The Well-Appointed Desk

I don’t tend to purchase much brown ink. When I first got into fountain pens, all I wanted was the perfect, vintage sepia ink but I bought a few bottles early on that I didn’t like and swayed away from browns for a long time. This P.W. Akkerman #22 Hopjesbraun is making me rethink my stance on brown inks. Its got TONS of shading and is a warm, dusty reddish/golden brown that reminds me of the Southwest and cowboys and Albuquerque sunsets. How a Dutch ink company can generate a color that reminds me of New Mexico? Quite the impressive feat.

There is a wonderful, dark halo around the letters when writing with my stub nib Esterbrook. Its just such fun to watch the ink darken around the edges of the letterforms as the ink dries. But that’s the catch.

Hopjesbraun dries slowly. I even smudged a bit in my painting at the top of the page because it dried quite a bit slower than the Zuiderpark I tested last week. I suspect in a finer pen or on slightly more absorbent paper, it wouldn’t be quite as big a deal but as a messy left, the dry time was a bit long. For letter writing where I could pause here and there to let the ink dry before I stuck my arm in it, it would not be a problem but as a daily use ink… well, for this lefty I’ll have to save it for special occasions. But it is one of the prettiest browns I’ve ever used.

So if you’re a tidy righty, grab a bottle ASAP. And my fellow messy lefties, you’ve been warned to proceed with caution.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

P.W. Akkerman #24 Zuiderpark Blauw-Greon is another in a long line of blue-black inks to pass across The Desk. It could be because I seek out the blue-blacks in particular but, this time fate intervened and this lovely ink arrived thanks to Lisa at Vanness.

There is definitely more of a greenish undertone to Zuiderpark that makes it less a true blue-black and more of a teal-black. At first thought, I anticipated that Zuiderpark might be very similar in color to de Atramentis Petrol but Zuiderpark is much darker. I included a swab of Diamine Twilight which I consider to be a true blue-black as a contrast so that the greenishness of Zuiderpark might be more noticeable.

Zuiderpark dries in a reasonable amount of time, even on Rhodia paper in the humidity of a Midwest August. In my water test, it had a some stay-ability too. I actually scrubbed a wet paintbrush across the sample a couple times after I dropped water on it to see if the ink would move. It leaves a stain on the paper which means Zuiderpark could handle a drop or two of water without losing all your hard work. If you like to paint with ink, it won’t move as completely as other colors. You can decide if that’s a plus or a minus.

The advantage of this sort of color is that it looks quite unique but maintains an air of “respectability” since it still runs in the blue family. If you want a work-appropriate ink with a little something extra, Zuiderpark would be a good option. And it goes without saying that Akkerman makes the coolest looking ink bottles.

This is a case where I definitely wish I had a whole bottle of this ink. So, I’ll be investing in one soon. Or you folks in DC can pick up a bottle for me!

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.