1 X Chinese Calligraphy Black Ink (yi de ge mo Zhi) 100G

Love the price for the quality of this product. I am a calligrapher and watercolor artist and honestly finding good ink is a challenge. I specialize in Arabic calligraphy and the nature of the form of writing makes rather heavy use of ink- meaning that you often end up putting a thick layer on the paper. For this reason, I have to find ink that is not watered down as such inks start to bleed into the fibers of the paper. But this ink is perfect! On good paper, I can use it by itself without the fear of it bleeding through. On normal or thin paper I will mix it with one part gum arabic to 5 parts ink. The gum arabic thickens the ink and makes it more shiny. Good amount of ink in the bottle as well. Will definitely be trying the other colors soon!

I have just recently purchased my first caligraphy pen and realised it came without ink. I guess they all do... anyway, after looking for reasonably priced caligraphy ink, this one had the best reviews. It arrived quickly and was very reasonably priced. The only issue I have is filling my cartridge. ( my fault). This bottle has a cap with a small hole for squirting the ink out. The the cartridge doesn't fit. Simple enough, I squirter some into a 1 oz. Disposable cup and filled the cartridge from that. No problem! The ink itself works awesome in my pen. It does not drip , clump or clog and writes beautifully. I am very happy with this and will definitely purchase it again in the future. Sorry my pic is so blurred.

It was much smaller than I thought it would be but then again I didn't take into account of what 100 grams looked like in liquid form, just saying they might want to include a conversion to ounces. The size was a let down because I thought it was going to be a bottle big enough to cover the palm of a hand but it just fit IN the palm. The ink itself is pretty good but it's not as black as India Ink if you want to use just black to cover a large area, you'll see smears and it's just no black ENOUGH. But it's very, very good for washes and ink paintings. Which I used and it mixes with water very well so you can control the opacity of the ink with water. And it's also good for drawings with a nib thought you would have to find some other container to use for dipping in because the bottle is not designed for dipping your pens in, but for pouring out. Also the bottle top isn't very secure but luckily it stayed on pretty well for me but if you're paranoid about ink spilling out have the bottle in a larger jar or maybe tupperware.

Other reviewers have noted a peculiar smell with this ink but I have to say, while it does have a very mild "chemical" odor, the smell is faint (at least as nearly as I can tell) and isn't particularly offensive. It doesn't smell "gross" or anything. It's a generous supply of ink for the price and that nozzle cap thing is great for filling a small ink well right out of the bottle. You can also remove the entire red plastic cap if need be. It's a nice deep black and it's packaged attractively. No complaints. :-)

Originally for my Chinese calligraphy class, I had purchased a cheap calligraphy ink from a local Michael's. It was for Western style calligraphy and had not been nice, it was very thin and when dried was not black in color. THIS ink from the one I bought from Amazon was very thick and rich, so to speak. It coated my calligraphy brush very well and helped it hold the nice pointed shape. It did not dry quickly so whenever I paused, I didn't have to worry about the brush drying out. The ink also looked very appealing on paper, very dark and solid.

As a newbie to Chinese calligraphy & painting... I say: Great ink. I am just not in the mind-set of grinding down an ink stick and meditating on that prior to practicing. Perhaps some day I will be or this may be a short-lived hobby. Either way, this ink was a great price and works to my expectations. I do not mind the scent of this ink as others seem to state. It's easy to water down and it is a nice consistency.

This is a good ink, friend recommended it. The bottle is really small. I used to buy bottle twice as big from Houston China town for half the price.

I have purchased two bottles ink from amazon.com. This one was made in China and other one was made in Japan. They both are good. This one is more concentrated than Japanese ink but Japanese made is in bigger bottle. I am glad amazon sale them because bring them from china are not easy. I brought one bottle before (did not know Amazon sales) but was worrying about the bottle leaking during the trip. I use solid ink to get more concentrated some time. Making ink from water do take a lot of time.