New Arrivals: Midori MD Dip Pens, Stalogy Notebooks, and Laban Aphrodite Pink!

July 11, 2023

At customer request, we’ve also started adding some dip pens to the shop. The first to arrive are the Midori MD dip pens, featuring the same super smooth nib as on the Midori MD fountain pen. I’ve been using this pen to swatch inks, and am very much enjoying the hexagonal holder, which is apparently made from a blend of paper and plastic and has a unique tactile feel. The nib on this dip pen has a medium point, and it’s intended for standard writing/ink testing as opposed to calligraphy.

Stalogy Notebooks are also back in the shop, including the 2022 and 2023 limited edition covers in both 1/2-year and 365-day formats. Colors include, from left, Cream, Forest, Salvia, and Fog.

Finally, yesterday’s pleasant surprise was the arrival of a full box of Laban’s Aphrodite Pink ink, the perpetually backordered favorite color from this ink series! We now have a full restock of all colors of the Laban Greek Mythology Inks, available to ship immediately.

Is it a pink? Is it a red? Is it a “Brown Pink?” However you describe it, I absolutely love this color and it’s long been a go-to when I want to write with something interesting.

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Ink Review: Laban Greek Mythology Apollo Orange and Aphrodite Pink

March 4, 2023

In the interest of building out a library of ink reviews similar to the current T.G.S. Fountain Pen Archive, I’m going to keep plowing ahead with my write-ups of the Laban “Greek Mythology” Ink Series. This week’s inks up for review are Apollo Orange and Aphrodite Pink. Apollo Orange is a solid mandarin orange ink that will see a lot of use as an annotator. Aphrodite Pink is a truly unique shade that’s difficult to describe and even harder to compare to anything else, but I love the muted tone for everyday use.

Aphrodite “Pink” and Apollo Orange, side-by-side.

This isn’t the first review of inks in this series (see below for links to the prior reviews), so I won’t spend too much time rehashing a history of Laban, but the company is based in Taiwan and has been a longstanding fixture at pen shows. I was somewhat surprised to see Laban launch this line of Greek Mythology-themed inks last year, and was pleased at the obvious level of effort that went into putting together not just excellent ink but an aesthetically pleasing product, packaging and all.

Apollo Orange with my current ink swatching tools. More on that below.

Apollo Orange Should Please Most Fans of Orange Inks

Apollo Orange is named for the Greek God Apollo, God of phrophesy, music, and healing (Roman equivalent: Phoebus), and the traditional association of Apollo with the Sun makes this pairing particularly appropriate! I would describe Apollo Orange as a classic “mandarin orange” with red tones when the ink is wet. Unlike many orange inks, Apollo Orange isn’t a particularly dry writer, so I’ve not had any issues with hard starts or nib crud. I’ve also found the ink cleans out of pens fairly easily, which is always a pleasant surprise with oranges.

Apollo Orange is just different enough from the lighter Saffron TWSBI ECO-T fountain pen to make this pen and ink a perfect match.

Aphrodite Pink: The “Stunningly Weird” Ink From the Series, But Possibly the Best

Finally, this brings us to Aphrodite Pink, one of the most popular inks in the Laban Greek Mythology series and, in my opinion, probably the best simply because it’s so unusual. In fact, I would have to put Aphrodite Pink up there as one of my favorite discoveries over the past year, because there just aren’t that many “pink” inks in general, and certainly not many with this unique shade that falls well outside the typical “hot pink” or “electric pink” colors that companies try to release. Named for the Greek Goddess of love (Roman Equivalent: Venus), Aphrodite Pink is more of a dusty brick red with pink undertones than a true pink. At first, I thought it might be comparable to KWZ Brown Pink, but the latter has much more purple. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter - this ink simply makes for a great everyday writer that I’ve used fairly regularly over the past year, and it’s now in my Pilot Custom 823.

I love nontraditional, muted colors like this one. As with all of the Laban Greek Mythology inks that I’ve used, this one dries quickly and has no maintenance issues.

