Monday, April 17, 2017

Platinum Classic Inks - All the Gall

Platinum recently released 6 new inks that are dubbed "Classic" which is referring to the old school style of ink known as Iron Gall. Iron Gall is permanent ink but there are some caveats. I did a post about Iron Gall called The Gall of That Ink which goes into detail of what it is all about but I will give a cliff note version here. Iron Gall is made up of Iron Ferrite and Gallic Acid and it oxidizes (rusts) into the page making it a permanent ink. It can also rust steel nibs.


With all of that said, Iron Gall inks are known to darken over time and will eventually turn to black which is where these names derive from. The samples above have been oxidizing for 1 week now and watching some of these inks is fascinating. Iron Gall inks tend to be under-saturated which is to be expected after its initial curing period of 24 hours.


Lavender Black is a decent purple. I tend to not be much of a purple ink type of guy but this grew on me. I think I enjoy KWZ Gummiberry a bit more here though. This ink is very similar to Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses without the shading as color goes.


Forest Black is a tad lighter than I like my greens. I can appreciate iron gall inks for what they do but the dullness here does this green no favors. As far as permanence goes, I would look to Noodler's Ink once again with Bad Green Gator. It has more saturation and is so less acidic.


Citrus Black is simply fascinating to me and this ink really shows off the darkening process as soon as it hits the page. This ink is a extremely bright lemon yellow when it first touches the page but then quickly changes to what you see above. I kept looking at this color however and knew I had seen it before.


Yup, there it is. De Atramentis Sahara Grey which is no grey. When compared, these 2 are very similar although the Sahara Grey tends to have more green than the Citrus Black does. What makes me sour here, is that I detest Sahara Black for some reason. I cannot explain it really but it takes the shine off of Citrus Black here. Now the Citrus Black is darker and it is fun to watch dry and I may get a bottle of it. My mind is odd, I know, but I do like permanent ink and perhaps that is influencing me.


Cassis Black is an interesting muted red. I like it but much like the Citrus Black above, it looked so familiar.


Faber Castell Garnet could be a ringer here. The picture makes the Garnet appear darker but in person, they are doppelgangers. Granted, I do enjoy Faber Castell inks but they are most definitely not permanent. Platinum is cheaper in this case too but lacks in the shading that exists in Faber Castell ink. What is your trade off?



Ok, I am going to look at Khaki Black and Sepia Black together as they are so dang similar. On the page you can see a difference when writing but these swabs are so similar.


As you can see, they are different on the page when written and here I like them but the swatches not so much. I have a lot of brown inks at my disposal and Khaki so resembles Montblanc Toffee Brown or Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz and I already have those. The Sepia Black is a lovely color too, when written but I am in love with Noodler's Whaleman's Sepia which is permanent and is made with squid ink (which makes it more of an authentic sepia). If you do not have many brown colors, these two colors are quite nice if you accept the added precautions you need to use with Iron Gall inks.

Overall I like them for what they are. It is a throwback to the olden days of permanence and watching them dry is fascinating as they rust into the paper. Yeah, I don't get out much. Citrus Black, Khaki Black and the Sepia Black were my favorites followed by Cassis Black and Lavender Black. Forest Black was my least favorite but hey, everyone's opinions are different. Try them for yourself and experience Iron Gall personally.

This review was based off of my own persoanl experiences and opinions. I do not represent Platinum nor am I being compensated in any way.

No comments:

Post a Comment