Callifolio Baikal Ink Review

One of the benefits of attending a pen show is seeing new products in person for the first time. I had never heard of Callifolio ink prior to seeing Lisa Vanness from Vanness Pens at the Atlanta show. She came up to me with two sheets of ink swabs and said "pick one!" I must have stared at those sheets for about 10 minutes - talk about an impossible task!

Callifolio ink comes from L'Artisan Pastellier and chemist Didier Boinnard, who specializes in using natural pigments in creating their lineup of products. And what a lineup it is.

When Lisa laid out the swab samples in front of me two things stood out: One, there were no eye-searing bright colors, and two, there were an enormous number of blues. Since blues are kind of my thing I went that route with the sample bottle that Lisa gave me. After much hemming and hawing, Baikal came home with me, and I must say it was an excellent choice.

Named, assumedly, for Lake Baikal in Russia, the blue in this ink is hard to pin a description on. I wanted to call it a dusty blue at first, but it's a little darker than what I consider dusty. Denim is likely a better term, but hints of purple peek through from time to time. What stuck with me the most is the mix ink I call Scabix (seen in this review), which is a 1:1 mix of Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa and Salix. Scabix is more purple, but the feel of the color is right, and very complimentary.

Mixing inks is worth mentioning here because Callifolio inks are able to be mixed at will. These non-toxic and non-corrosive inks are made to be tame and work with all types of pens. They aren't waterproof or permanent because of this, but that makes them easy to use and clean.

Callifolio is available to be purchase in either 40 ml triangular bottle (same as Diamine 150th) for $11 or in 50 ml pouches for $8 that you can use to refill your own ink bottle. And by your own ink bottle, I mean like the fancy Nock Co. logo bottle that Lisa made for me and Jeff, seen below. These prices make testing out Callifolio a no-brainer, and a worthwhile addition to your ink stash.

My thanks to Lisa and Vanness Pens for providing these goods at no charge for review purposes.

Diamine Tyrian Purple Ink Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Tyrian Purple is named after a reddish-purple dye made in Tyre, Phoenicia, from sea snails. Huge numbers of snails were collected and boiled in lead vats. The smell, apparently, was quite memorable. The dye was meant to mimic clotted blood, and it was restricted to the rich, because of its limited availability. (Source: The New York Times; see also Wikipedia).

Diamine's version certainly evokes the ancient color with both red and purple tones. It reminds me a little of Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses (original formulation), though that ink has more shading. Nevertheless, Diamine's color exhibits good shading with a flex or broad nib. With a finer nib, you won't notice the shading at all.

The ink flows well, has no distinctive odor, and dries relatively quickly depending on the paper. On the Rhodia dot pad, it takes a bit more time to dry than on more absorbent paper.

This is not a highly saturated, deep purple. It leans more toward magenta. But it is beautiful, and if you want a purple that looks more like wine than grape juice, Tyrian Purple is a good choice. If you prefer a purer purple color, Diamine Imperial Purple might suit you better.

A comparison of several purple inks is below. Unfortunately, I sold my bottle of Black Swan in Australian Roses, so I couldn't include it in the comparison.

Tyrian Purple will work well for journaling and personal correspondence. I wouldn't use it in a business setting, though for grading papers it would be a happy medium between red and purple.

You can purchase Diamine Tyrian Purple at JetPens for $14.50 (80ml).

Akkerman Shocking Blue Ink Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

I sought out a bottle of Akkerman Shocking Blue after seeing a close up of the ink on Instagram. Akkerman isn't the easiest ink to find in the USA, but I was directed to Vanness Pens. I had to wait a week or two until they got some in stock, then I clicked on the pay button. At $30.00 a bottle (60ml), this is expensive ink. But, when I saw the beautiful bottle, I understood why. Plus, most U.S. retailers don't carry Akkerman, so it comes at a premium.

The bottle itself is a work of art. It looks like a piece of antique glasswork with facets and a genie bottle shape.

The unique shape of the bottle is also functional. There's a ball in the upper chamber that moves away when you tip the bottle, allowing ink in. You fill your pen, and tip the bottle again so the ink can flow back into the bottom chamber.

The ink flows well in my Montblanc 146 with a stub nib, but it really shines in flex nibs.

I suspect it would be stunning with the Franklin-Christoph 1.9 music nib (hint, hint, Brad). The ink has a slight odor, but it's not overpowering.

The color is simply amazing. It's a vivid blue with incredible shading and a cool purple-red glimmer outline you can see in close up shots. I just wish you could see this with the naked eye, and maybe you can with super-wide nibs.

I did a chromatography comparison of Shocking Blue with a few of my other blue inks. The closest parallel was Iroshizuku's Asa-Gao, but the Asa-Gao has purple in it, whereas Shocking Blue does not. I don't know why the purple-red outline I see in the close ups doesn't show up in the chromatography. I made several attempts, and in every case Shocking Blue exhibited only varied shades of blue–no purple, no red.

Compared with some other blues, Shocking Blue is a true blue whereas Diamine Sargasso Sea contains lots of purple. Sailor's Yama-Dori is more of a dark turquoise, Iroshizuku's Asa-Gao is close in tone to Shocking Blue, but also contains purple, and Diamine Denim is a blue-black.

Shocking Blue takes some time to dry on the Rhodia DotPad paper. Of course, the wider your nib, the longer it will take the ink to dry. And the paper you use makes a difference. On my Tomoe River paper, the ink dries almost immediately. It's definitely not waterproof, so if that's important to you, you'll want to look elsewhere.

I purchased my bottle from Vanness Pens for $30.00 plus $7.00 shipping. They have great customer service and my bottle was shipped almost immediately.

Please note: the adorable cat is not included with the bottle of ink.