Get ready for a Montegrappa Harry Potter Ink Comparison (& Knight Bus Purple Ink GIVEAWAY!) Since this week was wild and crazy…we’re going to stick with the theme we started and feature our weekly giveaway ink alongside one of our ink comparison video writeups. If you’ve ever fallen in love with an ink because of its name or a picture you saw online or a description you read about it, and then discovered once you saw it on your own paper at home (or at the office or wherever else you happen to be making things happen)….that it was NOT what you thought it was, you’ll love the Pen Chalet Ink Comparisons.
***Looking to enter to win? Don’t worry – we know everyday isn’t the best day to require patience from our favorite people. Just jump straight to the end if you just want to enter to win and get on your way. We won’t hold it against you in the slightest.
Today’s ink comparison features one of the most anticipated ink series to come out in the last year, the Montegrappa Harry Potter Ink Collection. For some huge fans of this particular ink the big fuss is HARRY POTTER! I mean…which house are you in? Have you been sorted? Can you see the Thestrals? I’m so sorry, me too….But for other people, the big fuss is about the fact that one of the most respected and beloved industry leaders created a new, high quality, fountain pen safe ink for their favorite fine writing instruments. I mean, it’s not everyday (or even every year really) that Montegrappa offers up an entire ink series for our fountain pens’ pleasure. So, whether you’re in it for the magic of the fictional inspiration behind the colors in this collection, or you’re in it for Montegrappa’s own particular kind of magic, you’ll get a lot of the info you crave shortly.
6 Different Harry Potter Inks from Montegrappa
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Gryffindor Red
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Ravenclaw Blue
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Slytherin Green
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Hufflepuff Yellow
- Thestral Black
- Knight Bus Purple
Other Products and Supplies We Used During Today’s Ink Comparison:
For today’s ink comparison, we used a J. Herbin Spiral Glass Dip Pen in Sand along with a Clairefontaine Triomphe notebook and a Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book. We also kept a Dee Charles Pen Wipe nearby to cover our bases.
The Best of the Best Inks from Today’s Montegrappa Harry Potter Ink Comparison:
The “best” fountain pen ink choices always depend on several different factors, including the pen you’re using, the project you’re approaching, your writing style, and your personal preferences. Since we’re comparing inks today, we ran a few simple tests: writing sample, dry test, and water test. For the dry test, we wrote out 1, 2, 3…Dry Test, waited 3 seconds, and then ran a dry cotton swab over the writing. You can see the results in the video. For the water test, we wrote out 10, 9, 8…water test, waited 10 minutes, and then ran a wet cotton swab over the writing. You can see these results in the video as well. (If you skip to the very end of the video, we scroll over all the results so you can see them at the same time).
Which Harry Potter Ink Dried the Fastest?
The fastest drying ink out of today’s Montegrappa Harry Potter fountain pen inks was a difficult pick – we basically ended up with a 3-way tie between Gryffindor Red, Hufflepuff Yellow, and Knight Bus Purple. Here are the results of the dry time test in order from fastest dry time to slowest:
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Knight Bus Purple fountain pen ink (3-4 seconds)
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Hufflepuff Yellow fountain pen ink (about 4 seconds)
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Gryffindor Red fountain pen ink (about 4 seconds)
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Slytherin Green fountain pen ink (5-6 seconds)
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Ravenclaw Blue ink (about 8 seconds)
- Montegrappa Harry Potter Thestral Black ink (more than 10 seconds)
Which Harry Potter Ink Had the Most Shading & Sheen?
This group of Montegrappa Harry Potter inks have some great options for variations on paper. The most shading during this ink comparison probably came from Gryffindor Red or Hufflepuff Yellow. Gryffindor Red showed a deep green at the most saturated points on the page, and Hufflepuff Yellow’s most saturated points veered towards a light citrus orange. Knight Bus Purple and Slytherin Green also showed some shading with both of them showing varying shades of their main ink color and veering towards black at the most saturated points. Thestral Black didn’t show much in the way of shading for us, but that could change depending on your use of the ink, your writing instrument, your handwriting, etc.
Thestral Black showed the most sheen during today’s ink comparison. Slytherin Green, Ravenclaw Blue, Gryffindor Red, and Knight Bus Purple all showed a bit of sheen at their most saturated points, as well, but not the allover effect we saw with Thestral Black. Hufflepuff Yellow didn’t show sheen for us, just the shading we already mentioned, but again, that could change depending on your use of the ink.
Which Montegrappa Harry Potter Ink Was the Most Water Resistant?
According to our results, Slytherin Green was the most water resistant. However, while none of the inks featured today are waterproof inks, most of them held up quite well to our water test. We chose today’s Most Water Resistant Harry Potter ink award winner based on which ink had the most legible writing with the least amount of distortion after the water test (described above). Having said that, several of the inks were clearly legible after the water test with minimal distortion.
Today’s inks in order of most water resistant to least water resistant: Slytherin Green, Ravenclaw Blue, Knight Bus Purple, Thestral Black, Gryffindor Red, with Hufflepuff Yellow coming in last since it was no longer legible after the water test – and almost seemed to wipe clean off with a swipe of a wet cotton swab. Gryffindor Red showed some obvious distortion , and Knight Bus Purple as well as Ravenclaw Blue showed a smidge of distortion after the exposure to water. Thestral Black didn’t show any distortion, but did have the heaviest smear. While Slytherin Green somehow managed to come out on top (typical Slytherin) with minimal distortion and only a small amount of color smearing.
What About Pricing on this Week’s Featured Inks?*
Usually we would list the inks featured in the ink comparison here in order from least expensive to most expensive. Then we’d follow that list up with another list featuring the Best Value ink as #1 and filtering on down to the ink that comes at the highest price per ounce. However, that’s not very useful this week since all 6 of the inks in this ink comparison were from the same ink series. So skip ahead to the next section (if you haven’t already).
*Actual prices are not listed in the ink comparisons since they may vary depending on sale pricing, manufacturer price changes, etc. But you can always find the current discounted pricing on your favorite inks at PenChalet.com.
Check back often for full ink reviews (weekly along with an ink giveaway) and our new ink comparisons! And, as always, find your favorite pens and inks at PenChalet.com.
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