Vanness Pens x Robert Oster Hemp Fountain Pen Ink Review

It takes a lot to get me to like a green ink.

Akkerman #28 Hofkwartier Groen is far and away my favorite, and is a top five personal ink, regardless of color. The green is bright, no doubt thanks to a hefty dose of yellow in the mix, and shades wonderfully. It’s flat-out fun to use.

Well down the line after that shade comes the classic Rohrer & Klinger Alt-Goldgrun, primarily because it is weird as heck, and shades like a beast. It’s one of those inks that once you see it in person you know you have to have it. Faber-Castell Viper Green is a more traditional shade of green, but has an electric/searing nature in its tone. This would fall into an everyday writing green, but with a bit of an edge.

That’s mostly it for my green use, at least until I took a chance on Hemp, one of the three Vanness Pens collaborations with Robert Oster. This one is going into the rotation, most likely as my second green behind Akkerman #28.

Green inks are a short list for me, although I can’t explain why. Unlike blue, orange, or purple, green has to be a little weird for me to use. Traditional greens in the Kelly or Forest shades need not apply. Yellow undertones are good, which brings out the brightness, and having odd questions come to mind, like “What color of frog is this?” only serve to make it more fun.

I wasn’t sure what color Hemp would actually be. Was this to represent fresh growth, or in a processed for production phase? It’s definitely the former, with a good combination of established green in the middle, and the youth of yellow around the edges.

In my bank paper Musubi Notebook I saw more shading than I expected, using an Aurora Optima with a Medium gold nib. On Rhodia, the color was more flat, but bright (and had a loooong dry time.) On Tomoe River paper, the range of darkness showed up. The swab on the Col-o-ring Oversize is the best representation of the color that I see when writing with a nib.

The only remaining question I have at this point is how the ink will look on the page in one of my finer nibs. will the brightness and character still show up? I hope so, because I’ve answered the other important question - do I like this ink - already. And now I’m ready to use it more.

(I bought this ink from Vanness Pens at a discount.)

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Sailor Manyo Yomogi 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.)

Based solely on my collection of inks and what I normally have inked up in my pens, you could assume that I lean very unfairly toward the blue realm of ink colors. While it's true that I have way more blue inks than any other combined, I didn't try to amass this many on purpose. I'm just fascinated by the different shades of blue and how they play with green, purple, black, and red, and there just seems to be so many interesting inks that I need to try. The latest ink in my blue collection is Sailor's Manyo Yomogi.

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. Yomogi is a dark blue with a lot of green in the mix, as well as a gorgeous red/purple sheen in some areas. It's been a pleasure using this ink for the past couple of weeks, and it's still surprising me with the amount of character it can expose through shading and sheen alone.

Comparing it directly to other inks in Sailor's lineup, this is like a darker version of Yama-dori — one of my favorite dark teal inks to date. While this is an obviously blue ink, there's also a fair amount of dark green that transforms this from blue to teal depending on the width and heaviness of the stroke. it's fascinating to write with this ink and see how the colors change across the page. The shading is subtle, but it does just enough to vacillate between these colors sporadically and create something magical.

While shading is always a favorite characteristic of mine, Yomogi has another trick up its sleeve — some amazing red and purple sheen. You can only see the sheen in certain light and particularly where the ink pools up. When it happens, it's spectacular. I really enjoy seeing these red/purple hues pop off the page in certain light.

One thing this ink does not excel at, however, is dry time. It normally takes between 20 and 30 seconds for strokes to dry with this ink, which is a little on the long side for my preferences. I definitely have to remember to keep notebooks open a little longer than normal before closing them, and I can't imagine how problematic this ink would be for left-handed writers. While it's gorgeous, it certainly takes its time when drying. This is something worth considering before purchasing this ink.

And that's another thing — this ink isn't exactly cheap. For a 50ml bottle, you'll spend $24. Is this too much? I don't think so. The delight I derive from using this ink is well worth the price of admission, but you can find many other high-quality inks for a lower price if that's a major concern. In terms of Japanese fountain pen inks, this price is right on target, especially with recent price increases to keep up with inflation. 50ml will last quite a while, so it's a good investment in your own joy if this is an ink color that makes you happy. I've really enjoyed using it over the past couple of weeks, especially with all the cold weather that's hit the states over the last week.

You can find Yomogi at JetPens, along with many other Sailor Manyo inks.

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

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Vinta Ink Heritage Brown Pamana 2018: A 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.)

To celebrate their one-year anniversary, Vinta Inks created Heritage Brown Pamana Ink. "Pamana" is the Filipino word for "heritage."

Heritage Brown is a brown-orange ink with lots of green sheen. On my Col-o-dex card, you can see the rich brown-orange-ish color in the swab. The writing and splats display the green sheen. In fact, there's so much green sheen that the brown is almost a secondary color.

Rhodia Dot Grid paper, which seems to suppress sheen, displays the true brown-orange color of the ink. My photos make it look lighter than it is in person. It's a rich rust color. The ink is wet, with a fairly long dry time, and it is not waterproof.

Chromatography demonstrates that Heritage Brown is comprised of several hues: lavender, lots of pink, orange, lime, and turquoise.

MD Cotton paper with a large ruling nib displays the variations of brown and orange and the thick green sheen. The sheen is evident even in the thinner writing.

I used Tomoe River Paper (52 gsm) for a writing exercise with a Lamy Vista medium nib. As you would expect, the paper brings out the sheen of the ink but only in bright light does the green dominate the brown. The swab shows both colors.

I wrote out a longer passage using my MD A5 Notebook Journal. This paper really brought out the brown-orange color (especially the orange).

Vinta Heritage Brown Pamana is a terrific ink if you love lots of sheen. The base color is a rich, rusty brown that leans heavily towards orange, but green sheen overwhelms the brown on all of the papers I tested except for Rhodia. The ink performed well and flowed wet and smooth in my Lamy Vista medium nib.

You can purchase this ink from Vanness Pens. It costs $12.50 for a 30ml bottle and $3.10 for a 4ml sample.

(Vanness Pens provided this ink to Pen Addict free of charge 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!