KWZ Prairie Green
Ink Review #104
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
This ink is a Galen Leather Exclusive
Overview
The color/properties:
KWZ Prairie Green is a shimmering ink. It has a high concentration of bright golden particulates that are very easy to see regardless of nib size. The base color is a medium green with some very light yellow undertones. The color isn’t as earthy as I had expected; based on the name I had expected some light brown tones, but there weren’t any to be seen. Still, the shimmer does an excellent job of bringing in a lot of that “prairie” character. There’s also some decent shading, with pooled areas appearing much darker, and with a crisp cut between light and dark tones.
This ink does not contain the vanilla scent commonly found in many KWZ inks.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Prairie Green is well-behaved. There was typical bleeding on Kokuyo, though mostly with the broad nib. The other papers didn’t exhibit any bleeding or feathering during my tests. There’s some visible feathering around the edges of the ink droplets, but still, most fountain pen-friendly papers should be able to handle it in normal conditions. The dry times are mostly average, taking at most 20 seconds to dry with the larger nib sizes, but the finer nib sizes also displayed longer than usual dry times, sometimes also taking as long as 20 seconds to dry. The water resistance wasn’t terrible. Most of the color washes away instantly, but there are dark and crisp, easily legible shadows left behind of anything that’s written.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
The performance unfortunately isn’t the best. When it works, this ink has a medium flow and is well-lubricated and comfortable to write with; however, I ran into a lot of clogging. It wasn’t just with the typical extra fine and fine, but the medium, broad, 1.1 stub, and even the semi-flex (to a lesser degree) experienced consistent clogging. However, in the Nahvalur Original (medium nib) that I used for the writing samples, I didn’t run into any clogs, so your mileage will vary. It’s not one of the best performing shimmers I’ve tried, but if you can get it working reliably, it’s nice. On the positive, it doesn’t require a lot of rotating/agitation to keep that shimmer going, and even better, the cleaning experience was excellent. The color washes away easily, but so does the particulate. One flush of the pen and the only residue left was a light ring of shimmer where the piston had stopped, and that was easily removed with a twisted paper towel — no disassembly required, but of course, that would always make it easier.
A closer look at the fine ring of shimmer left inside the pen after an initial flush.
Performance in a pen: 5/10
Performance on paper: 9/10
Color saturation: 6/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 7/10
Water resistance: 4/10
Ease of cleaning: 7/10
Shimmer: Gold, High
My personal thoughts...
I admit, when I picked up Prairie Green, I didn’t even realize it was a shimmering ink — you really can’t see the particulates that well through the bottle. I even ended up having to re-swatch it when I realized it. After spending some time with it I kind of wish it hadn’t been a shimmering ink. The base color is nice on its own, and while the shimmer doesn’t take away from that, it made testing this ink one of my more frustrating review experiences. That much clogging through multiple nib units that haven’t struggled much with shimmers up to this point certainly indicates that there’s a problem.
With that said, the shimmer is beautiful when you can get it writing without any clogs. It was a great experience out of the Nahvalur Original I had it in for the writing sample. The end result is so nice that I would have loved to be able to give it my recommendation, but really, I can’t, and that’s disappointing because I otherwise would have loved it.
Writing samples are written in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook (cursive) and a Traveler's Company Midori MD insert (print) with a Nahvalur Original "Summer" (medium)
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 with 5 nib units including an EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and a 5.5 FPR Ultraflex nib. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook