PDA

View Full Version : Dark brown or green inks



jor412
May 10th, 2013, 08:57 AM
I'm in the market for a bottle or two of dark brown or dark olive inks. :) I'll consider all brands except anything that's locally available (Parker, Sheaffer, Lamy, Waterman, J. Herbin, Sailor, Diamine, Pelikan & Cross). I like browns like Iroshizuku yama-guri, Noodler's Burma Road Brown & Noodler's El Lawrencee. I'm not crazy about Pelikan or Waterman brown. I've tried Lie de The and find it too light for my uses. I like greens like Noodler's Zhivago, R&K Alt Goldgrün, & Stipula Musk Green.

On my list of possible inks so far are: Rohrer & Klinger Sepia, Private Reserve Avacado. Suggestions are most welcome, as are comments on my "candidate" inks. :)

peterpen53
May 10th, 2013, 10:31 AM
What kind of a dark brown are you looking for? I recently tried PR chocolate brown, which is a dark brown indeed, but also very uninteresting, dull. Won't use much of that anymore. Will a reddish brown do? In that case MB Toffee Brown is a must-have IMO. Great shading, at least in broader nibs. You can see a sample with a cursive italic towards the end of the Handwriting thread. I also quite like Visconti Sepia.
I've used PR Avacado quite a bit and always liked it, but recently I'm having trouble cleaning the pen. I'm noticing this more and more with PR inks (or maybe I'm just paying more attention recently). Not necessarily a problem, but if you dislike cleaning pens... Or have pens with delicate or easily staining material perhaps.

HTH

manoeuver
May 10th, 2013, 10:41 AM
I'm loving Organics Studio Green Sepia. Check it out. PR Ebony Green has been a go-to for me for years also.

jor412
May 10th, 2013, 10:50 AM
In that case MB Toffee Brown is a must-have IMO. Great shading, at least in broader nibs. You can see a sample with a cursive italic towards the end of the Handwriting thread. I also quite like Visconti Sepia.
I've used PR Avacado quite a bit and always liked it, but recently I'm having trouble cleaning the pen. I'm noticing this more and more with PR inks (or maybe I'm just paying more attention recently). Not necessarily a problem, but if you dislike cleaning pens... Or have pens with delicate or easily staining material perhaps.

HTH

I forgot. We have MB inks here, as well, but the toffee brown was recommended by another pen friend. Thanks for reminding me. I'll have a look at the color during our group's next pen meet. Also, I have read elsewhere that PR inks have been troublesome lately, hence my hesitation.


I'm loving Organics Studio Green Sepia. Check it out. PR Ebony Green has been a go-to for me for years also.

Organics studio is the brand I've been looking for but I completely forgot what it was called. Thanks! :)

Laura N
May 10th, 2013, 11:11 AM
Stipula Verde Muschiato.

I can't tell whether you like it or already have it, but for me, who also loves this category, it's a favorite.

jor412
May 10th, 2013, 11:43 AM
I have the Muschiato. :) And I agree. Beautiful ink and it has, among others, contributed to this particular color obsession I have now.

I quite like the Organics studio join or die but I'm not a fan of limited edition inks. I don't like the idea that I'll run out of them at some point and won't be able to replenish my supply. I am looking at the boron brown though and have since checked manouever's review.

Laura N
May 10th, 2013, 12:48 PM
On the green side, Sailor Jentle Epinard is very nice; I like it better than the popular R&K Alt-Goldgrün. It might be too green for what you want, but it's a nice ink.

I agree on the limited edition inks: I hate falling for something that's limited.

Uncle Red
May 10th, 2013, 02:43 PM
Well if Stipula is an option there's Stipula Sepia/ Terre di Sienna, Great brown ink. De Atramentis Tobacco is a great color but the scent is strong. Private Reserve Sepia is great but choose a wet pen. R&K Sepia is hard to define as a color, I'm going to pull out my bottle now that Spring is well under way.

jor412
May 10th, 2013, 09:28 PM
I can check Epinard. I used it once in a Noodler's Ahab demonstrator and it stained the pen slightly pink. That put me off, but I think it was a problem with the pen material.

