Col-o-dex Rotary Cards: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

When Ana Reinert from Well-Appointed Desk came out with her Col-o-ring cards, I was thrilled. I wrote a review here, and discussed the nice quality of the cards and how convenient they were for doing ink swatches.

Recently, Ana came up with a new ingenious idea: Col-o-dex Rotary Cards. What a terrific brainstorm! The Col-o-dex cards work on any normal-sized Rolodex card system. So, no longer do you have to fiddle with rings, now you can put your ink swatch cards in a Rolodex and organize them with the Col-o-dex Tab Cards.

The Col-o-dex cards are 4 inches x 2.625 inches, which is plenty of room for whatever you want to include. On my cards, I put a large swatch at the top so that I can easily compare colors within color groups. I wrote the name of the company and the ink color in the middle. On the left side I did some swirls to test for shading, and on the right I did splats since those often are what show off an ink’s sheen. For all my cards, I used a Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin Calligraphy Pen Nib for consistency. Plus, this nib (for dip pens) is super easy to rinse off, so I could do numerous cards at once.

The Col-o-dex cards are made of 160gsm European pure white paper. The paper is thick enough that ink does not bleed, feather, or show through. It has some texture that you can see in your swabs, but the paper fibers do not get caught in your nib.

However, the cards do curl a bit due to the wetness of the swabs. I’m sure you could press them between heavy books to flatten them out before you put them in your Rolodex.

The best part about the Col-o-dex Cards is that you can organize them with a set of tab cards. I labled the tabs with color names and then organized the cards by company name alphabetically. This is an OCD-ink-fanatic’s dream system!

Another wonderful thing about organizing your ink swatches this way is you discover interesting things about your ink collecting trends. For example, I have a zillion blue and turquoise inks, which makes sense because blue is my favorite ink color.

But, I was surprised to discover that I own only three red inks: Montblanc Corn Poppy Red (my favorite); Robert Oster Astorquiza Rot, and Diamine Red Dragon. I don’t use red ink very often, so that’s why I don’t own many bottles of it, but it’s definitely a color I need to test more. In fact, I need to get out of my blue ink rut and try more pinks, yellows, golds, and browns.

I think the Col-o-dex Cards are an absolutely fantastic way to organize your ink swabs. The only caveat is that it is super hard to find a freaking ordinary Rolodex! Sure, you can find some models on Amazon, but most of them are for business cards or they get horrible reviews. I finally caved and bought this massive Rolodex 200-card File.

This thing is TOO BIG, but it matches my triple-decker pen box, so . . .

At first I thought, “This thing is way too big! I’ll never fill it up enough for it to work well.” And, it’s true. Right now, the cards just dangle like limp fish and won’t rotate when I turn the knobs.

I thought about sending the thing back, but then I realized how much ink I have. I spent several hours swabbing most of my bottled ink. But I haven’t even touched all the samples I’ve accumulated over the years. Maybe my Texas-sized Rolodex isn’t too big after all.

Obviously, you can find older, ordinary Rolodex systems on eBay or in your mom’s garage. I know I had my mom’s old Rolodex, but I think I threw it away when I cleaned my home office a while back. Now, of course, I’m upset that I didn’t keep it.

You can purchase the Col-o-dex Rotary Cards from Vanness Pen Shop for $15.00. The pack comes with 100 cards. I suggest also purchasing the Tab Accessory Pack ($5.00 for 20) so you can organize your swatches. The Tab Accessory Packs come in three colors: kraft brown, blue raspberry, and limeade green.

(Vanness Pens provided the Col-o-dex Rotary Cards and an Accessory Tab Pack to Pen Addict for review at no cost.)

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Krishna Ink Review: Jungle Volcano

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Krishna Ink is made in Palakkad, Kerala, India, and is the brainchild of a doctor and pen enthusiast named Sreekumar. He researched ink-making because he wanted to produce high quality fountain pen ink in India. You can read about his process here. Krishna inks are made to be safe (neutral) for all fountain pens and are water soluble (except for the Kot-massi series which are iron gall inks). Krishna inks are available to people outside of India through retailers like Vanness Pens.

Krishna inks come packaged in a plain cardboard box. The bottles hold 20ml of ink and are made of glass.

