Krishna Mumbai Ink bottle and box

Krishna Mumbai Ink Review

Krishna Mumbai Ink Writing Sample with Shading
Krishna Mumbai provides some nice shading, though it can be hard to see under the sheen in some light.

Krishna’s Mumbai Ink is a color in the Krishna “India” series that also includes Dilli (aka, Delhi). Like most Krishna fountain pen inks, Mumbai comes in a small 20ml bottle and costs around $9 in the USA, where it is available from shops like PenChalet and Pen Realm, though Krishna Inks are frequently out of stock, everywhere.

Mumbai is a rusty red ink with strong green sheen, and is unlike any other ink in my collection. When wet, the ink is a brilliant vermilion, but as it dries it darkens and dulls to a browner hue. On most papers, the ink appears to be brown under normal writing conditions, but when it catches the light it can appear to be a mahogany red or sparkly green.

While many inks will sheen on expensive, fountain pen friendly paper like Tomoe River, very few inks sheen on typical notebook or copy paper. Mumbai is an exception to this rule, though: it will sheen on just about anything. I made a swatch card with HP Premium32 printer paper, and although it did sheen less than other papers, there was still quite a bit of sheen where the ink was heaviest.

Krishna Mumbai Ink Swatch on Cheap Paper
Krishna Mumbai Ink Swatch on HP Premium32 Paper

There are a couple of properties that make this ink especially attractive. First, it has a strong surface tension and rarely railroads if you’re writing with a flex-nib fountain pen. More importantly, the ink is very well behaved on paper: though it dries a little slowly, it does not feather even on poor quality paper, and it also doesn’t bleed through.

I find that the color of the ink compliments cream-toned and other warm toned papers; it looks great on Midori (cream) and Tomoe River 68gsm (warm white).

What do you think?

Do you like the color? I generally find these subdued tones to be more usable than the brighter oranges and reds, even when I think that the brighter colors are more beautiful when considered simply as colors in themselves. Let me know down below!

My Cart Close (×)

Your cart is empty
Browse Shop