Weenk - Ripe Persimmon

Weenk - Ripe Persimmon - Ink drop

This is Weenk Ripe Persimmon (홍시). It’s number seven in their collection, and part of the Vol. 2 Grow Ripe series devoted to the persimmon fruit. Where the first ink in the series was inspired by the firm, more yellow ripening stage, Ripe Persimmon captures the beauty of the soft, sweet, redder stage. I think it’s particularly attractive!

Weenk Ripe Persimmon fountain pen ink color

Wet on the page, we find a soft, yet bright red with a lot of orange undertones. As it dries (quite quickly for such a wet ink), it deepens and brings out a darker edging and a hint of rust color in saturated stroke ends. There is a lot of very nice shading on coated papers. There’s wide variation from light to medium to dark. The color is very persimmon, ut you could also compare it to some varieties of tomatoes.

Ink Swatches on Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River

As I mentioned, this is a very wet ink in flow. It glides very smoothly and is very comfortable on the page. On some papers, strokes are razor sharp. The darkened edge that you sometimes find gives strokes a well-defined profile. On other papers, there is some micro-spreading. It isn’t really feathering and is only really visible at saturated stroke ends, but it makes strokes a little less crisp when it occurs. I used a juicy TWSBI fine (writes like a medium) and a juicy Lamy medium for testing. A drier, finer nib would likely get rid of any minor spreading.

Writing sample on Cosmo Air Snow paper

Overall, Ripe Persimmon is a nice writing ink, and it’s often much better than nice. The shading is wonderful! I really like the color, too. If you like reds that lean a bit orange (or oranges that lean heavily red), this is a real beauty! It’s available in lovely 15 ml and 50 ml bottles.

Weenk Ripe Persimmon ink writing samples

Weenk kindly sent me this and several other inks to try. In Korea, you can find Weenk inks through their website (www.weenk.kr), online retailers (www.BlueBlack.kr offers international shipping), and select stores. They’re looking to widen their distribution overseas, so keep an eye out.

Weenk Ripe Persimmon - Swatch Card

Weenk Ripe Persimmon - Swatch Comparisons

Weenk Ripe Persimmon - 50 ml Ink Bottle