Jump to content

[Review] Graf Von Faber-Castell Hazelnut Brown


nmcnick

Recommended Posts

This ink is a really neat brown. It flows consistently well, has no problems with cleanup, and is decent on lubrication. It's a really good all-rounder ink if you don't mind it not being permanent. Or, for that matter, water resistant at all.

 

On a ten-point system, 10 being the best:

 

Flow: 8

Lubrication: 6

Dry Time on Tomoe River Paper : 20-25 sec

Shading: 7 (Depends largely on the pen)

Bleed: None.

Ghosting: Just a bit, nothing too heavy.

Color: 7 - I like it a lot, especially in my Monteverde Invincia with a Pendleton BLS Nib. Its a very nice brown with good shading in this pen.

Overall: 7 - This is a brown ink I could see myself returning to!

 

Written Review:

 

Photo:

 

26844317530_16001e6cb4_z.jpg

 

Scan:

 

26844317340_95299c6112_b.jpg

 

After capturing, I noticed there were bits of these really neat silvery black sheen where the ink pooled up enough. It probably won't be seen unless your pen is REALLY flowing on very ink-resistant paper, but it is there! I'll leave two pictures. One of the sheen circled and one not circled.

 

27023950262_13e688a777_b.jpg

27118484135_7ab2682c36_b.jpg

 

The pictures do not do it much justice as in real life it sheens much more especially under light. I had real trouble picking up any sheen on my camera.

 

Thanks for checking out my review!

 

-Nick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 18
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • nmcnick

    6

  • lapis

    3

  • visvamitra

    1

  • DrDebG

    1

Good review! Thanks!! It's really a good ink, apart from the colour, of course. All of these new GvFCs are very good IMO. Outstanding bottles and boxes and lids, too, which hardly anybody raves about. I think a lot of us disdain the relatively high price, but, man... it is a 75-ml thing!

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love this ink. It is my "go to" brown. I have a FC Panther 40 with Matsuyama medium italic nib currently inked with Hazelnut Brown. It has great shading and wonderful sheen. Sometimes, it does take a little longer to dry and can smear a bit. But it is one of my all time favorite inks!

"Today will be gone in less than 24 hours. When it is gone, it is gone. Be wise, but enjoy! - anonymous today

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love this ink. It is my "go to" brown. I have a FC Panther 40 with Matsuyama medium italic nib currently inked with Hazelnut Brown. It has great shading and wonderful sheen. Sometimes, it does take a little longer to dry and can smear a bit. But it is one of my all time favorite inks!

 

It's a great ink! Expect more brown ink reviews soon :) I got a bunch of samples as I wanted to look into browns that'd mach my recently acquired Laban Mento Turquoise. Brown is a really underestimated color. There are many beautiful shades of brown.

 

Good review! Thanks!! It's really a good ink, apart from the colour, of course. All of these new GvFCs are very good IMO. Outstanding bottles and boxes and lids, too, which hardly anybody raves about. I think a lot of us disdain the relatively high price, but, man... it is a 75-ml thing!

 

Mike

This is true! The price point on inks doesn't bother me as much as I know it does for many. It might be because it takes forever for me to run out of but I figure If I'm getting a really well performing ink that'll last me a year or two that price is really worth it. It's interesting to me how some buy Luxury pens without batting as much of an eye but with high priced inks it can be a thing for some people. Don't underestimate the ink! In my experience, a pen is only 50% of the equation. Paper and ink make up the other 50%. If you're treating yourself to a nice pen, treat yourself to a nice ink too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

.... It's interesting to me how some buy Luxury pens without batting as much of an eye but with high priced inks it can be a thing for some people. Don't underestimate the ink! In my experience, a pen is only 50% of the equation. Paper and ink make up the other 50%. If you're treating yourself to a nice pen, treat yourself to a nice ink too.

Amen! I never did understand that myself. For some of the members here, whether the pen costs 1 or 2 K is no big deal, but when they'd rather buy an ink for $10 instead of 20, that beats me. Of course, some people keep their expensive pens behind glass in the showcase so that the price of ink is no question at all.

 

:lticaptd:

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It used to be my favourite brown. Now I prefer earthier ones but I still enjoy it from time to time.

Did you have any flow issues with this ink? The more I use it the more it seems even my best flowing pens have trouble with it. My Laban Mento gets hard starts and my Invincia with a Pendleton stub dries up often.. It works okay at first but then becomes too much for them to keep up with. I'm thinking of lowering the flow score due to this but I'm unsure if I'm just doing something wrong.

 

Amen! I never did understand that myself. For some of the members here, whether the pen costs 1 or 2 K is no big deal, but when they'd rather buy an ink for $10 instead of 20, that beats me. Of course, some people keep their expensive pens behind glass in the showcase so that the price of ink is no question at all.

 

:lticaptd:

This is true!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've gone through about 14 or so samples of brown inks. The closest to the brown I'm looking for is Diamine Chocolate brown. It's rich, deep dark brown, almost too dark. I need to lighten it maybe one or two shades so it isn't mistaken for a black on a quick glance. I've noticed some browns are close to what I'm looking for on one paper, the they blow it on another paper. I've been using the same pen for all the sample testing, a medium nib to get the full effect of the ink, but I imagine that's going to change some when I go to my usual Fine nibs. Interesting to see what the Diamine Chocolate brown does in a Fine nib. Maybe time to find out. Otherwise the search goes on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It used to be my favourite brown. Now I prefer earthier ones but I still enjoy it from time to time.

It never was my favourite but maybe my third favourite, after Grand Canyon (R. I. P.) and Galileo.

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved this ink sample when I tried it out a while back. I plan to get it eventually. It is very high on my wish list.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I loved this ink sample when I tried it out a while back. I plan to get it eventually. It is very high on my wish list.

Its a very underrated ink from what I've seen through my use! As are all the Graf Von Faber-Castell inks.

 

The flow is good, never mind my last post. My Laban Mento is a bit new which I think is why it hard started a bit. One I primed back up my invincia it flowed well again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I received a sample in the Goulet Pens collection of brown inks, and it's my favourite by far. I don't know if I like it enough to buy a full bottle, but it's on my list of maybes!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

After using it a bit more in other pens- indeed this is a dry flowing ink in my personal experience and not too lubricated. Still beautiful!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ lapis: How does this compare to GvFC Grand Canyon? I was able to get a bottle of that on close-out a couple of Christmases ago, and like it (but because it's just the one bottle it doesn't see a lot of use in favor of inks that are easier to get, like Noodler's Walnut).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I got a sample of this. Tried it in a broad nibbed pen that had flowed well before with Visconti turquoise. The colour was nice and already writing was fine, but any speeding up, or quick lines and it ran dry. I'm now trying a third ink (Diamine eau de nil) and that's fine in the same pen so I can but assume it's the flow level in the GvFC Hazelnut Brown that's the problem. A shame really as I do like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got a sample of this. Tried it in a broad nibbed pen that had flowed well before with Visconti turquoise. The colour was nice and already writing was fine, but any speeding up, or quick lines and it ran dry. I'm now trying a third ink (Diamine eau de nil) and that's fine in the same pen so I can but assume it's the flow level in the GvFC Hazelnut Brown that's the problem. A shame really as I do like it.

 

Indeed, this seems like a very consistent dry ink which is odd for it's price point. I absolutely love the color so it is such a shame. If it were a bit more free flowing It'd be my #1 pick for a brown!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Thank you for this review.

 

I tried the Cognac Brown ink on a medium-sized nib fountain pen and found it too transparent for writing. I hope this one works better for writing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...