Thornton Ink

[bob_hayden]

Yes, I did not mean to suggest that the price per unit volume was lower for cartridges than bottles; rather that the cost of the Thornton cartridges was a steal compared to any other source of cartridges.

[bob_hayden]

Here are some cartridge only prices (including shipping, and as of December of last year)

 

Price per cartridge in US of A cents

 

Thornton 6.5

majus 10

USA Outlet Store 13.5

Jinhao 14

Sino Soviet 15

Manuscript 18

KaWeCo 29

Schneider 33

Gullor 35

 

from

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/314342-cheap-ink-cartridges/page-2

 

The most recognized brand names (Sheaffer, Parker, Lamy, Waterman, Pelikan) would cost more than $1 (100 cents) per cartridge (not including shipping).

[sodul]

I received my order of cartridges this week, and here is a side by side comparison with the bottle version:

 

I used the same pen when possible, a beater JinHao 159. I added a dot to the left of the T as a mark to point this out. When I used a different pen I noted the model number to the right of the ink color. I did this late, very late, last night so excuse the mess on the page: bottled ink is to the left and cartridges to the right.

 

Overall the ink in bottle and cartridge form are close, but darker in the bottles and maybe a little more fluid from the cartridges. This could be because the bottles are about 1y old and might have gotten darker due to exposure to air (more air in the bottle as the ink is used). I know this to be the case with the Red which gets really dark for the first couple of lines after sitting in the pen for a few days. The black is indeed gray from the cartridge compared to the bottle. I do not have a bottle for Brown, Turquoise, Orange or Yellow.

 

This is not meant to be a thorough review of each ink, but my personal impression is that these inks behave pretty well. I would avoid putting the Purple in an expensive pen since it tends to gunk up inside the feed. It has not caused any pen to misbehave yet, and I only noticed when cleaning.

[mbankirer]

I bought a set of 12 of the Thornton's "novice" disposable fp's. Same inks?

Fun set to have. Colors are bright. Nibs are like Pilot Varsity nibs.

[amberleadavis]

I received my order of cartridges this week, and here is a side by side comparison with the bottle version:

 

I used the same pen when possible, a beater JinHao 159. I added a dot to the left of the T as a mark to point this out. When I used a different pen I noted the model number to the right of the ink color. I did this late, very late, last night so excuse the mess on the page: bottled ink is to the left and cartridges to the right.

 

Overall the ink in bottle and cartridge form are close, but darker in the bottles and maybe a little more fluid from the cartridges. This could be because the bottles are about 1y old and might have gotten darker due to exposure to air (more air in the bottle as the ink is used). I know this to be the case with the Red which gets really dark for the first couple of lines after sitting in the pen for a few days. The black is indeed gray from the cartridge compared to the bottle. I do not have a bottle for Brown, Turquoise, Orange or Yellow.

 

This is not meant to be a thorough review of each ink, but my personal impression is that these inks behave pretty well. I would avoid putting the Purple in an expensive pen since it tends to gunk up inside the feed. It has not caused any pen to misbehave yet, and I only noticed when cleaning.

Thank you, this is wonderful.

[amberleadavis]

I bought a set of 12 of the Thornton's "novice" disposable fp's. Same inks?

Fun set to have. Colors are bright. Nibs are like Pilot Varsity nibs.

I haven't seen them before. Please share with us.

[chromantic]

The orange and yellow are dead ringers for Skrip, especially the shading in the orange. And there's nothing quite like the bright, highly impractical lemon color of Skrip Yellow.

[craigs63]

I haven't seen them before. Please share with us.

 

Hmm. Just found them on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thorntons-Disposable-Fountain-Pens-Medium-Point-Assorted-Pack-of-12/231965438237?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D44731%26meid%3Dc9e53f0b33444ca990b9531ea2478067%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D391571467310

 

I had just ordered some of their 'Lamy' compatible cartridges from the same seller.

[bob_hayden]

The disposables are from China and the selection of ink colors is not the same. At least they are as different as Sheaffer from Waterman. So I would be surprised if the ink is from Slovenia. The seller is not a manufacturer and gets product from everywhere. There are three reviews on eBay: great, OK, and junk. So let us know what your experience is.

