EFNIR: KWZ Grey Lux

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: KWZ Grey Lux

This is review #161 in my series.  Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: Cleaning was quick and easy. The 16 and 10 second marks smudged slightly - take your pick at which dry time you prefer. Includes the usual KWZ scent. Slight hint of green as I cleaned the pipette used to ink up, and cleaned after the review. I have no ink like this. It's almost a grey brown. It makes my other greys look pale and blue. Since the other images don't show any color, I'm including an image of the swatch to show the brownish lean - it's still not quite right, the actual color seems more yellow-brown to my eyes. The rest of the images are pretty close to what I see, which is a really dark grey or black, but they lack the brownish lean that I can see either up close or under magnification.

Swatch (closest color reproduction):

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

Zoomed in photo:

Absorbent Paper Closeup (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper):

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap

Previous Review: Waterman Intense Black.

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Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh?  Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy.  Comments appreciated!

[Detman101]

Hmmm...a brownish-grey.
Interesting...but you're right, it looks Black in writing.
Still...better than some others I've experienced. 😛

[AmandaW]

Warm grey AND flows well. It's on the list! Yay. I think. What is this scent spoken of? A number of times?

 

[LizEF]

8 minutes ago, Detman101 said:

Hmmm...a brownish-grey.
Interesting...but you're right, it looks Black in writing.
Still...better than some others I've experienced. 😛

Yeah, I think this ink needs a fat, somewhat dry ink to show off its colors.

[LizEF]

7 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

Warm grey AND flows well. It's on the list! Yay. I think. What is this scent spoken of? A number of times?

Except for KWZ Honey, which has a different scent (some say it's supposed to smell like honey - prior to reading that, I didn't realize honey had a scent¹), all the KWZ inks I've tried have the same scent.  Others have said it's like vanilla, and I agree it smells sort of sweet and dessert-y. @Sailor Kenshin likened it to spoiled birthday cake (if I remember right).

 

¹Way back in college, I cracked my head open (and bounced my brain around in the process) and ever since, my sense of smell has not been quite right.  I don't trust it to accurately detect or identify smells or the strength thereof.  But usually, if I can smell something, others say it's a strong scent.

[AmandaW]

1 minute ago, LizEF said:

it smells sort of sweet and dessert-y.

That's OK. I was worried it would smell like cheeseburgers.  Or goats...

 

(Returns to thinking happy thoughts of a newly discovered warm grey ink that's even in stock in Australia!!! Double yay.)

[yazeh]

Thanks for having kids, goring themselves on hopefully vegan cheese and hay burgers

Colour looks interesting like a greyish Doyou..

[LizEF]

16 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

I was worried it would smell like cheeseburgers.  Or goats...

 

17 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

(Returns to thinking happy thoughts of a newly discovered warm grey ink that's even in stock in Australia!!! Double yay.)

[LizEF]

3 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks for having kids, goring themselves on hopefully vegan cheese and hay burgers

You're most welcome.

 

5 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Colour looks interesting like a greyish Doyou..

Oh, yes, that's quite possible.  I've never used Doyou, but it does seem like an apt comparison.  Thanks.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I like the color!  I like cheeseburgers.  I have the Smoke Noir comparison ink…but naaa-ah (goat sound), no spoiled birthday cake for me.  😜

 

However, I do love your reviews!  Thanks for another fun read.

[LizEF]

3 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I like the color!  I like cheeseburgers.  I have the Smoke Noir comparison ink…but naaa-ah (goat sound), no spoiled birthday cake for me.  😜

 

However, I do love your reviews!  Thanks for another fun read.

Thank you!  And you're very welcome.

[Audrey T]

2 hours ago, AmandaW said:

I was worried it would smell like cheeseburgers

Did you know that De Atramentis has a salami-scented ink?

[mizgeorge]

Thanks @LizEF I love Doyou, and this does hint at a likeness, but I feel a curious lack of compulsion to find out. Not one for me - not least because of the smell, which I don't get on with at all. 

 

I think that KWZ and I just don't get on well. I think I've only got two bottles left, and I'll probably give those away before very long. 

 

 

[LizEF]

27 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

curious lack of compulsion

I have enough to spare!  PM me a shipping address and I'll do my best to get it out of me and into a box!!!

 

28 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Not one for me - not least because of the smell, which I don't get on with at all. 

 

I think that KWZ and I just don't get on well. I think I've only got two bottles left, and I'll probably give those away before very long. 

Yeah, I can understand that.  I think he sort of rolled the dice when he decided to scent his inks.

[inkstainedruth]

4 hours ago, Audrey T said:

Did you know that De Atramentis has a salami-scented ink?

Oh that is just SOOOO wrong, in so many ways....

I've had mixed luck with the D'A scented inks.  I would NEVER want to be without a bottle of Red Roses, but the lavender-scented one wasn't much (at least in a sample vial).  And Patchouli?  Smelled more like someone's musty basement....  Yuck....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Audrey T]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

Oh that is just SOOOO wrong, in so many ways....

I've had mixed luck with the D'A scented inks.

 

I haven't encountered the Salami ink in person (I've just seen on Cult Pens' website), but I too have had mixed luck with De Atramentis's inks. However, the worst scented ink I ever tried (awful in every way) was L’ Artisan Pastellier's Vert Pin, which was supposed to be pine colored and pine scented. It is emerald rather than pine green, it feathers & bleeds fiercely, and it smells like a particularly unpleasant counter spray. Sample available upon request.

[chromantic]

I like this color, Liz, I might have to order a bottle and try it.

[LizEF]

53 minutes ago, chromantic said:

I like this color, Liz, I might have to order a bottle and try it.

As always, I recommend sampling first, just in case it's too brown (or whatever) for you, but I'm glad to help you discover an ink that interests you.

[LizEF]

Here's a new "line width" image taken at 100x under a real microscope of one of the lines used to test dry time. The scale marked 330µm is divided into 33µm increments. The black grid is in 100µm increments. For this ink, the line width is roughly 264µm.

 

[ETA: I'm an idiot... When I started, the line was 300µm, with 10 divisions of 30µm each. When I changed the scale to 330µm, I spaced on the fact that the divisions would then be 33µm...   Numbers now updated.]

 

[chromantic]

Finally ordered a bottle this weekend, can't wait to try it.