Ink Review: KWZ Iron Gall Blue #6

I used KWZ Iron Gall Blue #6 in a Lamy Safari with fine nib and in a Kaweco Classic Sport with 1.1 mm stub nib.  Iron Gall Blue #6 is a nicely lubricated ink on the wetter side. It worked well with both pens, the dry Safari and the wet Kaweco Sport.  I had Iron Gall Blue #6 inked for nearly a month, and it always started up perfectly, no matter how long the pen had been left unused.

Iron Gall Blue #6 also was an excellent performer on lower quality paper.  Even with the Kaweco 1.1 mm stub, I saw no bleedthrough, showthrough or feathering.  Here it is on Staples Sustainable Earth, which is an absorbent paper and so not particularly fountain-pen friendly.  Iron Gall Blue #6 held a tight line and would not feather.

Iron Gall Blue #6 shades, but isn’t really a showy shader, even on fountain-pen friendly paper.  I loved the ink color on Rhodia.

And here it is on cream-colored Tomoe River paper.

Whether in the wide nib or the fine, Iron Gall Blue #6 is legible and acceptably business-like, but it is also lively and visually interesting.

Water resistance perhaps isn’t quite as strong as many iron gall inks.  It was fine on regular paper, but not as good on fountain-pen friendly paper.  Now, I did soak these two bits of paper, but only a thin line remained on the Rhodia dot pad paper.

As I now expect from KWZ inks, Iron Gall Blue #6 cleaned up beautifully from my pens with just plain water flushing.  Even after having been in the pens for nearly a month, Iron Gall Blue #6 cleaned as easily as Waterman Blue, which is my gold standard.

Iron Gall Blue #6 is a nice green-leaning blue black that fits in with a number of others in that range.

I actually have reviewed some of these inks, like Montblanc Blue Hour Twilight Blue, here, and De Atramentis Jeans Blue, here. When I was writing with Iron Gall Blue #6, it reminded me most in color of the ink on the very end of that array — Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo. However, I actually prefer Iron Gall Blue #6 — I prefer the color and find it much easier to clean from a pen than Tsuki-yo.

The other ink is very close in color to KWZ Iron Gall Blue #6 is KWZ Iron Gall Turquoise. Here are the swabs.

I’m going to review Iron Gall Turquoise next, but I think you can see from the swabs that Iron Gall Blue #6 is bluer than Turquoise and shades a bit less.

Paper towel chromatography of Iron Gall Blue #6 is below. This is an ink that, to me, looks exactly like its chromatography.  I love that.

I received this sample of Iron Gall Blue #6 from KWZ Ink so I could review it.  KWZ Ink is available online from at least one US store and also directly from KWZ in Poland.  KWZ’s website contains excellent information about using and cleaning out iron gall inks.