Ink Review #77

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

Overview

The color/properties:

Diamine Jade Green is a bright green. At a glance, there isn’t a lot to it — literally. It’s difficult to see, especially with fine nibs or smaller. There’s so little saturation that it doesn’t contrast the paper well enough. Broad nibs and larger really bring out the best characteristics of this ink: it becomes more full-bodied, and you get some excellent, crisp shading, with hard, dark edges around where the ink pools. This is definitely the ink you’d want to break out your biggest, wettest nib for.

As for the color itself? Well, Jade Green is way too bright to resemble the gemstone or the plant, but I think that bright characteristic makes it a great and refreshing contender for a spring green.

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

Performance on paper:

Jade Green performs well: the bleed-through on the Kokuyo test sheet is minor, and there’s otherwise no bleeding or feathering on the other test pages. It should be fine on most fountain pen-friendly papers. The dry times are mostly average, with the large nibs drying between 15-20 seconds. Exposure to water causes a lot of yellow clouding, and I wouldn’t expect anything left over to be legible.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Performance in the pen:

Jade Green has a medium flow, and it’s lubricated well enough for a comfortable writing experience. I did notice that during extended writing, however, the flow would have difficulties keeping up. This poses the biggest issue with larger nib sizes — if you don’t stop periodically to let the flow catch up, the ink on the page will start to appear less saturated, and then stop outright. This happened to me while working on the writing sample for this review. The ink was otherwise well-behaved, and I didn’t run into any hard starting.

The cleaning experience was excellent, and the color washed out of each of the nib units with a single soak and flush.

• Performance in a pen: 10/10

• Performance on paper: 9/10

• Color saturation: 3.5/10

• Sheening: 0/10

• Shading: 6/10

• Dry time: 7.5/10

• Water resistance: 1/10

• Ease of cleaning: 10/10

• Shimmer: None

My personal thoughts…

For the longest time, I hated Jade Green. I first purchased a bottle years ago, hoping for a green that was more fresh and vibrant than what I was accustomed to. It was a terrible decision. I remember it well: I got the ink home, filled my trusty Pilot Custom 67, and then… Nothing? It was so bright, it was barely visible to the naked eye. Sitting on the page before me was the biggest disappointment I’ve ever had with a fountain pen ink — nothing’s ever topped it.

Like I said though, that was years ago, and at the time I was using almost entirely fine nibs and the occasional Japanese medium. Clearly, the mistake was my own. I’ve since learned my lesson, and honestly, with the right nib, it’s really not that bad. Dare I say, it’s pretty good. But my experience is certainly an indication that this ink may not be for everyone. I can’t say this ink will find its way into my rotation too often, but it’s no longer destined for the Share-the-Wealth table at the next pen show.

More images/info:

Tools and materials used in the writing samples:

• A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.

• A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad

• A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook

• A Midori MD A5 Notebook

• A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

• A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

• A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook