92 brands from 19 countries
Building on an infographic I saw on the internet, I started this research to find all the commercially available fountain pen inks out there. I’m not the first to do this, and I’m sure there are errors and omissions (which I would appreciate your help to correct).
Many of these are house brands that were made by other companies. This list only contains currently available fountain pen ink, not technical or drawing inks.
Please let me know any brands I missed. I wish you health to use them all!
Thanks to the amazing knowledge of this group, our list now totals inks from 27 countries!
++++Australia
Blackstone (out of business but still somewhat available)
Robert Oster
Standard Bindery (out of business but still somewhat available)
Tintex/Toucan
Van Dieman's
++++Austria
Montblanc
Seitz Kreuznach
++++Brazil
Compactor
Pilot (500ml bottles)
++++Canada
Ferris Wheel Press
++++China
Ancient Song/Ancient Charm
Ban Mi
Banmi
Bookpens
Color Station
Dryden Designs
Hero
Jinhao
Karkos
Medici
Nina’s House
Ostrich
PenBBS
Shanghai Stationary
Solar Terms
Yookers
++++Czech Republic
Inkebara
Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth
++++France
Cartier
Jacques Herbin
L'Artisan Pastellier/Callifolio
Parker
S.T. Dupont
Waterman (manufactured in Switzerland)
++++Germany
Berlin Notebook
Bethge
Cleo Skribent
Cross (bottles only by Pelikan)
De Atramentis
Diplomat
Fritz Schimpf (by Diamine)
Graf von Faber-Castell
Gutenberg Museum
Herlitz (cartridge only by Pelikan)
Kaweco
Lamy
Lindauer
Manufactum
Octopus Concept
Online
Pelikan
Rohrer & Klinger
Rotring
Saarpen Tinte
Schneider
Seitz-Kreuznach (by R&K)
Staedtler
Standardgraph
Super 5 (by R&K)
Waldmann
++++India
Bril
Camlin
Chelpark
Daytone
Glare
Krishna
++++Italy
Aurora
Campo Marzio
Delta (out of business but still somewhat available)
Leonardo Officina Italiana
Montegrappa
Omas (out of business but still somewhat available)
Pineider
Rubinato
Scribo
Stipula
Visconti
++++Japan
Atman (by Sailor)
Bungubox
Bungukan Kobayashi (by Sailor)
Color Traveler
Delta Style-D (by Sailor)
Hakase
Hankyu (by Sailor)
Hirayama mannendou (by Sailor)
Hougado Pen Gallery (by Sailor)
Ishida Bungu (by Sailor)
Itoya (by Sailor)
Izumi (by Sailor)
Joyful-2 (by Sailor)
Kingdom Note (by Sailor)
Kobayashi Bungukan Bechorism (by Tono & Lims)
Kogyokudo (by Sailor)
Kuretake
Kyo No Oto
Kyoto TAG
Maruzen’s Athena (by Sailor)
Mimoink (by Sailor)
Mitsukoshi
Nagasawa Kobe (by Sailor)
PellePenna (by Sailor)
Pen & Message (by Sailor)
Pen House/Pent Pen
Pen Land Café (by Sailor)
PenPoint (by Sailor)
Penlux (by Sailor)
Penne19 (by Sailor)
Pen’s Alley (by Sailor)
Pilot/Namiki
Platinum
Sailor
Sankodo (by Sailor)
Shinpuku (by Sailor)
Shosaikin (by Sailor)
Showbundo (by Sailor)
Shumibu (by Sailor)
SKB
Taccia Ukiyo-e
Takashimaya (by Sailor)
Takeda Jimuki
Tamaoki (by Sailor)
Tayama Bungu (by Sailor)
Tsutaya Books (by Sailor)
Usagiya (by Sailor)
Voice (by Sailor)
Wancher
Yotsuba (by Sailor)
++++Malaysia
LinPen
++++Netherland
Akkerman (by Diamine)
La Couronne du Comte
++++Pakistan
Dollar
++++Philippines
Troublemaker
Vinta
++++Poland
Cresco
KWZI
++++Romania
Pennonia (manufactured in Hungary)
++++Russia
Raduga
++++Singapore
Straits Pen
++++Slovenia
Sheaffer
Nemosine
++++South Korea
3Oysters
Colorverse
Egoistar
Tono and Lims
++++Spain
Antigua’s
Inoxcrom
++++Switzerland
Abraxas
Caran d'Ache
Hieronymous (manufactured in Germany)
Landolt-Arbenz
++++Taiwan
Carpink
Gazing Far
Ink Institute
Kala
Laban
Lennon Tool Bar
TWSBI
iPaper
Yaching Style
++++Turkey
Scrikss (cartridge only)
++++United Kingdom
Beaufort (England)
Bespoke British/Conway Stewart (England) (by Diamine)
Choosing Keeping (England)
Cult Pens (by Diamine) (England)
Diamine (England)
Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies (England)
Mabie Todd/Blackbird (England)
Manuscript Pen Company (England)
Nick Stewart (England)
Onoto (England)
Pure Pens (Wales)
Roberson Penman
Yard-O-Led (England)
++++United States
Anderillium
Anderson Pens
BIC (cartridge only)
Backpack
Birmingham
