It’s cold and covered in snow outside, so let’s talk about something green. How about J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage fountain pen ink, which means “Wild Ivy” in French. I’m usually not a big fan of green inks as I can’t seem to find a regular use for them, but this is a pretty fun ink that I enjoyed checking out for this review. See all of the details below.
Materials Used
For this ink review, I used my Lamy Vista medium-nib fountain pen, a q-tip to make the ink swabs, and a variety of popular papers. For the main review, I used some Clairefontaine Trimomphe (90gsm) bright white stationery, and for the secondary reviews, I used some white Rhodia (80gsm,) ivory G. Lalo Verge de France (100gsm,) the ultra lightweight cream Tomoe River (52gsm,) and a piece of off-white Moleskine notebook paper (about 70gsm.)
Secondary Reviews
Results
Flow - Just Below Average
While I didn’t experience any starting or skipping issues, the ink didn’t write as wet as I normally enjoy my ink.
Bleed Through - Little/None
On ultra close inspection of some of the swabbed areas, there was some bleed through, but as you can tell in the image, it’s barely, if at all, noticeable.
Water Resistance - Average
Don’t get this ink wet if you want to keep seeing your work. There’s very little water resistance here with just the faintest lines remaining after the drip and smear tests.
Dry Time - Above Average
After experiencing the flow of the ink, I really expected the dry time to be fairly quick; however, it actually took longer than average to dry at about 10s – 20s on all papers tested.
Feathering - None
I didn’t experience any feathering with any of the papers used.
Show Through - Low
With a dark ink and light-colored paper, there’s bound to be some show through, though you’d still be able to write on both sides of the pages for all of these papers except for the Tomoe River (which is more due to it’s thinness and not the ink you’re using with it.)
Shading - Average
There was some decent shading with think that helped to keep things interesting.
Saturation - Average
While it’s not the most vibrant green ink out there, it’s still a pretty saturated ink that’ll produce a great color.
Clean-Up - Easy
The low-water resistant ink was super easy to clean out. There wasn’t any staining or stubborn ink – just a few flushes with water and I was good to go for my next fill-up!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed this ink despite not being a regular fan of green inks. I just can’t seem to decide on what they should be used for – regular writing (I usually prefer black or blue-black,) emphasizing or underlining words (I usually prefer a bright blue, orange or red,) or editing (I’m red all the way here.) Green always seems to be the color I grab when my usual colors aren’t around or I want a new color to change things up a bit. Nevertheless, this was still an interesting ink that I’ll likely use again when I’m tired of my usual colors.
It has a decent flow, good shading, performs well on just about any paper, and is ultra easy to clean. If you’re in the market for a great green ink, or just want a new color to spice things up, then J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage is worth checking out. At about $11 for a 30mL bottle, it’s about average in price, but very high in quality with the J. Herbin name – one of the oldest brands in the world.
Have you ever experienced poison ivy? Let us know in the comments below!
Trackbacks/Pingbacks