Goulet is all out of Stipula sepia but if I base it on their swatch & my screen, the brown may be a bit too reddish for me. De Atramentis tobacco looks interesting. I quit smoking 6 months ago so I'm sure about the scent :p

Marsilius
May 10th, 2013, 09:41 PM
I like Epinard. But I still regret that I did not buy more bottles of the elusive Sailor LE Jentle Rikyu Cha, which runs between green and brown depending on nib and paper. I am still hoarding my last half bottle, which might be the symptom of a problem letting go of things.

I have been another Sailor Jentle LE, the very dark brown Doyou. I love it, though it is almost indistinguishable from black sometimes. But it is very smooth.

(I know they are limited editions, but can't help it.)

Noodlers Zhivagho has a nice touch of green in black, but is NOT brown (but you like it, I forgot!)

I like the Iroshizuku browns, also: Tsukishi and Yama-guri.

And I actually like PR Chocolate, but it always smears on my hand by the time I have finished a page.

cedargirl
May 10th, 2013, 10:49 PM
Be careful with R&K Sepia if you are after brown. It is much more grey than brown. Personally, I love it. And I love brown inks. But this sepia is not brown.
For browns not on your exclusion list, I'm loving Noodlers' #41 Brown; also, Kiowa Pecan which shades nicely. But my go-to dark brown is Diamine Macassar (on your exclusion list, though).

jor412
May 10th, 2013, 11:49 PM
I have a sample of the R&K Sepia and I find the grey-brown of it interesting. And I have Yama-guri and in some of my pens, it comes out brown-black, which I really like. I looked at color swatches of #41 & kiowa pecan. I think I'm more inclined toward the kiowa. Buying ink online isn't easy. The screen color rarely matches the actual thing, so what I do is look for an online swatch of an ink I'm familiar with and compare it to something I'm interested in. That way I have some kind of visual estimate of what to expect. And swatches between online sellers are all different. :confused:

peterpen53
May 11th, 2013, 12:37 AM
And I actually like PR Chocolate, but it always smears on my hand by the time I have finished a page.

How wonderful! My experience is exactly the opposite, which I find surprising as most PR inks tend to be rather wet. Must be the pen/paper combination.
I've used it in a broad Pelikan that writes more like a medium in a Quo Vadis notebook, very smooth, almost too smooth paper. But it makes hardly any difference on the cheap, tear-off, little notepad sheets I use to quickly jot something down.

The Good Captain
May 11th, 2013, 01:50 AM
Although I've not inked a pen with it yet, I did a dip test and I really love the R&K Sepia. It's more of a proper Sepia - Cuttlefish ink - colour, in my opinion. The misconception that old black & white photographs were toned to give the faded pale yellow-brown tones is not always correct. Bad fixing and washing practices in the darkroom are usually the cause; resulting in the residual chemicals in the paper causing degeneration and fading of the silver image.
As for dark greens: Diamine Evergreen, Green-Black and Racing Green are some of my choices. at the moment, the Racing Green but that's only available from Germany.

Nonsensical
May 11th, 2013, 01:58 AM
Perhaps Diamine Chocolate, Evergreen or Sherwood green would be worth looking into.

plistumi
May 11th, 2013, 09:58 AM
Good luck!
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7303/8729199468_0ca6d96106_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69334333@N00/8729199468/)

jor412
May 11th, 2013, 10:31 AM
Hmmm now I"m changing my mind about the Noodler's #41. I like it :P On my screen the other browns lean towards the red side of brown (though they're both quite brown) and the #41 leans more toward the sepia/gold side of brown. Is my view of the colors accurate?

klpeabody
May 11th, 2013, 11:12 AM
As far as dark greens are concerned, I can only second the previous recommendations made by other posters. I would add to the potential candidates: Noodler's Sequoia. I don't see it mentioned much, but I find it to be free flowing and very, dark, green. I think it's darker than both Diamine Evergreen and Diamine Green-Black. It is not green-black like Zhivago, it is a true dark, dark green. I really enjoy it and use it frequently. =)

Laura N
May 11th, 2013, 11:36 AM
I like Epinard. But I still regret that I did not buy more bottles of the elusive Sailor LE Jentle Rikyu Cha, which runs between green and brown depending on nib and paper. I am still hoarding my last half bottle, which might be the symptom of a problem letting go of things....

