Ink Flight #26 Reveal, March 2019

Guten tag, pen pals! This month, we traveled from Asia to Germany to sample a variety of colors (and a pen!) from Kaweco. This manufacturer has a long history, originating in 1883 Heidelberg. The current CEO, Michael Gutberlet, continues the tradition with vintage-inspired writing instruments and a full line of quality writing inks and accessories.

Kaweco has a primary set of fountain pen ink colors, with only 10 in the total range of hues at the time of this writing. When curating which colors will be included with the box, it's a blessing and a curse to have such a limited number of colors to pick from. There aren't a lot of options, so it's more about what colors were not included in the Flight. Well, black, of course, is one we usually forgo. The other two were Palm Green and Paradise Blue. Why? The colors seemed a little too summery and tropical. I know the same argument could have been had with the Summer Purple and Sunrise Orange, but I'll discuss why those colors were picked below in more detail.

Here is a rundown of March 2019's Ink Flight lineup. 

Summer Purple
Lush and vibrant like a summertime Viola, this purple ink has a subtle shading quality. 

Caramel Brown
While being darker than your usual “caramel” color, this decadent brown is rich and complex.

Ruby Red
This glamorous red ink has a jewel-like vibrancy with deep, pinkish-red saturation. The richness of this red is impressive!

Sunrise Orange
Bright, cheery, and optimistic, start your day’s morning pages off with this shading orange. This was a perfect fit for an amber-colored Desiderata Precession fountain pen that I write using a zebra G-nib. The flex writing with this ink looks astounding with a darkened halo around the letterforms.

Smokey Grey
This lightly-saturated grey is composed of a variety of colorful undertones. I used this color in a Franklin-Christoph with a Masuyama medium cursive italic. It didn't give me quite the shading or mysteriousness I usually like about grey inks. 

Royal Blue
This business-ready blue has a slight touch of violet sheen. I had this in my Edison Menlo fitted with a flex-modified 14kt Jowo nib. When flexing and getting a lot of ink on the page, the sheening was quite vibrant.

Midnight Blue
A deep, saturated navy with a slight hint of sheen best seen on Tomoe River Paper. This has a similar vibe to last month's Aonibi.

Overall, Ink Flight 26 has something for everyone - from the business appropriate to the vibrant and fun. Sunrise Orange and Royal Blue are a couple of stand-outs for me. I wasn't impressed with Smokey Grey, but the fact that I like Ruby Red surprised me.

Box Extras: Kaweco Perkeo Fountain Pen (with converter)

As with many of the modern Kaweco pen designs, the Perkeo is inspired by a vintage pen design manufactured in the early 1900s. The faceted cap and barrel are also similar to the Kaweco Sport, a bestseller pocket fountain pen. The Perkeo differs in its larger length, which supports the use of international ink cartridges or a standard international converter. The stainless steel nibbed Perkeo fountain pens are not usually included with a converter, but we wanted to provide one (from Monteverde) so you can ink up your Perkeo with one of the Kaweco inks in the Flight.

With the Flight Box being $25, it's not often that we can find a fountain pen that could fit within the Ink Flight budget. The Perkeo fits in right at $17 retail and does not include the international style converter that we also put in the box. (After all, how could we include a fountain pen and not give you a way to fill it using the ink samples?!?) The Monteverde international style converter costs $5 retail. Include the samples at $12, and you've got yourself a box that is worth $34 for only $25. Out of all the Ink Flights, this one probably has the best value. We love giving our subscribers and customers more value each month. That being said, we don't want to out-do ourselves and create unrealistic expectations for next month, but we'll try to do the best we can to continue to add more value to your Ink Flight experience one way or another.

Let us know what you think about the March Ink Flight in the comments below. We're always interested in reading your feedback to make these boxes even better. 

Want to win an April Ink Flight Box? We've moved the giveaway fun over to our Instagram @inkjournal Check out the most recent posts to find out how to enter.

======

Previous Ink Flights (Ink Flight #1 - Noodler's, Ink Flight #2 - Robert Oster Signature, Ink Flight #3 - KWZ, Ink Flight #4 - J. Herbin, Ink Flight #5 - P.W. Akkerman, Ink Flight #6 - Papier Plume, Ink Flight #7 - Platinum Mix-Free, Ink Flight #8 - Franklin-Christoph, Ink Flight #9 - Organics Studio, Ink Flight #10 - Monteverde, Ink Flight #11 - Krishna, Ink Flight #12 - Caran d'Ache, Ink Flight #13 - Rohrer & Klingner, Ink Flight #14 - Blackstone, Ink Flight #15 - Colorverse, Ink Flight #16 - De Atramentis, Ink Flight #17 - Aurora & Montegrappa, Ink Flight #18 - Krishna, KWZ, Papier Plume, Ink Flight #19 - Diamine, Ink Flight #20 - J. Herbin, Ink Flight #21 - Robert Oster Signature 80's Collection, Ink Flight #22 - 3 Oysters, Ink Flight #23 - InkJournal Holiday Blend, Ink Flight #24 - Taccia, Ink Flight #25 - Kyoto TAG)