I saw photos of Krishna Jungle Volcano on Instagram and knew I had to get a bottle. I am thrilled with this ink. It’s a georgous orange ink that I find hard to categorize. Is it a terra cotta or a peach or a sunset? I don’t know because it looks different depending on the paper. Jungle Volcano also has a crazy lime green sheen—it’s unlike any orange ink I’ve tried.

I used a Maruman Septcouleur notebook for my initial ink testing because it contains smooth, pure white paper that shows off the ink’s true color(s). Jungle Volcano is a saturated orange with a definite pink tint on this paper.

I did not observe much shading with my Franklin-Christoph medium italic nib, but the ink flowed well and was not too wet, drying completely after 30 seconds. The ink is definitely not waterproof, and it’s not meant to be. You can see the pink tint clearly in the water test.

Although the green sheen did not show up much on the Maruman paper, it absolutely exploded on my MD Cotton Paper. Just look at those colors! Now you know why this ink is called Jungle Volcano.

You can really see the green sheen on the Col-o-dex card (review coming soon), both in the swirls and the splats.

The chromatography test I did demonstrates the complex colors in Jungle Volcano ink. The base color is a neon pink, with orange and green components.

I am crazy about Krishna Jungle Volcano ink. I love how it’s a gorgeous, deep orange when you use a fine nib. But when you use a wide nib it erupts with green sheen. This stuff is amazing! It reminds me of Hawaii! It makes me want to eat bananas and sing Jungle Book songs! Seriously, though, I’ve had so much fun playing with this ink.

You can purchase a 20 ml bottle of Krishna Jungle Volcano from Vanness Pens for $8.00. Be forewarned, the bottle is tiny, so you won’t be able to fill pens with super large nibs from it. You’ll need to use a syringe or, if you’re using a converter, just fill the converter itself rather than filling through the nib.

(This ink was purchased from Vanness Pens using a reviewer’s discount.)

Diamine Earl Grey Fountain Pen Ink Review

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

(Update: I had no idea the Reddit community /r/fountainpens collaborated with Diamine to make this ink. How cool is that? Read more about it here.)

As we begin to leave winter behind, gray inks may not be what you’re looking for, but they definitely help the spring colors stand out. And, who doesn’t love a good cup of earl grey tea? With Earl Grey, Diamine have created a beautiful gray ink that is delightful to use, even when spring is in the air.

When I first received this ink and looked at the name, I naturally associated it with the color of tea. I was a bit surprised when I got out a sample to swap and saw a beautiful gray swim across the page. While earl grey tea is certainly brown, this ink is certainly not. Gray inks tend to fascinate me at certain times due to the number of colors hidden beneath the surface that make gray what it is. Is it on the blue side? More green or brown? Or maybe it’s an off-black? These subtle characteristics in hue grab my eye and make the color endlessly enjoyable.

Like almost every other Diamine ink I’ve used, this is a well-behaved, predictable ink that flows well, washes out easily, and has nice characteristics. As an added bonus, it also dries really quickly. In my tests with a 1.1mm stub nib, it often dries in under ten seconds, and certainly by fifteen. In the pen, the flow is smooth and well-lubricated, there are no unexpected starting problems or other oddities. It performs well, just as I’d expect from a Diamine ink.

When I look at this ink on the page, I see more of a blue or green tint in the light. Compared with Iroshizuku fuyu syogun, which is more of a purple tint, it has a warm and inviting tone that works well in business or office settings, but really shines when paired with a wide nib. It’s on the medium to dark side, but the shading adds some lighter variations that are pleasant.

What really makes this color pop for me is the wide range of shading it exhibits. This is also the same reason that I love the fuyu syogun ink so much. I really enjoy shading in gray inks, and there’s plenty of it with Earl Grey. On top of that, I’ve noticed a slight amount of sheen on top of the dried ink in certain light. It’s not a stand-out feature, but you can see it if you’re looking for it.

Overall, I’ve been really pleased with this ink. It’s a lovely color that shades nicely and behaves well in my pens. Add on the bonus of a fast dry time, and you’ve got a nearly unbeatable combination provided you enjoy the color. Diamine offer this in two sizes: 30ml or 80ml bottles for around $8 and $16, respectively. It’s a great value, and I highly recommend it if you’re interested in the color.

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

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