Posts filed under Ink Reviews

Tono & Lims #11 Fountain Pen Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

In a hobby where "not enough" ink variety can quickly turn into "OMG, way too many inks," I can honestly say that I wish I had more purple inks in my collection. The same is true of green inks. For me, that's just where my eye is drawn right now. Maybe I'm just craving happy, bright colors in a world that's otherwise dark and cruel, but all I know is that a little pop of color during the day helps me keep moving forward. The latest purple ink that I've had the pleasure of using is Tono & Lims #11.

If you've never heard of this little ink shop, you're not alone. The company is fairly well-known and popular in South Korea, and they have quite a collection of inks for being relatively obscure (in the US market, at least). 11 is a pale purple that I've had extreme feelings about so far. As far as I can remember, I've never gone back and forth on liking and disliking an ink so many times. Is this ink trying to be purple or gray? Is it so light on purpose, or is that to showcase the lovely shading characteristic even more? While it's certainly not one of my favorite inks for everyday use, I've really enjoyed using it and seeing how it acts on different papers and in different sized nibs.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: This ink is extremely watery and light. Until I looked up other ink samples online, I was second-guessing if I'd accidentally left some water in the pen after cleaning it, resulting in a less saturated and thin ink. Alas, #11 is light on purpose. Being so watery, it does best on coated papers, like Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Leuchtturm1917, and so on. I tried using this ink on some cheap copy paper and a Baron Fig notebook, and the results were disastrous. The ink bled and veined like crazy on these more absorbent papers, but they also dried in a couple of seconds. It's an odd ink in how it behaves, but that's part of the allure for me. That being said, it's not a great daily driver for use in an office or if your favorite paper is highly absorbent.

The second thing that really confused me besides the really watery nature of this ink is the low saturation of the coloring. At times, it looks like a pale purple highlighter ink. And based on the beautiful Instagram feed from Tono & Lims, I wouldn't be surprised if people use #11 primarily as a shading or background color for larger pieces of art or illustrations. It's a lovely light color, but it just doesn't pop off the page. When writing with this ink on a blank page, the color is delightfully understated and calm. But, if you add even a touch of brighter color, #11 gets washed out completely and looks quite drab.

My favorite behavior from this ink so far is the immense shading capabilities. The differences between gray-purple and light see-through purple are marvelous. Again, it's all very subdued and easy to miss, but it's really well done and I love watching the ink pool up on certain pen strokes.

Another positive behavior with this ink is the incredibly quick dry time. In most cases, it's dry in ten seconds — fifteen if the ink has pooled up a bit. For left-handed writers, this is a fantastic quality. Still, given the pale color, it's not well-suited to everyday or office use.

The full lineup of inks from Tono & Lims looks really interesting and unique, and I'm really excited to see more of these hit our shores. While #11 isn't my favorite ink color, it still has a special place in my collection that I'll certainly break out semi-regularly to enjoy the subtle and delicate purple-gray tones it offers. You can pick up your own 30ml bottle from Shigure Inks. At $22 USD, it's not a fantastic deal, but this is a fairly reasonable and common size/price ratio for imported inks from small independent shops. I'm excited to try more from this interesting brand!

(The Pen Addict purchased this ink at full retail from Shigure Inks.)

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Posted on June 3, 2020 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Tono & Lims, Ink Reviews.

Tono & Lims Fukuoka: Fidelity Ink Review

I’m surprised at how much I like the color of Tono & Lims Fukuoka: Fidelity. But what color is it? I think it is more Watermelon Shaved Ice than Strawberry Popsicle, but I think that’s the range we are playing in. A range I have never dabbled in before.

In general, I like pink inks. Maybe even love them. But the pink inks I like the most have to be bright, vibrant, saturated, and strong. I’ve never found much use for lighter shades of pink, mostly - I think - due to my note taking style of writing, as opposed to journaling, letter writing, or other long forms of expressive writing.

Or it’s all just an excuse to not experiment, which is not a good excuse at all!

