It takes a lot to get me to like a green ink.
Akkerman #28 Hofkwartier Groen is far and away my favorite, and is a top five personal ink, regardless of color. The green is bright, no doubt thanks to a hefty dose of yellow in the mix, and shades wonderfully. It’s flat-out fun to use.
Well down the line after that shade comes the classic Rohrer & Klinger Alt-Goldgrun, primarily because it is weird as heck, and shades like a beast. It’s one of those inks that once you see it in person you know you have to have it. Faber-Castell Viper Green is a more traditional shade of green, but has an electric/searing nature in its tone. This would fall into an everyday writing green, but with a bit of an edge.
That’s mostly it for my green use, at least until I took a chance on Hemp, one of the three Vanness Pens collaborations with Robert Oster. This one is going into the rotation, most likely as my second green behind Akkerman #28.
Green inks are a short list for me, although I can’t explain why. Unlike blue, orange, or purple, green has to be a little weird for me to use. Traditional greens in the Kelly or Forest shades need not apply. Yellow undertones are good, which brings out the brightness, and having odd questions come to mind, like “What color of frog is this?” only serve to make it more fun.
I wasn’t sure what color Hemp would actually be. Was this to represent fresh growth, or in a processed for production phase? It’s definitely the former, with a good combination of established green in the middle, and the youth of yellow around the edges.
In my bank paper Musubi Notebook I saw more shading than I expected, using an Aurora Optima with a Medium gold nib. On Rhodia, the color was more flat, but bright (and had a loooong dry time.) On Tomoe River paper, the range of darkness showed up. The swab on the Col-o-ring Oversize is the best representation of the color that I see when writing with a nib.
The only remaining question I have at this point is how the ink will look on the page in one of my finer nibs. will the brightness and character still show up? I hope so, because I’ve answered the other important question - do I like this ink - already. And now I’m ready to use it more.
(I bought this ink from Vanness Pens at a discount.)
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