I was very kindly sent these 6 Platinum Classic Black fountain pen ink samples by Scribble at unitedinkdom. I tested a batch of Platinum inks back in April, you can link to the review here, the bottom line being that as creative fluids they were somewhat lacking. Most of us know about Platinum black as a line work ink, it’s superb in that it’s fountain pen friendly and is waterproof when dry allowing for washes of fp ink and bleach to be applied with the line work staying intact.

So what about these then? Well firstly, they’re great fun. When you start writing or drawing, the ink appears as a colour but then, after several seconds, the colour slowly darkens until it becomes very dark and in some cases, almost black! Like magic! But for me, the most exciting discovery was when blending with water. The colour bleeds out beautifully turning darker towards the initial source i.e. the top of the swatch card. Now, I have seen this happen before with Noodler’s Blacks. But the BIG thing here, is that these Platinum Blacks react with bleach where as the Noodler’s don’t. Not so here, the Platinum blacks appear to be more dye based and hence the bleach is able to react. There’s also a decent sheen too.

These may well prove to be a novelty fad for handwriting, but when used for more creative purposes, I believe these have great potential. Check out the abstract alphabets below. Look at he range of tone and colour and all from one ink! Now imagine drawing and painting a scene from your travels using one of these inks… and then writing up the story in the same! And all from the same source! Exciting or what?

Inks tested: Lavender Black, Cassis Black, Forest Black, Khaki Black, Cirus Black and Sepia Black.

If you’d like to buy any of the original art featured on my site you can purchase it on my ETSY shop site or contact me direct. I will do my upmost to add value to your investment over time – click here to access the shop . I am also accepting commissions for swatch tests. So, if you have a favourite ink(s) and some words for someone special, or maybe just for yourself, drop me a line and we can discuss further.

If you’d like to know more about this project, please take a look at the Mission Statement.

All tests on Bockingford 200lb watercolour paper using brushes and a Noodler’s Ahab for the ink work.

Ink samples very kindly donated by Cult Pens

Just for the record – I do this for myself, I receive no remuneration what-so-ever and I tell it exactly how I see it.

Of possible interest: