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Platinum Classic Ink #11 Forest Black Review So far, I have had the pleasure of using half of the Platinum Classic Iron Gall inks, and, with two of them (Cassis Black, and Citrus Black), I have been quite impressed; however, one has proven to be a little less spectacular than the others: Forest Black. Forest Black is a interestingly-colored green ink—it is what I call a ‘Safari-green’ color—halfway between a light green and a yellow shade. (It looks very similar to a lighter Diamine Evergreen). To be honest, Forest Black is not really my color—it is not dark enough to be professional, and has barely any saturation in color. Additionally, the ink doesn’t really look like it can decide if it wants to be a yellow or a green. Part of this is due to the Iron Gall properties; when first on a page, the ink appears like a very bright green (this lasts for about a minute—see this video for the color shift in action); however, in a period of about twenty minutes after the original color-shift, the ink changes shade the half-yellow half-green color that is on the scan. Although some people may really like the shade, I must admit that it really is not my cup of tea. Forest Black—being an iron gall—also has its fair share of maintenance problems: it is definitely one of the more corrosive inks I’ve used. (It was seemingly more corrosive than the Cassis and Citrus Black inks as Forest managed to create a film on a stainless steel nib that took a decent amount of cleaning to remove.) And, while it may just be an extremely corrosive bad batch, I am now somewhat wary of using this in any pen where any exposed component is not plastic or gold. However, on the bright side, the ink is relatively water resistant and will dry decently fast. It is also very good on cheap papers and can be used on newsprint without feathering and only barely bleeding through. It also shades just as well as its other iron-gall cousins, however, it does not have much in the way of sheen. The ink comes in pleasant packaging, with a nicely decorated green box and a well made bottle—if you would like to see my opinion of the packaging and bottle, see one of my other Platinum ink reviews here. Although this ink was certainly not pleasant for me, I can see how some people may enjoy it, so if barely saturated green safari inks are your thing, this ink may be the color for you. However—it certainly isn’t the color for me. Nevertheless, if you would like to purchase it, it is available in 2mL samples and 60 mL bottles from Goulet. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have, please consider taking a look at some of my other reviews at my blog PensOnPark.com.