Dollar Brand Ink - What's The Word?

[grainweevil]

Needless to say searching for "dollar" and "ink" gets me a whole heap of stuff that isn't what I'm looking for, so forgive me if I repeat a previous query.

 

Dollar, maker of pens, and it seems, inks, in, I understand, Pakistan. I picked up one of their calligraphy 717 pens a while ago and was impressed, so wondered about their pen fuel. Seem to offer 60ml bottles of black, blue, green and red. Can anyone share experience of them? Scans, writing examples, swabs, anything at all. I am curious, and all I can find are passing references and pictures of the bottles which are slightly less than helpful!

 

 

Cheers, Al

[amberleadavis]

I look forward to hearing about others experiences.

[grainweevil]

Hmm, seems like you and I are the only ones, Amber! Either that or my excellent run of form in posting apparently unanswerable queries is to blame!

 

Anyway, on the basis that you can't really beat seeing for yourself, I order a bottle of each to answer my own question. These pics are literally just out of the bottle swabs and dips using an Osmiroid Medium Soft nib, which gives a pretty fair "fountain pen" result, albeit sometimes a little generous with shading. I'm currently swimming against a tide of family ill-health, but if there's interest, I will try to do proper reviews at some point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water resistance:

 

 

 

 

 

Phew, lot of pics; sorry about that. The comparisons with other inks are probably the most useful. Hopefully they convey the general idea; fairly low saturation, and not a lot of water resistance. They're also have a fairly noticeable smell, which I know can bother some inkophiles. At first glance I'm drawn to the green, and the red has potential but I suspect it could easily end up as pink in anything but a really wet writer. The black veers a little too much to red for my taste, and the blue is, well, somewhat nondescript. I foresee trying a few mixes perhaps... All good clean inky fun.

 

Cheers, Al

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Thank you! Those look like the Lamy inks.

[grainweevil]

Ah, really? To my shame I've never really got into trying Lamy inks beyond the inevitable blue-cartridge-in-the-Safari. I'll have to go and peruse a few reviews. Thanks, Amber.

 

Cheers, Al

[visvamitra]

Nice comparison:) Where did you get them? I guess I would be interested

[grainweevil]

Inevitably, as with seemingly everything these days, it was via Ebay. You would definitely be a better qualified reviewer of them than I!

 

Cheers, Al

[mcgeechan]

Thank you for the review - I plumped for a 4 pack of these as I love the little 717 Dollar pens especially in the demonstrator style.

 

Bought them on ebay at £3.79 a bottle inc shipping (UK based seller).

[amberleadavis]

Well, I'm thrilled you did the reviews. Thank you.

[sciumbasci]

Epic zombie thread, apologies, but I'm curious to know how was the ink in the long run. I'm not good in understanding swabs.

 

How is the ink on the paper?

Does it feathers? Bleeds?

Is it a dry or a wet ink?

Is it just a repackaged Hero black?

Any indication on the boxes where is it made?

 

From the photos, to me, it looks darker than 4001. And for the price it isn't that bad. Anyone else can confirm?

[grainweevil]

How is the ink on the paper?

Does it feathers? Bleeds?

Is it a dry or a wet ink?

Is it just a repackaged Hero black?

Any indication on the boxes where is it made?

 

Apart from the black, which seems to me to feather on everything but the very best papers, they're all pretty well behaved unless you're really laying down a lot of ink (with a flex nib, say), in which case feathering and bleedthrough abound. The green, in particular, dries very quickly. I'd say overall they were middling to dry. I've had the blue going in a Hero Jumbo for several months with no problems and really it's very much like every other "school blue". Apart from the powerful smell of, I assume, phenol.

 

Boxes clearly state "Made in Pakistan", so probably not Hero black, but it's not an ink I'm familiar with.

 

I wouldn't suggest anyone rush out and get these as "must haves", but they're okay, run-of-the-mill cheap inks, and they seem amenable to being mixed if that appeals. Of them all, the black is the one I'd recommend least, to be honest, unless you particularly want a black with a noticeable red cast to it, and don't mind the feathering.

[sciumbasci]

Aw, I was attracted to the black because it really seems a nice black to my eyes. Would have bought it just for the phenol... But the feathering is really a problem here, as I don't write on premium papers (I assume Clairefountaine?).

 

Thanks for the reply, tho!

[mitto]

Just two days ago I bought a pack of 12 Dollar blue 60ml ink bottles for PkR 240.00 ($1.51). Now, if $1.51 is divided by 12, the price in USD in the local Pakistani market comes to : 0.125833333 US$

😊

[sciumbasci]

Just a follow-up. I bought, used extensively and absolutely loved the stuff. 

 

 

The short introduction compares it with my (then) everyday black, Waterman Encre Noire.

Nowadays Dollar Black is now my go-to black, because:

 

1. It is slightly waterproof, resist highlighting with Stabilo Boss;

 

3. It is a deep black that works great on cheap (60gsm) paper;

 

3. It is easily cleaned out of your pens AND clothes, if you're a klutz like me;

 

4. Paired with EF nibs (or scratchy F) it helps to tame the feedback; 

 

Dollar Stationery Ink

Black

Hero 616 Doctor and Dollar 717 Qalam on cheap Pigna bloc notes

 

Flow: medium

 

Lubrication: high. Better than Waterman. Works best with nibs that have some feedback. 

 

Bleedthrough: YES! (it passed through 4 sheets in the ink drop test) 

 

Feathering: minimal

 

Saturation: high

 

For the inkophiles: strong smell of chemical concoction. Not sure if Phenol. 

 

Colour: rich black

 

Water resistance: 3/5

Highlighter resistance: 4/5 

 

Shading: none