Birmingham Pen Co. Hydrangea Fountain Pen Ink Review

Birmingham Pen Co. is doing some interesting things in the ink space. Whether it is a wide range of wild colors, or ink properties to fit your specific needs, BPC has you covered. They have a certain prolific-ness, which I appreciate, even if it means I can’t keep up with all of their releases.

When I check out their ink lineup, I’m never disappointed in discovering something new and interesting. Hydrangea fit that bill on a recent order. This is a purple ink with character, which is what I’m looking for with this particular shade.

Purple ink colors land in that second tier of personal ink favorites - right behind blue black and bright blue, and alongside orange, pink, and green. I prefer moody purples over bright purples (think Imperial Purple,) with a strong lean towards the dusty/grey range of shades.

Hydrangea doesn’t fall into that category, but it has character that I appreciate on a page. It’s as if I inked a pen with grape juice and cut it with a couple of drops of water. It’s a great color, is legible, and has a small amount of shading. Right from the nib it shows a little blue, like the skin of a blueberry, but I wouldn’t call this ink a blurple when dry.

If a lot of ink goes down on the page - say from a swab, folded nib, or brush - you will get some pink undertones, which look great in those inky areas.

In my TWSBI VAC 700R Iris with a Fine Steel nib, it flows perfectly. It’s not too dry, nor is it overly lubricated. It’s just … nice. I think that is the goal of the Crisp ink formulation, of which Hydrangea is a part of. It works well in all writing situations.

I’ve had Hydrangea in use for weeks now, and there isn’t another purple I’m anxious to replace it with. That will happen eventually - it always does - but this bottle has found a home at the front of my ink shelf.

(Birmingham Ink Co. provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Birmingham Pen Co. Eroded Bronze Ink Review

“Brad, if you start with one ink from Birmingham Pen Co., make it Eroded Bronze.”

This was the advice I was given when I was shopping for my first batch of Birmingham Inks. I heeded that advice, right up until I gave my first bottle of Eroded Bronze away. If you have ever joined me on Twitch, that’s how I roll. Get a bunch of new stuff in to test, give some of it away to viewers. I’m glad to do it!

I had plenty of other Birmingham Inks to choose from anyway, like another classic BPC ink, Antique Sepia. But I was anxious to get Eroded Bronze back in hand, which I did on a recent order. And this time, when all of the inks came in, I held that one back for myself!

Eroded Bronze is a blue grey - I think. That’s what I like about it. That’s what I like about a lot of Birmingham inks, in fact. The colors have some complexity to them. Ink swabs of Eroded Bronze not only show blues and greys, but purple, pink, and green. It’s wild and strange, in the best way possible.

What ink swabs show don’t always translate to the line from the nib, and that was my expectation with this ink. It is a fantastic writing blue ink with character, even coming from this extra fine steel nib in my Diplomat Aero. The wider and wetter the nib choice, the more difference in color you will see on the page.

Eroded Bronze is part of the Crisp formula group, meaning this ink is designed to be a good all-around writing ink, which works well on a wide variety of paper types. I’ve tried it on three or four types of paper so far, and it writes wonderfully, with no featuring or bleeding. If anything, it leans to the drier side of the spectrum, which is in line with the formulation, and hence the performance.

I’m enjoying what I’m using from Birmingham Pen Co. so far. I’m two-for-two on keeper Crisp formula shades, so next time, I’ll branch out into one of the other ink formulations to see if the quality continues.

(Birmingham Pen Co. provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Birmingham Pen Co. Antique Sepia Fountain Pen Ink Review

Better to be late to the party than to never show up, right? That’s how I feel about Birmingham Pen Company. Specifically, their inks.

For years, Birmingham worked with outside vendors to manufacture their products, including what seemed like 100’s of fountain pen inks. As the business grew, brothers Nick and Josh decided to forge their own path, bringing the manufacture of their inks completely ink house.

And the results are stunning.

As someone who loves ink and has (retracted)’s of ink bottles on hand, even I want to try every single formulation Birmingham offers. Just look at the colors!

I’m sure Birmingham would be happy for you to try them all as well. The colors are fun, have character, are packaged nicely, and come in at a more than reasonable price. They are functional in more ways than one, too, as Birmingham has created six different ink formulations to help narrow down your choice from “All of them!” to “Ok, maybe just a few.”

Antique Sepia is defined by Birmingham as a Crisp ink. What does that mean? I’ll let Birmingham explain:

“Crisp Formula inks are designed to maximize range and personality while minimizing characteristics such as feathering and bleeding on variety of premium, mid range, and discount papers.”

To me, that means Crisp inks are the best choice for all around usage. They perform well in all types of nibs and on all types of paper, while providing excellent character in your lines. Antique Sepia is the first Birmingham Ink I’ve tested, and I’d say it matches up to that description perfectly.

On the page, Antique Sepia has a good bit of mossy green mixed in with the traditional brown I’m used to in a sepia ink. In wetter nibs, or with heavier applications (I used a dip nib to color in my ink bottle stamp,) you get a huge range of those two colors, and see a decent amount of shading. The longer you look at it, the wilder it appears.

In the Jowo Extra Fine nib (yes, that’s the Leonardo Momento Zero Mango) I used for the writing sample and line art, you’ll see a smaller range of color, with only slight shading. Performance wise, the ink flowed well and dried quickly. I found it to be just as expected from the definition of the formula.

If there is one issue with Antique Sepia, I’ll refer you back to the beginning of this post: It makes me want to buy more Birmingham inks. I have a couple more in hand already - including an Everlasting formula, which is their pigmented/archival ink - to try out.

I’ll be testing that one out next, and then who knows? If Birmingham Pen Co. keeps making inks, I’ll never be lacking for choice.

(Birmingham Pen Co. provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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