Ink Of The Month – June ’19 – Blackstone Red Cashmere

This month I’ve chosen Blackstone’s Red Cashmere, which is a limited edition ink, from the SuSeMai series, with a very interesting history full details of that history can be found here: http://blackstone.ink/index.php/susemai-series-red-cashmere

In short Red Cashmere started life as a project to initially create a powdered ink which then moved on to a gel ink, which you could mix yourself and consequently reduced the level of shipping complications Blackstone have to deal with. In the end neither the powder nor the gel was ever released as a commercial product instead Blackstone have produced a bottled ink version and it is quite something.

This is only my second Blackstone ink, my first was Uluru Red from their Colours of Australia range, and I have to say I’m impressed. 

The ink arrives in their standard 30ml polypropylene bottle; which is a tough little cookie and is suitable for reuse or recycling and despite being a small compact bottle the neck of it easily takes the average pen for filling. I loaded a TWSBI Eco and there were no problems. The only thing I find about plastic bottles in general is they are a bit light so extra care is essential when filling a pen.

As you can see from the image the swab test shows a very deep red ink and when writing with it dries a shade or two darker and can at a glance appear slightly brown. 

By comparison it is darker than Uluru Red, Pure Pens Cadwaladr and Herbin’s Rouge Grenat; the nearest I have in my collection is KWZ Maroon #2 and even that, which is a strong wine red, is several shades lighter.

In use it is a well-behaved ink that flows nicely, and I didn’t experience any skipping or hard starts including my leaving the pen unused for a week.

If you are looking for a real dark red then this could be the one for you; but hurry this is a limited edition so it won’t be around forever.

I am more than happy to recommend this ink, it is worth your pennies, but the only point of improvement I can see with it is that Blackstone need to add this to their standard 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.