It’s really refreshing to be doing ink reviews instead of paper ones. I’ve only started to get to know the community recently, and it’s a real privilege to try things I’ve never tried before. I feel like I have an actual job, sitting here drinking tea and typing up this review.

I have not heard much about Kaweco’s inks as their pens, especially the Sports and Liliput models. They are pretty expensive, selling for £12.50 a 30ml bottle, in contrast to Diamine’s £2.35 a 30ml bottle. The collection has ten inks in total, ranging from the usual suspects to really coloured inks with nice shading. I noticed they did not include the colour of yellow. With what they did with some of the inks, they could have made an excellent yellow…

Fabriano 80gsm dotted grid (my new favourite paper…)



These inks are not water-resistant, so I expect that they have really nice shading. And they do! Also, they contrast against the plain white background of the paper nicely. I added some water just to test it, and I thought it came out really nicely.

(sorry fot these shitty potato photos)(featuring bird poop/montblancs)

I had acquired an awesome Taroko notebook for my Midori Standard sized Camel, so I put it to good use in this review. Since they use Tomoe river paper (cream), it’s very good for sheening.

Pearl Black was just… black. Nothing to see there. It has a bit of sheen to it.

Smokey Grey seems quite diluted (I’m not very experienced with inks, especially gray ones), but I quite liked the shading.

(shitty calligraphy too)

Ruby Red is a pinkish magenta that has nice shading and a bit of sheen.

Palm Green has really nice sheening in a purplish shade. It’s a straight green, much like Diamine’s Sherwood Green. Both greens have the same coloured sheen and I can’t tell the two apart normally, so getting the latter could be better value. The difference is that Sherwood is a bit darker than Palm and also less sheen-y.

I’ve heard about Paradise Blue. It is turquoise, but it is very like my bottle of Noodler’s General of the Armies, in that the colour appears to be solid and translucent instead of liquid and clear… Ahhah! Like acrylic! It was dry on the dip pen I was using. No sheen was present in this ink. Compared to Pelikan Aquamarine, it is lighter in colour.

I thought that Caramel Brown was a really nice shade of brown. A down-to-earth shade, the colour of soil (instead of caramel… ahaha). There’s no sheening present. I compared it with Diamine’s Ochre, which is warmer in colour, but I like both of them (you can tell I like brown inks)(totally unbiased because I have tried very few inks).

I really liked these two colours too. Summer Purple is a bit more smokey in colour compared to Lamy’s Dark Lilac, but both have the same coloured sheen, which is gold.

And now to the Sheen God ink amongst these ten. Royal Blue sheens beautifully for me \_(;-;)_/… Ahem.It’s a nice darker true blue, with reddish sheen. My Pelikan Königsblau pales in comparison to this… Not König enough to compare with Kaweco’s Royal.

Sunrise Orange reminds me of roasted sweet potatoes. It looks especially nice with the darker shading where the ink pools. No sheen present, but no sheen needed to persuade me to like it either.

Last ink in the batch is Midnight Blue. It’s dusty and has some reddish sheen. It’s beautiful when paired with cream paper, and I imagine this colour is suitable for work or more seriouso stuff.

Question: Which ones do you like?

Answer: Everything, just not Paradise Blue.

I’d have to try more inks to make my decision, but I hope this review helps you make yours.

Ciao, james 🙂