[bob_hayden]

I kept grumbling that the low prices on Thornton inks looked like a temporary clearance sale. It did go on for a year or so but I think it is coming to an end. Many colors are no longer available on eBay, while others are no longer available at clearance prices. So if you want any of these, now would seem to be the time. In quantity you can get ink for about $2.50 a bottle which is less than half what you would pay for other brands.

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for the update.

[sodul]

The 12 pack of 30mL Blue is $23 shipped, or $1.92 per bottle, 6.4 cents per mL but I don't see myself storing that much ink of the same color.

 

I noticed there is an other seller that seem to sell unlabelled ink with the same bottles for about $7 shipped and describes the ink to be from the same factory that manufactures ink for Sheaffer and Private Reserve in Slovenia. Considering you can get a 30mL bottle of Parker ink from India for that price range the Parker ink is probably a better choice.

 

For Blue, I've switched to the Hero 233 ink, which turned out to be pretty good and I'm now confident enough about it for use in my vintage pens. The cheaper eBay listings are a bit wrong in their description as they call it "234" and "Carbon Blue" while showing pictures of the 233 bottle and saying it is 60mL but I believe these bottles are 56mL. I don't think a Carbon Blue ink makes much sense since it would be at least a Blue Black or a very dark blue. At $4 shipped this is almost as cheap per mL as the Thornton's large packs but in a more manageable quantity, although you have to wait for a few weeks for it.

 

For black I'm using the Hero 234 Carbon Black but only on sub $2 Chinese pens since it is a huge pain to clean and hard starts with most pen I tried it in. It works great in my Jinhao 911 with the help of a drop of Dawn.

 

For my next 'safe' cheap ink I'm considering KOH-I-NOOR or Camlin as they are both under 10 cent per mL shipped for a single bottle and have really good reputations. Camlin is actually very cheap if you order 20 bottles of 60mL.

[bob_hayden]

uh, I feel a bit funny here because I am not a sales rep for Thornton, nor am I particularly advocating their ink. OTOH, I think you are a bit one-sided in preaching against it;-) For example, if 12 30ml bottles of Thornton is too much then I would think 20 60ml bottles of Camlin would be WAY too much;-)

 

Thanks for pointing out that seller of unlabeled ink. I am guessing one can find them on eBay by searching for

 

5280 Fountain Pen Ink

 

The color range is a bit different from the Thornton pallet (or Manuscript or Sheaffer from the same plant) so I am not sure what to expect for quality, but it is fairly cheap -- about on a par with the small Diamine bottles, or (per ounce) the larger Sheaffer bottles. There is reasonably wide choice of colors, on a apr with Sheaffer or Manuscript, but not as wide as Diamine. Thornton DID have a comparable range of colors to Sheaffer/Manuscript but most are either gone or more costly now. For Parker ink from India I can find only black and blue at similar prices on eBay. I have found other Parker products from India to be variable in quality. I would be hesitant to think that the name on the label means a lot, but I have not tried their ink from India.

 

I agree the Hero inks are at bargain prices. I have all the 23x series. but I don't find them to be particularly good inks, and breakage and leakage has been a chronic problem with ink from China.

 

I have and like the Koh-I-Noor blue document ink and prices are good for the whole line. I may get some more when the weather supports shipping.

 

My note was to prompt anyone who was thinking of buying Thornton inks because they were cheap to make a move now. I would urge anyone else to read this entire thread for the various pros and cons. My guess is that most people at FPN would consider these inks too problematic even at the lowest prices, yet there may be a few (impoverished students who use tons of ink writing notes) who find them a godsend.

[sodul]

if 12 30ml bottles of Thornton is too much then I would think 20 60ml bottles of Camlin would be WAY too much;-)

LOL Yeah, that's 1.2L of ink there.

 

I'll stop talking about 'cheap' stuff since we're quickly going off topic and I could easily pay for Mont Blanc ink if I wanted to.

Edited January 25, 2018 by sodul

[bob_hayden]

Because these inks are so cheap in bulk I ordered a bunch of Blue, Turquoise, Yellow, Orange, Brown, and a bit of Black to use for mixing experiments.

 

http://statland.org/PenPix/ThorntonMixes.jpg

 

The first two lines are what those inks look like on arrival. The scan looks right to me for the brown. The orange is a bit brighter and fainter in real life -- too light for letter-writing I would say. "Maple Syrup" looks about right, but "90% Cocoa" looks black in the scan but like very dark chocolate in real life. The "Maple Syrup" would not flow at all initially and needed a significant amount of Dawn dish washing detergent added, even though flow was fine for the ingredients. It is surprising that the "90% Cocoa" looks darker than either ingredient. I think the conclusion here is that one could create a wide range of browns with these ingredients.

 

Next up is fresh Thornton Blue. From my past experience with this ti grows darker sitting in a pen so this is of vintage 5 days. Adding a little black gives something between a very dark blue and blue-black.

 

My ideal blue-black has a murky look to it and my intuition was that I would be more likely to get that mixing black and turquoise than black and blue. I was right. In the scan the first mix again is so dark as to look black, but in real life, and on the paper I use most often, it is this color with highlight of classic blue-black. "1960s Blue Black" is a dark version of classic, though not as dark as the scan suggests. "Blackout" is an even darker version of classic.

 

There are a variety of greens here because of my fondness for Levenger Always Greener and Herbin Vert Pre -- two yellow-greens. But those inks are the worst I have for feathering and bleed through, so I hoped to mix a similar color without those issues. None of the inks shown on this page from a cheap writing tablet are so afflicted.

 

"Fall in New Hampshire" is a darker and slightly browner red in real life.

 

One thing I learned is that if you try to make a very dark ink, especially if you also want shading, you may find that whether you get what you want will be very sensitive to the pen and paper you use.

[sodul]

Thanks for sharing.

I bought a bunch of multicolor cartridge packs of the Thornton's inks. I have no use for the yellow ones, so I've started using them for testing incoming vintage pens. I've mixed it with vintage cartridges left to dry in school pens and got some interesting 'dirty green' colors out of it. It was fun to write notes with that ink at work. Unfortunately I can't share scans since these are work related notes.

 

Cheers

[Charles Skinner]

A friend gave my a bottle of Thornton Red ink, and the color is really, really great. It did, however, clog up on old Parker 51 Special. I am going to try it in another pen,---- the clogging might have been caused by the pen, and not the ink.

 

Will report use in another pen.

 

C. S.

[bob_hayden]

I like that red. I have had some troubles with flow and with "fuzz" accumulating on the nib when using Thornton inks. I can't really tell if the pen is clogged or if the ink just does not want to flow. It does seem to have a very high surface tension which can lead to its clumping at the wrong end of the cartridge so that none flows down through the section.

 

In any case, the bargain basement prices on Thornton ink that lasted a year or more seemed to have disappeared. This morning they seem to be back again, at least for some products. Short international cartridges are now available in all ten colors for as low as 63 cents per twelve pack if you buy 12 twelve packs. That's less then 10% of the price of better known brands. Lamy cartridges are also available cheaply in the available colors of blue, black, and assorted. (I had severe flow issues with the Thornton Black in Lamy cartridges.) In bottles, only red, pink and yellow are cheap this morning -- yellow especially so. I find it too light for handwriting, but you might be able to use it for highlighting. I use it for mixing to create interesting greens. The yellow is now the only color you can get really cheaply in bottles by buying a dozen or so bottles.

[Charles Skinner]

The bottles seem to be small Pelikan bottles. Is it possible that the ink comes from Pelikan? C.

[bob_hayden]

Thornton, 5280, Sheaffer, and Manuscript inks all come from the same plant in Slovenia. I think that plant also produces the Private Reserve cartridges, though the PR inks inside may come from the USA. It is possible that Pelikan has outsourced some ink production to that same plant, but I am pretty sure the Thornton inks are not made in a Pelikan plant.