Ink Review: KWZ Honey

Posted on by Laura

KWZ Honey writing sample

KWZ Honey. This is a surprising ink in many ways, and a delightful ink in all others. KWZ Honey is, as the name suggests, a warm honey-gold color ink, with beautiful shading, but it is highly legible. If you like the color, I recommend trying this one.

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12 thoughts on “Ink Review: KWZ Honey”

  1. KWZ are just putting out one winner after another, it looks like! Amazing when they’re such a new company 🙂

    I love big nibs (and I cannot lie…groan, had to go there). I would love to try a huge one but without a variable line – I use the bigger ones sometimes for straight up notes, but I use the biggest ones for things like headers or underlining. I have a double-broad italic (stub? ugh, embarrassing, but I still don’t know for sure what the difference is) that I use mostly when crossing things off of to-do lists 😛

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I am so surprised by the chroma on this ink. Wow! No wonder it is such a special ink.

    It’s an ink I love. It’s an ink that makes me feel warm and brings a smile to my face. It is an ink that falls under the my completely subjective category called “happy inks”.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I feel the same way, on both counts. 🙂

      I wonder if it’s the bit of orange that gives it that lift? I just never would have expected that. I have said before Konrad of KWZ to me is something of an ink genius. (If he saw this, he’d no doubt be embarrassed by that, so I apologize; also I do use that term expansively — i.e, I’m a genius at spilling.) But to me, the dye combinations and mixtures he comes up with are so creative and sometimes so unexpected, that it’s the best word I can think of. Not to mention what he does with the safer, lighter iron gall inks in his lineup.

      Liked by 2 people

  4. I tried Honey back at the end of January. Although I liked it very much, I didn’t find that I had to have it. Yes it is pretty, and yes it is different. I did find long dry times on Apica Premium. On Tomoe River it left a visible layer, and yes I would say layer on top of the paper. At one angle it looked matte. In another angle it shined a little. I had my Honey in a Faber Castell Loom ground to a broad cursive italic. It was a shade monster. It was great in flex pens. (finer flex, didn’t try in wider flex) This ink is the favorite of a friend of mine. She gave me a very generous sized sample to try. I think I will soon try this in a medium nib, or fine. I have tried 4 KWZ inks thus far. I had to have 3 of them. Grapefruit in a xf-fine nib is my favorite one of KWZ inks for some reason.

    Laura, you did a wonderful job highlighting this ink. I was surprised by the chroma test. I have put a lot of stock in your reviews. They can make me consider a new ink, or drop one that I might’ve been thinking about. I am on the fence with Honey though. I think if I am, then I should pass it by. Unless a more narrow nib compels me to change my mind, I will stick with my initial thoughts on it.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I think you should stick with your own impressions, for sure! Not every ink hits everyone the same.

      Speaking of myself, there are definitely inks that nearly everyone loves but me — and it’s not that there’s anything wrong with those inks. It’s just something in the hue hits me wrong. It’s totally personal.

      And I definitely like certain inks in fine or extra-fine nibs, but not in broad nibs, and vice versa.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I hear ya! A couple of inks come to my mind, that some people love. It didn’t do a thing for me. In fact I just flat out didn’t care for it…lol. The problem is I love too many inks. I had a goal in mind for how many inks I would need. But then I started sampling. That was a blessing, and a curse all rolled up into one. Some inks grow on you. When I was given a sample of Sailor-Amanita muscaria, I thought it was okay, actually pretty good. But the more I used it, it grew on me. Then I went on a mad search trying to find an ink that compared. No such luck. Usually I love it right off the bat though. I loved Oster-Deep Sea right off the bat, and Sailor-Yama dori. I remember you said you didn’t like Yama-dori, much to my surprise. But different paper and pens make a difference too. I try to test in two pens, if I like an ink. One more narrow, and one more wide…’cause you never know. I need a 12 step program for ink, but I don’t want one.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. The thing about a 12-step program, is that it’s my understanding you have to give the thing up…. Are you sure you really want that? 🙂

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          1. HAHA, I said I need a 12 step program. I’m not giving up ink, frankly that isn’t going to happen. I need to quit buying it, but I’m not giving up this little obsession. At least I have dramatically slowed down getting samples, and sampling. I haven’t sampled much for several months now. I do plan to get a couple of Papier Plume small bottles…like maybe the 15ml size. I bet you have a good idea which ones. LOL. Yes, the Pecan and the Moss Green.

            Liked by 1 person

  5. Excellent review! KWZ Honey is probably my favorite ink since a friend at our local Pen club (IowaPen) gave me a sample. I’ve since bought three bottles.

    It and the somewhat similar Private Reserve Sepia are always in my some of my pens.

    Similar inks I have tried are Organic Studio Foggy Bottom, Pilot Iroshizuku Ina-ho and DeAtramentis Khaki.

    My friend who gave me the Honey sample recently gave me a Noodler’s Whalenan’s Sepia sample I have not used yet, and I am liking Organics Studios Green Sepia too; it’s my green equivalent of KWZ Honey.

    How do you do the paper towel chromatography? Drop ink on wet paper towel? Do you hold the towel up and let it dangle and put the drop of ink at the top? I would love to try that with some of my inks.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you. Yes, I like Ina-ho very much, too! As you’ll see on the blog, I really love the category I call “odd greens,” with gold or brown or gray leanings, and it’s a wide range. KWZ Honey isn’t an odd green of course, but it’s a special honey gold. 🙂

      There are a lot of ways to do paper towel chromatography, and I wrote about mine in an early post, down in the comments. However, a number of people keep asking, and it’s hard for readers to search out comments, so I’ll do a new, separate post on it soon. 🙂

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Thanks! I find I am collecting green, brown & sepia type inks too, more than anything else. I have been enjoying your ink posts, and have found my self looking back at a lot of them especially the greens & browns.

        I am going to be in New Orleans later this year and was just looking at your Papier Plume Moss Green & Pecan reviews today; going to have to visit them when in NOLA! They got added to the “Things to do in NOLA” list straight away when your review mentioned where they were. Thanks for that too!

        I will try and find the chromatography post, but searching in WordPress seems a bit difficult; I may have to try via a web browser instead of the WP app, or just resort to Google’s site-search feature. A separate post about it would be great; will have to share it with my IowaPen club members and maybe demo doing it at a future meeting. Thanks!

        Liked by 2 people

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