Krishna Peacock Blue Review: A Saturated Urban Series Ink Worth a Look

Introduction

Krishna is a fountain pen ink brand based out of India, founded by Dr. Nitish Kumar, an anesthesiologist working in the Kerala region on India’s western coast. Beyond medicine, Dr. Kumar has a long history with pens: as a younger man he ground and turned pens and studied under experienced craftsmen. He still lacquers ebonite pens today, and while a team handles the logistics, the process of creating Krishna inks is done by the doctor himself. He began making fountain pen ink back in 2010.

Peacock Blue is the first release in Krishna’s new Urban Series, a planned collection of inks inspired by the glorious colors of the peacock. It comes in a 30 ml bottle, and the presentation is a real highlight: the bottle is shaped like a peacock feather, and the box opens up with a matching peacock feather motif that presents the bottle nicely. It is available through the Krishna site for $16, making it one of their pricier inks, as most of their inks sit in the $9 to $10 range.

Who This Ink Is For

At its core, Krishna Peacock Blue is a nice saturated, vibrant blue. It is 98% dye-based and 2% pigment-based, which means it is not overly pigment-heavy, and there have been no issues using it in demonstrators or with clogging up feeds. It is also a lubricated ink, which behaves well in a variety of pens, with a flow rated medium to high.

If you enjoy saturated blues for everyday writing and want something with a bit of character from an independent ink maker, this sits comfortably in that space. It is worth noting that while there is a bit of sheen on heavy applications, this is not really a sheening ink; laying down a lot of ink simply brings out properties you do not normally see in normal writing.

Performance on Paper

On Rhodia 80 g paper, Peacock Blue shows a nice saturated blue with medium ghosting and bleed. On heavy applications there is a little bleed through, and some writing shows very tiny spots, which is why the bleed lands at medium rather than low. Shading is medium, and sheen is low.

Drying time depends on the nib: roughly 10 to 15 seconds on a fine medium nib, and between 15 and 30 seconds with a medium. On Tomoe River 52 g paper with a heavier application, the ink picked up a bit of sheening.

The chromatography shows a mostly blue profile. There are some lighter blues, but for the most part it is just a saturated blue rather than a combination of colors. As for water resistance, the ink does not profess to be waterproof, and in testing it does not hold up to that claim, so do not count on it for documents that might get wet.

Writing Experience and Pen Behaviour

Testing with three Pilot pens showed the ink in a good light. With the Pilot Custom Heritage 92, a demonstrator with a fine medium nib, the dye-based formulation caused no trouble in the barrel or feed. The Pilot Custom 845 with its soft medium nib, one of the softest in the collection, delivered a comfortable writing feel. The Pilot Falcon, with its distinctive soft medium nib, produced plenty of line variation, and the lubrication clearly worked well in the nib.

One side note worth knowing about the brand: Krishna previously discovered that a unique bottle design they commissioned for an earlier release, Pat Azar, was not as unique as they were led to believe. After legal wranglings, they handled the situation well and found an amicable solution, still managing to release that ink in a very cool bottle. It speaks well of how the company handles adversity.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The $16 price point is noticeably above Krishna’s usual $9 to $10 range, so this is one of their pricier offerings. The medium ghosting and bleed on Rhodia 80 g paper means thin or less forgiving paper may not be the best partner for heavy layouts. And if waterproofness matters to you, look elsewhere, because this ink makes no such claim and does not hold up to water.

On the plus side, the saturated vibrant blue, well-behaved lubricated flow, and the striking peacock-feather bottle make it a quality offering overall, especially as the first entry in what promises to be an appealing Urban Series.

Buying Advice

If you already enjoy Krishna inks, this is an easy step up in price for a nicely saturated color and distinctive packaging. If you are new to the brand, Peacock Blue makes a good introduction, though their more typical $9 to $10 inks remain the better value if budget is the priority.

The bottle itself is a genuine selling point for anyone who displays ink in their workspace: the peacock feather silhouette and the unfolding presentation box give it a presence beyond the ink inside. Just pair it with decent paper and a nib width you enjoy, and it rewards regular use.

Conclusion

Krishna Peacock Blue is a nicely saturated, lubricated blue ink that behaves well across a range of pens and puts in a solid performance on good paper. With medium shading, low sheen in normal writing, and a memorable peacock-feather bottle, it is a quality first entry in the Urban Series, and it will be interesting to see what other peacock-inspired colors follow.