(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
Out of the many inks I own, there aren't any true greens. I've always enjoyed green, but never fallen for any green inks that I find while at pen shows or perusing online shops. Sailor Ink Studio #960 is about as true a green that I could ever want. While the color might not match exactly what "true green" is, it certainly comes close enough by my personal definition.
Sailor Ink Studio is a fascinating project and line of inks produced by Sailor's own Osamu Ishimaru, a professional blender of inks. The Ink Studio line is comprised of over 100 unique inks chosen from Mr. Ishimaru's thousands of ink creations. I can't imagine coming up with a handful of unique ink colors that span the color wheel, let alone coming up with thousands. This is truly fascinating to consider and makes the 960 on my desk even more special for that reason.
Aside from the clever concept and interesting branding behind the Ink Studio line, it's still a Sailor ink at heart, which means I was excited to try it out. 960 is a deep green that looks more like jade in lighter areas. It's not dark enough to qualify as forest green or British racing green, but it comes close to those shades when the ink pools up on the page. Let's just say this ink will not come into question on St. Patrick's Day.
This is a fairly saturated ink, which helps it pop from the page despite the dark-ish color. I've been using this ink in a 1.1mm stub nib mostly, and that's purely because I love to see the character of the ink come out more with a wider nib. There's some really beautiful and subtle shading that comes out with a broader nib. When using this ink in a fine nib, I barely noticed any shading at all and almost wrote the ink off as a dark green with very little character. I'm glad I was wrong.
Like all Sailor inks I've come across, this one is extremely well-behaved. The ink is smooth on the page, works great in the feed and nib system (meaning it starts quickly and doesn't skip or sputter), and dries really quickly on the page. In my unscientific tests, the ink is normally dry in under 15 seconds. And, as with all well-behaved inks, it's also easy to clean out of pens when it's time to swap in for something else.
The dark, subdued shade of this delicious green is something that makes me happy when I see it drying on the page. It's not a flashy ink, but it has a lot of hidden character that you can coax out with the right nib. It's dark enough to be appropriate in many business settings, but fun enough to use on a daily basis.
At $18 for a 20ml bottle, Sailor Ink Studio #960 is a bit on the pricey end of inks, but it does have a very unique story and some additional info on all 100 colors in the Color Studio line, as well as some blank cartridge converter labels so you can always remember what ink you have in a given pen. If this particular color doesn't strike your fancy, take a look at the other 99!
(Dromgoole's provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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