Posts filed under KWZ

KWZ Standard Walks Over Vistula Ink: A Review

*Vistula River (Image via* *Wikimedia Commons*)

(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 can’t believe that I haven’t reviewed another KWZ ink since I did my KWZ Honey review in . . . 2016! I clearly need to add to my KWZ ink collection, and Walks over Vistula is definitely one that deserves a spot.

The Vistula is the longest river in Poland. This photograph from Wikimedia Commons depicts the beauty of the river.

The ink nicely captures the blues of the river. I can’t decide whether this is a blue ink or a turquoise ink. It’s sort of in between, and it most closely matches other inks that I’ve classified as turquoise. So, I’ll call it a deep turquoise.

You can see from my Col-o-dex card swab, that the color definitely leans toward turquoise. But, more important for sheen lovers is the burgundy/pink sheen. You can see it most clearly in the close up of the swirls and splats.

In my ink testing on Rhodia paper, there isn’t much evidence of sheen (but that’s due to the paper rather than the ink). Even without sheen the color is a gorgeous dark turquoise. It’s highly saturated and very wet. It is not a waterproof ink.

Walks over Vistula looks terrific in fine, medium, and broad nibs, and you won’t have any trouble with flow since it’s such a wet ink.

This is one ink that chromatography does not show off very well. It’s mostly comprised of a light lavender/gray with dark turquoise.

My Handwritmic ruling pen demonstrates all the wonderful characteristics of this ink. It has good shading from lighter to darker turquoise. Where the ink pools, you get lovely purplish sheen. It’s interesting how the MD Cotton paper brings out a different sheen color than the Col-o-dex card.

I compared Walks over Vistula with some other turquoise/blue inks. I expected it to be very similar to Sailor Yama Dori. But in actuality, it is much closer to Robert Oster Soda Pop Blue, including the burgundy sheen, and J. Herbin Kyanite du Népal (without the silver shimmer, of course). Yama Dori is much greener.

You can purchase KWZ Walks over Vistula from Vanness Pens. 4ml samples are $2.50 and a 30ml bottle is $15.00.

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

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Posted on August 16, 2019 by Susan Pigott and filed under KWZ, 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.

KWZ Ink - Brown Pink: A 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.)

A few weeks ago, I reviewed my first KWZ Ink - Honey. I purchased a whole bottle of that ink and still think it is fantastic. This week, I'm reviewing another KWZ ink color: Brown Pink. I purchased a sample of this ink from Vanness Pens for $2.00.

Brown Pink is an unusual color and that's why I wanted to try some. Although it's called "brown pink," the color looks more like dusty mauve rather than brown. Chromatography distributes the colors in two shades: pink and blue.

In my testing, I found the ink to be wet with fairly lengthy dry times.

*The photograph makes the ink look more purple/pink than it is. It is a dusty mauve.*

It shades well with flex nibs, but exhibits no shading with my medium Franklin-Christoph SIG nib. It is not waterproof.

I did some ink splats to check for sheen and found absolutely none with this ink. Although the ink actually looks brown in the splats it also seems very flat. I'm not sure how else to describe it other than "flat." The ink (in the splats) lies thick on the paper much like paint. Not all inks have sheen, so this isn't necessarily a negative strike against the ink. But I did find its flatness strange.

Like KWZ Honey, Brown Pink has a distinct odor to it. I explained the odor in my last KWZ review, so I won't reiterate that here other than to say that the smell is normal.

I like KWZ Brown Pink in spite of the fact that it is a muted, flat color. It is different from any other ink color I've tried. Most burgundy/plum inks are bright and showy. This one is understated, and that makes it unique and adaptable to most tasks. While I wouldn't use an ink like Iroshizuku Yama Budo for writing a business letter, KWZ Brown Pink would probably be acceptable. It's a great ink for journaling (I've used it quite a bit the last week in my journal and love how it looks on Tomoe River Paper) and general writing.

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