Graf von Faber-Castell Stone Grey

Ink samples provided by Anderson Pens.

I keep wanting to call this ink "storm grey" and that's the name you'll see at the top of the written review. I've crossed it out and re-titled it, but it's still storm grey in my mind.

I just looks so stormy to me. Like the clouds in a stormy winter sky. I guess it also looks like rocks, but that doesn't have the same poetry to it. I even drew a picture of a storm cloud.

I'm good at art. 

But then I had to draw some rocks when I noticed that I had gotten the name wrong all this time. 

Here are some close-ups of the text.

Chromatography-wise, this ink looks like it's going to have some water-resistance. The heavy grey base-layer really sticks around, while there are grey and purple-ish tones at the top.

So, how does it behave on copy papers? 

Bleed Test:

Super well, it turns out. In fact, I had to check and make sure that I was using the 20lb copy paper that I had intended to use. I totally way. This ink is safe for office-grade papers. Very impressive performance, actually. On the Graf von Faber-Castell site, this ink is described as "document proofed." I'm not sure what that means, but it must have to do with being safe to use on documents, and this behavior seems to bear that out. Now, is it water resistant? You'll have to wait a bit for that.

I think I like the Montblanc Einstein grey better, but Stone Grey is a perfectly good grey ink. It's just lighter than I usually go.

In a closer close-up, you can see the difference in tone between this ink and Einstein. I wish I'd left Iroshizuku's Fuyu-Syogun in a pen to compare to this ink, but I'd already washed it out. I'll probably post that review next, though, so you can flip back and forth if you like. This one is darker and more useable than Fuyu-Syogun, though. 

I think I like this grey, but it might just be a little light to me. I tend to gravitate towards really dark greys or greys with brown or green in them. This is a 'calm' color, and a great option for those who have to write on cheap papers without show-through or other bad behaviors.

Find this ink over at AndersonPens.net where it goes for $30 per bottle. It's a 75ml bottle, though, so that makes it $.40 per ml.

Water Drop Test and Video Review

The ink for this review was provided free of charge by Anderson Pens. The review was all mine, however.