When I went ink shopping a few weeks ago, I browsed through some of the swabs at Shigure Inks to find a few shades to try out that were out of my norm. Yes, I bought a blue black and a bright blue, but I tried to mix in something out of my wheelhouse a bit. Fukuoka: Fidelity fit the bill perfectly.

This shade of pink is quite a jump in color range from my normal favorite pink, Califolio Andrinope. Andrinople is more of a hot pink/magenta, which I love, while Fukuoka: Fidelity is more of a fruit-colored pink. Neither is a dusty/flowery pink, which is a shade I’m apparently working my way towards.

I inked it up in my Pilot Custom 92 with a Broad Cursive Italic nib to help show of the character of this color, which it has more of than I thought. The darkest shades are bright, evoking the ripe center of a watermelon, before toning down a shade or two, as if you were working your way down to the rind.

Too specific of a description? Yeah, probably so. But I like this ink! I won’t be eating it, or drinking it, or anything but writing with it, but I am having fun with it. That’s my favorite feature of any ink.

Tono & Lims is a new brand for me, and one of the dozens (hundreds?) of Asian ink brands (T&L is from South Korea) out there that are just now becoming accessible to the rest of the world. My first experience has been very positive, as the ink has been easy to use. It flows well, has moderate shading, dries quickly, and cleans well. It doesn’t have any of the more extreme ink features, like heavy sheen, but that’s not an ink feature I want all the time. This is an ink I can use all day, every day.

After using Fukuoka: Fidelity and enjoying it as much as I have, I’m ready to dabble a little more in the Tono & Lims ink catalog. I also sent off a couple of bottles to the review crew, so I’ll be interested in their colors and what they have to say about them.

(I purchased this ink from Shigure Inks at full retail price.)

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Posted on May 25, 2020 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Tono & Lims, Ink Reviews.

Sailor Manyo Kuzu Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

While Sailor recently refreshed their main ink lineup, that doesn't mean they haven't been busy experimenting with other ink colors at the same time. The Sailor Manyo ink series is a collection of eight dye-based inks that represent popular flowers that are frequently mentioned in the Japanese Man'yōshū — an ancient collection of poems.

Kuzu is a subtle dusty purple ink that has some hidden depths that only surface in the right conditions. It's a beautiful color that doesn't immediately offer up all of its secrets, and that's the main reason I've enjoyed using it.

To be honest, I wasn't very impressed with this ink when I first started using it. At first glance, it's just a really bland dark purple that doesn't exhibit any exciting properties. But if you use the right nib and expose the ink to the right light, other colors start to pop up.

Underneath the dusty plum exterior, there are shades of brown, red, and green. And, in the right light, there's even a slight golden sheen! These hidden qualities are really what make this ink interesting. It's just unfortunately that you have to use an incredibly wide and wet nib in order to see them. In most nibs, this ink just looks like a dull brown-purple with a slight tendency to feather.

There's a slight amount of shading, but (again) this only comes out with a fairly wide nib. It changes between black-purple to a medium dark-brown, which is a subtle but elegant change.

Dry time with Kuzu is extremely fast! Most of the time, this ink is dry by 15 seconds, if not quicker. Definitely something to consider if you value quick dry times.

Being a dye-based ink, there isn't any water-resistance to speak of. This definitely isn't an archival-quality ink, so look elsewhere for that.

At 50ml, this is a standard-sized ink bottle that will last for quite a while. And at just under $20, it's also a great deal and very competitive.

I wanted to love this ink, but I'm just not enjoying using it in my day-to-day writing. The dark and dull color isn't interesting, and I'm disappointed that the hidden properties of this ink only come out with ultra-wide nibs and swatching. That isn't how most people use fountain pen inks, so just understand that you won't really see the shading, sheen, and hidden greens, browns, and reds unless you're using a brush.

If you're looking for a dark, understated purple-black ink, Sailor Manyo Kuzu is a fantastic choice!

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

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