on salePlatinum Classic Lavender Black - Ink Sample

I recently bought a new pen and decided to get a new ink color with it. I got a sample of this and a few other colors, and this one is very cool. It flows well and dries super fast. The changing/darkening color is really cool too! It starts out rather light (similar to the bottom of the sample picture) and gets pretty darks (similar to the top of the sample picture). I use fine/extra fine nibs, so it looks really close to black, but you can tell there's still purple in there. The color is rather flat -- no depth/variation like some others I use (and like a lot). That definitely isn't a bad thing thought. It certainly a solid ink. Overall: Pros: flows beautifully; dries fast; cool color change Cons: none :)

Platinum Classic Lavender Black (PCLB)I'm a newish fountain pen geek, both enthusiastic and a bit idiosyncratic. Ink reviews are tricky. Fountain pen writing depends on at least four strong variables: ink, feed, nib, and paper. Change any one of them and you may get something quite different. So allow that your results will vary from mine. I'm using an EF nib in a 100 gsm Miliko dot journal. I do a lot of fine lettering, so my ideal ink must pass three tests: (1) EF Fine. An EF nib should deliver an EF line. But some inks are just too generous and make fat lines that just don't care that you want EF. PCLB doesn't quite restrain itself enough for me. My hoped-for EF is just too F.(2) permanent. It is INK after all; it should not wash off the page. PCLB is like many permanent inks. There is a core of the stroke that survives almost anything, but there is also a ?skin? that will smear with a wet fingertip. (3) dries. By the time I get to the end of the line, the first words should not smear. And when I close the journal, let's not have any facing page blottage. PCLB dries nicely.(4) a fourth, bonus test: I like inks that show some shading. PCLB is dries a little darker than the wet stroke looks at first, and, like most dark inks, there's not enough light/dark range in the strokes to show much shading. PCLB is strong and dark.

PROS:I like this ink and would consider buying a bottle in the future. I tested it in broad, fine and extra fine nibs with no hard starts or skipping. It flowed will with all nibs. There was no bleed throuh or ghosting. On Tomoe River paper, the dry time was 30 seconds; on copy paper it was 15 seconds. CONS:These are all personal preference issues that do not reduce my rating. The slowish dry time and tendency smear from moisture limits the uses for this ink. In my experience, iron gall inks tend to be problematic for prolonged continuous use in a pen and pen cleaning. I dedicate a cartridge converter pen with replaceable nibs for each iron gall ink. I sometimes use a pen I'm willing to throughout when I can't resurrect it any more.CONCLUSION:Platinum Classic Lavender Black is a beautiful well behaved ink. I'm glad I got a sample and will consider a bottle in the future.

Love watching this ink dry. Great color, more red violet than expected but I like it.

This color writes lighter and then dries to a nice dark color. It writes so well with my TWSBI Fine nib in my Hobo cousin.