Kicking off my Ink of the Week series is one of my favorite inks, Sailor Rikyu-cha. For every ink, I’m choosing a random number that corresponds to an ink that I own and this happened to get picked this week. I feel lucky that this ink came up first since it is one that I’m already familiar with. Even so, …
Ink of the Week – My 2023 Project
Do you have more inks than you’ll ever use? Do you have inks that you have used once or twice, but don’t really know much about? I think we all do. I’ve been thinking about how I can use more of my inks and not just my favorites every time it’s time to fill a new pen. One thing I’ve …
Fountain Pen Ink Bottle Design
Fountain pen inks come in a huge variety of colors. Although not quite as varied as the inks themselves, ink bottles come in many different shapes and sizes. While most people buy a bottle of ink for the ink that’s inside of the bottle, bottle design can also play a part in which ink a fountain pen user ultimately chooses …
What Are Typical Sheen And Ink Color Combinations?
There is something fascinating about an ink with beautiful sheen. Maybe it’s how a colorful metallic sheen can enhance how handwriting looks, or maybe it’s just that it feels a little magical to write with a blue ink and have it appear red when viewed from a certain angle. Have you ever noticed that certain ink colors tend to have …
Why I Keep A Currently Inked Journal (And Why You Should, Too)
You may already know that I keep an ink journal. This is a great reference for how each ink looks in a variety of different pens. It’s also a handy reference for the properties of each ink (dry time, how it holds up to water, how it shades and sheens). In a separate journal, I also keep track of each …
How To Make Your Fountain Pen Inks Look Their Best
This morning I was writing with a pen in a few different notebooks and noticed how different the ink looked in each one. I immediately thought of emails I’ve received and comments I’ve seen on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit where people say that the ink that they’re using doesn’t perform like photos they’ve seen online. In this post I want …
What Are My Forever Inks?
A while back I read a post from UK Fountain Pens where he talked about his list of “forever inks”, which is inspired by a post on Fountain Pen Network asking “if you had to rebuild your ink collection from scratch, what would your initial selections be?”. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since reading his blog …
How Dangerous Is Mixing Fountain Pen Inks?
I’ve always heard that it’s dangerous to mix fountain pen inks. Some people have had the experience of mixing inks, only to have solids, or a precipitate form, which can potentially clog a fountain pen. I am usually very careful about completely cleaning out my pen before using a new ink. The main reason for this is that I don’t …
How Does Paper Color Affect Ink Color?
It’s no secret that there are thousands of different colors of ink available to fountain pen users these days. Many of us carefully choose the color of ink we use, passing on one color for another that is slightly different but, to our eyes, perfect. How often do you take the color of the paper you write on into consideration? …
The Current State Of Fountain Pen Ink
If you’ve been involved with fountain pens for any amount of time, you have probably noticed that the amount and variety of inks that are available has gone through an exponential growth in the past 10 years or so. Even if you’re fairly new to the world of fountain pens, you’ve probably noticed new brands and even colors of ink …