Robert Oster Antelope Canyon ink is one of our newest ink releases here at Pen Chalet. It’s also a Pen Chalet exclusive created to celebrate the upcoming Fountain Pen Day (a massive day of celebration for all fountain pen fans and enthusiasts everywhere). While many of you have already jumped on the chance to get your hands on this new exclusive fountain pen ink, we couldn’t skip the opportunity to do a full review of this gorgeous addition to the Robert Oster ink family.

All About the Ink Maker: Robert Oster

Everyone here at Pen Chalet always loves working with Robert Oster inks, not only because we enjoy working with the maker, Robert Oster, himself, but because the inks he creates are beautiful, dependable, and ever-increasing. There’s always something new being offered by Robert Oster Signature Inks. Pen Chalet currently carries close to 150 of the prolific Australian ink company’s colors. Additionally, Robert Oster inks come with toxic-free, nature-friendly packaging that is also convenient and easy to ship and store, looks nice, and functions well for filing your fountain pen. If you’re one of the few who haven’t yet encountered these Australian inks in person, there are two basic options to start:

• Robert Oster Signature Ink Series
• Robert Oster Shake’ N’ Shimmer Ink Series
• Robert Oster 1980s Colours Series

This week’s ink, the Robert Oster Antelope Canyon ink, is a Pen Chalet Exclusive that would technically fall into the Signature Ink series (since it’s not a Shake N’ Shimmer ink).

Featured Ink: Exclusive Special Edition Antelope Canyon Ink

Most Robert Oster inks are a reflection of the landscape and scenery of Australia. However, the Pen Chalet Exclusive Robert Oster Antelope Canyon ink reflects the colors found at Northern Arizona’s beautiful and iconic Antelope Canyon. When putting this new ink to paper, we immediately loved the gorgeous copper orange color with hints of dark sheen and shading traits.

If you’ve seen photos of Antelope Canyon (or visited the geographical phenomenon in person), you’ll agree that Robert Oster’s creativity and ink mastery perfectly replicates the Arizona landmark’s complex array of colors. The dark, “burnt” coppery orange ink color shows up well on paper and is a great ink choice for any project, note, journaling, etc.

*** Are you sticking around to read the full review? (Yes? Excellent. No? We’ll forgive you.) If not, don’t forget to jump to the end so you can enter to win the bottle of Antelope Canyon ink used for this week’s review. Maybe you’ll win – and you could do a thorough review of your very own.

It’s Time: Robert Oster Antelope Canyon Ink Review

This week we put this Pen Chalet Exclusive Special Edition Robert Oster ink through our standard ink review tests. Read on to see what we found out!

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

We used a French-made J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen (with a tip comparable to a medium-fine fountain pen nib) on Rhodia dot pad paper.

What Ink Bottle Does Robert Oster Use?

Antelope Canyon ink comes in the standard Robert Oster PET environmentally friendly plastic 50 ml. bottle with a leak-proof cap. Each bottle is identical with a simple white label printed representing the color of the ink. In this case, that label clearly indicates Antelope Canyon and Pen Chalet.com Exclusive. Robert Oster inks use no additional packaging, which keeps the cost down. And since his ink bottles have close to zero history of problems with leaking or damage during shipping (and they ship all the way from Australia), any extra packaging seems unnecessary.

How Much Does Robert Oster Ink Cost?

Antelope Canyon fountain pen ink comes at a reasonable, mid-range price for a 50 ml. bottle. Check for the latest discounted price at PenChalet.com.

How Did This Week’s Ink Fair in the 1-Dip Test?

We conducted a 1-dip test with this Pen Chalet exclusive ink using a J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen and Rhodia dot pad paper. (For the 1-Dip Test, we dip the pen in ink once for each of three writing samples, “S,” “X,” and scribble lines to see how well the pen performs). Antelope Canyon very easily wrote across the paper on all three writing samples with lots of ink to spare.

How Fast Does Antelope Canyon Ink Dry?

Pen Chalet Exclusive Antelope Canyon fountain pen ink showed a dry time of about 6-8 seconds with medium saturation, which is a reasonable dry time that makes it appropriate for an everyday type of ink.

Does Antelope Canyon Ink Bleed Through?

We saw no bleeding during normal use. And we saw NO bleeding even during the heavy saturated cotton swab test, which is impressive.

Was There Any Feathering While Using this Week’s Featured Ink?

We saw no feathering during normal use on Rhodia paper. We did notice some slight feathering during the water test, which is expected with any non-waterproof ink.

How Does the Ink Stand Up to Water?

For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample. As previously stated, Robert Oster Antelope Canyon ink is not meant to be waterproof, so it’s not surprising that we saw heavy color smearing – especially since this is a dark ink color. The lines were still legible with some very slight distortion and line fading.

Does Antelope Canyon Ink Have Good Shading and Sheening Traits?

Robert Oster Antelope Canyon ink showed some nice shading possibilities with the right nib and penmanship. There’s also a nice, subtle possible dark sheen that offsets the copper orange color beautifully.

Final Conclusion on Robert Oster Antelope Canyon Ink:

Robert Oster inks come from a well-regarded, prolific Australian ink company that sends inks out in simple, effective, environmentally friendly packaging. This week’s featured ink is a Pen Chalet Exclusive available now at a reasonable price (for the 50 ml. bottle size). Antelope Canyon is a nice, dark copper “burnt” orange color with darker hints with a reasonable dry time of about 6-8 seconds that makes it easy to choose as an everyday ink. We hope you love this Exclusive Special Edition collaboration color between Pen Chalet and Robert Oster. Happy Writing from Down Under and Arizona!

Enter to Win Robert Oster Antelope Canyon Ink:

Enter to win the actual bottle of Robert Oster ink that Pen Chalet used in this week’s ink review: