Are Gray Inks Worth Buying?

[Old_Inkyhand]

I really appreciate the elegant, subdued nature of the grey inks. I use only those which are legible enough to use on a daily basis, but I absolutely love them. Like I said in a different thread, grey is a wonderful colour for notes. You can make notes in grey and write the most important words in a different colour, like burgundy, orange, green, turquoise... Grey looks good with pretty much everything. Grey inks are calm, easy on the eyes and have pleasant, subtle shading. They have some vintage allure. My eyes prefer a page full of grey handwritten text to a page full of black handwritten text. It is very subjective, though.

[haruka337]

[image]

 

Writing sample made with a vintage Waterman 452 pen in sterling silver filigree overlay, fitted with a wet noodle nib, and filled with Diamine Gray ink

 

While not a huge fan of Diamine inks, they at skillful at making gray (and black) inks.

[Aquaria]

I'm a fan of Diamine Graphite. Well behaved and the color of a soft lead pencil...much like Palamino Blackwing.

 

Good luck in your search for a grey you like. As a result of this thread, I'm going to check out Noodler Lexington Grey so thanks for posting.

 

I can vouch for Diamine Graphite looking like pencil lead. I fooled one of my math professors with it.

[Aquaria]

One of my favorite gray inks is actually J Herbin 1670 Stormy Grey. Not for the sparklies, but because the shade of gray underneath it all is so rich and beautiful. It doesn't get a lot of credit for being a terrific gray ink in and of itself.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Aquaria

[meiers]

Montblanc oyster grey is one of my go-to inks.

[ac12]

 

 

Back when the only ink I used was black, and it came out grey, . . .

 

This was the case when I was in college.

I used Parker Quink black, and it looked GREY.

This upset me, because I bought black ink to look BLACK.

 

As it turned out, there were 2 things causing this.

1 - Parker Quink black was not really BLACK, it was a very dark grey. And this has been confirmed by several reviews of this ink.

2 - I was using a Parker 45 with a Fine nib. This nib is similar to a Lamy or Pelikan Extra Fine nib. So the optical illusion of a fine ink line on white paper, made the ink look lighter than it would out of a wider nib.

[smose]

After studying some of the discussion on FPW, I bought 5 grey bottle of inks - Diamine grey (mid grey), Diamine graphite (dark grey with a hint of green), iroshizuku fuyu-syogun (silver grey), sailor gentle chu-shu (purplish grey) and Marusen athena hatobazunu (bluish grey, somewhat between fuyu and chu-shu).

 

In addition, I acquired a large vintage art deco bottle of waterman black ink (with at least 300ml remaining) from an antique shop in France last summer - the 'grey' ink can be described as diluted black with a hint of green.

 

There is a difference between watered down black and grey, which has much higher saturation.

The issue with grey is how light in colour is the contrast with the paper you are using.

 

I have yet to fully use all of them to decide on which I prefer. My partner has used the diamine graphite in his pelican 400n fine nib pen and he absolutely loves it.

 

I prefer a darker shade and my favourite grey currently is sailor gentle chu-shu.

 

Despite being watered-down, I have used waterman black at work (in montblanc 149 medium nib), and I enjoyed writing with it. I now need to try this pen with one of the other genuine greys.

[inkfade]

I used to think gray inks were useless for writing, until I impulsively bought a sample of Fuyu-Syogun. I no longer think gray inks are a waste of time.

[lapis]

I used to think gray inks were useless for writing, until I impulsively bought a sample of Fuyu-Syogun. I no longer think gray inks are a waste of time.

If you think of the (other) Japanese naming of this ink, and the upcoming weather in Northern Canada, you'll love it even more....

 

Mike

[inkfade]

If you think of the (other) Japanese naming of this ink, and the upcoming weather in Northern Canada, you'll love it even more....

 

Mike

 

It was actually the name of the ink which first drew me to it. Unlike most people around here, I love winter and cold, and this ink looks exactly like a sky before a blizzard. It's like I'm writing with melting snow or something. (Just the color, thankfully the consistency is not that of melting snow haha.)

[Charles Rice]

You might like writing with gray ink and it might look great in your journal, but a letter written with gray ink is a pain to read.

[jgrant]

I have been using Diamine Grey and love it. I don't think there is any harm in attempting to water down a black ink, but with how inexpensive ink is why not just get a bottle that is premixed and buy a shade that is exactly what you want? I like mixing inks, but I usually end up buying a bottle of ink that already looks like what I was trying to acheive.

[ethernautrix]

I've tried a few gray inks and liked them, but I loves me some Faber-Castell Stone Grey.