Franklin-Christoph Brown 732
Ink Review #33
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Brown 732 is medium brown. There’s a light amount of shading and depending on the nib size and wetness it can vary from a soft gradient with the finer nibs, to a crisp cut where the ink pools. I noticed the shading the most on the Leuchtturm paper, but it’s still not a major shift in tone, and with the finer nibs, it has an especially soft and creamy appearance. The droplets show a thick black sheen, but I don’t think that would be transferrable to writing.
I should also note that there’s a very plasticky smell. I noticed it at first when I was doing the ink splat, but It’s even noticeable coming from the dried droplets.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Brown 732 was well-behaved on paper. There wasn’t any noticeable bleed-through or feathering on any of the test papers. The dry times were slightly below average, often extending past the 20-second mark, even with the finer nibs. When exposed to water the ink clouded and most of what was written washed away. What was left over was legible but still difficult to read and I wouldn’t expect a lot in terms of water resistance.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Brown 732 had a dry flow across all of the nibs that unfortunately didn’t provide a lot of lubrication while writing. It wasn’t unbearable, but if you prefer your inks to be slicker, this one isn’t going to cut it. The ink barely wrote out of the needlepoint, but otherwise, I didn’t run into any stops, skips, or hard starts during my tests with the other nibs. Still, I wouldn’t recommend using this ink with drier-tuned nibs. The cleaning process was easy, and the ink washed out with a single soak and flush.
Value/cost per ml:
At the time of writing, Brown 732 is available from Franklin-Christoph for $8.25 in the 1oz size used in the review. This makes Brown 732 $.28 cents per ml, but I should note that Franklin-Christoph also offers inks in a 2oz eyedropper for $12.50, bringing the cost down even further.
The bottle/packaging:
Brown 732 comes in a simple glass bottle with a basic label and no exterior packaging. The glass has a moderate level of transparency, although I found that the ink often sticks to the inner walls of the bottle, leading me to initially mistake the glass for being ambered. The cap has shallow ribs on the edges to assist opening (though I found that they don’t provide as much grip as they would appear to) and there is an inner plug that will help create a seal. The opening is large enough to fit most pens easily, but because the bottle is light and taller than wide, I find that the bottle is lacking in stability for filling.
Score: 58/70
Price per ml: 7.5/10
Performance in a pen: 6.5/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 5.5/10
Sheening: 1/10
Shading: 4/10
Dry time: 7/10
Water resistance: 2.5/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Bottle form: 1.5/5
Bottle function: 2.5/5
*Only 70 of the 100 available points are required for an outstanding score.My personal thoughts...
I’ll start by saying that the color is fine. It’s what I expected — it’s an inoffensive, neutral brown. When I picked this ink up I had hoped that it would be a perfect brown iteration of Franklin-Christoph’s Blue 72. Both are very basic inks, but Blue 72 was such a pleasant and painless experience. I wish I could say the same about Brown 732. It gets the color right, but the dry flow and spotty dry times make it hard to recommend this ink over other browns.
Written on Oxford Optik paper with a Franklin-Christoph Model 19 (EF Flex)
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook