I’ve decided to stop using the Tomoe River paper for ink comparisons. It’s been discontinued, as previously mentioned, Instead I’m going to start using the Exceed notebook. It’s Wal-Mart’s answer to the Leuchturm and it’s actually surprisingly decent. I’ve used a few of them for meeting notebooks at school. The only downside is there’s a lack of color options (blue, purple, red, and black as of this publication) and I’ll be doing a full deep-dive into it on a FP Friday.
So the votes are in and there was a three-way tie and so I’ll lead off with the Robert Oster River of Fire ink.
Robert Oster is an Australian ink-maker who basically makes inks to order so there’s not a whole bunch of chemical additives added to them. So non-toxic ink, carbon-free plastic from Australia’s Coonawarra district. Here’s a few of their other inks:
Overall, one of the best behaved inks across papers!
The shimmer is lost a little bit here, but it retains a lot of the permanence with the water test.
With the exceed, I feel the sheen that gives its name is best seen here. There’s just the tiniest hint of red. Granted, it’s something that’s better seen in a medium, broad, or stub nib but you can still see some of it here.
You can find these samples at Robert Oster’s official website or Goulet pens.
Obsidian Palms 