Pen of the Day: Parker Duofold Centennial

Fernambuk is an ink that’s hard to capture or describe, and I don’t hear a lot about it. But we did an ink testing station at the Chicago Pen Show with 300 inks, including some talked-about new releases. And Fernambuk kept grabbing people.

I have a tiny bit of a sample, which I put in the Duofold and in a Lamy Safari. Fernambuk is an interesting red ink. It varies a great deal. At night it can look nearly orange-red, but in sunlight it is pink-red. The Duofold is a wet writer, so that makes the ink look redder. In a Safari it looks pinker.

Fernambuk clearly has notes of pink, maybe even salmon pink, but I still see it as red. The color is pleasant and not aggressive, but it’s eye-catching. Fernambuk seems to write slightly dry.

Here is a run of swabs showing how the ink can look. From left to right, I made one pass with a Fernambuk swab, then two, then three, then four.

Fernambuk, also known as Pernambuco, is another name for Brazilwood, the common name for certain flowering trees in the genus Caesalpinia. The species grown in Brazil is now endangered, but there are others in Asia.

Brazilwood is used for bows for cellos and other string instruments, and also produces a red dye that has been popular in Europe since the Renaissance. I expect that R&K named the ink after that dye. The swabs do have that look.