Kwz Ink Walk Over Vistula

[A Smug Dill]

I haven't done a 'quickie' ink review in a while, and some of my thoughts on the approach have changed in the meantime.



Drying time: Long. Exceeds 30 seconds on Bloc Rhodia 80g/m² notepad paper. At 45 seconds (not shown), where the horizontal and vertical strokes in the digit '4' intersect, colour still came off and smudged readily.

Water resistance: Mild. There's a fair chance you'll be able to read what was there before, after a minute or so under the tap or in a bath, but the colour that come off already dried writing into a water droplet or onto a wet cotton swab could well render that faint shadow illegible.

Flow: I'd say more wet than moderate, when you compare the colours seen in the writing and the long straight lines against the multi-pass bar done with a Pilot Parallel pen; the 'single-pass' colour is not often seen.

Feathering: Not on Rhodia paper, but because of the ink's 'wetness', I've seen it leave 'woolly' lines on other types of paper.

Shading: Some, and the potential is definitely there, but because of the ink's 'wetness', it's more of a case of the 'two-pass' colour transitioning straight into sheen territory, overwhelming the shading effect unless one is using a very 'dry' pen.

Sheen: Evident even in narrow lines coming out of a 'Japanese fine' nib, on various types of paper I tried.





Show-through: Not enough to warrant mention.

Bleed-through: Evident with three or more passes of the ink. Interestingly, it's not just the amount of ink left wet on the surface of the page to dry over time; there is no bleed-through where ink pooled at the end of a stroke with a Pilot Parallel 6mm pen ever with two passes. Contact with moisture/water for 60+ seconds did not cause any (more) bleed-through.

 

See also: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/346552-kwz-walk-over-vistula/?p=4210293

Edited May 24, 2019 by A Smug Dill

[Patrick L]

Excellent review as usual. Do you think that it's a highly saturated ink ?

[Intensity]

Yes it is a highly saturated ink.

[Sakura FP Gallery]

It is a very beautiful blue.

[A Smug Dill]

Excellent review as usual.

Thanks!

 

Do you think that it's a highly saturated ink ?

I'd say so, as most 'heavy sheeners' tend to be, although I'm not entirely sure how one assesses the level of (dye load?) saturation in an ink. Would you dilute an ink with distilled water, and test for the ratio of (original) ink to water at which you could get a certainly colour intensity or degree of opacity?

 

I do know that this ink is apt to cause bleed-through with just two passes — including at the intersection point between the strokes in the minuscule 't' — on Daiso 'Smart Working' A7 notepad paper which is noticeably thinner/lighter than Rhodia 80g/m² but still quite fountain pen friendly. However, that could be partly due to the constituency of the ink itself including the solvents, and not just the dye load, I suspect.

[DrDebG]

Thank you for the great review.

 

I just received a sample of this ink. My first impressions are positive. I would say that it is a wet inks, but isn't lubricated. It also seems more saturated than the other KWZ inks I have tried. The color is very nice, and it shades nicely even with my Lamy fine nib, and seems like it would sheen very nicely in a stub or wide nib.

[Honeybadgers]

Do non-iron gall KWZ's all have the same smell of the IG ones?

 

The IG's smell very strongly, like cream soda. I love it and hate it at the same time.

[Intensity]

Yes, Walk Over Vistula has that artificial vanilla scent too. I like the ink color and behavior (ordered a full bottle and other colors too), but I don't like the scent (I'm a perfume connoisseur, and this scent just makes me think of very cheap drugstore vanilla spray). I hope it's just a coincidence that the scent reminds us of vanilla but is not actually some vanilla scent extract added to make the ink more interesting. You can smell the ink while writing with it.

Edited May 29, 2019 by Intensity

[A Smug Dill]

Do non-iron gall KWZ's all have the same smell of the IG ones?

That's not a question that most people other than retailers can readily answer, I'm afraid. I can't answer it myself, when I don't have all of the non-iron-gall KWZ Ink colours, and I also don't have any of its iron-gall ink colours to use as a point of reference.

 

The IG's smell very strongly, like cream soda.

Eight out of eight KWZ Ink colours I have here have a similar (but not identical) scent to each other. I'd be worried if a glass of cream soda smells like my bottle of Rotten Green, though.

 

I would like to find just one KWZ Ink colour that does not smell like that, so I could validly, honestly and responsibly answer your question with a firm 'no', but I haven't come across one yet.

[Honeybadgers]

Just think of it as cream soda and not perfume and it's much more tolerable (but you're right it'd be a pretty vile perfume. I wouldn't let my wife wear it!)

[DrDebG]

As I mentioned I had just received a sample of Walks over Vistula and several others. I am so glad that I only purchased samples. I am really struggling with the vanilla/cream soda scent. Each time I use it, the smell gives me a migraine after only a few minutes. Most of Noodler's do the same thing. So, I guess I won't be using KWZ inks much (or at all). Would anyone like a few samples - Grapefruit, Raspberry, Green-Gold and Walks over Vistula? You pay shipping. PM me.

[Intensity]

Interesting about Noodler's inks--I've tried only 4 so far, and none have had scents noticeable beyond sticking my nose right next to the liquid (and then something faint). Probably differs from formulation to formulation. The KWZ vanilla scent seems to be consistent for all the samples I've tried so far, however: 5 IG ink samples and Walk Over Vistula. It's probably some sort of stabilizer/preservative-type additive that's added to every ink. It's not too bad while writing, I just take care to not inhale too much and keep a bit more distance than normal from the paper. I've decided I like the inks despite the smell, so I'm putting up with it. It's a matter of personal preference, as many seem to like the scent. I do wish it were more the fresh herbal scent of Noodler's Walnut instead.

[jacksterp]

Just got a bottle of this, along with Gummi Berry which I have yet to try, and am quite happy with it's performance. A lovely blue color that I find unique among my albeit limited blue collection.

 

As I am not an ink sniffer, haven't noticed any smell in use.