With so many brands of fountain pens around, the fleet of ink is growing too. Today let’s dive into a set of inks from a growing brand. Today we will be introducing Leonardo fountain pen inks. Off late, Leonardo has been doing a fabulous job by introducing unique pens on a frequency quicker than a bullet train. I mean, since Jan 2020 they have launched, Leonardo Musis, Leonardo Pura, Tredici, Momento Zero Grande #8Nib, Primary Manipulation 4, Golden Rule, and some new colors in Momento zero. That’s like a new collection every week. In the world of fountain pens, that’s super quick.
Leonardo fountain pen inks display different properties for different colors. Some took a few seconds more to dry compared to others and some have sheen. But most of the inks dried up pretty quickly. Just under 10 seconds. The most common feature among all the inks was the least ghosting and feathering.
Let’s understand the colors currently available in India. Below is the Ink Swab chart. The medium used was a 68 GSM Nakabayashi spiral notebook from Japan.
The standard colors available in Leonardo inks are
- Mediterraneo Blue – Blue
- Nero Intenso – Black
- Rosso Passione – Red
- Sepia Classico – Brown
- Turchese Hawaii – Turquoise Blue
- Verde Foresta – Green
New Ink colors to be added soon by end of 2021 are
- Noce Moscatta – red Brown
- Taurasi Wine – Deep Red
- Smeraldo Stone – Emerald Green
- Deep Purple – Purple
- Arancio Torraco – Orange
Herein are the writing samples of the Leonardo inks. The fountain Pen used is Pelikan M815 with an 18KT medium nib. The writing medium is the same as the Swab test i.e Nakabayashi spiral notebook. Nakabayashi from Japan is a fountain pen-friendly notebook.
As it appears. Leonardo Ink has a minimal ghosting effect on the Nakabayashi paper. When closely observed, there was no feathering either. Sheen in ink is a matter of expert usage I believe. Probably to get the sheen effect the use of the right tools and techniques is required.
Personally, I have liked their blue ink. It is bright and looks fabulous on paper. It is also comparable to Diamine Asa blue, and Pilot Iroshizuku Kon Peki. For a detailed ink review of blue ink check out “Mountain of Ink”.