Carter
Chesterfield (by Private Reserve)
Colorado Pen
Dr. Martins
Everflo
Fahrney's
Fountain Pen Network (by Noodlers)
Fountain Pen Revolution
Franklin Christoph
Higgins
Hippo Noto (by Robert Oster and KWZ)
Karas Pen
Levenger
Monteverde (manufactured in Austria)
Noodler's
Nostalgic Impressions
Organics Studio
Papier Plume
Private Reserve (out of business but still somewhat available)
Thornton's Luxury Goods
Vanness
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
My unstated goal is to use an ink from each country.. have any of you done that? I'm three or four away.
The biggest surprise for me on this list is I couldn't find any ink made in Ireland. Could that be true?
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Blackstone and Bookbinders are both defunct.
China has Hero inks.
Germany has Gutenberg Urkunden
UK has ESSRI.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
added to the list, thank you silverlifter
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
TWSBI is Taiwanese, not Chinese.
Ink Institute, Lennon Tool Bar, and iPaper for Taiwan; Color Traveler for Japan; Van Dieman's and Standard Bindery for Australia; and Tono and Lims for South Korea.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
added to the list, thank you inkguesser
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Germany:
Seitz-Kreuznach (most likely made by R&K)
Fritz Schimpf (Shop ink made by Diamine)
Lindauer
Rotring
Schneider
Czech Republic:
Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth
France:
Cartier (donˋt know who manufacture it)
S.T. Dupont
Side note:
ESS (Ecclesiastical Stationery Supplies) is the manufacturer of ESSRI which means ESS Registrars Ink ;)
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
UK - Cult Pens (Diamine)
- Manuscript
- Roberson Penman
Pakistan - Dollar
Germany - Super 5 (R&K, at least it used to be)
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
UK - Cult Pens (Diamine)
- Manuscript
- Roberson Penman
Pakistan - Dollar
Germany - Super 5 (R&K, at least it used to be)
According to their website Roberson Penman inks are: "All the colours are water-soluble and intermixable, for use with reed pens, dip pens, ruling pens and brush" Their Classic Transparent inks can also be used in "fountain pens except Montblanc."
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Add
Switzerland - Hieronymous
Italy - Aurora & Rubinato
? - Cross inks - have been made in various countries
Japan - Pen & Message (made by Sailor)
France - S T DuPont
America - Dr. Ph Martins
Note: Bookbinders isn’t technically out of business. They became Standard Bindery. Their original Bookbinders inks are indeed discontinued.
Not sure if you intend to include all the shop/exclusives made by major manufacturers like Sailor & Diamine (you have included a few already). There are a lot of those to include.......
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
I believe that both Montblanc and Monteverde inks are made in Austria, not Germany. Sheaffer inks are no longer made in the USA but in Slovenia. Parker inks are made in France.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Have you check the list of ink brands that Vanness Pens have?
They probably have the most complete stock of ink brands. This is why I don't buy inks from anywhere else.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
These days, where the brand is 'from' and where the ink is made can be complicated.
e.g. Birmingham (US) inks used to be made by (I think) Seitz-Kreuznach in Germany but have now moved to in-house production.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Hippo Noto inks are made in the USA
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Thank you all for the great insight, this is fun! I’ve incorporated the above knowledge as best I can. A few questions follow
++++++++++++++++++
Pterodactylus - I'm familiar with Rotring's technical and calligraphy inks, but have not found a true fountain pen ink from them. Do you know of any?