Takeaways, Where to Buy, and Reviews of the Rest of the Line

I’m currently five inks into my review of the Laban Greek Mythology Series, and I’ve not yet found one that I don’t enjoy. These inks all behave well, and I’ve personally experienced no issues with feathering, bleedthrough, staining, or slow dry times. You can check out my prior reviews of Ares Red, Artemis Navy Blue, and Athena Grey here. In fact, I enjoyed these inks so much that I purchased the entire line at last year’s Baltimore Pen Show for my personal collection, and recently brought them into our own shop. The T.G.S. Curated Shop stocks all colors with the exception of Aphrodite Pink (currently on backorder), and these Laban inks are priced at $25 per 50ml bottle. The packaging alone is a work of art, especially with the incorporation of fountain pens into the different depictions of the various gods and goddesses.

A Note on Swatching Inks and my “Organizational System”

Somebody recently asked me how I organize ink swatches (probably prompted by my Ink-o-Dex video), and what paper I use to photograph samples and organize my collection. The simple answer is that I really don’t have any sort of system. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and many different storage and sampling options have come and gone over the years.

Laban Aphrodite Pink on a Col-o-Ring Card. (Stamp courtesy of Angela at Inky Converters!)

Currently, I use a combination of Col-o-ring cards (stored in the repurposed Rol-o-dex), A5 planner paper, and a 68gsm Tomoe River notebook. Typically when I’m reviewing/archiving an ink I’ll use a q-tip and my Kakimori Brass Dip Pen to make a standard color sample on Col-o-Ring paper, which goes into the Col-o-dex. Blog posts nearly always feature ink swatches and writing samples on A5 sheets of Midori MD Cotton paper and 68gsm Tomoe River paper (while I can still get it), since these are the two papers I use the most. Lately, in addition to individual ink swatches, I’ve been creating comparison sheets so that I can easily view multiple colors from a single brand or line.

Laban Greek Mythology Ink Sheet — My ongoing ink comparison sheet for the Laban Greek Mythology Series

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of certain brands, including the Laban inks shown here. This post otherwise does not contain paid advertising or affiliate links.

Ink Review: Laban Greek Mythology Athena Grey and Artemis Navy Blue

February 22, 2023

Because I have so many inks in my collection, it generally takes either an unusual color or an interesting story to prompt me to make a purchase. If I’m inspired to buy the entire line, the ink must be really special, and that’s where I found myself at last year’s Baltimore Pen Show, visiting multiple vendors trying to put together a full set of Laban’s Greek Mythology-inspired inks.

This one is all about nostalgia for me: I’m a huge history fan, was an even bigger fan of Greek/Roman mythology as a child, and I now have a child who loves history, including the ancient myths. While there’s nothing particularly unusual about most of the ten colors in this series - they’re all fairly standard riffs on inks you would expect to find in a lineup made by a pen manufacturer - each ink writes really well, and the color has been paired with a god or goddess from ancient Greek mythology. (While the colors themselves are different than what is typically associated with each of the specific namesakes, only a hardcore mythology nerd will catch this, and frankly these colors are far more practical and will appeal to more people than gold or silver, for example.)

Athena Grey

Athena Grey was the Laban ink that I first jumped at, not necessarily because of the color but because of the association. The Greek goddess of wisdom (Roman equivalent: Minerva), Athena holds a special place for me because my hometown hosts a full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon, complete with statue of Athena. You can read more about the backstory here, but a version of the Parthenon was first built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition before being made permanent, with the Athena statute added later in the 1990s. The venue serves as an art museum located in Nashville’s Centennial Park.

Athena Grey is a very dark grey ink, which some might even consider black, especially when writing with fine or extra-fine nibs. In a wetter, wider nib, the ink will show as more of a dark grey with purple undertones, similar to a dark, more concentrated Sailor Chu-shu. I’ve found this particular color to be an excellent ink for everyday office work, as the color is conservative while still remaining interesting enough to intrigue fountain pen users looking for those slightly offbeat shades of classic tones.

Artemis Navy Blue

A true navy ink is surprisingly (and somewhat frustratingly) hard to find. Artemis Navy Blue is a dark, rich blue with a touch of sheen - think the now-discontinued JFK Navy Blue from Montblanc, only darker (I would say “richer”) and with less grey. Named after Artemis, the Greek goddess of animals and the hunt (Roman equivalent: Diana), the artwork features the classic motif of Artemis reaching for her bow and arrow, only to find that her bow is a fountain pen! (See the gallery below for the images from the packaging, which I find really well done.)

