Montblanc Jonathan Swift Seaweed Green

[jgrasty]

One of the inks I picked up at the Dallas Pen Show last Friday was the new Montblanc ink, Jonathan Swift Seaweed Green. Is this ink the return of Racing Green? I'll show some writing samples and some paper chromatography, and let you decide for yourself.

 

http://bettygrastymd.com/jgrasty/wp-content/uploads/mb-js.jpg

 

Montblanc Jonathan Swift ink comes in an attractive dark green box with silver accents. The bottle appears identical, except for the label, to the bottle for the recent Carlo Collodi ink. It contains 35 ml of ink. The first pen I used was my Wahl Lady Doric with it's very flexible XXF adjustable nib. I ended up writing with the pen for two days. The ink is a marvelous writing experience, though the ink is definitely on the dry side, like many Montblanc inks. The ink is properly lubricated and I had no difficulty with the ink in a wide variety of pens. A writing sample is below, on Rhodia No 19 DotPad.

 

The writing sample is as follows:

 

1. Wahl Lady Doric with adjustable nib
   
2. Pelikan M101N with a B nib converted to cursive italic by Mike Masuyama
   
3. Pilot Decimo with M nib
   
4. Pelikan M700 with a wet BB nib
   
5. Pelikan M200 old style with M nib
   
6. Pelikan M400 old style with Binder XXF full flex nib
   

 

In every case, the writing experience was flawless, despite the varying width and wetness of the individual nibs. There was no bleed through and very little show through. Drying time was pretty quick, even on Rhodia No 19 paper, about 10-15 seconds. The ink is also quite remarkable in that it cleans from a pen perhaps quicker than any other ink I've used, except Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue.

 

I've included comparison swabs of Jonathan Swift to Montblanc Racing Green and Sailor Jentle Epinard. The two Montblanc inks are nearly identical in shade, the main visible difference is Racing Green is slightly more saturated. Epinard has more green in it, but not far off.

 

http://bettygrastymd.com/jgrasty/wp-content/uploads/mb-js-seaweed-green.jpg

 

The only flaw I found of this ink was a tiny bit of feathering on a cheap copier paper, as can be seen in this next writing sample.

 

http://bettygrastymd.com/jgrasty/wp-content/uploads/mb-js-cheap-copier-paper.jpg

 

Montblanc Jonathan Swift ink also was a good amount of water resistance. Here is that same writing sample after a 20 second rinse. While most of the green tint is gone, the dark gray characters are still very clearly visible.

 

http://bettygrastymd.com/jgrasty/wp-content/uploads/mb-js-rinse.jpg

 

Finally, I decided to make a more careful comparison with Racing Green, so I inked up my Wahl Lady Doric with both inks and created the next writing sample on Clairefontaine french-ruled paper. Though the inks appear nearly identical, there were some immediate minor differences while writing. First, Racing Green is a bit wetter, and next, the ink is slightly more saturated. The differences are small, but they are there. If I didn't know which writing sample was which, I'm not sure I could reliably tell them apart.

 

http://bettygrastymd.com/jgrasty/wp-content/uploads/mb-js-vs-rg.jpg

 

So, are these two inks the same? My final test was to make a paper chromatography of each ink. Below, Jonathan Swift is on the left, and Racing Green on the right. There are some differences in the dyes used in both inks.

 

http://bettygrastymd.com/jgrasty/wp-content/uploads/js-vs-rg-chromatography.jpg

 

To speculate, I would say that Montblanc was trying to re-create Racing Green with different dyes, perhaps because a dye in Racing Green became prohibitively expensive or no longer available. Instead of releasing the ink as Racing Green, and then having ink geeks (like me) on this forum complain that they "ruined" Racing Green, Montblanc decided to release the recreation as an ink with a different name.

 

But that's sheer speculation, and I doubt we'll ever know. Anyway, both inks are beautiful, so enjoy them both.

Edited September 25, 2012 by jgrasty

[Chris Chalmers]

Thank you for a good review and comparison between these two greens, with Sailor Epinard too!

I have, and love BRG, and am waiting for delivery of the Swift and Epinard. Guess this is me going green!!?

Beautiful handwriting!!! Just beautiful, so thanks for taking all that trouble for inks.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks that is the best comparison of the two I've seen.

 

I didn't get Racing Green when it was still made; even though I'd been warned here it was being discontinued.

 

It was the most hated ink here.

 

I didn't know that many folks didn't know a thing about shading, then. Or that many only 'graded' inks that were very vivid saturated and any thing else was wishy washy.

 

I didn't know murky green was so liked that some good poster did a comparison of over 30 of them this year. I'd not heard the term 'murky green'. No one seemed to be comparing it to Herbin Vert Empire or I missed it.

 

Gee that could have been my forth ink...and as Noobie.

 

I went down to get a MB bottle....just the bottle, as advised by many.

That was when the advice was buy MB for the bottle and throw any and all MB inks down the sink.

 

So I got Sepia, instead of Racing Green, in that I'd never had a brown ink. Months later the B&M didn't have any more of Racing Green.

I have a metal flake Racing Green MX-5...and still didn't buy it.

 

A few years later I was able to get a second bottle of MB Sepia....back in the when of three years ago, I was very noobie and didn't know that Sepia was sepia and not exactly a brown.

 

I did get Seaweed. It is gray under halogen light at night...murky green in daylight.

[watch_art]

That's GORGEOUS.

[Pelikan_FP]

Quite fantastic murky green indeed. I love the shading.

[brunico]

Like Diamine Graphite in a drier nib, but with a touch more green.

[Laura N]

Lovely comparison. It looks like J. Herbin Vert Empire to me, which is a favorite ink. I've heard the same from a friend who has used both, but I haven't tried the Swift.

[saskia_madding]

I'll be interested to see if added a tiny bit of blue-black to the Swift ink would bring it closer to MBRG. Hm ...

[Sailor Kenshin]

Where to buy this?

 

Does the beautiful handwriting come with?

[fourseamer]

Beautiful handwriting and terrific review. Thanks! I concur with your speculation that they perhaps attempted to recreate it with a different, cheaper dye and (smartly) decided to release this under a different name. Either way, it looks like another solid MB ink.

Edited September 26, 2012 by fourseamer

[tenney]

In another comparison here of Racing Green, Epinard was considered a close match... or was it Vert Empire. Now with Seaweed Green there are three very different but similar inks. I still like Racing Green as it's a bit more "black" to me than the others. I'll have to see about Seaweed Green -- looks nice too, but still a bit lighter than racing green.

[Earthdawn]

Ya know it's very easy on the eyes and has nice shading without being over done.

 

I like it in the same way I like some greys out there.

 

Ill be having to get this.

 

NICE review... thank you

[breaker]

nice review and pics!

thanks!

[picautomaton]

Nice writing, got that flex under control.

[mark e]

great review, beautiful handwriting---this could be the gray-green shading ink i've been looking for---not so green-blacky---should look good coming out of my pelikan 140

[mark e]

great review, beautiful handwriting---this could be the gray-green shading ink i've been looking for---not so green-blacky---should look good coming out of my pelikan 140

[jgrasty]

Nice writing, got that flex under control.

 

Mostly.

[jenna]

So beautiful! And I'm in awe of your handwriting!

[Chris S]

Nice Review.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[reprieve]

I ordered two bottles of this ink from Pen Boutique. The ink arrived and I filled some pens and have been writing away. Swift Seaweed is not a replica of Racing Green. That said, it the closest in color as well as flow, shading, and water-resistance that I've found. I love it. I've tried countless murky greens in a futile attempt to replace Racing Green (I've come close in color but not in behavior and the thing I love most about Racing Green is its excellent behavior). Swift Seaweed has the properties I so loved in Racing Green if not the exact color--and that's just fine by me. This ink will certainly become a staple in my ink rotation.