Is this the best looking ink bottle on the market? Is this the best performing ink on the market? Dominant Industry has a good chance of going 2-for-2 in those categories.
Glass ink bottles interest me greatly. Why? They shouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I mean, you aren’t writing with the bottle - are you? The liquid inside is what matters, but I would be lying if a cool storage vessel for ink didn’t make a difference in what I think about the brand. That said, a good ink can come in a basic bottle. A bad ink can come in a Faberge Egg and will still be a bad ink.
Fortunately, Dominant Industry Lake is one of the more enjoyable inks I’ve tested in quite some time.
When they first made their splash, it was for wild-looking dip nib only inks like Hologram. While that ink looks amazing and I’ll probably test some down the line, what I was most anxious to test were their standard fountain pen inks.
I grabbed a few bottles for the review crew, and kept No. 115 Lake for myself to try out. It has been a great experience so far.
It could be that I hit the pen and nib perfecta for this ink, allowing it to perform so wonderfully. I used a new Faber-Castell Ambition, with a steel Medium nib. The ink flows perfectly from this nib, even on the more absorbent Story Supply Thick Plot notebook the writing sample was done on.
I guess all good inks are consistent, but this perfect from start to finish? That’s not always how it goes. Lake behaved exactly the same, letter to letter, line to line. It has medium wetness, a small amount of shading, and only sheen if you let it pool up on the page. Dry time is fantastic on Clairefontaine Triomphe, checking in at just over 10 seconds on my finger swipe. On Tomoe River that dry time doubled, but that is better than most on that paper.
What I want to do now is test out Lake in a finer nib pen. The way the ink flows in this Faber-Castell makes me think it will perform just as well in some of my Japanese fine nibs. And the color is strong enough to be able to handle the narrower width of the lines.
The made-for-Instagram bottles drew me in. The ink performance kept me around. And I want more Dominant Industry inks, for both reasons.
You can pick up the fountain pen compatible versions of Dominant Industry inks at Yoseka Stationery for $17.00 for a 25 ml bottle. A little pricey, but not remotely out of line. I look forward to seeing how the other colors I purchased test out. I have high hopes after my first go.
(I purchased this ink from Yoseka Stationery at full retail price.)
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