Ink Snippet: KWZ Northern Twilight

I almost hate to talk about Northern Twilight, because it’s no longer for sale. I’m told it sold out within the first hour of the Toronto pen show. (A nice friend got me some.) So unless Scriptus brings back it back next year, and we all have nice friends in Toronto, we’re out of luck when it comes to buying a bottle. But that’s okay. Really.

If you like the look of Northern Twilight, click on over to KWZ Ink, or to Vanness if you are in the US, or to the KWZ retailer in your country, and order some different KWZ ink(s). Of the KWZ inks I’ve tried, I think Northern Twilight is most similar to KWZ Iron Gall Blue #6, which you can check out in this review. But there are many KWZ inks to enjoy.

Instead of chasing limited edition inks at inflated prices on the secondary market, I’d rather buy current inks. That keeps fountain pen ink makers, and ink sellers, in business, and saves us money. In a certain way, inks are like Chicago buses: if you miss one, there will be another coming along shortly. (Except if it’s a cold winter day in Chicago, in which case, joke’s on you: that was the last bus for a long time, and you should have thought of that when you turned down that job in LA, moron.)

Oh, sorry, we’re talking about ink. Northern Twilight. Right, well.

Is that sheen on Tomoe River paper?  I am not a sheen person, and it is not only cold but pitch dark here as I stare at the sheet of paper, in real northern twilight. We haven’t seen the sun in days. So I can’t quadruple-check it. But I think I see some sheen-ish hints.

I am sure of Northern Twilight’s beautiful shading, and how the ink seems to pop off the page. Northern Twilight is another great example of KWZ’s ink-making prowess.

It’s a blue black, but almost an exciting blue-black color, not washed out or dull. It almost has a luster. Or is that lustre? (Or, to Lamy marketing minions, Lx-tre?)

Now, Northern Twilight is a green-leaning  blue, really a blue black, and I think a lot of people don’t like a green-leaning blue black. So if you don’t, consider yourself lucky that you won’t have to buy this one.

Northern Twilight is not the greatest ink ever for paper that’s not fountain-pen friendly. Northern Twilight has a little feathering on poor quality paper, and it’s got enough showthrough that I just use one side of the page on cheaper paper.

Here you can see it on Staples Sustainable Earth.

I’m being a tough grader on the feathering. I have it in a Pelikan Toledo with fine nib and a Lamy Al-Star with 1.1 mm stub. It works on Sustainable Earth with both pens. But we can’t buy it anyway, so it can’t be perfect.

Except, darn it, the flow is perfection: Northern Twilight is a nice wet ink with good lubrication. I haven’t had a single issue with it.

I didn’t do a water test on Northern Twilight. You can’t buy it anyway, lifeguards, so what does that matter? And I certainly haven’t cleaned it out of my two pens, because … “something, something, out of my cold, dead hands.” However, I’ve never had a KWZ ink that isn’t easy to clean out of a pen. If this turns out to be the exception, I’ll update here. But I wouldn’t bet on that.

Here is Northern Twilight on Rhodia.

Darn I love this ink.

But, here are some other inks that are close in color that are available.

Unfortunately, these other two inks don’t really have the vivacity and presence of Northern Twilight. If I were looking for a substitute, I’d look to KWZ Iron Gall Blue #6, which is not as close in color, but which has some pop, and so is closer in spirit. (Also Iron Gall Turquoise.) And there’s also KWZ Iron Gall Blue #5, which is nothing like Northern Twilight in color, but is a fantastic standard blue ink that I probably haven’t mentioned for a whole week now.

Here is paper towel chromatography of Northern Twilight.

That’s a neat mix. I see where the vivacity comes from — the bright blues.

Maybe Scriptus will bring back Northern Twilight next year. But even if this is all we get, that’s okay. It’s been fun to explore. You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.

KWZ just keeps bringing out interesting inks. So if you can, try one.