Nahvalur Dark Forest
Ink Review #109
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Nahvalur Dark Forest is a dark forest green with hints of grey and blue undertones. The blue especially comes through in certain lighting in areas where the ink doesn’t shade. On the subject of shading, areas where the ink pools appear significantly darker with hard, dark edges on more ink-resistant papers (such as Tomoe River), while appearing with a softer gradient on more absorbent papers (such as Leuchtturm1917).
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
Nahvalur Dark Forest is well-behaved. I didn’t get any feathering or bleeding on any of the test pages outside of Kokuyo, and the bleed-through on the Kokuyo sheet was light and mostly limited to the larger nib sizes.
The dry times weren’t the best — it took up to 10 seconds longer than average per nib size to dry. The 1.1 stub especially could not dry within 30 seconds on most of the papers (except Kokuyo).
The water resistance was much better than anticipated. Water exposure washes most of the green color away, however there’s a dark grey left behind that’s easily legible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Nahvalur Dark Forest has a medium-dry flow, but despite that, it’s surprisingly smooth and well-lubricated. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this is one of the best feeling inks that’s ever been through the needlepoint. That extends to the rest of the nib units too: it feels great to write with. I never ran into any stops or skips during my tests, but I did find that occasionally the pen would need some help starting if I capped the pen and left it for longer than a few minutes. Still, while writing everything was just fine.
The cleaning experience is also easy and the color washed out of the pen quickly with a single soak and flush of the nib units.
Written on 68 gsm Tomoe River paper
Written on Midori MD paper (white)
Performance in a pen: 9/10
Performance on paper: 8/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 5/10
Water resistance: 6/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
Dark Forest had me excited as soon as I had it. It was in the middle of spring but it looked spooky. Sold! It was an easy choice: this was a fall ink and it was coming with me. I’m glad it did, too, because it’s a wonderful ink, one that I would even say I could choose as an everyday green. Sure, the dry times aren’t the best, but the smooth writing experience with the finer nib sizes (which I prefer), especially the needlepoint, had me enjoying this ink quite a bit more than I had expected. And it’s a great step away from the standard dark blue-green I always see. It’s dusty, almost faded, but still dark enough to easily stand out on the page. It has an air of gloomy sophistication, and I really like it! I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the more commonly reached-for greens in my collection.
Written in a GoodINKPressions 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook (cursive) and a Midori MD white Traveler's notebook insert (print) with a Penquisition Touchstone fountain pen (medium)
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 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook