Diamine Sherwood Green

Ink Reviews
Written By Julian

Ink Review #126

 

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

 

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Overview

The color/properties

Diamine Sherwood Green is a medium forest green. It has a slight red sheen around the edges of pooled areas of the ink that transitions to a more golden sheen before drying into the base green color in the center. It’s not enough that I would outright call this a sheening ink, but it’s there and easily visible in both print and cursive. There’s also some shading in the form of a soft gradient between its light and darker tones, though sheening edges make it appear stronger than it really is.

Ink splat

Ink droplets

 

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

 

Performance on paper:

I was expecting some bleed-through here but Sherwood Green is surprisingly well-behaved and there wasn’t any bleeding or feathering on any of my test papers.

The dry times unfortunately aren’t so great and can easily extend into 30 seconds or more, even with the fine nib. The high saturation and sheen don’t make that any better and can make this ink prone to smudging from residual hand moisture no matter how long it’s been dry.

The water resistance also isn’t the best. There are some blue shadows left behind of the writing that might be legible, but water exposure causes instant clouding and makes the whole thing a hazy mess.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Water resistance

Chromatography

Performance in the pen:

Sherwood Green has a medium flow that mostly feels okay. It felt slightly dry and lacking in slickness with the finer nib sizes, however with the medium and broad nibs it was a very well-lubricated and comfortable writing experience. For the most part, the ink performed reliably, but it was spotty with the 1.1 Stub in particular, where it seemed to quickly dry in the nib and cause a lot of dry starts during writing. I also had a few dry starts when lifting off the page for too long while doing my writing samples, but it wasn’t nearly as bad.

The cleaning experience was easy and the color washed out of the nib units quickly with a basic soak and flush. There weren’t any stains, but there was some residue left over on the inside of the pen. This was easily removed with a twisted paper towel, but it could be an issue for pens that don’t have easily accessible filling systems.

 

Written on 52 GSM Tomoe River paper (white) with a medium nib

Written on Profolio Oasis Paper (cream) with a fine nib

Written on Midori MD Paper (cream) with a medium nib

  • Performance in a pen: 7/10

  • Performance on paper: 9/10

  • Color saturation: 7/10

  • Sheening: 3/10

  • Shading: 4/10

  • Dry time: 6/10

  • Water resistance: 2/10

  • Ease of cleaning: 9/10

  • Shimmer: None

My Personal Thoughts…

I admit I don’t know a lot about the Sherwood forest other than it’s the alleged home of Robin Hood, and to be perfectly honest, that’s pretty awesome in its own right. It had me thinking about how far that dates back — So much time, so much history, and to squeeze it all into one color feels like a monumental task. But here we are! Sherwood Green. And despite my ramblings, it feels… really appropriate. The forest green seems like an obvious choice, but the color's darker tone seems fitting for something so enduring and touched by history. The whole thing makes for a green that carries a similar feel to Diamine’s Oxblood or Oxford Blue, and similarly, I love the way this looks on cream paper where it mutes out some of the blue undertones and in my opinion, drives the whole theme home.

Sample written in a 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook with a Franklin-Christoph Model 46 (medium nib)

More images/info:

 

Featured in the photography and writing samples:

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 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

  • A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

  • A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook

 
Julian
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Diamine Oxblood