Kala Nostalgia Abstraction inks are pigmented inks.
I didn’t realize that important tidbit when I initially picked out a bottle of Spring Rain to review. Nor did I realize it when I opened up said bottle on stream recently, stuck my pocket knife into the bottle, and spread it across a Rhodia Ice pad.
At the time, my primary concern was the color. To be honest, the color palette of these inks isn’t inspiring at first glance, and I settled on what looked like a pretty nice grey. Then someone looked up the inks while I was discussing them, and mentioned the pigment thing. Pigmented, huh? That’s means it should be waterproof. And boy is it.
During that stream, I grabbed my water bottle, reached my fingertips in, and splashed it onto the page. The ink didn’t budge.
Nor should it. I shouldn’t be surprised - this is the expected performance of pigmented and iron gall inks - but to see this ink do the one job it has so well was enjoyable.
I don’t normally test the waterproofness of inks during my reviews. If the ink isn’t marketed as waterproof, I don’t think seeing exactly how not waterproof it is is useful information. If it is a waterproof ink, I trust the manufacturer that it is, so when I’m journaling outside during a hurricane, fountain pen ink is the least of my worries.
Before soaking
But I wanted to test this Kala ink further. I put it through my normal writing process in my TWSBI ECO 1.1 mm stub, and found it flowed well through this admittedly wet nib. It is a darker shade of grey in my Yoseka Notebook, but showed off more of its graphite side on Rhodia paper.
During soaking
Rhodia is what I used for the water test, soaking a small page in a bowl for about a minute. The page sat for a couple of days beforehand - I didn’t go right from writing, drying, and into the bowl - so the ink was well set. The ink didn’t so much disperse a particle in the water, spread onto the page, or transfer to the paper towel I used to pat it dry. It was a rock-solid performance.
After soaking
So, do you need an ink that behaves in this manner? If waterproof inks are a priority, then Kala Nostalgia Abstraction inks are a great choice. Did I mention they are only $10.75 for a 30 ml bottle? That's very good, comparitively. The color choices may be lacking compared to standard inks, but you have plenty of other choices in that realm. Pigmented and iron gall inks serve an added purpose, and in this case, serve it well.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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