Description
The KWZ Iron Gall ink is waterproof and handmade in Poland. Iron Gall ink is made from iron salts and tannic acids from vegetable sources. The KWZ ink comes in 60ml glass ink bottles and is available in 21 colors.
Iron Gall series by KWZ Ink refers to the type of ink used in medieval times for writing manuscripts, but is designed as modern fountain pen friendly ink. It is gaining popularity because the written notes are extremely long lasting on paper, as the color is darkening over time opposite to some common inks, which tend to fade over years. Writing with it is fun, as the color is changing immediately just in front of you, for example pink is becoming violet or orange is becoming brown. The written notes are also water resistant to some extent. The dyes can be washed away, but iron gall component is permanently bonded with paper, so the text is still easy to read.
The pen filled with IG inks however needs some special care, similar to when any permanent ink is used. It is recommended not to leave it unused for a long time in order not to let the ink dry out in the pen, otherwise it might be difficult to clean the of pen. If IG inks are used on daily basis, there are none special requirements.
The range of Iron Gall KWZ Inks includes 3 types. IG Mandarin is Light Iron Gall – it means that the iron gall component concentration is very low and the maintenance doesn’t differ from using standard ink. In the contrary IG Blue-Black is Archive Iron Gall, which means that the concentration of iron gall component is very high, thus it is the most water resistant and the most permanent of the whole IG KWZ Ink range. All the other IG KWZ Inks – blues, greens, violets, reds or brown are the medium type – iron component concentration is high enough to make the notes everlasting, but low enough to be highly convenient in daily use.
KWZ (pronounced Ka Veh Zeh) Ink is a small company that produces handmade fountain pen inks and is based in Poland. It all started for Konrad Żurawski as a hobby in 2012 with producing iron-gall inks and now there are over 100 different inks available!
Rick –
These are my favourite performing iron gall inks by far, quite mild in their iron gall content, and there are some lovely colours that get prettier the longer they dry. The smell is really unique too: the mixture of the iron gall acid and the vanilla scent KWZ always add to their inks combine to make a smell that reminds me of sour and sweet mocha.
Some of the dye may wash away when the ink gets wet(it depends on the specific colour), but your writing will always remain visible because the iron gall will etch the paper and leave dark grey writing behind underneath the colour. If you’re looking for something that will never smear, you’re probably better off using a pigment ink like Platinum Carbon Black; but these inks are much more pleasing to the eye and will still protect your writing from floods or spills.
Blanca Hiemstra (verified owner) –
Amazing ink, I got #1 green and the color is beautiful, at first I expected a lighter color, but it’s nice and dark and therefore I often use it. I enjoy drawing with the ink a lot and I like how it doesn’t smudge if you want to highlight or draw over it after a bit and the shading is even a bit present when using my lamy extra fine ink. Overall amazing ink.
Bernhard –
So far, I tried two of KWZ’s inks, IG Green and IG Turquoise. Very wet and juicy flow, and upon drying, the colour turns dark enough not to be childish. Turquoise is almost like Parker’s Quink ‘blue-black’ ‘permanent’ ink, just with the difference that KWZ is *really* permanent.
Vincent N’Guyen-Van (verified owner) –
Aztec gold is exactly what I wanted. It is just wet enough in a Pelikan fine nib, dries fast and is waterproof. Once dried, the ink takes a nice brownish-gold shade but retains variations (shading). It is now my every day ink.