KWZ El Dorado Ink is, produced by KWZ Ink Company, which is one of the “new kids on the block” in the ink manufacturer world. KWZ inks have been made in Poland since 2012 and is pronounced “kah-veh-zeh”. Each of their inks are handmade from scratch using raw materials and chemicals and are the creation of Konrad Zurawski.
Konrad, a self described “fountain pen fan” and “handyman”, is a graduate of the Faculty of Chemistry from the Warsaw University of Technology and is a current Ph.D student at the same university. He started his ink business producing iron gall inks with the sole purpose of having more friendly characteristics that would not gum up fountain pens as bad as traditional iron gall inks.
Konrad accomplished this task and then continued to produce other standard non-iron gall inks. These inks have been created with about any characteristic that he chooses to include. With his background and expertise along with his passion, KWZ inks are here to stay and will become a mainstay with pen enthusiasts. Konrad’s main goal with KWZ inks is to focus on creating unusual, unique, less common ink inks that cannot be found anywhere else. KWZ El Dorado ink fits this description.
El Dorado is one of 44 colors of the KWZ standard ink series. These are non-waterproof, dye based inks. KWZ El Dorado is a beautiful yellow-gold color with a brown tint as it is applied to paper. As it dries the ink has more of an orange tint. KWZ El Dorado ink is darker than Noodler’s Apache Sunset and thus dark enough to be very legible and used for may purposes.
Continue reading for your chance to win the KWZ El Dorado fountain pen ink that we use in this review.
KWZ El Dorado Ink Review
We found the following traits during our review of KWZ El Dorado ink that you may find useful:
Testing Factors
For our review of KWZ El Dorado ink we used a French made J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen on Rhodia dot pad paper. The glass dip pen has a tip that is similar to a fine fountain pen nib.
Bottle Sizes
KWZ El Dorado ink comes in an large capacity, round opaque 60 ml. glass bottle. Each bottle has a wide mouth lid that makes ink access with any size pen very easy. The packaging is also very simple, but elegant, coming in a glossy white cardboard box with basic black lettering. A label on the top of the box names the ink color, ink sku, batch number as well as a small ink swab for color. If anyone has any questions about KWZ inks, Konrad includes his physical address and website on the back of the box.
Cost
KWZ El Dorado ink is a very reasonably priced ink option, retailing for $15.00 in the US, which is fantastic for this large 60 ml. imported ink from Poland.
Dry Time
During our review of KWZ El Dorado ink we experienced a dry time of approximately 7-8 seconds. This is typical of a non-waterproof dye based ink, making it very usable at both the home and office.
Bleed Through
We found absolutely no bleeding during our review of KWZ El Dorado ink We used large amount of ink during our cotton swab test and still absolutely no bleeding.
Feathering
We found no feathering during normal use while testing KWZ El Dorado ink on Rhodia paper. However, during the water test we found some feathering at the wettest part of the test.
Water Test
KWZ El Dorado ink is a dye based, non-waterproof ink. As such, when we ran a wet cotton swab over a dried ink sample, we found some line distortion, slight feathering and significant color smearing. All of these traits are not unusual for a non-waterproof ink.
Shading & Sheening
KWZ El Dorado ink produces some nice shading, with the dark gold color to a lighter yellow color. Another nice feature is that El Dorado can produce dark red sheen with wetter lines.
Conclusion about the KWZ El Dorado ink
We are very excited to be carrying KWZ inks and offer our loyal customers even more ink color options than ever before. KWZ El Dorado ink is a fantastic color, with unique traits. Being a dark yellow-gold color with some brown and orange traits and possible red sheen, this ink very interesting and unique. El Dorado ink is reasonably priced for an imported ink and has a decent dry time. Konrad, as the owner of KWZ inks, is passionate and innovative, continuing to try and improve his craft, which is making new, attention-grabbing ink colors. Happy Writing from Poland!
Enter to Win a Bottle of KWZ El Dorado ink
Enter to win the bottle of KWZ El Dorado fountain pen ink that we used in this review:
