Ink Review: Ink Crate Volume 2

Ink Crate Volume 2

I finally got a chance to test out the inks in the second volume of the Ink Crate subscription service. Each month, the service sends five 2ml samples each month for $10 per month plus $3.99 shipping worldwide (at present) in their signature mint blue “crates”. Should shipping costs change, Ink Crate will notify subscribers and subscriptions auto-renew via credit card. I say that only because I know how expensive it is to ship overseas from the US, and $3.99 is a STEAL.

Ink Crate Volume 2

This month’s colors were, once again, a nice variety of colors. Two Diamine shades, Aurora Black and two colors from an ink company I had not heard of before: Seitz-Kreuznach. Overall, the color selections seemed “ripe” for heading into fall with tomato red, green apples, denim blue and a maybe not- entirely unwelcome cooler arctic blue. Aurora Black is a classic that is often overlooked but is a staple that should probably be included in any ink collection so its nice to have a chance to take it for a test drive.

Ink Crate Volume 2

Ink Crate Volume 2

According to a thread on FPN, Seitz-Kreuznach is actually a (EDIT!) German ink brand sold mostly on Ebay and their color series is called “The Colors of Nature”. Thus far, I quite liked both of them and am pleased that Ink Crate was able to surprise me with something new. That’s not easy to do!


Tested on Rhodia Uni Blank No. 18 with Kaweco Dip Pen and Zebra G Titanium nib, and watercolor paintbrush. I purchased the Ink Crate with my own money.

Written by

6 comments / Add your comment below

    1. Did I misread the FPN posts? It was quite early! That makes a lot more sense. The name sounded much more German than Australian but I hadn’t had any coffee!

  1. I can’t say enough about Seitz-Kreuznach. In addition to Ebay, they are also on Amazon. But, probably the best place to buy is their own web site, Seitz-Global. The 100 ml bottles are a great value. The ink is well-behaved. The colors are great. Shipping from Germany is reasonably quick. And the customer service is fantastic! Arctic Blue is the next on my wish list. Did you like it?

    1. One can only agree. They also sell through Amazon, and every time I ordered in the morning (I usually buy KaWeCo Sports from them since 2014, I like to give these away as gifts, 20€ being a good average price here in Germany) the item arrived i the mail the next day. Once I got a Pink Ice Sport instead of the Pink Sport, the customer service was very friendly and super fast. I have ordered about 25x from them and have always been pleased.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.