn chorus outside my window... I decided instead to do a very unscientific test (see also: dirty) on my all time (so far) favourite ink for practicality, Sailor Sei-Boku - Pigment Blue/Black. The test was carried out as per the description on the index card, what I didn't have room to fit however, is that the index cards are cheap (more like thick paper than index cards, probably 140-160GSM and fairly porous), the degreaser in use was 151's "Elbow Grease" and the nib used to write all text on the index card was a Bock fine. I think I am most surprised by how little effect pen flush (Monteverde brand) had on it! The only thing that really did anything was the degreaser. As expected, water did absolutely nothing. Rear side confirms it, the degreaser had the most effect while actual pen flush only managed a 'flesh wound'. Until Sailor Sei-Boku starts dissolving my pens (unlikely, since it isn't an iron gall ink) I don't think I need to quest for a tougher, more well behaved ink. So far, on my journey to find a "bulletproof" ink I have tried offerings from Noodlers (massively ill-behaved, over saturated, too wet 90% of the time regardless of colour, but some are definitely worse than others! Looking at you Sun Never Sets!), KWZ (extremely well behaved & beautiful colours, but not really truly "bulletproof", 'just' iron gall) and De Atramentis (the black behaves very well, everything else I've tried in the "Document" line has had properties very similar to Noodlers). Sailor Sei-Boku (haven't tried the other two offerings yet) is by far the best (IMO). Not only is it nigh on indestructible on paper once dried, but it also has properties, yes, properties! It shades extremely nicely and even, on the right paper, has a hint of red sheen to it. Beautiful and practical, just like me! Okay, well...maybe not. On top of all that? It tames the most cheap, nasty, course paper I have (Poundland/dollar store notebooks, grey recycled toilet paper...you know the sort!), with no bleed or feather! Disclaimers - Apologies for less-than-stellar picture quality, taken with my ageing smartphone, any perceived feathering is due to that, to the naked eye I can see none.

Souboku (蒼墨) is Sailor's new addition this year to its line of pigment inks for fountain pens, after the old stalwarts kiwaguro (極黑) and seiboku (青墨). Since moving to the new, taller square bottles with the smaller footprint, Sailor has dropped the word ‘Nano’ and the hyphens from the names in this product line. Souboku certainly has significantly more black in it than seiboku. I find that it dries to a very pleasant, if sombre, blue-grey colour, but only if it hasn't reached saturation point. It produces shading in distinct steps, almost as if there is a threshold beyond which the ink will dry to a blue-black, and that isn't a particularly good feature in my books. This ink seems to really like to stay together in droplets or globs of itself. Maybe it has an unusually high surface tension? In the convertor, it does not cling to the walls at all, and if there is an air gap between two separated globs of this ink, it is quite difficult to get them to merge and drive out the air bubble. It flows slightly dry, although it has no problem lubricating the point of the nib against the paper surface. On the page, it takes a relatively long time to dry. There is no feathering, no bleed-through and no ghosting on any of the papers (Rhodia 80gsm notepad with perforated pages, Daiso word cards, and Daiso stone paper – all shown in the scan below) on which I've tried writing with the ink. Impressively, some writing on the stone paper stayed wet after 30 minutes, and when I blotted it with a piece of blotting paper (that is coiled around the base of a bottle of Lamy ink), it somehow resisted being all sucked up into its fibres; when I rubbed my finger on the writing afterwards, more ink came off and smeared the tag. That wasn't a matter of it getting wet from the moisture on my fingertips; the ink's water resistance is almost perfect. I put the page under a running tap for 30 seconds, and it did precisely nothing to the writing I wrote with this souboku ink – no discolouration or fading, and no running of colour whatsoever. Someone has mentioned in another thread that the colour is close to Pilot Iroshizuku shin-kai. Well, close, but shin-kai is bluer. I'd say shin-kai is between seiboku and souboku in colour (and flows wetter than both of those Sailor pigment inks). Pelikan 4001 blue-black is blacker (and drier) than souboku. I love the writing experience and the appearance of the output using Sailor souboku ink in my Pilot Metropolitan pen with an F nib. Sadly, I cannot say the same about using it in my Sailor 1911 Large with a Naginata Concord nib; this ink is a little dry for that. All the same, it will probably always have a place in one of my EDC pens. p.s. I soaked the right-hand half of the sheet of Rhodia paper in a cup of water for an hour, and that did precisely nothing to the writing in Sailor souboku ink; it looks the same as it was in the scan above.

Are pigmented inks or inks with particles (glitter), wetter or drier than dye based ink (like iroshizuku inks) ? and why so (scientifically) ?

Okay so I know this sounds strange (or normal for those who have been in the hobby for long enough), but I've received a lot of information regarding pigmented inks which have ended up being quite confusing. The main source of confusion is in its behaviour on paper. I've seen glowing reviews of inks such as Sailor nano inks, Montblanc Permanent Inks and Platinum Carbon ink, but then I've got some more confusing (not contradictory) information regarding the pigmented inks from Rohrer & Klingner regarding their behaviour on paper: bleeding and feathering (at least with flex)? little bleeding and feathering? There is also confusion coming from my own experience: Speedball India ink (don't worry, I used it with a dip pen, no fountain pens were used) spread everywhere, feathered, and bled quite a bit, even on high quality paper such as Clairfontaine, and even cartridge paper. I could only be *salvaged* when I went to dilute it, and only ended up behaving when I had made it a 6:1 water:ink solution, producing a very sad, light grey. Rohrer & Klingner Sepia Calligraphy ink ended up misbehaving too, though it was slightly better than the Speedball. May I please get some clarification on why this is?

Well this may be the most boring ink review you've ever seen. Sailor Kiwa-guro is a permanent black ink based on nano-pigment instead of a dye. I presume this means the pigment particles are much smaller than usual for pigments, but not so small to be a dye. There may be other factors that contribute to this ink being permanent, but it is not an iron-gall ink. The ink is totally waterproof, and if the pigment is a permanent black, then it will also be lightfast. An interesting FP ink it is not, in that it doesn't shade really, and it doesn't sheen. It's quite a flat black color. Even the ink droplet chroma is boring as I think I was also running out of the fill at the time and didn't get a full droplet(s). I have to admit I still like the look of a black ink on paper. This may not be the blackest of black inks, but it perfectly appears as black.

Has anyone used Platinum Carbon or another permanent micropigment ink in a Parker 51, and what were the results? How insane is this idea? I am concerned about particles clogging the finely finned collector.

I have found some lovely pigmented ink colors. The problem is they clog my pens rather badly. Are there any relatively inexpensive pens that are resistant to such clogging and/or work well with highly pigmented inks? Thanks!

I recently purchased a few bottles of Sailor's Kiwa-Guro Nano Carbon Ink and absolutely love the stuff in my fountain pens. Even the smell is awesome. I'm curious though if there's a downside to using an ink like this for dip pens? How well does this ink work relative to the Iron Gall and Oak Gall inks that so many calligraphers use with their dip pens? Anyone? http://www.scriptorius.net/sailor_black.jpg

A friend just shared this short video with me about the rare pigment collection at Harvard. Perhaps you will enjoy it? Makes me want to go on a field trip now. Best, AD

Sailor's pigmented inks, Kiwa-Guro (black) and Sei-Boku (blue-black), are waterproof and have a reputation for good characteristics. But, until now, have only been available in those two effective but unexciting colors. Taizo Okagaki (Ebay seller Engeika) has just started advertising for pre-orders of new Sailor Storia pigmented inks on his engeika-dot-com website (No affiliation). Eight colors: Fire Red, Dancer Pink, Night Blue, Magic Purple, Ballon Green, Clown Yellow Green, Spotlight Yellow, Lion Light Brown. Not inexpensive at MSRP of $18 for a 30ml bottle plus shipping. It looks like ink-mixers may now have a complete CMYK palate in pigmented inks. I don't know what Sailor officially says about mixing their inks. Poster/picture from Taizo's site: http://www.engeika.com/data/engeika/product/20150224_8dfa51.jpg

Heads Up... Super 5 Inks are now on Massdrop !!!... If you ever wanted to try them... this is your chance.. they are approx $20each (with shipping)... it can go down to approx $18each with shipping. https://www.massdrop.com/buy/super5-waterproof-ink?referer=X9GDXR&mode=guest_open&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Writing%20A%20Product%20Announcement%202015-08-27&utm_term=Community%20-%20Writing%20-%20MAU%20%28Active%29 http://papierlabor.de/wp-content/uploads/files/2015/02/super5-ink-group-6-720x340.jpg

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inklings/slides/2013-Ink_616a.jpg http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inklings/slides/2013-Ink_616b.jpg