(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to try a TWSBI ink, and this Forest Green is a great place to pick up. Ever since I was a kid, I've had quite a fondness for greens, and dark greens hold a special place in my heart. It's an extremely calming and gentle color in my mind, and I really enjoy it in my ink colors, pen colors, clothing colors, and almost anywhere else that I can find it. That is, when I'm not being distracted by an awesome purple or blue. Green represents the quieter internal ambiance that I crave sometimes when I'm fatigued with the brighter colors.
TWSBI's Forest Green is a fantastic representation of forest green in general, and I've really enjoyed using it lately. It's plenty dark — it almost looks black in low light — but it has plenty of rich, earthy character that I think makes dark forest greens so pretty. The shade is dark and mellow, and there's plenty of green peeking out to let you know that it's definitely a dark green instead of a green-black. The color looks rich and deep on the page, and I love it for that.
With dark inks, shading isn't normally very pronounced, and this is holds true for Forest Green. But, there's just enough shading between the dark and medium green hues to add some drama and intrigue in the strokes. The shading is definitely a subdued characteristic in this ink, but it's just enough to really make it stand out.
One of the more surprising features of this ink is the dry time. In my testing, the ink dried on the page in about 10 seconds — 15 seconds on the longer side for thicker lines. This isn't shabby at all. Thought it won't win any awards for fasted drying ink, it's still a respectably quick drier.
Another notable characteristic of this ink is the sharpness of the lines. There's no visible feathering or bleeding on all the higher quality papers I tried (Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Leuchtturm), and there feathering is minimal on cheap paper. This means it will work great in an office setting where you're forced to use sub-par paper from time to time.
This ink is also well-behaved when it comes to the lubrication and flow from the nib. It's an easy ink to write with and works well in nibs of all shapes and sizes. I've only used a couple of TWSBI's inks in the past, but I'm glad to see that my experience so far is positive when it comes to the basic behavior of their inks.
Forest Green is available in an 18ml bottle for about $7 from Vanness. This is a great value, and I like that the ink isn't in a large bottle. 18ml is enough to last for quite a while, but not so long that it ends up going bad on you or never getting completed used.
If you're in the market for a lovely dark green ink, definitely give TWSBI Forest Green a shake.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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