Franklin-Christoph Urushi Red
Ink Review #31
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Franklin-Christoph Urushi Red is a medium red. There’s some light shading where the ink pools, with a soft gradient in cursive and a harder, more pronounced cut between light and dark tones when writing in print. With that said, there’s not a lot of tonal variation, and depending on the pen and paper, it might appear with more solidity (especially in cursive).
I was surprised to see a green sheen in the droplets. It’s a very deep green sheen, and you might get some of that in writing, especially in print (I got some on Midori MD paper around the edges of shaded areas), but it’s not as pronounced as you would expect, and in most writing situations I wouldn’t count on seeing any.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Urushi Red is well-behaved: there wasn’t any bleed-through or feathering on any of the test pages. It should perform well on most fountain pen-friendly papers.
The dry times were slightly below average, but consistent, and rarely extended past the 20-second mark.
There was some degree of water resistance, but the remains were hazy with a lot of pink clouding. You might be able to salvage some of it, but the readability may vary.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
This ink performs well. I didn’t run into any hard starts, skips, or stops during my tests. It has a consistent medium flow, but the lubrication is on the dry side. Despite that, I never found this ink to be unpleasant to write with. If you prefer a wetter, slicker ink, you may not enjoy Urushi Red, but I found the writing experience to be comfortable enough for daily use.
I expected the cleanup to take longer, but surprisingly, it cleaned out in a single soak and flush. It might just be one of the easiest-to-clean red inks I’ve ever used.
Written on Oxford Optic paper (white) with a broad nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream) with a broad nib.
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 8/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 3/10
Dry time: 6.5/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
I love this color. It’s not only one of my favorite inks in Franklin-Christoph’s lineup, but one of my favorite red inks overall. I tend to shy away from a lot of red inks because the cleanup can be a pain and they tend to crust up on the pen (Or worse, in the bottle), but I never experienced this with Urushi Red. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but I’d be surprised at this point if it did.
Does it look like Urushi though? Well, yes and no. The color checks out, but depending on what pen you’re using, you might be missing the depth. That’s not really the ink’s fault, but if you really want that deep-red urushi, maybe try it in a wetter pen to get rid of some of that shading.
Written on Oxford Optik paper with a Pilot Vanishing Point (broad nib).
A Pilot Custom Urushi for comparison. Many thanks to the DC Metro Pen Crew for providing me with the pen for this photo!
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook