KWZ Ink - Old Gold

KWZ Ink Old Gold - ink drop

I really like KWZ inks, and today’s ink is a beauty! The name Old Gold is well chosen, and truly represents this warm, tarnished wonder.

KWZ Old Gold is a beautiful shading ink that displays a full range of light to dark golden browns. At its lightest, it’s a rich, golden honey-amber, and becomes a luscious, tarnished brass-brown at its darkest. The light tones play beautifully on the page, and pop next to the darker tones. I found that fine to medium nibs tend to show off this ink’s shading better than juicy broader nibs. Old Gold is a fairly viscous ink, so wetter nibs seem to result in darker lines with less shading in many cases.

KWZ Ink Old Gold - ink swatch card

Strokes were generally well-defined, crisp, and sharp. There was no feathering at all on Rhodia or Mnemosyne papers. Although feathering was a problem on cheap office copy paper, it was somewhat better on higher-quality, uncoated papers. Stick to coated papers for best results in terms of feathering and stroke profile. Drying times were average to a bit longer overall, but were significantly longer on coated papers (60 seconds) than on uncoated papers (25 seconds). Finer nibs produced the shortest drying times.

KWZ makes several inks (Honey, Aztec Gold, Green Gold) that fall into the same general portion of the color spectrum as Old Gold. To be honest, I like them all. Each is different and unique in its own way, but Old Gold and Honey (a “must have” ink) are amongst my favorites. With the right paper and nib combinations, Old Gold shows off a wide range of beautiful, rich, golden hues and tones. It’s a warm, inspiring ink that projects confidence and security. This is a very attractive ink.

October 2020