Ink Review: Montblanc Daniel Defoe Palm Green

Pen Used: Pilot Vanishing Point w/ Custom Cursive Italic

Paper Used: Rhodia No. 18 Grid Lines, Georgia Pacific 75g, Hammermill 90g

After last week’s big migration to Blogger I need to take a break to get caught up on photos and scans, so I took a week off. I will do an extra review this month to get me back on track with an ink review every other week.

I picked up Montblanc Daniel Defoe Palm Green at VannessPens while on vacation this summer. Palm Green is a limited edition ink by Montblanc, and I don’t think you can find it any more. If you can pick up a bottle then you should, because this ink is stunning. Palm Green is a beautiful earthy green with some olive and lime colored undertones when it shades. I plan on not using this ink everyday but you totally could--right now I just want to savor my bottle.

Ink behavior break down:

·        Flow: zero flow problems, this ink was wetter than the other Montblanc inks that I have used.

·        Saturation: this is a nice light earth green, it lends more on the light to dark green than the brown that you see in some earthy greens.    

·        Shading: Yes! This ink shades to an almost olive green color. It’s super beautiful.  Shading will not show up as well on the cheaper papers.

·        Dry Time: I had great dry times with this ink, even with my Cursive Italic nib. The time was somewhere between 5-10 seconds depending on the paper you use.  

·        Show-through and Feathering: You will get show-through with cheap copy paper. Even with the 90g copy paper I had some show-through. You will get feathering on cheaper paper, which you can see in the scan of the 75g paper. It’s not awful but it’s there. The feathering was almost non-existent with the 90g copy paper. 

Rhodia No. 18

Rhodia Ink Swatch

Rhodia Writing Sample

Georgia Pacific 75g

Front

Back

Hammermill 90g

Front

Back

Ink Compare/Contrast

Ink Swab Compare

Ink Review: Montblanc Oyster Grey

The Pens:  Kaweco Sport Classic Double Board/Pilot Parallel 3.8mm
The Paper: Rhodia No. 18 Dot Grid, Hammermill 90g, Georgia Pacific 75g

I have become increasingly happier with Montblanc inks. Montblanc inks have been some of the best behaved inks I have used. Royal Blue and Oyster Grey work on on kinds of paper, with minimal feathering and show-through. I think with a medium or fine nib you could have almost no feathering or show-through. One of my favorite things about this ink is that I got a little shading on cheap paper as well as on the Rhodia paper. The downside to this ink is that it does have slow dry times, somewhere in the 10-15 seconds depending on the paper. Overall, I loved this ink and will be picking up a bottle as soon as I can. I would love to compare this ink to Montblanc Permanent Grey to see how differently the two behave.

Further thoughts: 

• Flow: zero flow problems. 
• Saturation: a nice standard grey   
• Shading: Oyster Grey shades from grey to black. 
• Dry Time: The only downside to this ink--Oystery Grey's dry time is between 10-15 seconds. 
• Show-through and Feathering: Some show-through and feathering with the 75g and 90g papers, but overall it is a well behaved ink. With a finer nib you may not have this problem. 

Thank you for reading! 

Rhodia No. 18

Rhodia Ink Swatch

Rhodia Writing Sample

Georgia Pacific 75g 

Front

Back

Hammermill 90g

Front

Back

Ink Compare/Contrast

Ink Swab Compare

Ink Review: Private Reserve Electric DC Blue

Pen: Kaweco Ice Sport Medium, Pilot Parallel 3.8mm
Paper: Rhodia #18 Grid Lines, Georgia Pacific 75g, Hammermill 90g

A friend of mine gave me a bottle of  Private Reserve Electric DC Blue to try. This ink totally surprised me. At first I didn't enjoy the dark blue of this ink, even though on nice paper you get that red sheen, but as I used the ink more it started to grow on me and now I totally love it!

The main issue I had with Electric DC Blue was that it did not work well on cheap paper. It's not usable in my Two Rivers Field Notes (not seen) as it bleeds and feathers badly. On the Georgia Pacific paper I also had feather and bleed through.  It worked well with the Hammermill paper. I got some feathering but still got a good amount bleed through. You won't see the red sheen with either of these papers. Rhodia came out on top... again! The red sheen just makes this ink stunning.  I did have some weird dry times with this ink, but I think it was an environmental or user error. I found the dry time to be somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds. I would try to avoid spilling any fluids on this ink as it won't last long if the paper gets wet.  The Staples Sustainable Earth paper is not shown. I am currently out of the Staples paper and am deciding if I want to get more, find a substitute for it, or remove it all together from my ink testing.

Overall, Private Reserve Electric DC Blue is a super fun ink! I look forward to using it in letter writing and journaling. It is even work appropriate which makes it even better. 

Further thoughts: 

• Flow: I had zero flow problems. 
• Saturation: A nice dark blue.  
• Shading: Some shading with Rhodia paper. You also get a nice sheen with Rhodia paper. 
• Dry Time: Not great! Somewhere in the 10-20 second range.
• Show-through and Feathering: Some show-through and feathering with the 75g and 90g papers.

Thank you for reading! 

Rhodia No. 18

Rhodia Ink Swatch

Rhodia Writing Sample

Georgia Pacific 75g

Front

Back

Hammermill 90g

Front

Back

Ink Compare/Contrast

Ink Swab Compare