Montblanc Toffee Brown Ink Review

Montblanc Toffee Brown (Ident No: U0105188) is one of my favourite dark inks. It was added as part of the MB ink collection in 2010, when Montblanc launched eight colours (Burgundy Red, Irish Green, Lavender Purple, Midnight Blue, Mystery Black, Royal Blue, Oyster Grey & Toffee Brown) in newer bottles, from a new supplier. The bottle was also redesigned with an adorable new look and volume was increased to 60 ml. A relatively expensive ink bottle that with a heavy plastic cap, the bottle is well packaged with foam strips, in a coffee coloured cardboard box. The shoe shape involves a smaller reservoir to the front to help get a minimal level of when the ink runs low in the bottle. 

Indoor Lighting

Outdoor Sunshine

Writing

Well behaved ink without noticeable feathering on decent paper. It does feather and spread on cheap papers. 

• Feathering: 😐 None on Muji (Good Paper only)
• Ghosting: 😊 Not noticeable
• Color Variation: 😍 Vibrant from deep brown to black
• Sheen: Towards Black
• Wetness: 😊

• Saturation :😊 
• Water Resistance: 😞 
• Ease of Cleaning: 😊
• Shading: 😊
• Flow: 😊
• Lubrication: 😊
• Drying Time: 😐  40 seconds
• Price: 😞  (Around US$ 18-24)

Digital Colour Meter

Nibs

Indoors

Outdoors

Main Supplies

• MB 146 Fine nib
• Muji B6 PP Cover Notebook, Dotted Paper

Sailor Jentle Sky High Ink (Old) Review

Sailor, as most of you are aware is one of the Big 3 companies in Japanese fountain pen industry. Apart from some great nibs, Sailor does manufacture some amazing inks. Probably, Sailor is the only Japanese company that has released many more variants of ink along the lines of store-speciality inks than under its own umbrella.

The ink I am reviewing is the old Sailor Jentle Sky High Ink with product code 13-1000-241. It been one of my favourite blue inks, although I do have a bottle of similarly hued and a newer Souten (13-1005-205). Sailor has also relaunched Skyhigh in international markets, which comes with product code 13-9171-241. I am yet to try the new Skyhigh.

Bottle/Packaging

Sailor Sky High came in a 50 ml bottle which looked like the below one. It was packaged in white cardboard box with everything, except brand and volume of ink, in Japanese 😏

                 There is a plastic funnel insert to help fill ink into your pen, which in my humble opinion is equally useless. Filling ink in a nibsize#6 pen (CC or piston) can be challenging, given the low bottom pan-like structure of the bottle, the nib/feed can hardly immerse itself in the bottle. So for me, the ink stays in a TWSBI Diamond 50 bottle.

Writing with Sky High

The ink is a well behaved with absence of any noticeable feathering on decent grade of paper including copypaper. Depending on the paper thickness there could be some ghosting, else it a pretty much 'no worry' azure blue ink.

• Feathering: 😊 None 
• Ghosting: 😐 A bit on Muji notebook 
• Color Variation: 😍 Vibrant from light to dark shades
• Sheen: Towards Violet & Red 
• Wetness: 😊

• Saturation :😊 
• Water Resistance: 😞 
• Ease of Cleaning: 😊
• Shading: 😊
• Flow: 😊
• Lubrication: 😊
• Drying Time: 😐 30 seconds+ 
• Price: 😐  (Around $ 12 as landed price in 2014)

Digital Colour Meter

Nibs

Pelikan Steel Italic Nib

Indoors

Outdoors

Main Supplies

• Pelikan M200 Cognac - Italic Nib 
• Muji B6 PP Cover Notebook, Dotted Paper

Thank you for going through the review.