Franklin Christoph Terra Firma Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

One of my favorite things to do at pen shows is to check out the Franklin Christoph booth to see what kind of new model pens they have on display. It's hard to get a good look since most of the unique stock sells out pretty quickly. Either way, if you end up purchasing a pen from the fine folks at Franklin Christoph, they offer to fill it with an ink from their own line. There's roughly a dozen colors to choose from, and I've enjoyed every one that I've tried. My most recent experiment was Terra Firma, a delightfully shade-happy red-brown ink.

Normally, I don't pay much attention to brown inks — they've never been something to catch my eye when ink shopping. This particular ink caught my eye because of the pronounced shading it exhibits. I love an ink that shades well, regardless of the color.

A few weeks later, I've determined that I like a bit more red in my inks of this color, but Terra Firma is a solid, respectable ink even if it's not my favorite color.

First off, this is an extremely well-behaved ink with surprisingly good dry times. The ink consistently dries in 12 - 15 seconds in the 1.1mm stub I've been using. Not bad at all. When it's time to clean out a pen, this ink only requires one flush to clear out all the color from the pen. That's about as easy as it gets.

The color of this ink screams "earth" or "dirt" as soon as you start writing. The Latin for Terra Firma is "solid earth," which probably wasn't a coincidence when the ink was named. Due to the red shades in this ink, it reminds me a lot of the soil in the area I grew up. Everyone calls it "Alabama clay," and it is almost identical to the color of this ink. Based on comparisons, it's somewhere in between a standard medium brown and a brown-red like Oxblood or Ancient Copper (both from Diamine). It looks good on paper, and it's deep enough to pass as a "business-friendly" shade.

Now, my favorite characteristic of this ink is the shading. This ink loves to shade. I highly recommend putting this ink in a broader nib (preferably a stub or italic) so that you can see the full range of color hidden inside the medium brown top layer.

The ink comes in a 2 oz. bottle in either a traditional screw cap or a eyedropper cap. The eyedropper cap has a nozzle that makes it a piece of cake to fill eyedropper pens without any mess or an actual eyedropper or syringe.

Franklin Christoph inks are $12.50 a bottle from their online store.

Graf Von Faber-Castell Deep Sea Green Ink Review

When I think of Graf Von Faber-Castell I think of high end writing instruments like the Perfect Pencil or the somewhat extreme Pen of the Year release. What I haven’t thought about, until now, are their fountain pen inks. I had no idea what I had been missing.

Deep Sea Green is my first foray into GVFC inks and I am completely enamored with it. It was an easy choice actually, because the colors in the rest of the lineup aren’t all that inspiring. They offer ink colors that all fountain pen companies have to offer: Black, blue, red, green, brown, grey. Sure, they have fancier names - “Garnet Red”, “Cobalt Blue” - but they aren’t all that exciting. Deep Sea Green is a clear outlier.

Despite the basic colors, these are not basic inks. All GVFC inks are indelible, meaning they are smudge-resistant, light-fast, waterproof, and solvent resistant. For all intents and purposes, they are permanent. That is something I can get behind despite the blandness of the shades available.

Deep Sea Green has more character than I expected when I received this bottle from Goulet Pens. I’ve been using it in my Sailor King of Pens with a stock medium nib, and it shades well despite the fineness of the nib. There are showings of light and dark greens and blues, plus appearances of grey. It flows wonderfully and dries quickly too. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences so far, and yes, it makes me even want to try some of the more boring colors.

$30 may seem steep for a bottle of ink, and it is, but keep in mind the bottle holds 75ml, which is a 50% increase over the similarly priced Pilot Iroshizuku. And the ink contained within has far more features. The bottle itself is strong, sturdy, and wonderful to look at on a desk or shelf.

Now, if the higher-ups at Graf Von Faber-Castell would mix in a purple or turquoise we would be off to the races.

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

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Bungubox Sunset of Omaezaki Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

One of the greatest things you can ever hope to do when it comes to buying new inks is to have the opportunity to try the inks before you make your choice. Like I wrote about with my Akkerman purchase at the 2016 Atlanta Pen Show, Vanness pens provided a testing station that had a couple dozen inked pens that you could try at any time. I think I tested out every single ink they made available, but I only picked two inks to come home with me. Obviously, one of those was the Akkerman Passage Blauw. The other ink was a tad uncharacteristic for me: Bungubox Sunset of Omaezaki. It was uncharacteristic because this is a bright orange ink...something that I've never ventured into when it comes to ink colors. Short story: I'm glad I took the leap.

Omaezaki is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, which is at the very tip of the Omaezaki Peninsula. Being a surf town, the sunset orange seems fitting against the other blue ink that uses the same namesake. The flag of Omaezaki also features a similar orange color as the backdrop.

Now, back to the ink. As far as I understand, the Sunset of Omaezaki ink is a limited edition for this year. It really caught my attention at the testing table because it had a subtle shading effect instead of a basic highlighter-orange color. It's bright and pops off the page, but it also has character.

Being a Bungubox ink, I had no concerns about it being a poor performer in my pens, and I was correct to assume. This is a fabulous ink. The writing performance is on par with other Bungubox and Sailor inks, which is to say it's an exceptional ink. I haven't noticed any hard or skippy starts, no problems when writing, and easy clean up.

When writing with this ink, the nib is lubricated to provide a smooth writing experience. The ink isn't overly wet, but does a nice job of keeping a good level of flow in the different pens I've tried it with. My favorite characteristic of the ink is the shading. It's not a dramatic level of shading like some inks, but it's enough to catch my eye and make me smile. In the areas where ink pools up slightly, the ink takes on a darker, red-orange hue that I love. The normal color of the ink is a brighter orange tone that you can't miss.

The dry time on this ink is another huge plus. In my tests, the ink was consistently dry and resisting smudges by 10-15 seconds. That's impressive.

Another thing to note about this ink is that it does produce a smell when you're writing. It reminds me of certain art supplies or paints — nothing offensive, but just something that you notice. Most fountain pen inks are fairly odorless unless you try really hard to notice a scent. This one hits your nose while you're writing in a proper position where the pen is a good 2+ feet from your nose. It's not an unpleasant smell, but it's worth mentioning. I happen to like the smell.

The bottle is exactly like other Bungubox and Sailor ink bottles. I love the shape of these bottles more than any other (yes, even the Akkerman bottles) due to the sleek design. These bottles feature an ink well system that allows you to ink up your pens even if the ink level in the bottle is low. It's a nice feature that I wish all ink bottles included.

I'm brand new to the world of orange inks, but I think I might be in the market to try some more. I've always heard great things about Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki, so that might be my next experiment. Either way, this Bungubox ink is a huge win for me. I'm loving this ink and find myself using it pretty heavily during the day, even though it's not a standard "business" or "work" color. It's just too pretty and exciting to let it sit all day.

Also, if you happen to own any Karas Kustoms pens with the orange anodized finish, it matches this ink perfectly.

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