(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
I recently attended the Philly Pen Show, which is the first pen show of the year and kicks off the pen show season. Scott Franklin, of Franklin-Christoph, is co-owner of the Philly Pen Show and makes an exclusive ink for the show, along with matching pens and accessories. Some of the past years’ colors include Teal (2023), Magenta/Hot Pink (2022), and Red (2019) and this year’s color is Indigo. The 2024 PPS pens are in last week’s recap and here are the limited edition accessories. But let’s talk about the ink!
As in the past, all swatches were done on Col-O-Ring cards using a Kakimori steel dip nib and the non-brush end of a paintbrush, while writing samples were done with a TWSBI Go with a Medium nib and a Lamy Vista with a steel Medium nib. The TWSBI Go is a wetter writer and the Lamy is a drier writer, so these two give me a good idea of how an ink will look from different pens. This time around, I also included a writing sample with the Franklin-Christoph 45XL Indigo with a 1.4 nib. The notebook used for writing samples is from Endless Recorder with 68 gsm Tomoe River paper. Dry times may be a bit slower on 52gsm TR or faster on papers like Rhodia, copy paper, Cosmo Air Light or with drier or finer nibs.
Writing sample on 68 gsm Tomoe River Endless Notebook.
You can really see the shading from the Vista compared to the other two nibs.
Ink ‘24 Indigo, is a dark blue black ink with a greyish undertone. The grey isn’t as noticeable with wet writers like the TWSBI Go or the 1.4 nib on the F-C, but it is much more visible in the drier Lamy Vista, as well as in the chromatography, swatches and “smears”. There isn’t as much shading unless you’re using a drier writer like the Vista, and there is no sheen in writing samples and only a hint of reddish sheen in wetter swatches.
Chromatography of Ink ‘24 shows the blue grey tones but also pink, which I didn’t expect.
Inks similar to Ink ‘24: Franklin-Christoph Noir et Bleu (not surprising that these would be similar but NeB has a greenish tinge vs Indigo’s grey), Maruzen Athena Blue Black, Taccia Hiroshige Ainezu, Sailor Blue Black, Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite, Aurora Blue Black and Montblanc Midnight Blue. I think the Maruzen Athena Blue Black is probably the closest but it doesn’t have as much grey as Ink ‘24.
I was a little surprised that I didn’t have more blue black inks that were similar to Ink ‘24. I think it is the grey component that really makes this a moody BB, which I am enjoying. As with the regular line of Franklin-Christoph inks, this one behaved well and was pleasant to use in the three different pens/nibs. I liked the color the most in the Lamy Vista because the grey really comes through, and it didn’t feel super dry in that pen either. You may prefer the color or writing experience that a wetter or drier pen/nib will produce, and that preference might be different depending on the ink/pen combination too.
The ink, which sells for $8.25 for a 1 ounce bottle (~30 ml) sold out at the Philly Pen show but another batch of ink has been added to their website.
(Disclaimer: All inks and pens (and swatch cards/notebooks) were purchased by me.)