I know what you mean. I love Rikyu Cha myself, and I've only seen it in some pen pals' letters. I think there's always another great ink, though. (She says, nervously counting her Edelstein Turmaline bottles.)

plistumi
May 11th, 2013, 11:39 AM
I have added two browns which to me are red-browns (Noodlers Galileo Manuscript and DeAtramentis Patchouli. To my eye, the Waterman's Absolut is reddish too. Again just for reference as you mentioned you do not like it.). The Iroshizuku Tsukushi is also pretty dark with a reddish hue. Montblanc Toffee Brown also looks reddish to me. I would not describe the Chocolate Brown or the Bekakt Haags as reddish. They really look like dark chocolate. The Noodler's Brown 41 does seem to have a subtle golden hue but it is a very dark brown, especially when used with a wet or broad ink. The formulation that I have is the original one. I have added to golden browns for you to use as reference as they are not very dark (Iroshizuku Ina-Ho and Noodlers Golden Brown [this one shades like crazy]). Unfortunately my Organics Studio Foggy Botttom has died via crud deposits, so I crossed it out and bade it a bathroom "sinky" farewell. Hope this helps.

By the way, the paper I used is crappy index card paper. For some odd reason I like crappy index cards.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7428/8728329019_ac3aaa3cba_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69334333@N00/8728329019/)

Marsilius
May 11th, 2013, 04:41 PM
I'm loving Organics Studio Green Sepia. Check it out. PR Ebony Green has been a go-to for me for years also.

PR's Ebony Blue also looks like a very dark green blue-black to my eyes.

I have, by mistake, added black to both Diamine Ancient Copper and (gasp) Herbin Rouge Hematite, and the result was striking and rich. Both colors alone tend to be a little transparent for my taste (especially the Herbin), but mixed with black, they were deep and rich.

Marsilius
May 11th, 2013, 09:41 PM
In the spirit of plistumi, here is a quick sketch of some greens I have on hand compared. I don't know if the iPhone photo is true (my lighting is too yellow), but it might give some idea. Rikyu-cha can be much more green or much more brown depending on paper and wetness of pen . . .
This was done with a dip pen on 140 lb Strathmore cold press watercolor paper.

Margana
May 12th, 2013, 12:26 AM
Some brown inks...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8515/8594847240_3766f94fc9_b.jpg

beejay
May 12th, 2013, 01:04 AM
Favourite Greens:
Kobe - Rokko Green

Favourite Browns:
Herbin - Lie De The
Herbin - Cacao Du Brazil

beejay

stevekolt
May 12th, 2013, 07:05 AM
For a dark and somewhat unique green MB Jonathan Swift Seaweed Green is pretty good, and for Dark Brown I like Pilot/Iroshizuku yama-guri - wild chestnut

Laura N
May 12th, 2013, 08:03 AM
And if you like Jonathan Swift, which I do, J. Herbin Vert Empire is very close and not a limited edition.

jor412
May 12th, 2013, 09:31 AM
After looking at the various suggestions and making some comparisons, I've decided on R&K Sepia. :) I'm still debating with myself as to whether or not to get Noodler's #41. From what I've read, the new formulation is different from previous ones and doesn't perform as well. Noodler's Walnut is another candidate and I think someone here has some so I might have a look at it first. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, drawings, swatches.

jor412
May 26th, 2013, 01:55 PM
Since I was undecided on the browns, I opted for Noodler's Sequoia :D