on saleDe Atramentis Charles Dickens - 45ml Bottled Ink

I just loaded up a portion of the 2ml sample into my Monteverde Regatta with Wojo #6 nib yesterday. As others have said, it is a green-grey. The shade was nice, but it was not as saturated as I had hoped, even after writing with it for a bit to make sure any residual water from cleaning cleared out. Glad that I didn't have to buy a whole bottle to find this out! I should add that my overall experience of buying from Goulet Pens has been great. I also really appreciate all of the introductory videos for pen evaluation, use, and care. I am basically a newbie and didn't rate the ink characteristics, but it definitely doesn't flow as well as Monteverde Jungle inks or Sailor Manyo inks, and seemed to dry slower. (I am a lefty, and this ink got a bit smudgy, whereas the other two did not.)

The De Atramentis "Charles Dickens" ink was not for me but a gift to a friend who had admired the ink a few days earlier. I knew it was the right ink for him before I ordered it. I myself have been a longtime fan of the "Charles Dickens" and half a dozen other inks from De Atramentis.

This ink is a lovely light olivine color. If that's what you are looking for, then this is a wonderful ink. But if you are looking for a cement gray, I recommend you try a different ink.

The bottle describes the color of the ink as 'cement grey', but unless the cement is really really green in Germany, that description is really misleading. The ink is actually a pale olive green with some grey notes to it.With that out of the way, I will say that I do like the color. My biggest problem is that the ink is not very saturated, so I have learned to only use it with wetter pens. When used with a pen with a good flow, you do get some nice shading out of the ink, which is a good bonus. I would say that this is an ink that you could get away with using in an office setting, unless you work somewhere where only the medium blues and dark blacks are tolerated.Certainly not an everyday ink, but I think that it really captures the color of vintage writing which is teased at with the Charles Dickens name. I also think that artists would have some good uses for this one as it is a unique color that feels both vintage and natural.

I had a sample of this and I loved it - but now it's out of stock!I like the idea of grey ink but in practice they can be a bit flat and dull (and at worst like a dilute black). This ink has sufficient ambiguity to keep it interesting - you couldn't call it green, but it's got plenty of tonal character! (My other favorite ambiguous neutral is Herbin Cacao du Bresil). Also by De Atramentis is Fog Grey which is is a nice companion, grey blue rather than grey green.Apparently this is the same ink as DeAtramentis Cement, repackaged. I think I prefer Cement as a title as its more descriptive of the ink.