(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
It was just a few months ago that I had the pleasure of using my first ink from Troublemaker Inks out of the Philippines. Autumn Rain Gray is a shimmering ink with dark character, but the latest ink I'm trying is part of their standard line of inks. Tablea is a deep brown ink with plenty of shading and zero shimmer.
Brown inks are never at the top of my list of things to try or rotate into my active pens. That said, I can definitely appreciate a nice brown ink if it has some character. In my mind, that character can be achieved with shading. With Tablea, there's plenty of shading to be had, and you don't even need a really large nib to coax it out.
With a lot of dark inks, seeing the shading effects can be difficult with smaller nibs. Given the dark color of the ink, you have to spread it drastically to allow the shading to pop through. Tablea is just light enough to allow the lovely shading to come through with even a German fine nib. It comes out even easier with the 1.1mm stub I used for the photos of this review. Given the great shading effect of this ink, it's definitely a brown that I'll keep around and recommend.
Apart from the shading, this ink is pretty standard. The flow is good, but it feels a tad dry on the nib when writing. This isn't a flow issue at all — more of a lubrication item due to the unique formula of this particular ink. At any rate, it's not severe enough to be unpleasant. It only took a few seconds of writing to adjust to the feel.
The ink does really well on paper. The lines are crisp and defined, and there aren't any bleeding or feathering issues that I've noticed on the different papers I've tried. Show through on the back of the page is on par with what I'd expect with a dark ink, but not overly noticeable. The back of the page is still usable.
The one area where this ink is a little disappointing is the dry time. In my unscientific testing, the ink took between 35 to 45 seconds to dry to a point where it didn't smudge when I ran a finger of it. Look out lefties — this probably won't work well for you unless you really like all your writing to be smudged and on your hand. Regardless of your writing style, you still have to be careful about handling the paper or notebook after writing to avoid smudging or transferring the ink before it's fully dried.
Tablea is a rich, beautiful medium brown ink that fits in well with this season of changing leaves and cooler weather. You can pick up a bottle for $16.50 or a 4ml sample for $4 from Vanness. I'm not often in the mood for a dark brown ink, but this is definitely on the top of my list for when that mood strikes. Give it a try if it looks interesting to you!
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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