Golden brown (texture like sun)

October 28

...Lays me down, with my mind she runs
Throughout the night
No need to fight
Never a frown with golden brown

I wonder if anyone has tried Diamine's Golden Brown.

I'm in the process of getting rid of KWZ Honey from a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age (as it gets too thick too soon), and I'm searching around trying to find an equivalent. From the pics I saw online, Diamine's Golden Brown ranges from peach orange to tarnished gold 🤔

There also seem to exist innumerous similar inks in hue by many different brands, so please let's hear below 🙂

(Please keep in mind that several brands such as Birmingham, Papier Plume, Anderillium etc., are unobtainable to us folks in the ~~non-US~~ rest of the world).

October 28

Whoops! I just realized this topic belongs to Inky thoughts, rather than here.

Please mods, help me to move it to the appropriate forum 😳

October 28

Here are a couple of reviews on FPN of Diamine Golden Brown:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/304690-ink-review-diamine-golden-brown/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/277424-golden-brown-diamine/

This ↑ one is an old review, and the photos in it are behind non-secure links (i.e. links that start with 'http', not 'https').
As such, to see the photos in it, you will need to copy each link in turn, and post that url in to a separate browser tab (you can manually add-in the 's' yourself if you like), then go to the url.

Also, I checked InkSwatch.com to see if they had compared KWZ Honey. ~~[Although I found that they haven't yet compared the KWZ~~ ← that statement is wrong. If you read the post below this one, you will see that yazeh managed to find it with no difficulty at all. I have no idea what went wrong with my brain. My apologies.] , they have got comparative swatches for Diamine Golden Brown:
https://inkswatch.com/ink.html?inkId=637

For another review of Diamine Golden Brown, there's:
https://mountainofink.com/blog/diamine-golden-brown

And MountainOfInk also reviewed KWZ Honey (so, by comparing their pictures to your own experience, you ought to get an idea of how true-to-life their pictures are):
https://mountainofink.com/blog/kwz-honey

Funnily enough, I recently read a review on here of another ink that might be the sort of thing that you're looking for:

In that review, another recently-reviewed ink is mentioned as being of a similar colour:

I hope this post is useful.

Slàinte,
M.

Edited October 28 by Mercian
Edited to correct a factual error caused by my incompetence.

October 28

You can use the website Inkwatch to compare. Ideally it's best to procure samples. Also apparently are two formulation of Honey.

Anyway, ink swatches compared to KWZ Honey. You can directly compare it to Diamine, by using the filter the brand functions.

https://inkswatch.com/ink.html?inkId=225

Diamine Tobacco Sunburst seems to be closest.

If you check this review (the video), you see they are quite close:

If you use the same website to see inks similar to Diamine Golden Brown: You can filter it to KWZ, they don't seem similar.

https://inkswatch.com/ink.html?inkId=637

Good luck with your search

October 29

Thanks @Mercian, @yazeh!

I was aware of inkswatch.com, it's a valuable tool indeed!

I think I'll settle with Robert Oster's Gold Antiqua. Problem is, it's not carried by any of the local brick-and-mortar stores, so I'll have to aggregate... a bunch of stuff to make it worthwhile ordering online.

...oh well, fountain pen Friday is around the corner, innit? 😉

[edit] Hmm... there's also this new Van Dieman's Encore Aria. Seems to be one of those multichromatic inks, but looks close to what I had in mind on paper (pardon the pun -- I mean with an actual <F-M> nib), and it's available locally for pick up! ~~No reviews tho anywhere yet~~ 🤔

Wrong: here's one on reddit. Hmm...

October 30

Don't have a Visconti but for my pens that dry out quicker I just put them in an airtight container (not to be done with celluloid pens); saves on ink and cursing.

Currently: Parker 75 x 3, 105, Faber Castell Ambition, Pilot Metropolitan, Omas Milord.

Golden brown looks nice...

November 1

On 10/27/2024 at 9:29 PM, lamarax said:

I'm in the process of getting rid of KWZ Honey from a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age (as it gets too thick too soon), and I'm searching around trying to find an equivalent. From the pics I saw online, Diamine's Golden Brown

I, too, find Honey to misbehave over time. It's a shame because I can't find anything that truly replaces it. Same with KWZ Walks Over Vistula. Such beautiful depth!

...but quick to evaporate.

Of the inks I've tried, Diamine's Golden Brown's hue does match Honey the best, but Honey provides crisper lines and more depth. Unlike Honey, Golden Brown seems to improve its behavior over time. It can be a bit light when fresh (at least in my pens), looking a bit like the lighter portions of a roasted marshmallow, which can make it a bit tough to work with, especially when wet and/or in EF/F nibs. It gets darker and more interesting as it ages in a pen, but I've also had hard starts in an EF nib. I have yet to try Golden Brown in a juicy pen because I own few juicy pens. I'm a lefty; showing me a wet-flowing pen will elicit a reaction similar to showing a cross to a vampire.

Others that I have tried that are somewhat close to KWZ's Honey include...

Noodler's Golden Brown (beautiful IMO, but my bottle suffers from Noodler's infamously long dry time),
Robert Oster Scorpion (a Pen Chalet exclusive and perhaps no longer made),
Noodler's Rome (formerly 'Rome Burning'; a weird, experimental ink with weird, experimental charm; a flat, lusterless... bronze?; I use it to color the edge of pages and envelopes), and
Robert Oster Caffe Crema (an appropriately named ink and a fine golden brown, but not the same as Honey).

I also bought the following inks in the hopes that they'd be good golden browns in their own rights, but they won't replace Honey...

Diamine Louise (a Cult Pens exclusive, which might be described as a "rich yellow" that could be used as a base for a custom Honey replacement recipe, if darkened by another ink),
Diamine Golden Honey (don't be fooled by the name—it's just an orange... a basic, boring orange; it behaves well enough and would be a fine ink if you're into that shade but I got a sample for free and still want my money back),
Robert Oster Antelope Canyon (too orange),
Taccia Tsuchi (a warm brown/ochre and a beautiful ink if you judge it by its own merits rather than as a Honey replacement), and
Diamine Sepia (a pleasant enough golden orange).

And if you already own a gold shimmer ink such as Heart of Gold or Golden Sands, consider loading a pen without first mixing the shimmer into suspension.

Attached are scans of some of the inks on Rhodia N^o16, front and back. All were written with the same italic dip nib.

I'd forgotten how lubricated and wonderfully scented KWZ inks are! Diamine Golden Brown was very dry by comparison.

I've not tried the other inks already mentioned in this thread.

Have you ever tried White Lightning or a fraction of a drop of dish detergent? Such additives are supposed to be used sparingly (1 drop or less for every 10mL of ink, preferably in a separate vial). I only purchased samples of KWZ inks and don't have enough volume to try a surfactant as a potential solution. If you're able to try that, please report back with your findings. I'd love to put KWZ back on the menu!

November 1

I was also going to suggest Taccia Tsuchi Golden Wheat as a potential. My KWZ Honey is quite old so it may be an older formulation but Tsuchi is pretty close but not the same. I've not seen anything else that really hits that golden brown with a greenish hint. Plain golden brown I'd look at Herbin's Ambre de Birmanie.