thINKthursday – LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday
LAMY Topaz

They said a brown ink couldn’t do it all… Clearly, they’ve never tried LAMY Topaz!

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday – LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

I never think about brown inks when I picture a total sheen machine, but this week LAMY Topaz proved me wrong! The LAMY Crystal ink series comes in a 30ml, rounded triangular glass bottle with a nice wide opening. It’s almost the shape you’d get if you took a slice out of the grip section of a LAMY Safari or AL-Star. The cap has a little band of color around the bottom so you can tell the bottles apart at a glance! This review was done with a Pilot Falcon Soft Fine, a Conklin All American in Broad, and on Rhodia blank No.18 paper.

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

A few other inks in the LAMY Crystal series have proven to be excellent for producing sheen, but I have to admit I was not expecting this from Topaz! Pretty much anywhere there was any ink pooling at all, the ink produced a deep, black-green sheen. It was visible even at the bottom of the moderately-saturated section of the swab test, which is quite rare! It’s a little difficult to see, but there was even sheen in the broad section of the writing sample! Overall, it’s a really lovely brown. It starts as a light mahogany before shading to a chocolate. It would probably shade to a near-black, but anything beyond a dark chocolate color gets covered up with sheen anyways.

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

The LAMY Cystal inks have all demonstrated excellent flow with no feathering or bleedthrough on Rhodia paper. They also seem to lubricated quite nicely such that they actually make your nib feel smoother, so I’d recommend any of these inks for a pen with a scratchy or dry nib! Dry times were a little long at 15-30 seconds, but that’s pretty typical for an sheeny, vibrant color like this one. Water washed away most of the ink, but clean-up was very easy!

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

I wasn’t expecting to love this color as much as I did, but LAMY Topaz really blew me away! It’s got plenty of shading, LOADS of sheen, and it made my fountain pens feel buttery smooth. Oh, and it’s reasonably priced, too! Seriously, what’s not to love?

thINKthursday - LAMY Topaz

 

As with any ink review, the pen, paper, and person doing the writing will influence the way the ink looks. If you’re not sure about a color, try a sample to see if it’s the one for you, or see how it measures up against your favorites using our ink tool.

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