A New Waterproof Blue Ink from India: Sulekha Sampurna, Plus More Sulekha and Krishna Inks 

A family connection always makes these things more meaningful. I understand that the area in Calcutta where the Sulekha factory used to be is still called "Sulekha", also. I hope that you have the time to watch my earlier videos about Sulekha inks :-)

@@thewetpen I live pretty close to the area named Sulekha. I did buy this ink but it is very difficult to clean out of a pen. I would suggest keeping a dedicated pen for this ink!

@@sudeepmukherjee4430 Ahh, interesting. I haven't had any trouble cleaning it out of pens, but I use a lot of inks that are pigmented or heavy sheeners (dense dye), so maybe it just didn't seem unusual to me.

Be cautious as Indian ink and India ink are two different inks. India inks are made for dip pens, brushes and classical writing instruments and can damage fountain pens. Its always good to check if an ink is safe for fountain pen before buying

Yes... I have a whole video series about them, though I haven't updated it in too long. All of my Indian fans are impatient. Daytone inks are conspicuously missing, so far.

I'm the same... rarely pass up a blue ink that I haven't tried yet 🙂

Thanks :-) Glad that you're enjoying the videos! I have several new Indian pens arriving in the mail soon, so hopefully I'll be able to review them before too long as well.

@@thewetpen Pleasure is all mine, can't wait , Have you also done reviews on Nahvalur pens original plus vaccum pens.?

@@akshaysharma2786 No, not those ones. I do own two Nahvalur pens... one of the original piston fill pens, which I got when they were new a few years ago, and it's been repaired under warranty and is still doing well... and I have an ebonite Nautilus, which I probably use more than any other pen in my collection, although I've also never reviewed it :-) Generally, if a pen is getting plenty of coverage around the internet, I don't bother.

@@thewetpen ok seems fair enough. I liked the price window of Narwal. Thanks for the input though.

Ah! Well, if you're studying in the USA, maybe you'll end up with this bottle! :-) I also found the Swadhin Black to be on the grey side, but it does depend on the paper.

@@thewetpen I'm from West Bengal, India (NBU). It's okay if I don't get this bottle... I shall definitely try it out once I buy this. Thanks for your kind words. 🤗🙏🏼

sulekha swadhin is waterproof ???

Sampurna seems like it should be a good one to paint over... doesn't seem to lift away at all, once it's dry.

My pleasure. I always need a good waterproof ink for work, too... it took a while, but I've got a decent collection of waterproof inks that I like, now.

Hey Beth! Yes, I definitely have some stationery shop visits planned, along with some videos :-)

Thanks :-) I love the Saffron too!

My pleasure :-) Some of these are more affordable than others, but there are lots of good permanent inks out there.

The Koh I Noor is great. It used to be (3 years ago or so) that you could order it from Ebay for about $2, but it seems to have gone up quite a bit... now it seems to be closer to $8 with shipping, which is still not bad at all.

@@thewetpen Considering how much I have spent on some ink bottles for the amount of ink I get (looking at a few 20ml/30ml bottles...), $8 is still fantastic. Heh.

Agreed... it turns into a really great deep orange there.

@@thewetpen …which will be your next Wet Pen ink product line expansion, along with a brooding, shading grey…right? 🙏🤞👍

A very beautiful ink!

It's a good one... nice color, very waterproof... but it is an iron gall, and has the problems associated with them (darkening color over time, acidity).

It took me years to get over my fear of pigment inks, and what actually did it for me was that I started using them in PenBBS pens, where new nib units only cost $5 ($6 now), so I knew that with a worst case scenario, I could just swap out a nib unit and the pen would be as good as new. But of course, I never had to 🙂

I'm thinking about the Platinum preppy as my trial pigment ink pen--I'll have to look into PenBBS too!

@@mintchoncc As I say, the risk with pigment inks is really pretty minimal unless you're likely to set a pen aside for a year with ink in it... and even then, a pen that seals well would be fine. So, definitely start with whatever you're comfortable with, but don't be afraid to use them in good quality pens, either 🙂

It's probably the one that I use most, although I've started using more Japanese pigment inks over the past couple of years, too. Great ink!

Not sure about shimmer, but I imagine that with the addition of anything to lubricate it, it would never dry, even on paper :-) Actually, it would really depend on what you add... a surfactant like a detergent would probably work nicely and not negatively impact the dry time.

Well, I may have to do another drawing for this one... the original winner never contacted me.

Thanks! Another series of videos is my plan, but we'll have to see whether I can look up from the ink selection long enough to operate my cameras 🙂

@@thewetpen not sure if the traditional Japanese ink sticks review has been done o this channel. Would you get some please..

Ahh, now there's something I didn't know! Thanks for the info 🙂

Yes, that's a common thing with some orange inks and also some light greens, which makes me think that a particular yellow dye is the culprit, although I don't know which one yet. I haven't run into that issue with this Saffron yet, but I'll give it some time 🙂

@@thewetpen Thanks for your observations. Could you perhaps do a video on this issue?

I agree about the pen sleeve :-) Don't know if you saw my original Sulekha video last year, but jute is one of the fibers that would have been used to make khadi, promoted by Gandhi... so it all fits together with the origin of the ink brand.

Have you heard any confirmation that the ink is pigment based? My initial information was that it was dye-based, but that doesn't seem right to me.

@@thewetpen sorry, I don’t have that information. I can’t comment on that.

the Syahi are on my list. I've ordered them once and had shipping problems. Trying again soon.

