Ink Review #1220: KWZ Stay Home Purple

KWZ has created a St. Louis Pen Show exclusive ink for the last few years, but I didn’t think it would happen this year with all of the pen shows being cancelled. Instead of fully cancelling the St. Louis Pen Show, they have moved it online: The Pen Show that Wasn't, Virtual Maker Fair 2020. A few independent pen makers have made purple pens that match the show color. Each pen will come with a bottle of this year’s pen show ink: KWZ Meet Me in St. Louis 2020 “Stay Home Purple”. One of the show organizers was very kind and sent me a sample of the ink to try out! If there are any bottles of the ink left after all the pens are sold, then the bottles will be available for purchase (probably with a lottery system since there are so few bottles available).

The color:

Stay Home Purple is a vibrant dark violet.

Swabs:

In large swabs on Tomoe River paper the ink looks slightly cooler in tone than it does in writing.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry time: 10 seconds

Water resistance: Medium

Feathering: Low-there was some feathering on Rhodia and Leuchtturm in the larger nib sizes.

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: Medium-there was quite a bit of bleeding on Rhodia and Leuchtturm paper, more than I was expecting.

Other properties: low shading, no sheen, and no shimmer.

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was some feathering and bleeding in all nib sizes.

Comparison Swabs:

Stay Home Purple is closest to Colorverse Magnetosphere. It’s a little bit cooler in tone than Diamine Monboddo’s Hat and Robert Oster Deep Purple, but warmer than Colorverse Hayabusa and Waterman Tender Purple. Click here to see the KWZ inks together, and click here to see the purple inks together.

Longer writing:

I used an Pelikan M600 Violet with a fine nib on a Taroko Enigma notebook. The ink had a slightly wet flow.

Overall, I love the color, but there is a fair amount of bleeding and feathering on most papers. I like it best on Tomoe River paper, where the color really shines.

Disclaimer: This ink was provided by the show organizers for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links and this post is not sponsored in any way.