pens, inks, stores, companies and about the pleasure of owning a fine penScribo has issued a collection of inks in ten colours. As Scrittura Bolognese (SCRIBO) notes:
"We believe handwriting helps improving ourselves. We believe the writing exercise helps reordering our thoughts and giving shapes to our ideas. We believe the simple gesture to leave our sign is a future testimony of our existence."
This is a special line of ink. The colours that I have tried I found to have a brightness, so whether it be a grey, blue or brown, the colour of the ink on a written page look good. The performance was also good. I have loaded the inks in various pens and the writing experience is good. The bottle is something special. So here we have good ink also in a good ink bottle. With all the various ink brands that I have, there are big and subtle colour differences between the brands. Some have very well designed ink bottles, others, well not so much. One of the key aspects that I look to is the depth of ink a nib will be completely submerged. The Scribo bottles are a work of art, and designed so the 90 ml of ink is well stored.
A number of design elements demonstrated how well thought out this ink is. There is the icon of the quill on the top of the cap, each showing the colour of the ink inside the bottle. The bottle is square, but in a unique way. The bottom section is heavy glass that has the feel of irregular hand-made size proportions. The bottles are intended on the bottom so they can be stacked.
The bottles fit into a well designed contained. A small leather tug helps to slide the inner box from the outer box. There is a band around each box that shows the colour and name of the ink.
If you cannot find a retailer stocking the SCRIBO inks, they are available through SCRIBO's web site.
The ten colours of ink are:
Up to now I have not used grey inks to any extent. I found the grey to be too faint, not the depth of colour I prefer for my writing. When I visited the Scribo design studio in Bologna last year, I remember Luca Baglione talking about the grey ink that would be released. He had a real sense of pride so it was one of the colours I selected this year when the inks became available. I am glad I did.
The tone of the ink is a cool grey. While grey, and not black, there is enough depth, the ink leaves a good impression on paper. Wriring performance is good. The ink has good flow and drying time is a relatively short. It is a good flat colour and there is no stickiness to the ink.
I must say I have enjoyed this ink. I imagine it looks super in the Feel fountain pens available in grey. They include the Grey-Blue regular production pen as well as the Grigio Giorno and the Grigio Notte pens that were issued last year. For me, I am using the ink the most in two pens. The most in my Leonardo Momento Zero pen in Sand Resin. This pen was designed specifically for the Vancouver Pen Club. The pen with shades of tan and grey and this ink are a perfect match. I guess I should have pickedup the Grigio Notte!
I can only make a few comparisons of this ink to other brands but it has more character than to fuyu-syogun in the iroshizuku line. Although the fuyu-syogun is a cool grey, I find the Grigio Scribo has a bit more of an colour edge. The kiri-same in the iroshizuku line is a slightly warmer grey. But now I have Grigio Scribo and this ink has found a way into my home! It is for me, this is un inchiostro di casa mia.
Brown is one of the colours I use quite frequently. Todate, some of my most used brands included Edelstein Smoky Quartz and Hazelnut Brown by Graf von Faber Castell. I was pleasantly surprised when I inked up a pen and wrote with Classico Seppia. It is a bright, true middle brown. The ink has a good look on the paper. The ink performs well. Good flow. Dies within a reasonable time. This is a solid colour that looks good in both personal and business writing. The colour is consistent across a number of pens that I have loaded with the ink. If you like brown as an ink colour, I recommend this colour as a good option. Not only will you like the ink, but you will be picking up the ink bottle often just to feel it in your hand.
This is a beautiful blue. It is a dark blue ink that was made for the blue-black Scribo Feel fountain pen. When I loaded by blue-black Feel with this ink, and the smooth flexible Scribo nib touched the paper, well magic happened! My Feel, with a broad nib leaves a big line of ink on the page. I have used some blues in this pen and the colour was not substantive enough to do the pen justice. Not so with this ink. Just like the pen that you look at and almost think it is black, until you put something black next to it, this ink is like a dark blue-black bit it is the deep black blue of the cosmos.
Well performing ink. Flows to keep up with even the fastest writing. Colour substantive enough to make a powerful statement on the page. I have triedthis ink in various pens. Performs well across various nibs and fill systems, but for me. This ink is: riservato a Scribo Feel.