Ha! Sorta. Doesn't quite have the shading, though.

Hey Mary! You won this bottle of ink and pen sleeve :-) Send me your address in an email and I'll get it out to you ASAP! matthew@thewetpen.com

@toastermobile1 Hey Mary! You won this bottle of Sampurna ink :-) Thought I'd try to notify you again. Let me know when you see this and I'll ship the ink out to you!

Yes :-) I have 2 or 3 bottles... though the only one that I can find at the moment is Maharlika, which I definitely enjoy, and there was another called something like Harlequin Bodabil. I haven't tried any of their shimmer inks, though... but now I'll think about it the next time I run across them.

My pleasure :-) I know this one gets a bit boring, but there wasn't anything that I wanted to leave out, either... 🙂

I saw him say that, and assume that he was mistaken. Officially, they're only giving vague answers.

Ha! I agree... a great company with a very interesting history.

The nice thing here is that most inks are reasonably good and work reasonably well... choosing different inks are more for matters of personal taste than pure functionality, and because it's a matter of personal taste, it's hard for me to give you any sort of definitive advice. I also like Blue and Blue-Black inks, so I'll tell you a few of my favorites that are from India. First, if you like deeply saturated inks... especially those that produce sheen, then Krishna inks such as "Moonview 2" or "Sea at Night" are unique among Indian inks (but these inks have downsides, being somewhat hard to clean out of pens, and messy if your writing gets wet), and their Monsoon and Forever series inks are good and practical, as you've seen in this video. This Sampurna is expensive but beautiful and completely permanent, which is nice. For an inexpensive bright blue, I like the Camlin Camel Blue, which is nice and vibrant, though it does not hold up to sunshine very well. Maybe the most practical daily use inks are from Daytone. Their standard and Extra-Fine inks are good, but the Extra-Fine have better flow and richer colors, and many of the blues and blacks have some water resistance... and they cost only 40 or 60 rupees per bottle. Good luck!

@@thewetpen Thank you...😊

My pleasure 🙂

As a general rule (as a self-protective measure) I don't order directly from Japan at all... I try to only buy from foreign countries while I'm visiting them. That said, most major Japanese retailers have a foreign shipping agent connected with their site that you can use to have your order shipped to the US or Canada. Kingdom Note, for example, uses Buyee (you can read about how it works on their website). I haven't done it, so I can't recommend or warn you off. Good luck!

I do have a couple of their inks. One of them is a chroma shader, and one is an orange. I got them during a period of heavy ink acquisition, and I haven't used them much, unfortunately.

Ooh! I love letters. Hope it arrives before I leave for Japan on Wednesday 🙂

@@thewetpen I sent it last week, so hopefully it will be there tomorrow since today is a holiday.

Yes, I suppose that if I were a collector of pens as objects of interest in themselves, I might be hesitant to use some types of waterproof ink... but my interest in pens is as writing instruments first... and I live in a place that rains for 9 months of the year, surrounded by lakes and oceans... protection against water makes sense to me. And as I say, I've used waterproof inks for years with no problems, so it just doesn't strike me as a real risk.

Sounds like it could be interesting... I'll add that to my list, but I don't know when I'll be able to get to it :-)

Indian inks are probably not the best in the world, on the whole, but some of them are wonderful and lots of them are very interesting, which is enough for me 🙂

Generally I like to consider inks in the realm of "Do I like the color, and does it work well in my pens on the papers I use?" People get hung up on "the best" and miss out on the fun of exploring all of the other options. :D @@thewetpen

sulekhaink.co.in/product/samarpan-gem-blue-ink/

I just use Baystate Blue :-) Otherwise, Diamine Blue Velvet is pretty vibrant, Monteverde Horizon, Pennonia Kekek Kekje isn't bad... I hear that Diamine Cornflower (available at Cult Pens, individually) is pretty close but I haven't tried it. There are lots of good saturated blues that tend to sheen... Colorverse Supernova and Quasar, but there isn't really anything that matches BayState Blue that I can think of.

Yep, Nathan set the bar pretty high. @@thewetpen

You can buy the Sulekha inks from Sulekha via email, maybe, but the easier option right now is to go to ThePenWorld.com . I believe it's run by the same people that make Krishna inks and they sell Krishna, but they just started carrying Sulekha, too, and they ship to the USA, though it's not always cheap shipping from India.

At least this Sulekha is hard enough to get that it's easy to maintain your self discipline 🙂

Agreed! It used to be available in the US for not much more, but the prices have gone up substantially, here.

No, I ordered it from a shop in India that did ship to the USA. Can't remember which one, off the top of my head. Maybe the Pen World.

​@@thewetpen At the moment, The Pen World has Vazir, but not Gama. Thanks for the reply. I'll keep on the lookout.

@_Ciiitron_ Ahhh... I bet it was Penhouse.in They used to carry more. Hopefully they'll restock.

It's a flamenco piece from the free RU-vid sound library... I believe it's called "Pink Flamenco".

@@thewetpen Thank you, very much.

Yes, these inks are all designed for use in fountain pens. Some old-fashioned iron-gall inks were acidic enough to be a problem for some types of nibs, but modern inks are much less acidic and are safe. You'll want to avoid using them with nibs that are made of brass, but stainless steel and gold should be fine.

@@thewetpen Thank you 😊

Possible, actually... Krishna makes an ink that's a combination (although it behaves like a dye ink).

I've been using Indian inks for years, from Chelpark and Sulekha to Krishna and Daytone. They're perfectly safe for fountain pens.