Franklin-Christoph Honeycomb
Ink Review #3
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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. 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 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 ink, but it’s not as lubricated as you would expect given its high flow. Despite that, it still provides a more than 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.
Value/cost per ml:
Franklin-Christoph sells Honeycomb for $8.25 in the 1oz size used in the review. At $.28 cents per ml, it’s relatively affordable. 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:
Honeycomb 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: 58.5/70
Price per ml: 7.5/10
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: 4.5/10
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...
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 on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with a Lamy Safari (medium)
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
Color Comparisons:
Bleed-through on Cosmo Air Light paper