Ink Of The Month – January ’19

Over the last year I bought a lot of inks so many that the substantial storage box for new inks is now starting to overflow. Mostly I’ve bought inks from established makers but last year I started to branch out and look at some of the own brands and one range that intrigued me was from Pure Pens.

The range was released last year and is now up to fifteen inks, at time of writing, and if you are interested it can be found at www.purepens.co.uk.

I chose four of them (for each one I have a point of comparison) and whilst Pure Pens do provide sample sizes but I opted for the full size bottle, 60ml, which is very reasonably priced at £6.99GBP.

My choices were:

·         Cadwaldr (mid/deep red)

·         Buckingham Blue (light/mid blue)

·         Flower Of Scotland (a dark purple similar to Diamine Bilberry)

·         Saltire (mid/deep blue)

So for my first ‘Ink Of The Month’ for 2019 I have chosen Cadwaldr; a mid to deep red that reminds me of Montblanc William Shakespeare Velvet Red Ink; both are rich red inks.

As you can see from the swab test (a single wipe with the cotton bud) it produces a  very even colour with good depth and maybe a slight orange undertone; and whilst the writing sample shows some variation in colour this is mostly the result of pressure on the nib when I am writing. I have also briefly tested Saltire with similar good results.

All in all Cadwaldr is a good well behaved red ink that is excellent value for money and even if you are not in the market for red ink at the moment I would recommend looking at the entire range.

Disclaimer: The ink was purchased with my own funds at retail price. The opinions expressed in this review are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.