Like Athena Grey, this ink is a bit of a sleeper and actually one of the last inks I tested from the lineup because I thought it would be a “boring” blue. As it turns out, it has become one of my favorites, and was the surprise hit at pen club a couple weekends back when I brought it for people to test in person.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

It’s rare that I’ve purchased all of the inks in a given series of releases, much less in a single weekend, so that should tell you something about how much I enjoy what Laban has done here. In fact, I liked these inks so much that I put them on the short list for inks I wanted to sell in our own shop, and we’re happy to be able to offer the Laban Greek Mythology inks directly as of last week. Each ink comes in a 50ml glass bottle, priced at $25.

I’m starting a full comparison ink swatch sheet for this line as I review the rest of them. (Don’t ask me for this paper - go bother the folks at Plotter, because this is exceptionally good Midori MD Cotton Paper with letterpress ruling that they’ve been refusing to make generally available in the US!)

Red Ink Research: Laban Ares Red and Dominant Industry Romania Red

September 10, 2022

It’s been a while since I updated everyone on my never-ending quest for the “perfect” red ink. (Yes, even though I’ve swabbed and sampled literally dozens of red inks over the years, and have probably 12 or so “keeper” bottles in my collection, I’m still looking.) Given that most of my recent attention has been devoted to pen show travel and building out the shop, I’ve acquired less for personal use, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still exploring. Today I’m going to look at two inks that I picked up in recent months: Laban “Ares Red” from their Greek Mythology series, and Dominant Industry “Romania Red.” Both are excellent, but the latter might be my favorite since it seems like a very close match to my now-rapidly-dwindling supply of Montblanc Alfred Hitchcock.

Laban Ares Red

Though I’ve not gotten around to reviewing the inks until now, at the Baltimore Pen Show I picked up nearly all of the Laban “Greek Mythology” Inks from various retailers. These inks were released in two series, and since I’m a longstanding mythology enthusiast there was simply no way I would pass up having all of these inks in my collection. To my knowledge, Laban hasn’t released a line of inks prior to this one, and they are surprisingly good.

Ares Red (named after the Greek god of war) is a bright red similar to classic Sheaffer Skrip, though perhaps slightly richer in tone. I had tempered my expectations somewhat, given that many people claim to have experienced slow dry times with this particular ink. That was not the case at all for me, as I’ve found Ares Red to be extremely well behaved. It dries relatively quickly, and I’ve had no feathering or bleeding in a few different pens and nib sizes. To pair with this particular ink for this review, I chose the new TWSBI ECO in Transparent Yellow, in an extra-fine nib. I have no qualms about using red inks at work, since I annotate a lot of documents, and this shade of red is perfect for markups. (I also have a thing about putting red inks in demonstrators - I especially love it when the demonstrator is orange or yellow.)

Dominant Industry Romania Red

If you’re looking for a deeper red that could be a good everyday writer, you should definitely try out Dominant Industry’s Romania Red, apparently an attempt to clone Montblanc Alfred Hitchcock. “Romania Red” even has a touch of the greenish-gold sheen that Hitchcock can develop around the edges on certain papers. Like the Ares Red, this ink did not give me any trouble in terms of dry time, bleedthrough, or feathering. Either would make a good workhorse ink, and I had this one inked up for review in a TWSBI Smoke and Rose Gold RGII Diamond 580 with a medium nib. Like Laban, Korean inkmaker Dominant Industry has impressed with their overall lineup, and I have several bottles currently in rotation.

Note that the Hitchcock has just a bit more sheen to it than the Dominant Industry version. It’s not an exact match, but perhaps the closest I’ve seen, especially in everyday writing. The paper used for the writing samples is Midori MD Cotton paper.

Where to Buy and Further Reading

We stock the Laban Greek Mythology Series, including Ares Red, in our own Shop, and our friends at Vanness Pens currently carry the Dominant Industry Romania Red. Laban Inks are priced at $25 for 50ml, and Dominant Industry inks $17 for a 25ml bottle. This pricing is fairly standard, though I’d say Laban falls on the inexpensive side on a per-ml basis, while Dominant is in line with the pricing for other imported inks.

Laban Ares Red and Dominant Industry Romania Red Comparison — A side-by-side comparison so that you can see how these will look in everyday writing.

Do you have a special ink color that you’re constantly exploring? If so, you may want to check out this series that I put together last year, in which I swabbed all of the various inks in my collection and laminated the sample sheets. If you visited me at the D.C. Pen Show, these are the sheets I had at the table!

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