Diamine Kelly Green - a brand new color

[MiniMaupassant]

This is a cool colour that reminds me of the new leaves in Spring.

[clarklacy]

I have been looking for a good green and I think this will be it very nice job on the color, I can't wait to try it I have always been a fan of green ink but until I switched to fountain pens, there was not even the possibility of finding that right shade of green that I want to use.

 

great job!

[lovemy51]

I have been looking for a good green and I think this will be it very nice job on the color, I can't wait to try it I have always been a fan of green ink but until I switched to fountain pens, there was not even the possibility of finding that right shade of green that I want to use.

 

great job!

i do recommend you use it on good FP friendly paper. it tends to feather on cheap paper!!

 

lovely green apple candy color!!! i love it!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3531/3190802586_ef49e7c65b.jpg

 

http://webpages.charter.net/annletters/ink%20reviews/Diamine%20Kelly%20Green%20title%202%20598x136.jpg

Edited July 30, 2010 by lovemy51

[whitelily]

I had the honour of naming this ink ...I sent a home-brew green to Phil at Diamine when he requested color suggestions. He did an excellent job of matching both the color and characteristics I hoped for, and needless to say I was delighted that he decided to add it to Diamine's New Century line. I'm told it will be available to distributors tomorrow--04-21-08.

 

The scans below were done at 300 dpi.

The heading was done with a Rotring Art Pen, 2.7 mm nib on Hammermill Premium 24 lb. laser paper.

http://webpages.charter.net/annletters/ink%20reviews/Diamine%20Kelly%20Green%20title%202%20598x136.jpg

The paper for the body of the review is Rhodia.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5472/diaminekellygreenreviewob3.jpg

The test list with various pens is done on Clairefontaine.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/4003/diaminekellygreenpentesgl6.jpg

I'm delighted in the variation in hue--from a dark green with a wetter writer, to a true Kelly Green, to a spring green with a drier writer. On my monitor the color is showing pretty accurately, maybe just barely lighter than the actual paper(s), though the heading looks spot on to me. This green leans just slightly toward the yellow end of the spectrum, but when showing darker is not an avocado green. Hope this is what you're seeing!

 

I have no info on the pH of the ink, and I haven't heard whether or not it will be available in cartridges. It isn't a waterproof ink. If you're wondering about the nib numbers on the test sheet such as M #4 or F#10, those aren't unusual factory numbers--those just reflect my numbering of my nibs so that I know which I've used.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

What is this lovely style of cursive called (not the Italic handwriting, although that is pretty too!)?

[inkstainedruth]

And here I was thinking that I could save myself some money by not getting any green inks. Or pens with italic nibs....

Boy, FPN is sure getting to be a dangerous place for my wallet! And I haven't even started ordering ink samples yet. Thanks guys (my husband would probably want to kill you all, except for the fact that he wants to drop a bunch of money on servos to play with for *his* new hobby). :roflmho:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lapis]

Boy, FPN is sure getting to be a dangerous place for my wallet! .... my husband would probably want to kill you all, except for the fact that he wants to drop a bunch of money on servos to play with for *his* new hobby.... :roflmho:

... And that's?

[inkstainedruth]

He wants to play with electronics and (to some extent, robotics) -- he's a software developer, so this isn't a huge stretch.

As an excuse, he wants to design a robotic draw-loom (partly so i won't freak out at the amount he's spending on electronics, since I've done weaving in the past). A draw-loom is one in which each warp thread can be lifted completely independently from all the others, so you can do really complex patterning. He's actually wanted to build one for about 15 years (probably after we saw a working jacquard loom in at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, which uses punch cards to identify which threads to raise).

So we have sort of a deal. He can order servos to play with if I can order ink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Torculus Resupinus]

Ruth, be careful with Kelly Green. It's a wonderful color, but it has played havoc with my pens. It takes no more than a day or two to produce a growing incrustation on the nib and feed. Nib creep? Think moss growing. I wish I'd photographed my TWSBI! The ink produced the same result in a Cross, a Pelikan, the TWSBI and a Parker "51". I can't use Diamine Kelly Green.

 

The incrustation is apparently just crystallized dye resulting from partial evaporation of the ink, and I have to admit that it cleans up pretty easily; the "moss" can be wiped off with a tissue, and it rinses out with no more difficulty than other Diamine inks (which vary among themselves, and on average are about average in this respect). But be warned.

[whitelily]

That is a real pity. I was really considering buying this lovely green ink. I would love to hear more of people´s experiences with it. I know it´s wrong after all you´ve told us, but I still really feel like buying it. I hate when inks misbehave.

 

ps! Anyone know what the style of Ann Finley´s lovely cursive is called?

[inkstainedruth]

Warning is noted -- thanks for the heads up.

I'm still really tempted, though, because of the color (and I had pretty much convinced myself that I had no use whatsoever for a green ink before seeing the review), but I definitely will consider getting a sample if at all possible, rather than a full bottle.

Actually I'm probably going to start with samples of pretty much everything I think I might want to start with (the two Private Reserve inks I bought locally, and the Quink Black that came with the pen, being the exceptions), to see how I like the colors and how the inks behave in my one and only pen.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

Oh another question that just occurred to me --

I think I've read that the Chesterfield inks on xfountainpens.com are rebranded Diamine inks. Does anyone know offhand if there is an equivalent for the Kelly Green? I know that there are a lot more Diamines than Chesterfields, so I can believe it if there isn't.

Thanks in advance.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[whitelily]

Just tried out a sample of Kelly Green yesterday... ooh...what a lovely lovely green...

[georges zaslavsky]

very nice green looks very close to private reserve avocado green

[whitelily]

very nice green looks very close to private reserve avocado green

 

Really? I thought the PR Avocado green was somewhat darker?

(I did I search, andyour review came up. Having seen your review, I definitively can say it´s a pretty colour. )

[Navegador]

Has anyone tried this ink with the cheap Lamys (Safari etc.)? Any crud buildup? I think it's a nice colour match with this year's green Safari, but I'm worried about having to clean it up often.

[tomkeb]

 

Stephen, I have had the same experience with Kelly Green AND Diamine Orange in my Decimo VP. These are two of my favorite inks, but I don't use them in my VP anymore. I'm using both the Kelly Green & Orange in Pelikan M200s that don't have that problem with the inks. In fact, the VP is the only pen that I've had this happen with.

 

Exactly the same here, yet I don't own a pen where they don't behave this way… so I use them in my cheaper Pilots and try to cope with it. Is there any (at least a little similar) green from Diamine that doesn't crust on the nib?

[visvamitra]

The color is nice but the ink behaves really, really bad:

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img826/7648/51cj.jpg