Franklin-Christoph Honeycomb
Ink Review #3
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color/properties:
Franklin-Christoph Honeycomb is a flat camel beige. It shades with a soft gradient, but the darker tones can easily overpower the lighter tones, resulting in more solidity to the color. In some instances, you may notice more aggressive golden-brown shading around the edges of the letters.
Something I did notice while doing the ink splat was a very plasticky smell coming from the ink. It’s not a very strong scent and it’s not something I noticed while the bottle was open or while writing, but it’s definitely there.
Ink Splat
Performance on paper:
The performance of Honeycomb is mixed. During my tests, I experienced slight feathering on most of the test papers, with varied amounts of bleed-through. The ink also noticeably increased the line width of all my nibs. It should be okay on the more ink-resistant papers (I particularly like to use this ink on Midori MD), however, I would expect at least some slight feathering, especially where the ink concentrates heavily (for example, periods and apostrophes).
Based on its wetness, Honeycomb exhibited lower dry times than I expected it to, often being dry within 10 seconds on finer nibs and usually no more than 20 on the larger ones.
The water resistance was also surprising: The color itself easily washes away, but it does leave behind a more or less legible print of what was written.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Honeycomb is a very wet (even watery) ink, but it’s not as lubricated as you would expect given its high flow. Despite that, it still provides an adequate writing experience, and I never experienced any hard starts or skips during my tests.
The cleaning experience was easy, and the ink washed out of the nibs and test pen in a single flush without leaving any color or residue behind in the nibs or the test pen.
Written on 68 gsm Tomoe River paper (white, 7mm ruling) with a medium nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream, 7mm ruling) with a medium nib.
Performance in a pen: 8/10
Performance on paper: 6/10
Color saturation: 5/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 6/10
Dry time: 7.5/10
Water resistance: 3/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
This was the first Franklin-Christoph ink that I bought — I picked it up immediately after discovering it at the Baltimore Pen Show. I love writing with this color, though it does have some shortcomings. At that same Baltimore show, I had the lovely folks at the Franklin-Christoph table adjust a Model 31 in fine for me and then filled it with this ink. It was writing so wet (it spot-bled straight through the Cosmo Air Light that I was using!) that I thought something was wrong with the newly adjusted pen. It didn't end there, either: I experienced the same results (possibly even worse) on other papers that I tried. Turns out it wasn't the pen at all — it was the ink. I've since used other Franklin-Christoph inks and, in my experience, they do not exhibit the same issues. It's a bit unfortunate, but it doesn't stop me from enjoying this ink and keeping it in rotation.
Written in a 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook with a Lamy Safari (medium nib).
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Franklin-Christoph Honeycomb
Lamy Safari “Cream”, medium nib
68 gsm Tomoe River notebook by Odyssey Notebooks
Midori A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
Chic Sparrow A6 Leather notebook cover
Traveler’s Company brass clip (Amazon)
Manufactus leather pen roll
Portland Leather Medium Leather Wrap Journal
Current text: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Amazon)
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 Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook