Pelikan Golden Beryl

Pelikan recently released its 2021 special edition ink, Golden Beryl. It is, unlike many other things in life and this year, as could be expected, which is to say that it’s gold with lots of extra gold bits.

We often get asked if these inks are safe to use in fountain pens. There’s always an element of use at your own risk, so I guess the real question is how safe they are in fountain pens.

These inks are pretty safe. Some companies, like Diamine, have dozens and dozens of shimmer inks, and if they were destroying fountain pens, Diamine would probably have gotten enough flack about it by now to stop producing them, and pivot back to the standard stuff. Pelikan has some really lovely, really expensive pens, and I doubt that they would produce and promote an ink that would be permanently damaging to them. J. Herbin’s line of shimmer inks, including Emerald of Chivor and my own personal favourite Stormy Grey, continue to be popular in the shop.

These inks will probably work better in wetter flowing pens. If you have an extremely dry writing pen, the tines might be very tight together, and if non-shimmer ink is moving slowly through it, ink with particles is going to move even more slowly.

The idea of safe is also something that I am comfortable being loose on, because if the shimmer ink doesn’t work, you are able to easily clean it out with water, or water and a few drops of dish soap. It’s normal ink with some particle bits that you can physically remove with water. If it’s not flowing right, cleaning it out right away, rather than allowing it to sit and clog and dry out, would make it easier. I sometimes do still have shimmer particles floating around in my feed after a fill and a “thorough” cleaning, and I’m okay with that, but if you are really particular, you could consider putting shimmer inks into pens that you are able to easily fully disassemble, so you can take an old toothbrush to the feed.

If you’re super worried, don’t feel as though you need to force yourself to use the shiny inks, although what I’m really trying to say is you probably don’t need to worry too much.