Hello! Today is July 1st, 2019, and the one-month anniversary of the start-up of this blog. I want to share something with you nice folks who like fountain pens & bottled inks as much as I do: a comparison of some interesting grey inks!
Last year, a dear friend of mine mailed me a care package from Down Under with some interesting, fun ink samples to try out, including that Mont Blanc bottle you see in the background there. That bottle contained the first real grey ink I'd ever owned or experimented with: Mont Blanc's "Oyster Grey". Wow, I was amazed! It had the sort of graphite-grey color of a wooden pencil, but with shading like nothing I'd ever seen before. I was astounded by how good it looked on any paper I tried it on, especially Tomoe River paper (which of course brings out the best of ANY ink you put on it).
Well, the Lady from Down Under is quite the instigator (you know who you are! Ha ha) and that sent me down a rabbit hole of this whole new world of grey inks. I bought another one here, and another one there, and then a few days ago I thought it'd be fun to do a comparison of grey inks for my blog, and ordered a bunch of different grey ink samples from Goulet Pens. Now, I know everyone has already seen all kinds of online ink comparisons, "ink shoot-outs", and the like, so I admit that there's nothing new here; this is just my take on some interesting inks that hopefully make you go from "Grey? Why would I put drab grey in my fountain pen?" to perhaps, "Oh, neat! That would look good in my bullet journal!" or what have you. That's a bit presumptuous of me, I suppose. 😊
My 5 grey ink samples from Goulet Pens came in the mail today, so what follows is a writing sample of all 9 grey inks I have, thanks to those small sample vials. I wrote a brief writing sample with each of them on a single sheet of Tomoe River paper. I honestly couldn't decide if the photos I took, with an older Samsung digital camera, looked better with, or without the camera flash (I don't exactly have top-notch "blog photo makin' gear, so please bear with me) so I just stuck 'em both on here. With the exception of the very first writing sample of the well-known J. Herbin Stormy Grey (which I already happened to have inked up in a cheap Jinhao knock-off of a Parker Sonnet fountain pen...yep, I'm not proud of that), all the samples were written with that lovely blue marbled J. Herbin glass dip pen you saw in the above photo.
Click either of the photos above, and feel free to rant at me in the comments as to which photo (or both, or neither) shows off the inks better. They are:
#1: J. Herbin 1670 "Stormy Grey". A grey so dark that it could be mistaken for black, but with gold shimmery sparkles in it.
#2: Robert Oster "Summer Storm". Same good friend Down Under used this ink in a letter she sent me a while back, and it struck me as possibly the very grey ink I'd been looking for! A light grey, but with a gloomy storm-cloud blue undertone. Perfect!
#3: Mont Blanc "Oyster Grey". First real "grey-grey" I'd tried, after the dark, almost-black "Stormy Grey". When I saw how it shades, I was amazed! Your thoughts?
#4: Diamine "Earl Grey". Recommended by the r/Fountainpen group on Reddit as their favorite ink. A well behaved, solid performer.
#5: Pilot Iroshizuku "Kiri-Same" (meaning, "Drizzle"; meant to emulate the color of dark clouds when rain is approaching. The folks at Jet Pens really like this one, as did most of my own friends who have been pestered by me in the past about their opinions on my unnatural obsession with grey inks. 😁
#6: Noodler's "Lexington Grey". Now this was a new one on me. I have lots of Noodler's inks on my ink shelf, but like Noodler's 54th Massachusettses (although not as severely), this had "soap bubbles" formed in the top of the sample vial. I've no idea why. However, I found it to be a very wet writer on my glass nib. It looks like a real genuine slate grey. But...will it clog a pen with that soapy effect? As wet as it seemed, probably not, but that's still weird. I normally really like Noodler's, so this is not meant to be a harsh criticism.
#7: Monteverde "Smoke Noir". Now this one intrigued me before it ever showed up in the mail after reading about it online, and it didn't disappoint! Very smoky-grey, and a good choice if you're looking for something besides deep, dark black. This is the smudgy-grey of a burned out campfire. 😊 I see a full bottle of this in my future.
#8: Pilot Iroshizuki "Fuyu-Syogun" (or, "Old Man Winter"). I got a sample of this on the advice of a few pen pals. 😊 This is another grey with a significant "chilly cold blue" tone in it, for a really nice effect! I bet this one would look great in a stub nib.
#9: Diamine "Silver Fox". Lives up to it's name, alright! I found this one to write a bit dry, but the color did not disappoint. Diamine promises a silvery, foxy color, and that's what you get! A wet, juicy stub-nib would probably do this ink more justice.
And that's it. Tell me what you thought of this. Hopefully, not everyone already had every one of these inks, so this may have been useful to you. Which one was YOUR favorite? Feel free to tell me your favorite grey inks in the comments. And, of course...
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", was also written in that Diamine Silver Fox color, using the same, single "dip" from that glass dip pen. "The fox is going to keep up his shenanigans until the dog gets sick of his crap." Mark my words. Muah-ha ha ha!!
Thanks for dropping by. Have a good Monday, if you can!
Well on my phone I could get the pictures to enlarge but on my laptop I could not. I enjoyed your comments very much. I know all of the inks well and have quite a few of them. I like the cooler greys and my favorite is Old Man Winter. The Faber Castel Stone Grey is a good one too, but really you did a great job with your comparison. Thanks. Oh, the first picture was really interesting. Glass pens are wonderful and I do my ink journal with one even though it lies down lots of ink in the beginning and not the same as a fountain pen. It is the best option for ink journals as cleaning ou…
As far as a true grey goes I like the Diamine Earl Grey. Its not too blue-ish or a faded black. This was an interesting ink experiment, I'd like to see one for browns and greens✒
You're the only person I know who discerns inks the way some people discern wines. 😆 My favorite is the Summer Storm.