Franklin Christoph – Honeycomb

[crahptacular]

Franklin Christoph – Honeycomb

 

Franklin Christoph recently retired two colors of ink (Loden and Terra Firma), stating that they were redundant with other colors in their line, while introducing two new ones (Black Forest and, most recently, Honeycomb). It seems that they are trying to broaden their range of their colors, which I think is a great idea. This color is somewhat of a departure from FC’s existing lineup, which, apart from Spanish Blue, are all on the darker side. I haven't seen reviews of this ink yet, so I bought it blindly. It comes in the smaller 1 oz. glass bottle, like Black Forest, or in the standard 2 oz. in the eyedropper bottle. I like their 1 oz. bottles, which are the right size for me and have a nice, practical form factor. I only had one clean pen available when I did this review; I'll try to remember to come back with a fine nib later and add extra writing samples.

 

Honeycomb is a light golden yellow/brown ink. It’s a mild, gentle color that displays nice shading, but may be on the pale side in terms of legibility. I used a Broad SIG nib (stub/italic), and found it perfectly readable. It does darken considerably based on wetness, so rather than fineness, wetness might be the determining factor in how well the line shows up. The color is relatively complex, which can be seen in the doodle; water separates the yellow and red components from the rest, resulting in some substantially different hues depending on how much/how long the water is applied. The most obvious ink to compare this to is KWZ Honey, which is a similar hue with a similar inspiration. Side-by-side, Honey is the darker ink, with more dramatic contrast, while Honeycomb is softer, and has a bit more of an orange undertone. If I had to choose between the two, I’d say Honey would likely be the better writing ink for pens because of how dark it can get. While Honeycomb does shade beautifully, the color never gets the same depth. You can see that even in the smear, only the edges of the pooled ink get anywhere near as dark as Honey does. Instead, Honeycomb stays around the middle tones, which would please those who prefer all of their lines to come out consistently honey-colored. I personally prefer the middle tones of Honeycomb, which are warmer (more orange) than Honey, but overall I like Honey more for its range of colors. The ink is much better suited (in my opinion) to papers with warmer tones, and clashes with "cold" white papers.

 

PS –I’ve started using 68gsm Tomoe River paper instead of the more common 52gsm variety, because it buckles less when I dump water all over it. As far as I can tell, the 68gsm is just a tiny bit more absorbent than the 52gsm, but it still shows off a ton of shading and sheen.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Moderate-High (quite a lot of gradient shading; the dark/light portions are not that high-contrast. I increased contrast slightly in the writing samples as a side effect of correcting the color.)

Sheen: None.

Water Resistance: None

 

The following sample was done with a Franklin Christoph 45 (Broad SIG) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a size 3/0 mop. Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Bad Scanner Disclaimer: Indoor lighting for the photo results in… equally poor results. It’s okay for the doodle and the comparisons, but the rest couldn’t be salvaged. Scan is much better in every way. It should be a touch redder in the smear/comparisons, but the doodle and writing are both accurate.

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Sailor Kobe #21 Taisan-ji Temple Yellow, Noodler’s Golden Brown, KWZ Honey, KWZ IGL Aztec Gold, J Herbin Lie de The

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Haruki Murakami’s “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning”

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

Edited November 29, 2017 by crahptacular

[visvamitra]

Excellent presentation. It looks nice.

[titevm]

Very nice ink. Beautiful review, thanks!

[Cyber6]

OMG.. I love your sketches... ... Not sure about the colour thou.

 

 

C.

[titevm]

Very nice ink. Beautiful review, thanks!

[Cyber6]

Franklin Christoph – Honeycomb

 

Franklin Christoph recently retired two colors of ink (Loden and Terra Firma), stating that they were redundant with other colors in their line,

 

 

 

Nonsense... Loden and Terra Firma are my favourites colours in that line. Not redundant at all.

I personally would have retired Midnight Emerald and Urushi Red..

 

[Tas]

Keep them coming. These reviews brighten my day
Thank you.

[Jan2016]

Nice colors!!!!

And amazing review...

Honeycomb I do not know, but the colors you use for comparing are very nice!

[Jan2016]

And Loden was on my wishlist just checked their website...

 

 

 

Note Terra Firma and Loden have been retired. Remaining bottles will be found in the Stock Room while supplies last.

[crahptacular]

Yeah, I posted in my Loden and Terra Firma review threads about the discontinuation when I heard the news. I, too, thought that cutting Loden was not the best choice. Midnight Emerald, Black Forest, and Emerald 357 all share more overlap as blue-leaning greens than did Loden. I don't have all of their inks, but personally I thought Loden was their coolest color.

 

@Jan2016 as of writing, they still have eyedropper bottles of Loden available on the Stock Room page of their website (http://www.franklin-christoph.com/the-stock-room.html). Look for entry #2.

[lapis]

Excellent review. Especially your description utilizing optical analysis (like in a retaurant). Not exactly my type of colour (for writing) but for sketching and painting like yours, it's fabulous!!

[white_lotus]

Glad I have a bottle of Loden. Maybe some ink makers have decided than when sales of an ink slow down, they'll just discontinue it, and put something new out, thinking ink lovers will simply snap up the new colors.

 

Some companies say a color is "limited edition" in the beginning so at least you know.

 

I'll stick with KWZ Honey.

[KellyMcJ]

Really gorgeous ink and spectacular review! Thanks for sharing!

[rudyhou]

reminds me of KWZ honey. though this one maybe a tad lighter.