Posts filed under Ink Reviews

KWZ Gummiberry Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

The best ink decisions you can make are those that take place at a pen show. That's exactly how I ended up with a bottle of KWZ Gummiberry, and I'm very happy with this bright little ink that I picked up earlier this year in Atlanta.

Gummiberry (not to be confused with the Iron Gall Gummiberry version from KWZ) is a bright purple with lots of personality. It pops off the page and has some moderate shading to boot.

Gummiberry was one of the handful of KWZ samples available at the Vanness Pens ink testing station at the Atlanta Pen Show, and I fell in love with it immediately. I'm not normally so attracted to purples, but this one was so vibrant and fun that I couldn't resist.

The saturation and vibrance dials of this ink are turned up to eleven, and the hue is such a delicious color...it looks edible. The shading is another prominent feature, and it varies the ink color from dark purple to light violet in places. The shading isn't incredibly dramatic, but it's certainly noticeable in most nibs. If you're looking for something a bit more dialed down in terms of saturation, Iroshizuku Murasaki-shikibu might do the trick nicely.

The dry time for Gummiberry in my 1.1mm stub nib wasn't impressive, coming in around 20 - 25 seconds usually. In a German fine nib, this dry time was reduced by about 5 seconds. So, it certainly doesn't win any awards for its drying time, but it's within the normal bounds — especially for such a bright ink.

From what I've seen, feathering and bleeding are nonexistent with this ink as long as you're using decent paper. There's a bit of spider vein crawl when using this ink on common copy paper or even standard Field Notes paper, but it's not extreme. For any of your favorite papers, I'm sure Gummiberry will perform admirably.

As far as nib lubrication goes, Gummiberry is right in the middle of the scale. It's not dry, but it's not wet. I tested this in 4 different nibs, and had the same results. There also haven't been any problems with skipping, hard starts, or unusually short drying times when left uncapped and unused for around a minute at a time.

Cleaning the ink out of pens isn't difficult, but it does take quite a few flushes to remove all the bright purple from pens. I've found this to be true for many of the bright inks I normally use. At any rate, it's not a big deal.

KWZ Gummiberry is available in a 60ml bottle for around $15 if you're ready to go all in, or you can pick up a small sample for a couple of bucks to make sure it's everything you hoped and dreamed for in a bright purple ink. The price is a great deal, and I highly recommend this fun, playful ink.

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Posted on September 6, 2017 by Jeff Abbott and filed under KWZ, Ink Reviews.

Kaweco Smokey Grey Ink Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

I’ve been hunting for a beautiful grey ink to put in my new (to me) Montblanc Alexandre Dumas fountain pen. I originally filled the pen with Iroshizuku Fuyu-Syogun, but I find that ink too watery, especially with an italic nib. As I was going through my list of things to review, up popped Kaweco Smokey Grey ink.

I don’t own many Kaweco inks, so I was interested to see how this one performed in my Dumas. I did my usual ink tests, and found that the ink is light grey with a little bit of shading. Like Fuyu-Syogun, it’s quite wet. Although it’s not waterproof, it held up better than many of the inks I’ve reviewed in my water test.

Chromatography reveals a rather uninteresting spectrum of colors: grey, some dark blue, and a little lavender.

Kaweco Smokey Grey is a flat color. Although it offers some shading, it has no sheen whatsoever.

Compared to Fuyu-Syogun, Kaweco Smokey Grey is what I would call a true grey, whereas Fuyu-Syogun is more of a lavender-grey.

Unfortunately, Kaweco Smokey Grey is not the solution to my grey ink dilemma. I find it boring and much too light for everyday writing. It might work as a nice wash for painting or a background color for other inks.

Next up on my search for the perfect grey ink for my Alexandre Dumas: Kyo-no-oto 05 Aonibi-iro, a blue-grey ink that looks very intriguing.

You can purchase a 30ml bottle of Kaweco Smokey Grey from JetPens for $13.50.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on September 4, 2017 by Susan Pigott and filed under Kaweco, Ink Reviews.

Platinum Citrus Black Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

When it comes to yellow inks, I can't say I have much experience. It's not a color that I've been attracted to so far in my ink journey, but it doesn't mean I have anything against it, either. So, when I received a bottle of Platinum Citrus Black to try out, I was intrigued. The color of the ink that's visible through the bottle is very light and mostly transparent. I didn't expect this ink to surprise me as much as it did.

Upon inking up a pen and taking it to paper, the light, highlighter yellow ink was barely visible as I wrote. My impression was, "this is a useless color," but that's when things started to change. I hadn't researched the ink before trying it, and I discovered very quickly that Citrus Black is an iron gall ink that Platinum offers. To my surprise and delight, I watched the highlighter yellow ink transform into a deeper yellow with green tones, followed by an even deeper green/yellow that looked closer to olive. Needless to say, my initial impression was blown away.

*Drying characteristics taken over a 30 second timeframe*

If you've never tried an iron gall ink before, you're missing out. They have a unique characteristic (the iron) that causes the color and shade to change drastically as it dries. In every iron gall ink I try, this trait fascinates and delights me. With Citrus Black, it's no different.

Apart from the obvious color-changing trick, this ink also packs a pretty significant shading characteristic that makes it even more fun to use. Once the ink dries (which is a fairly quick process), you're left with a medium yellow/green/brown color on the page. It's technically an off-black, but it's not nearly dark enough in my mind to qualify for that name. Either way, it's an attractive color both wet and fully dry.

Being an iron gall, it's also very water-resistant if that's something you look for in inks. It's also worth pointing out that iron galls can cause some damage to your pens if left inked and unused for extended periods of time, but just make sure you clean it out after a month to ensure your pen keeps functioning as expected.

If there's one downside to this ink, it's the fact that the wet ink is just so darn difficult to see while writing. It really is a shade similar to highlighter, which makes it nearly illegible when wet. After about five seconds, that problem no longer presents, but it can be difficult if you're trying to keep your handwriting steady and legible. It's almost like writing with invisible ink.

Platinum Citrus Black, and all of the Platinum Classic Inks, are available in 60ml bottles for $25 at JetPens. The price is a bit higher than what you might normally expect, but it's a large bottle and a fascinating ink wholly worth the extra couple of dollars.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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