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Gray Ink

Excuse me if the following thoughts do not seem fully formed or well-articulated. I am having trouble thinking through this one! And excuse me for agonizing/obsessing.

What do folks think of gray inks for correspondence and the like? Are these inks suitable for rather formal items? I am thinking here of inks like B&B 5 O'Clock Shadow and Pilot Iroshizuku fuyu-syogun, so rather dark grays, I suppose with either some green, some blue, or both.

I am a big fan of both of these inks. I like the way they look in a journal or notebook. In part, I think they have a bit of a pencil look to them.

Also, they look distinctive to me, while being fairly subtle. I have been writing a number of business related thank-you type notes good faux-engraved, off-white card stack recently using the 5 OCS. I think I like the look, but it occurred to me that they make look a little informal, as in toward "pencil." Also, they may come out a bit light on the off-white stock. Sorry no photos.

In any event, what do folks think of grey inks in general as well as for my particular application?
 

Isaac

B&B Tease-in-Residence
I like them. I have two bottles of Montblanc's new permanent gray coming to me. Its a subtle way to just have some variation while still staying professional.
 
I'm liking Noodler's Lexington grey the best of my greys. It is good and dark, almost black. My Mont Blanc and Diamine are too much like a #2 pencil for me to use them a lot. One thing I've noticed is greys seem to perform best and that is the main reason I have several.
 
These are good comments in this thread. I guess the overall thought is that gray inks are not inherently less formal than, say, black or blue-black inks, and that folks share my fondness for at least certain gray inks.

I do notice that the 5 OCS comes across very differently when I use a broader nib. Darker and more formal looking to me. Nice shading.

With the thinner nib, it does appear lighter. But I think I have decided I like that fine! I think it looks distinct from pencil and gray may have a nice inherent formality to it in a given context

Clearly there are grays and there are grays, too.
 
I love the way 5OCS looks and have been using it a lot lately. I find it perfectly suitable for professional use. I have also been using bad blue heron, which is a nice dark blue gray.
 
I think it's nice to have your own unique hue within the professional realm. What colors are or aren't "appropriate" for that application would be a fairly individual decision, and would likely vary from one profession to another. I've found myself really liking Diamine Prussian Blue lately, nice deep grayish blue, darker from my wettish fine italic nib.
 
I agree that it is nice to have a distinct hue or hues for professional purposes. I do not intend to settle on one particular hue. I own and like way too many inks for that.

I think the "stationary" affects hue choice, too. This off-white card stock I am using just seems to go better with inks that do not have blue or much blue to them.

I think my concern with gray inks may have really gone to whether they look "washed out" as well as to whether they can look too much like something was written with a pencil. I would not want someone to think that the ink I was using was relatively light in color because, say, it was "cheap." I think those of us who "have been around" fountain pen inks quite a bit recognize 5 OCS as a sophisticated color, which I suppose is the connotation I want what I am sending out to have. As I indicated, I conclude that 5 OCS looks good.

I may try a brown-black ink with this stationary next. I am not usually fond of brown inks, but here the brown my sort of pick up the off-white color. The stationary looks great with very saturated blacks, which I think would work well for all purposes I can think of.
 
Coloured inks look dynamite on coloured paper.
I have no doubt that Grey would look killer on a nice paper, but what kind of paper?

My favourite combo I've seen is brown on G. Lalo ivory paper.
 
I do not who know manufactured this paper. It is "thermo-engraved" card stock with matching (lighter weight, of course) envelopes.

My understanding is that one "factory" outside Chicago does most of the thermo-engraved work in the US, although they obtain orders through numerous "brokers" located all over the US, many of whom advertise nationally. They seem to use very nice card stock/envelope stock, but there is no watermark or anything. All good qualities in terms of any good paper though.

G. Lalo is nice paper. I think I have some of the ivory. It may be slightly darker than what I am talking about here, but not much darker.
 
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Having just recently acquired my first bottle of Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black, I have to take exception to it being gray. To my somewhat-uneducated eye, it's exactly as labeled...a Blue-Black, with no gray to be found. I've tried it in several pens and on different papers, and it's still blue-black to me.

A very nice gray ink (with just a touch of blue) is Organics Studio "Blue Merle".
 
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