For the past month or so, I have been thinking of getting a bottle of Waterman Havana Brown, really as a clone for vintage Quink Brown. In many places, it also seems to be recommended as the perfect dark brown ink. However, on some scans that I've seen, it looks rather reddish when shown alongside other browns such as Noodlers Walnut and JH Lie de Thé. I know I definitely don't want another assertively reddish brown like the Pelikan Brilliant Brown. So I'm wondering: Is this just an effect of the scanning process, or is WM Havana really a reddish shade - or maybe it varies between batches?

Havana is reddish, quite on some papers and in some light. I would even say assertively red. But it's far from Pelikan Brown. Pel reminds me of the color of a red fox. Havana is more like that strange color you get from melted, smeared milk chocolate.

I'm not a fan of wildly red browns, but I love Havana. If you're completey adverse to red, Walnut may be a better choice (albeit darker).

~~King

Here's my scan of Waterman Havana, along with a few other brown inks.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...mp;#entry462402

There are a number of other scans and reviews of Havana on FPN as well.

In my experience, Havana reminds me of the color of mahogany furniture, a dark brown with reddish plum tones. Pelikan Brown (which I don't have, but I've tried) is a more autumnal reddish-orange brown, and it's not as dark. J.Herbin Lie de The can be either brown or close to an olive green, depending on the batch. One friend wrote me a letter with it, and it looks brown. My friend bought two later bought two bottles from different stores, and both bottles show the color to be olive green with a hint of brown (he was hoping for the brown color).

This is probably my second favourite brown after Noodlers Walnut. A rich brown that flows through all of my pens VERY well.

Jim

Echoing what's been said, it's a very nice, warm brown. The only problem I've had with it is its red hue. When it goes down wet with a thick line it's very nice. When it goes down with a fine line or just too thin because the pen is a dry writer, it has a tendency to look pink, which is not so nice.

As long as you have a good juicy writer you should be OK with it. I also say "second to Walnut" but I have high hopes for FPN Galileo, too.

PM your address and I'll send you a Havana-written letter.

gary, who notes that the vintage Waterman Brown used to be called 'Aztec'.

I will add-it is a very nice brown, mine does have maybe a shade of red underneath, but it is not in anyway a red ink, what you do get, and I like, is thast when you write it seems to put down uneven deposits of depth so that part of the letter will be a deeper shade, now I use it in my van gogh, which is a swirly patterned pen so it matches the body, the writing does not look splotchy, or unprofessional, or look like it is running out of ink or anything like that, it just gives you nice variation.
I have used it in both a VP and my Van gogh, and it flows well in both.
Highly reccomended. Its not waterproof though.
Give a bottle a go.

Although as-is Walnut is a dark brown, in fact it has a lot of pink in it, so I often consider it a pink-black. If you wet it, it smears pink but remains black.

Havana is definitely brown, and is great. I go for Walnut because it's got some bulletproof qualities. And I once noticed Havana oxidizing to a green color on the bottle lip, cap, and on a nib. Waterman's supposed to be a safe ink, but I've NEVER seen any oxidation like that in my Noodler's ink.

It's cheap, I'd say get it. Those Waterman bottles are darlings, too.

WM Havana includes a very faint reddishness but isn't nearly as reddish as some of the other browns on the market.

If you want even less red than what shows in WM Havana, consider
Caran d'Ache Grand Canyon,
Noodler's standard Brown or Kiowa Pecan or Golden Brown or Eternal Brown or Walnut,
J Herbin Lie de Thé or Cacao du Brésil,
Diamine Golden Brown,
Rohrer & Klingner Sepia,
or Sailor Brown.

(edited to remove a redundant word)

If your pen writes fine and dry, it'll look reddish or pink. My wet writer lays down a nice, rich brown that isn't reddish.

I find Waterman Havana brown to have a slight reddish hue.

I find the colour to be an almost exact match to one of Stipula's Calamo ink, the Terra di Siena if I'm not mistaken (Calamo inks are not named in writing on its bottle except for a blob on the label; I'm supposed to receive the Rosso Fiorentino when I bought a pen from Giardino Italiano last year, but the colour of the Calamo ink that came does not even remotely resemble the description of it as seen on Stipula's website - though I actually prefer this colour to the bright, vivid red ink that I'm supposed to receive in the first place)

Although it's a nice colour, I still prefer Sheaffer's Brown and Pelikan's Brilliant Brown to it


Shahrin

The WM Havana sample I just received from Pear Tree Pens appears to be a reddish rust-colour with my MB 145 M nib on Crane's Crest. Why not try FPN's Galileo Manuscript brown? It is bulletproof too.


Paul

You folks have an eye for color that continues to amaze me. To me the Havana Brown is a lovely rich, dark brown. Maybe I can see reddish highlights in it, but it is still brown to me. Pelikan Brown remains my favorite brown ink, with Havana Brown close behind it.

Sharhin wrote:

" ... Calamo inks are not named in writing on its bottle except for a blob on the label ... "

That is a pain in the rump, isn't it? They are as bad as MB. I have some self adhesive lables that I use to keep track of my Calamo and MB inks.

Many thanks for all the feedback on this. I was just reading a new post in the Ink Reviews section which seems to suggest that this colour (Havana) has actually changed over time and that newer bottles are a bit redder than older ones. Am still undecided, but starting to lean a bit towards Noodlers Walnut. Unfortunately, we can't get the full Noodlers range - or the FPN ink(s) - here in the UK, at least not without the complications of international commerce.

In my opinion Havana Brown has even a purple hue in it. And I find it too dark.
I like the orange/copper hue of Pelikan's Brown much better.

Regards
Hans-Peter

Hans-Peter, I also noticed a bit of red-violet in it, I think that's what you see too?

Yes, that's what I meant.

How does Havana compare to PR Chocolat?

Chocolat (based on a note someone sent me written in it) is darker and closer to neutral brown, though I'd say slightly on the red side, rather than the yellow. It looks a little like when I mixed Havana with black, though more rich. Havana is lighter, pinker, with more shading, it seems.

Havana is wonderful and sometimes surprising depending on the pen. There is nothing better with a nice stub nib. KingJoe sain melted, smeared milk chocolate - maybe more like melted crayola brown. Plenty of red tones, which add to the shading. My favorite ink in my Sailor Sapporo.