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 that was the most noticeable on the Kokuyo and Midori papers. There’s not a lot of tonal variation though, and on the other papers, it appeared with more solidity. I was surprised to see a green sheen in the droplets. It’s a very deep green sheen, but I don’t expect this to ever show up in writing, even with the wettest of pens.
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. 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, and 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. Urushi Red might just be the easiest-to-clean red ink I’ve ever used.
Value/cost per ml:
At the time of writing, Urushi Red is available from Franklin-Christoph for $8.25 in the 1oz size used in the review. This makes Urushi Red $.28 cents per ml, but I should note that Franklin-Christoph also offers inks in a 2oz eyedropper for $12.50, bringing the cost down even further.
The bottle/packaging:
Urushi Red comes in a simple glass bottle with a basic label and no exterior packaging. The glass has a moderate level of transparency, although I found that the ink often sticks to the inner walls of the bottle, leading me to initially mistake the glass for being ambered. The cap has shallow ribs on the edges to assist opening (though I found that they don’t provide as much grip as they would appear to) and there is an inner plug that will help create a seal. The opening is large enough to fit most pens easily, but because the bottle is light and taller than wide, I find that the bottle is lacking in stability for filling.
Score: 62/70
Price per ml: 7.5/10
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: 3/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Bottle form: 1.5/5
Bottle function: 2.5/5
*Only 70 of the 100 available points are required for an outstanding score.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.
Many thanks to the DC Metro Pen Crew for providing me with the pen for this photo.
Written on Oxford Optik paper with a Franklin-Christoph Model 66 (Mike Masuyama medium stub)
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 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook