Review by Laura Cameron
When I was in the ink mecca a few months ago I pored over the Robert Oster swatch books and selected Honey Bee (50mL for $17.00) to come home with me. I chose this one since I have a lack of yellows in my ink stash, and this one looked gorgeous.
Honey Bee is, as you would expect, a rich golden honey colored ink.
While this ink doesn’t appear to sheen, in heavier applications it shades quite nicely from a light golden yellow to a richer darker yellow-brown.
I saw a bit of variation in the larger nibs, but in general standard writing with a fine or medium nib resulted in a nice light gold that is fairly easy to read.
In comparison to other colors, my stash is woefully lacking in yellows. Honey Bee is definitely more yellow than Pilot Iroshizuku Ina-ho (“Rice Ear”), but is much closer to Pen BBS No. 134 (sparkle not withstanding).
I don’t have Honey from KWZ, which looks quite similar to Honey Bee, although possible with slightly greener tones. However, I do know that some people shy away from KWZ inks because of their particular odor, and I can say that Honey Bee has no such smell.
Overall, I’m glad I added this one to my ink stash – it’s glorious honey gold tones are perfect when I want a rich yellow ink.
- Papers: Crossfield Journal ($24.00), Story Supply Co, Limited Edition Ithaca
- Pen: Delike Glass Signature Pen ($37.80)
- Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10.00) and Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards ($15.00)
- Inks: Robert Oster Honey Bee (50ml for $1700)
DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided to us free of charge by Vanness Pen Shop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I’m not a huge yellow fan, but this is really nice. So warm.