I was so excited when Vanness announced they were finally importing Krishna Inks because I had been attempting to email Krishna directly since I had seen Nick Stewart’s post about the inks back in July of 2017. Since July though, Krishna has been creating even more inks, including some groundbreaking sheening inks.
The Krishna Inks come in 20ml glass vials and sell for $6 for the “Super Rich” line and $8 for the RC line. The RC line only features six inks at the moment and I don’t quite understand the division between the Super Rich and the RC line. I thought it was the super-sheening vs. the regular inks but it doesn’t seem to be that clearly divided. If you figure out the difference between the two lines, please let me know.
One of my favorite non-sheening colors is Pencil… why? Because who wouldn’t want a fountain pen ink trying to mimic graphite? It’s a little warmer in tone than actual graphite but I respect the efforts and the acknowledgement. Sea & Storm is a deep, dark plum color that was very difficult to capture in swabs and photos. I look forward to inking up a pen and seeing how it performs in real world tests.
Monsoon Sky is a deep blue that really spoke to me. Overall, these inks are all a bit more viscous, a bit drier. I think they will perform better on lower quality papers but may have some hard starting issues for some people.
This is a better image of Sea & Storm… there is a spooky undercurrent of green.
My absolute favorite sheener of the bunch is Myrtle hands down. If this ink is in a wide nib, there is definitely going to be evidence of the green halo effect around the luminous magenta pink. It will make my heart sing. I am wondering if I can buy this in a bottle the size of the those old Parker Quink school bottles? Makes me want to run around saying, “So I says to Myrtle I says…”
Look how glorious that sheen is!
Azaelia (Floral) is a good shading pink too if sheen is not your thing.
Much hullaballoo was made about Goldfish Gold and Jungle Volcano. I will grant you that Jungle Volcano is all that and an extra shot (photo DOES NOT do it justice) but Goldfish Gold is just a dark orange-y brown for me. But maybe it was just that it got over-hyped, like a summer blockbuster movie. Everyone tells you how awesome it is and you expect it to give you handwriting like Michael Sull and the hands of a supermodel but in the end, you’re still writing with a cheap shark pen from China with a bad manicure and your same sloppy penmanship. $8 ink isn’t gonna make you a superhero.
This is a better view of Jungle Volcano. Is it orange? It is green? Is it brownish? Who cares. Make me another Mai Tai and let’s get inky!
One of the most perplexing colors is Brown Pink. Its not really brown or pink and it sheens like the devil. It’s similar but different from Jungle Volcano and definitely worth consideration.
All in all, Krishna Inks have a lot to recommend themselves. They are trying a lot different types of sheening. The smaller bottles and low prices mean you are not committing to a huge volume of ink or making an enormous investment.
I have not run any of these through my pens yet but that will be my next round of testing. The colors are quite saturated so there could be some possibilities for staining or difficulties cleaning so I may run these through the Shark pens first before tempting fate and putting one of the darker colors in my Pelikan ghost. I’ll have more detailed reviews of individual colors in the coming weeks but I wanted to share the colors and brand with you now. Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided free of charge by Vanness for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
There you go, making me want a fountain pen. Those Krishna Ink samples are outstanding!
I’ve had Jungle Volcano in my Lamy Studio with 14k medium nib for a week or so now and it’s performed BRILLIANTLY. Excellent flow, sheens on most kinds of paper. (Even copy paper!), and best of all, NO HARD STARTING (the complete opposite of my experience with the OS sheening inks that everyone seems to adore.) I haven’t tried to rinse out the converter yet so I don’t know about staining, but I can say that for me this takes top place in the orange inks category – I like that it’s a darker orange, almost terracotta, and very legible. Looks like I’ll have to get hold of some Myrtle! And I’m very excited to get hold of Anokhi (green with purple sheen I believe).
Oh btw, I believe there is a sheening and a non-sheening version of Goldfish Gold, so perhaps you got the non-sheening one?
There’s a Goldfish V.2 coming out that looks like it will be different. Might be a sheener.
Myrtle is not my kinda thing, but it seems to scream for the ghost if the ghost has a fat enough nib? If the dry time holds up I’d probably have a hard time putting it in anything smaller than a 1.5mm italic.
Goldfish I think I’d want in a dryer and narrower nib. It feels like it’s got potential for being one of those weird browns that works well for skin tones. Especially with how dark it can get.
“$8 ink isn’t gonna make you a superhero.” Let’s put that on a T-shirt!
Tina
Hi! How close is Monsoon to the the papermate inkjoy slate blue?
So I says to Myrtle, I says, “Honey, you was on some kinda roll back theya with your writin’. You was on a ROLL!”
Great review!
Pencil… Good name. I use Diamine Graphite ink in a Charcoal Lamy Safari with a black F nib that I’ve smoothed out (it was a mess out of the box). On 80gsm virgin office bond paper the writing experience is much like a sharp graphite pencil with very soft lead – that never gets dull 😉
Diamine Graphite is $14.95 USD for an 80 ml bottle. That works out to $0.187/ml. Krishna “Super Rich” inks (the cheaper of the two) are $0.300/ml or around 60% more expensive than Diamine. The cost of the bottles for only 20ml of ink likely has something to do with the higher price of the Krishna ink, but that’s not all of it.
Man, that jungle volcano ink is something.
What does Krishna ink smell like? I am wondering if they add a biostatic agent like phenol (carbolic acid).
So far I haven’t noticed a distinct odor with the Krishna inks but you are right that there’s a cost per ml discrepancy.
I just (the 14th) got in three bottles along with six Colorverse inks. I’m waiting for the arrival of some other inks ordered to have a big ink testing session…
I am continually surprised how many new ink brands are coming to light. While I know that it is not a new brand a week, it sometimes seems that way!
I use the Krisha ink with a dip pen for calligraphy. So far I’ve purchased these and here is my review:
Jjaval- ok, nothing fancy
The Earth- again, nothing fancy
Hi Note Red- nice dark red color
Goldfish Gold- in the RC series but no sheen at all, just flows from a reddish orange to darker red (disappointing)
Christmas Eve- RC series- flows kind of a light purpleish blue, not much sheen at all. Again disappointing.
Sea at Night- RC series- flows a maroon color and blue. The maroon is a little sparkly but again, disappointing.
Moonview- absolutely the most beautiful ink I’ve ever used! A pinkish red that shines on paper like aluminum foil. Truly stunning!
Moonview 2- Again this one looks amazing! It flows a beautiful red color and wow does it shine!
All the Krishna inks write beautifully achieving very fine hairlines for calligraphy however…..they are very expensive for the quantity of ink that you get. $9.00 US for a very small size jar. The Moonviews are by far incredibly shimmery, shiny and really stand out on paper and I would purchase them again, they are that beautiful. Not sure what happened to the others I purchased listed above in the RC series but I would NOT purchase them again.