Last year, I participated in a group buy for Toucan inks. The brand is Australian and the inks are formulated so that they may be mixed with one another without concern. I posted about the entire experience here. While it was a good experience and everything went great with the group buy, I’ve not been thrilled with the inks. Here’s a link to my review of Toucan Violet.

My chief complaint is that the inks seem watery. Not just low saturation of color, but thin and . . . watery.

Along with the above issue, there doesn’t seem to be much lubrication to the ink. I tested using a Lamy Safari (my pen of choice for new inks) and it felt like I had to push, pull, and drag the pen along to get things going.

And then there’s the color – crimson? No.

Very little water resistance.

While poking around for other reviews, I discovered that Anderson Pens is selling Toucan inks by the pouch (how I bought them) and in sample sizes. (Their swabs look totally different than mine.)

I’ve tried a couple other inks from Toucan and will post about those in the next few months – I’m happy to say that the news isn’t all bad.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your experiences with the Toucan line.