Kaweco Pearl Black Ink by the German Pen Company Kaweco, has been around for many decades. Kaweco is known for its fantastic functional pens, such as the Kaweco Classic Sport and Kaweco Al-Sport, which has its history with military officers keeping a small compact pen in their shirt pocket. Kaweco, however, also produces some wonderful fountain pen ink. Kaweco fountain pen ink comes in 10 colors: blue, turquoise, blue black, grey, red, purple, green, orange, sepia brown and of course pearl black.
Black ink is black ink, right? Not so. There has been much written on what makes a great black ink. A few fabulous black inks on the market are Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi, Pelikan Edelstein Onyx and Aurora Black. Each of these fountain pens ink are a true opaque dark black ink. There are other black inks that have wonderful characteristic as well, such as Noodler’s Black, which not as opaque as some others is a bullet proof “waterproof”, fast drying ink. Kaweco Pearl Black ink contains many of these same characteristics. It’s a true black color, very dark and opaque, with maybe a hint more grey than Aurora Black, The Kaweco black ink is also pretty quick drying ink, like the Noodler’s black ink. Kaweco inks are known as premium quality inks but they are imported so you can expect to pay a little more for these inks.
We noticed a few of the following characteristics that you may find helpful when using Kaweco Pearl Black Ink:
Testing Factors
We used Rhodia Block N. 18 paper with a glass dip pen by J. Herbin for this review. The dip pen has a tip equivalent to a fine or extra fine nib.
Bottle Sizes
Kaweco inks come in a 30 ml. glass bottle that is very functional in its shape and design. It can actually be placed on its side and then even further on its neck in order to obtain those last few drops of ink.
Cost
Kaweco Pearl Black ink retails for $16.00, which is more than some non-premium inks on the market like Noodler’s, Parker or Diamine inks, but cheaper than most premium inks such as Pelikan Edelstein and Pilot Iroshizuku Inks. Kaweco inks are a very good value for premium imported German ink.
Dry Time
Using the glass dip pen, we experienced a super quick dry time of about 3 second. Not as quick as Noodler’s, but much quicker than most other black inks we have tested.
Bleed Through
We noticed zero bleeding using Kaweco Pearl Black ink, even when using an ink soaked nib on the paper.
Feathering
We experienced no feathering during normal use. However, feather was noticed during the water test.
Water Test
Kaweco Pearl Black ink is not waterproof. There was significant color smearing and some feathering during the water test, where we ran a soaking wet cotton swab over ink samples that had dried for approximately 3 minutes. This is where the grey in the ink really came out. The color smearing is similar to Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi and Aurora Black inks.
Shading
Kaweco Pearl Black ink has a hint of grey color, thus can provide a small amount of shading with the right nib and handwriting combination.
Conclusion about the Kaweco Pearl Black Ink
Kaweco Pearl Black ink is a good overall ink, very dark opaque black color. It is fairly fast drying, at least with a small nib, but is not waterproof. The price is reasonable, not the most expensive, but not the cheapest either. Kaweco Pearl Black can be a good every day black color of your choice.
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