++++++++++
grainweevil
Manuscript Pen Company (England) makes beautiful pens and nibs, but I couldn't find any fountain pen ink. Have you seen or used some?
++++++++++++++
migo984
I see what you mean about Cross. Apparently, the best current thought is their bottled ink is made by Pelikan in Germany, so I went with that. “They” also say Cross cartridges are made in USA by Chad Labs.
Quote:
Not sure if you intend to include all the shop/exclusives made by major manufacturers like Sailor & Diamine (you have included a few already). There are a lot of those to include.......
Was not my intention to include all the shop exclusives by major brands, (that is WAY too big a rabbit hole to drop down), but I’m ok that there are some on the list. After all, this is just for fun anyway.
++++++++++++++++++
carlos.q
Quote:
I believe that both Montblanc and Monteverde inks are made in Austria, not Germany.
My recent Monteverde is stamped Made in USA, so unless something changed in the past couple weeks, I think they are still manufacturing ink in America.
Montblanc is still a German company of course, and I couldn’t find anything about them moving ink manufacture to Austria. Do you have some insight into that?
Keep the adds/corrections coming, this is really interesting!
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tooth
Thank you all for the great insight, this is fun! I’ve incorporated the above knowledge as best I can. A few questions follow
++++++++++++++++++
Pterodactylus - I'm familiar with Rotring's technical and calligraphy inks, but have not found a true fountain pen ink from them. Do you know of any?
++++++++++
grainweevil
Manuscript Pen Company (England) makes beautiful pens and nibs, but I couldn't find any fountain pen ink. Have you seen or used some?
++++++++++++++
migo984
I see what you mean about Cross. Apparently, the best current thought is their bottled ink is made by Pelikan in Germany, so I went with that. “They” also say Cross cartridges are made in USA by Chad Labs.
Was not my intention to include all the shop exclusives by major brands, (that is WAY too big a rabbit hole to drop down), but I’m ok that there are some on the list. After all, this is just for fun anyway.
++++++++++++++++++
carlos.q
Quote:
I believe that both Montblanc and Monteverde inks are made in Austria, not Germany.
My recent Monteverde is stamped Made in USA, so unless something changed in the past couple weeks, I think they are still manufacturing ink in America.
Montblanc is still a German company of course, and I couldn’t find anything about them moving ink manufacture to Austria. Do you have some insight into that?
Keep the adds/corrections coming, this is really interesting!
Yes they sell FP ink cartridges (for the Artpen) in Blue and Black
https://www.rotring.com/de/bleistift.../farbe-schwarz
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tooth
Montblanc is still a German company of course, and I couldn’t find anything about them moving ink manufacture to Austria. Do you have some insight into that?
Keep the adds/corrections coming, this is really interesting!
No insight, but three Montblanc inks pulled at random from a drawer all have 'Made in Austria' on the box.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tooth
grainweevil
Manuscript Pen Company (England) makes beautiful pens and nibs, but I couldn't find any fountain pen ink. Have you seen or used some?
Seen, yes - used, no. But evidence they do exist.
I have a bottle of rotring fountain pen ink, fwiw. But these days they've been swallowed up by Newell and it seems to be cartridges only now. They also devoured Parker and Waterman of course, so maybe they should all count as French as they are all (mis)managed together from there?
Montblanc inks have "made in Austria" on them for... well, a while now.
I suspect if you plump for country of manufacture rather than country of brand the list will get much shorter. For the UK at least, if you go by manufacturer rather than brand, it will largely boil down to Diamine and ESS. Manuscript may be an outlier.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
It’s not a big range, but Straits Pen of Singapore makes a line called “Honest Inks”. They are distributed in the US by Lemur Inks and can also be ordered from Straits. They launched at the 2018 SF Pen Show and I believe there are 8-10 colors. Just offering for your completeness.
Re: 92 brands from 19 countries
I am in absolute awe at the knowledge contained within this group, and the willingness to share. This is fantastic, thank you. All above suggestions now incorporated. Next inky entry?