Ready to find out more about a new ink? Today, we’ve got the Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise ink review for you.

All About the Ink Maker: Conklin

The Conklin Pen Company, established in 1898, was founded in Ohio, USA. In addition to various fountain pens, including the Conklin Crescent Filler of which Mark Twain was a fan, they also released a new line of ten fountain pen inks in early 2022, named the Conklin Vintage Ink Collection.

All About This Week’s Ink Series: Conklin Vintage Ink Series

This collection includes classic colors and are packaged in a way that invokes a sense of nostalgia for “the good old days.” The Vintage Collection inks come in round, 60ml glass bottles with wide mouths. The Vintage Collection currently includes 10 inks:

• Antique Turquoise
• Bright Red
• Classic Black
• Dark Rust
• Deep Blue
• Denim Blue
• Dusty Rose
• Rich Mahogany
• Vintage Purple and
• Kelly Green

What Sort of Ink Bottle Does Conklin Use for its Vintage Inks?

Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise ink comes in a vintage medicine style basic ink bottle with basic packaging, label and box. Each of the ink bottles comes with a vintage style, metal, medium mouth lid that is easy to open. We appreciated that the color was easy to identify on both the bottle and the exterior packaging.

How Much Do Inks in Conklin’s Vintage Collection Cost?

Conklin Vintage inks are reasonably priced. Look for the current pricing at PenChalet.com.

All About This Week’s Chosen Ink: Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise Ink

Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise ink is a true turquoise ink with a pinkish-red sheen and an average flow. Like other Conklin inks, this week’s featured ink is made in the EU, but designed and packaged in America. ***Wondering where to find the giveaway for the inks in our weekly ink reviews? We used to run a weekly giveaway featuring each week’s ink, but now we have a monthly giveaway day that includes the inks featured in past reviews!  ALL of the inks featured in our weekly ink reviews are listed as giveaway prizes during 15 on the 15th: GIVEAWAY DAY with Pen Chalet.

It’s Time: Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise Ink Review

This week’s Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise review is coming to you from one of our guest reviewers, Iris Tu, and she’s got all the review details for you!

Our Guest Reviewer: Iris Tu

Iris, today’s ink reviewer, is a wanderer, an adventurer, a forever student, a mom of 2, and a huge fan of all things fountain pen and ink! We also find that she is very thorough when she’s checking out a new ink, and we thought you’d appreciate her approach to tackling the get to know you process between an ink and a writing enthusiast/artist. •The ink review below is in our guest reviewer, Iris Tu’s, own words. 

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

Ink swabs were made with a cotton swab and dip pen with a Zebra G nib. The Dipper was dipped directly in the ink bottle (it was wide enough) and written on with the same nib as the Col-o-Ring. The ink was used on 4 different papers to test various properties of the ink: Tomoe River (68 gsm), Clairefontaine Triomphe (90 gsm), Cosmo Air Light (75 gsm), and generic copy paper. A swatch of the ink with water was made on Strathmore Writing Paper (90 gsm). The long writing sample (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, pages 1-2) on each page was made with one dip of the glass pen into the ink. Because the glass dip pen used has a fude nib, I started with the finer side and switched to the broader angle when that had run out of ink. Before writing, the inked nib was quickly run around the interior of the bottom rim to get rid of the access, to avoid having too much ink on the nib and the letters be more legible. A fountain pen, Platinum Procyon with a medium nib, was also used to compare with the relatively wet writing of a glass dip pen.

Products Used During this Week’s Ink Review:

• Tomoe River 68 gsm White Paper bound in an A5 notebook, dotted
• Cosmo Air Light 75 gsm Paper bound in an A5 notebook, dotted
• Clairefontaine Triomphe A5 Paper Pad, blank
• Generic Copy Paper, cut in half
• Strathmore Writing Paper 90 gsm/Passport sized notebook, 25% Cotton blend,
• blank
• Col-o-Ring
• Col-o-Ring Dipper
• Calligraphy Dip Pen Holder
• Tachigawa Type B (Round, 1 mm) Calligraphy Nib
• Zebra G Nib
• Moonman Glass Dip Pen with fude nib
• Platinum Procyon Turquoise Blue (M)
• Glass rod
• Eyedropper
• Cotton swab
• Watercolor brush
• A small cup of water

How Fast Does Conklin Antique Turquoise Dry?

During the ink review, Conklin Antique Turquoise fountain pen ink showed a dry time of approximately 20 to 30 seconds on average (and up to 40 seconds with a wet writer).

Does This Week’s Fountain Pen Ink Bleed Through?

It has medium ghosting (show through on the back of the page) and bleeds through only when ink pools or on copy paper.

Was There Any Feathering During the Antique Turquoise Ink Review?

Feathering was only seen on copy paper; the ink was sucked into the paper immediately and spread from there.

How Does the Ink Stand Up to Water?

The ink has low-medium water resistance; much of it washes out but you can still see some of what is written for the most part. The more ink and the longer the ink has set before water is introduced, the higher the chance that it might still be legible. The ink has no chance against water on copy paper, though.

Does Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise Ink Have Good Shading Traits?

Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise ink has moderate shading in writing across all the papers, except for copy paper, and only shows sheen in drops or at the edges with wet writers, but with those, you don’t get as much shading.

A Color Comparison to Other Popular Turquoise Fountain Pen Inks:

Compared to Diamine Turquoise and Visconti Turquoise, the colors are near identical at a glance, though Conklin Antique Turquoise tends to have more shading in swatches than Visconti Turquoise, which seems slightly more wet in comparison (based on swatching only).

Final Conclusion on Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise Ink:

This is a very nice turquoise color and also a very well-behaved ink. The relatively fast dry times and lovely shading are pluses. It is very similar to other turquoise inks and at a retail price of $15 a bottle ($0.25/ml), currently $12 at PenChalet ($0.20/ml), it is reasonably priced. I enjoyed this ink and recommend it if you’re in the market for turquoise. Just avoid using this on copy paper.

Enter to Win This Week’s Ink, Next Week’s Ink & More

Look for the bottle of Conklin Vintage Antique Turquoise Ink used in this week’s ink review as one of the giveaway prizes in our upcoming 15 on the 15th: Giveaway Day with Pen Chalet! Enter to win now: a Rafflecopter giveaway