Bril is a manufacturer of fountain pen inks based in Southern India. I believe that they are headquartered in Bangalore, but also have a regional office or factory in Chennai (Madras).
I was in Chennai a few weeks ago, so had the opportunity to buy a couple of bottles of Bril Ink to bring back with me to London. I now regret having bought only two bottles (Blue and Red) and wish I had bought a dozen or so. Given how cheap they are, they are perfect for use in mixing colours and experimenting to produce interesting colours.
Bril Royal Blue
60ml glass bottle
Manufactured in 2012
Price: INR 14 (Around $0.25)
Bril Red
60ml glass bottle
Manufactured in 2008
Price: INR 12 (Around $0.22)
Now that is what I call cheap, specially compared to the ~$6-7 I pay for the cheapest fountain pen inks in London. And these are good quality inks mind you, they may not be the best in the world but are more than good enough for the pens that I use on a daily basis (Lamy Safari, Hero 616 and Reynolds Grippy). I also see no reason why they wouldn't work well with my Waterman or Pelikan, but I haven't used them in a long time so cannot confirm.
I am not an expert in inks at all, so might find it difficult to describe them. The Bril Royal Blue is a very dark blue, as dark as (and actually quite similar to) the Diamine Imperial Blue that I have been using for the last year or so. I was hoping for something lighter so I could have some variety, so I might mix it with a little bit of green to get a lighter blue. The Bril Red is actually quite light, almost pinkish in hue. I am not sure if this is because it is originally so or because I bought a 2008 manufactured batch that may have lightened over time. The Bril Red made a great mixer to mix 50:50 with the Diamine Poppy Red (which is very dark), to give me a good medium red.
Bril also produces a number of other colours such as Black, Turquoise Blue, Green, Pink, Purple etc that the shop I went to did not have. Bril itself has a long history in India, mainly based in Southern India for several decades. They have faced a great challenge in the last few years with almost everyone switching to using ballpoints, but I sincerely hope that they continue to have enough demand to stay in business for the next few decades to come.
The address of Bril that I found on the bottle was:
Industrial Research Corporation
#32 (Old No. 148), L.B.Road, Chennai - 600041
Consumer Care Ph. No. +91 44 2491 1266
Email: brilinfo@brilindia.com
I was in Chennai a few weeks ago, so had the opportunity to buy a couple of bottles of Bril Ink to bring back with me to London. I now regret having bought only two bottles (Blue and Red) and wish I had bought a dozen or so. Given how cheap they are, they are perfect for use in mixing colours and experimenting to produce interesting colours.
Bril Royal Blue
60ml glass bottle
Manufactured in 2012
Price: INR 14 (Around $0.25)
Bril Red
60ml glass bottle
Manufactured in 2008
Price: INR 12 (Around $0.22)
Now that is what I call cheap, specially compared to the ~$6-7 I pay for the cheapest fountain pen inks in London. And these are good quality inks mind you, they may not be the best in the world but are more than good enough for the pens that I use on a daily basis (Lamy Safari, Hero 616 and Reynolds Grippy). I also see no reason why they wouldn't work well with my Waterman or Pelikan, but I haven't used them in a long time so cannot confirm.
I am not an expert in inks at all, so might find it difficult to describe them. The Bril Royal Blue is a very dark blue, as dark as (and actually quite similar to) the Diamine Imperial Blue that I have been using for the last year or so. I was hoping for something lighter so I could have some variety, so I might mix it with a little bit of green to get a lighter blue. The Bril Red is actually quite light, almost pinkish in hue. I am not sure if this is because it is originally so or because I bought a 2008 manufactured batch that may have lightened over time. The Bril Red made a great mixer to mix 50:50 with the Diamine Poppy Red (which is very dark), to give me a good medium red.
Bril also produces a number of other colours such as Black, Turquoise Blue, Green, Pink, Purple etc that the shop I went to did not have. Bril itself has a long history in India, mainly based in Southern India for several decades. They have faced a great challenge in the last few years with almost everyone switching to using ballpoints, but I sincerely hope that they continue to have enough demand to stay in business for the next few decades to come.
The address of Bril that I found on the bottle was:
Industrial Research Corporation
#32 (Old No. 148), L.B.Road, Chennai - 600041
Consumer Care Ph. No. +91 44 2491 1266
Email: brilinfo@brilindia.com
4 comments:
I feel sad that my favourite ink from my childhood days is no longer easily available. I have so many fond memories of using Bril ink in my Camlin fountain pens as a middle school, high school and college student.
Camlin also makes equally good inks as Bril. In fact in my young days when I was using Bril inks, Camlin (another Indian manufacturer of fountain pen inks) ink was a tad costlier and was supposed to be better than Bril. I am glad that you can now buy Camlin black inks here: http://www.stationerynew.com/camlin-black-ink/p/2743 and the Camlin Blue inks here: http://www.stationerynew.com/camlin-blue-ink/p/2742 (Although the picture shows Bril ink :-))
Unable to get the ink.. able to buy a few and made it available on ebay..
They have started selling directly from their site; I have purchased 7 colours * 5 bottles of Rs 20 each (which would last for my lifetime); they ship for free within India, if the order value is above 500 Rs (about $7.5; unfortunately they are not shipping outside India) and they'd replace any bottles which crack in transit; so it was an insane deal; i love their royal blue and black, best of all
-Aswath N
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