Today’s inks are five Ancient Song (aka Ancient Charm) inks. As far as I know, Ancient Song has recently stopped making ink.

Swabs:

Left to right: Moon of the West River, Song of Sunlight, Song from South Village, Song of the Yan and Water Dragon Chant.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry Time: 30-60 seconds

Water Resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: None

Other properties: All five had low shading and gold shimmer.

On Walmart Pen + Gear copy paper there was some feathering in every nib size as well as some bleeding.

Song of Sunlight and West River are both lighter than J Herbin Cornaline d’Egypte.

South Village is closest to Colorverse Brane.

Song of the Yan is a little darker than Robert Oster Fizzy Lime. Water Dragon is more blue than Fizzy Lime.

All five had dry flows.

Overall, I wish all five were wetter. Moon of the West River had some skipping issues and Water Dragon Chant had some flow issues.

Disclaimer: All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and is not sponsored in any way.