This week we’re featuring TWSBI Sky Blue fountain pen ink from the TWSBI Pen Company. While TWSBI is well known for creating exceptional fountain pens at an affordable price, they’ve only recently expanded into fountain pen inks.

All About the Ink Maker: TWSBI

TWSBI is a Taiwanese company but manufactures its inks in China. While TWSBI Pen Company is new to the fountain pen ink scene, they approached ink manufacturing with the same precision that made their pen manufacturing business stand out from the crowd. TWSBI has two ink series: the regular series and the 1791 ink series. The TWSBI regular ink series includes four basic colors, all in a large capacity 70 ml. bottle: TWSBI Regular Black, TWSBI Regular Blue-Black, TWSBI Regular Red, and TWSBI Regular Sapphire Blue.

This week’s featured ink, Sky Blue, is one of six inks included in TWSBI’s second ink series: TWSBI 1791 ink series.

All About the Ink Series: TWSBI 1791 Ink Series

The TWSBI 1791 ink series includes six non-basic colors, all in a smaller, 18 ml. bottle:

• TWSBI 1791 Emerald Green
• TWSBI 1791 Orange
• TWSBI 1791 Pink
• TWSBI 1791 Prairie Green
• TWSBI 1791 Royal Purple
• TWSBI 1791 Sky Blue

You can see the precision that characterizes all TWSBI products in the ink color allocations. The regular ink series includes “basic” commonly used, everyday ink colors, so TWSBI uses larger capacity ink bottles. The more unique, specialty ink colors that used less regularly are included in TWSBI’s 1791 ink series and arrive in smaller capacity bottles.

Pen Chalet is a proud, authorized retailer of TWSBI products with a full range of TWSBI inks, including the TWSBI regular ink series and the Twsbi 1791 ink series, as well as TWSBI fine writing instruments. Find your next TWSBI product at Pen Chalet.

All About This Week’s Chosen Ink: TWSBI Sky Blue Ink

TWSBI Sky Blue is a lovely bright light blue color fountain pen ink that shows up dark enough on paper to be easily legible.

** Don’t stop now. Keep reading for a chance to win the bottle of TWSBI Sky Blue fountain pen ink used for this week’s Pen Chalet Ink Review. (Or if you’re still cultivating the art of patience, scroll down to the bottom where you’ll find the link to enter this week’s giveaway).

Read the full review of TWSBI 1791 ink series’ Sky Blue fountain pen ink.

It’s Time: TWSBI Sky Blue Ink Review

Time to dive into this week’s ink review with all the little details you’ll need to know if you’re thinking about adding TWSBI Sky Blue fountain pen ink to your collection. Read on to see how this week’s fountain pen ink fared undergoing all the tests we use for each week’s ink review (including the new “1 Dip Test” we added to the review process last week). In the 1 Dip Test, we test the ink to see if one dip in the fountain pen ink is enough to create a full line of writing across the entire page without re-dipping the pen.

Read the full review of this week’s featured TWSBI ink below!

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

With new fountain pen ink reviews going up every week, it’s safe to say that we’ve done this a lot. And we learned early on that when you’re measuring or gauging fountain pen ink performance, the materials you’re using while conducting the ink review tests makes a huge difference. So, never fear, we list the products we use each week during the ink review right here.

While reviewing TWSBI Sky Blue fountain pen ink, we used a J Herbin spiral glass dip pen (which has a tip similar to a medium-fine fountain pen nib) on French-made Rhodia dot pad paper. Please remember that different papers and nib sizes may produce different results.

What Sort of Ink Bottle Does TWSBI Use?

TWSBI ink comes in a small, standard 18 ml. frosted, rectangular glass bottle. We love the distinctive, red TWSBI lid. Every TWSBI ink bottle comes with a secondary sticker that reflects the color of the ink. Inks arrive in a simple cardboard, outer box with a small foam protective layer on top and bottom.

How Much Does TWSBI Sky Blue Ink Cost?

TWSBI Sky Blue ink is a very economical fountain pen ink. If you’re interested in value pricing, check the current discount pricing at Pen Chalet – you’ll discover the prices make it possible to get your hands on all six of TWSBI’s 1791 ink series’ colors.

How Did Sky Blue Ink Fair in the NEW 1 Dip Test?

TWSBI’s Sky Blue fountain pen ink performed well during our newest test, the 1 Dip. Test. We used the one dip test to see how far one dip could write on paper. Dipping the pen into TWSBI’s Sky Blue ink one time, we were able to easily write across the paper on all three writing samples with medium saturation. We used one dip per writing sample. Writing samples included: S, X, and scribble lines (see the photograph of the samples above).

How Fast Does TWSBI Sky Blue Ink Dry?

TWSBI Sky Blue fountain pen ink had a dry time of approximately 4-5 seconds with medium saturation, which is very quick and definitely appropriate as an everyday ink. (At Pen Chalet, we generally consider any dry time under 10 seconds to be reasonably fast, and appropriate for daily use).

Does Sky Blue Ink Bleed Through?

We saw very slight bleeding during normal use of Sky Blue fountain pen ink, and some additional, heavier bleeding during the heavy saturated cotton swab test (but limited mostly to the wettest points).

Was There Any Feathering?

We saw no feathering during normal use and almost no feathering during the water test.

How Does TWSBI Sky Blue Ink Stand Up to Water?

This week’s ink is not a waterproof ink, but we always include a water test in the review. (For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample). During the water test, Sky Blue ink held up well. We saw some color smearing (expected for non-waterproof ink). The lines were completely legible with almost no additional feathering at all. All in all, TWSBI’s 1791 ink series’ Sky Blue ink held up very well to water.

Does Sky Blue Fountain Pen Ink Have Good Shading Traits?

We didn’t see a lot of shading during normal use of Sky Blue ink. If you have a nib that allows ink flow variation like a stub or italic nib, you may see more.

Final Conclusion on TWSBI Sky Blue Ink:

This week’s fountain pen ink comes to you from Taiwanese TWSBI Pen Company, known for lovely, but affordable, fountain pens. Well respected for being economically prudent, yet high quality, TWSBI’s recent venture into fountain pen inks has been accepted well so far, partly because they are available at a very economical price.

The TWSBI ink featured in this week’s review Sky Blue fountain pen ink. It’s a nice, bright, vivid sky (light) blue color. One of six inks included in TWSBI’s 1791 ink series, Sky Blue fountain pen ink, is packaged in a nice, unique, frosted ink bottle with the distinctive, red TWSBI lid. The ink showed an impressive dry time during the review (around 5 seconds) and would be a great everyday ink choice. Happy writing from Taiwan!

Enter to Win:

Enter to win the actual bottle of TWSBI Sky Blue fountain pen ink that Pen Chalet used in this week’s ink review:

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