Ink Review #102

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

Overview

The color:

Dominant Industry Lake is a vibrant blue with heavy green undertones (especially noticeable on cream paper). The color shades with a hard cut between light and dark tones, and you may notice dark edges around the areas where the ink pools. There’s not a lot of notable sheen, but you might notice a dark red edge around heavily pooled areas of ink, especially with wetter nibs.

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

Performance on paper:

Dominant Industry Lake should perform well on most fountain pen-friendly papers. There wasn’t a lot of bleed-through on the Kokuyo paper, and it was mostly isolated to the large nib sizes. There wasn’t any other bleeding or feathering on the other test papers.

The dry times were surprisingly good, taking at most 20 seconds to dry with the larger nib sizes, but mostly stayed within 10-15 seconds (and less with the finer nibs). There was some water resistance, but the color is quickly washed away and there are hazy shadows left behind of what was written. Readability will vary.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Performance in the pen:

This ink seems pen-picky. It looks like there’s a medium flow, but it was dry with the needlepoint and extra fine nibs, and tolerable with the fine. In contrast, it was beautifully flowy and smooth with the medium nib, but with the broad, stub, and architect nibs it had a notably poor flow with hard starts and was overall an unpleasant writing experience. On the other hand, the broad nib I used for the writing sample didn’t have any serious issues with flow or lubrication, but it still had some hard starts. When it’s good, the writing experience is great, but it can just as easily be a frustrating experience.

Thankfully (and to my surprise), the cleaning experience was excellent, and only took a single soak and flush to run clear without any residue or color left in the pen or nibs.

• Performance in a pen: 6/10

• Performance on paper: 9/10

• Color saturation: 6/10

• Sheening: 1/10

• Shading: 6/10

• Dry time: 8/10

• Water resistance: 2/10

• Ease of cleaning: 10/10

• Shimmer: None

My personal thoughts…

When Sarah (our editor) and I first picked up Dominant Industry Lake at the 2023 DC Supershow, we were both completely new to the brand. We’d seen it circulating in various pen communities, but it was the first time either of us had an opportunity to purchase and try them in person. I had already selected a handful, but we were looking for a fourth one. In the end, we landed on Lake — it stood out amongst the other colors in the swatch book we were flipping through. It was a nice blue, but it had a special vibrant character to us that made it hard to walk away from, so we were sure we would like it. What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would like it. This is definitely one of those inks where just looking at a swatch does the experience no justice. Obviously, the color is the same, but seeing this ink in writing just brings out that beautiful vibrance, and it really took me by surprise. It’s refreshing, and it feels like an obvious choice for a summer ink. Yet the more I look at it, the more I think it could even go in the direction of a winter blue. It’s a dynamic color that can represent both the energizing refreshment of a cool lake on a sunny summery afternoon, or the stillness of an icy lake in a frozen landscape. The ink does feel a little pen-picky, but despite that, I don’t think Dominant Industry Lake is a blue to be slept on.

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 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

• A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

• A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook