Franklin-Christoph Tenebris Purpuratum
Ink Review #114
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Tenebris Purpuratum is a medium purple that shades with a light gradient between its light and dark tones where the ink pools. Despite being darker, it’s not all that saturated. There’s no sheen or shine to the dried color — instead, it has a slightly matte or “flat” appearance. That’s not something I see with a lot of inks, especially in this color range.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Unfortunately, Tenebris Purpuratum isn’t the most gentle ink, but the results weren’t quite as bad as I expected. There was some aggressive feathering and minor bleed-through in the 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook I used for the writing tests, but also minor feathering in the 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook that I used for the writing sample. Surprisingly, there wasn’t that much bleed-through on the Kokuyo sheet this time, but there was still a lot of feathering. The other sheets were okay, but papers might have more difficulty standing up to this ink used with a wetter-tuned pen or heavier-handed writing.
The dry times are average, and the large nib sizes dry within 15-20 seconds, however, the finer nibs take slightly longer than average at around 10-15 seconds.
As far as water resistance goes, it was surprisingly good. There’s a lot of color retention and while there’s still a little clouding where the ink was exposed to water, everything is crisp and easily legible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Tenebris Purpuratum has a wet and somewhat watery flow. Surprisingly, I still had some minor hard starts with both the medium and broad nibs, but the ink was still smooth and pleasant to write with in most cases.
The cleaning experience was good. A single soak and flush cleaned the ink out of the pen with no remaining stains or residue in the barrel. Like most purple inks, I wouldn’t recommend letting this ink sit in a pen for too long or cleaning could become more difficult, but even then, I don’t think this purple is that saturated compared to others.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper
Performance in a pen: 8/10
Performance on paper: 6/10
Color saturation: 5/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 7/10
Water resistance: 6/10
Ease of cleaning: 9/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
If there was an award for the ink reviewed with the coolest name in 2024, it would definitely be for Tenebris Purpuratum. Tenebris (or Tenebrous) is a word for darkness, and purpuratum is… well, I think it’s safe to assume they were going for purple. Anyway, dark purple it is indeed! It’s unfortunate that it can be a little temperamental on some papers because I otherwise really love the color. I mentioned earlier that it has a kind of “flat” look to it, and for a color like this I think it’s perfect. I’m also sure that the watery consistency it has is what makes the color appear that way, so it’s just the unfortunate reality of things. I can’t recommend this without stressing that you might not have the best results, but otherwise, it’s an excellent shade of eerie purple that’s still worth trying.
Written with a Franklin-Christoph Model 45 (fine) in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook
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