I just tried out my first Private Reserve ink, Sherwood Green. Whoa!! This stuff is wetter than water!!

Yes, I shook the bottle before filling, and it runs all over the place. I'm not sure I have paper that can handle this stuff. Even in a fine nib it went all over the place and made my Sheaffer Agio fine feel like a medium, and my Waterman Phileas medium feel like a broad!

The color is really pretty, but I don't think I can handle the consistency of this ink.

Those of you who like it, is all Private Reserve ink like this? What pens do you use it in? Have my two test pens been just "wet" pens?

I'd been having trouble with the Phileas, actually, and it HATED Noodler's Tianamen Red, so I thought the Sherwood Green's runny quality would be a good change. Still too much!

Anyway, that's my rant. This is the first time I've had ink all over my fingers!

I use it in both cartridge, and bottle. Cartridge for my roting Lissabon, and Initial. Bottle in a custom turned pen, the nib is 14k and made in Germany but I don't know the maker. However it behaves well in both pens. The rotrings are fine, the wood pen with the German nib is a medium

I've had PR Sherwood Green in a Sailor 1911 F and Waterman Man 100 F. Performed well, not too dry, not too wet, in both. As a pont of comparison I have had PR Velvet Black in the Sailor for a while (we're talking weeks) with infrequent usage and it's still ready to write on demand; unusual in my experience with a black ink. In the past the Waterman has been unhappy with Noodlers Purple Martin (too dry) but very happy with Waterman Blue-Black.

I don't know exactly what conclusion to draw from this info but you may be on the right track assuming that you have "wet writers". If you have any fines or a pen that seems to dry out easily, you might want to load it up.

I don't have any experience with the Sherwood Green, but I wouldn't rule out the entire Private Reserve line. The two I have, Fiesta Red and Midnight Blues are great inks.

Thanks for the feedback.

I considered my Sheaffer Agio fine a "dry-er" writer, but maybe that's only compared to my others. I tend not to like the dry writers, but maybe I haven't been using the right inks. I've got a Parker reflex that seems dry (if scratchy is dry?) so maybe I'll give it a shot there next. I do love the color, so it's worth hanging in for... and I especially appreciate the reassurance on the rest of the PR line.

OK, let me talk you down a tad. Sherwood Green is WET and definitely best for fine point pens. It is good in: Hero 616, Parker 45 fine point, Parker 51, Lamy fine point pens. Not so good in broader pens. Paper does matter with this one too.

Don't write off all PR inks based on Sherwood. I love PR inks, including: Plum, Copper Burst, Black Cherry, DC Supershow Blue (my latest), Tanzanite, Midnight Blues. All of these are less flow-y with the possible exception of Tanzanite.

PR inks are generally great and have decent drying times in spite of highly saturated colors.

SG is the exception, not the rule.

YAAAY!!! J English, you bring comfort to my heart.

Also, I have a P51 on the way. Perhaps it will make a good home for the Sherwood Green. What paper do you recommend?

I have a Lamy Safari fine, incidentally, and I find it a pretty wet writer. I have some Diamine (Imperial Purple) in there now, and I'd call the line that comes out on the wide end of fine... but I'm very happy with it.

I love PR Sherwood but it is very dependent on one thing - the wetness of the line. For example I have a Pelikan nib that puts down a medium-wet line and a Bexley fine which puts down a very wet line of the same thickness. The Sherwood from the Bexley feathers on my favorite moleskine, the Pelikan doesn't. It is clear from these nibs (and others I've tested) that the size (or make) of the nib has little effect, it is how dry a line the nib/feed combination produces. Sherwood works great in dryer pens, wetter pens are more prone to feather. Whenever someone tells you ink X is no good in pen Y take it with a pinch of salt - you need to look at the flow characteristics of the pen relative to the viscosity of the ink. Phew - I was about to launch into a DOE (design of experiment), hopefully the scientists/engineers can talk me down.
Hopefully my observations are of some use.
Nick

GV:

Yes, I think Nick's got good observations there. It's the total combination of nib, feed, ink, paper, humidity, etc...

I get good results from SG with fine point on moleskine cahiers and reporter notebooks, apica notebooks, cheap composition books. Probably the most problematic paper with SG is Rhodia. Rhodia paper is so smooth, it must be less absorbent than other papers.

By good results, I mean you do need to take a little extra time. For instance, if I wrote a page on a Mole cahier, I would give that about a minute to dry off before closing the book. Because of the way I write, that's not a big deal for me, but it might be less good for others.

I would say, try the SG with a Parker 51 and see what you think.

But, if a medium nib on Rhodia smooth-like paper is where you want to be...uh oh...probably time for another green.

There is a fast dry version but I have not read good things about it.

P.S. I appreciate what you are saying about Lamy Safari/Vista/Al-Star F, they are not really all that fine. I keep meaning to try an XF but have not ordered yet. I have not tried SG in my converter. I think SG in a Lamy 2000 would be pretty darn wet. In my L2K, I like Pelikan Violet and Brilliant Black...for instance.

Very useful, thank you!

I'm using PR Blue Suede in a Lamy Safari (fine nib), and it's almost impossible. I even started a thread to address the problem, "What do you do with an ink that's too wet?" or something like that (don't remember the exact title). I still don't really know what I want to do with this ink...

I've not used Sherwood Green, but based on what I've read about it - especially its being very slow to dry - I would suggest you try diluting it with water (try c. 3:1 ink:water for a start). This will make it dry faster and will likely make it less "wet". Sherwood Green seems to be notorious for slow drying, which is doubtless why PR made a fast dry version of it - but their fast drying inks are terrible, making what you wrote look as though you had used a felt-tip pen on blotting paper.

I use other PR inks (including mixes I've concocted) all the time in a wide range of pens, modern and vintage, and have no problems at all; but unless the pen is a dryish writer and/or I'm writing on fairly absorbent paper, I always dilute them with water (partly to make them dry faster, partly because it enhances their shading properties).

Simon

I really don't like sherwood green.
Here is what it did to me.
Written with my Waterman Phileas. My Phileas loves Van Gogh Blue Stary Night!!! and Noodler's Blue-Black. And one of my favorite inks of all time is Private Reserve Plum.

Yep, that looks just like what it did for me.

I'll try diluting with water.

I do not reco the Fast Dry Sherwood. It feathers badly. I do reco dilute w/ water.

I'm using PR Sherwood Green in my Phileas with a fine nib, for about a year now. I have had no problems whatsoever with the combination of pen and ink - quick start even when unused for a long time; dries rather promptly; no nib creep; no skipping either. The pen lays down a well defined line (albeit fine) on almost any kind of paper I've used…

Sherwood Green seems to work fine in all my pens thus far.

Obviously then, it must be "user" error... I am a newbie... wonder what I could be doing wrong.

Me too - ditto that, Gawain!

Once I feel like getting the ink all over my fingers again, I'll do the dilute with water thing.

is the new or old? fast dryer or regular as they being different. I myself gave up and went to Stipuila moss green

It's new, and not the fast-drying version.

Tried it in another pen today, cut with water - still out of control. It was only a sample, and I'm giving up, too, and moving on to other colors.

I love the color, but it does run a bit wet. If cutting it with water doesn't work for you, here's another option: mix it with PR Gray Flannel. I have a very lovely gray-green that comes from about 30:1 GF:SG. Mix it more like 5:1 GF:SG and you won't be able to tell the difference between the mix and straight Sherwood, but the personality of the ink will be more like the Gray Flannel. Which is still on the wet side, to be sure, but I think you'll find it a bit more civilized.

I've used Sherwood Green in a Sheaffer school pen with a M nib for a few months. It is one of my favorite inks to write with. It puts down a wet line that takes a bit to dry, but not long enough to cause a problem.

I am thinking of trying it in a fine writing F nibbed Snorkel next.

Mike

Sounds like i'll be getting Sherwood Green cartridges for a couple of recalcitrant pens--I love PR inks, but sometimes Velvet Black, Chocolat, or Copper Burst will go thick on me when a pen isn't used for a few days.

IMHO, Velvet Black, Plum, or Naples Blue are, texturally, "middle way" inks of this line.

I always have green ink in at least 1 frequently used pen, ever since a composer friend told me that even the act of doing scientific writing at my day job could be a "green leaf on the tree of life."

Thursday night I hit the ink tables at the DC Pen Show and tried about 60 different inks on the Clairefontaine sample pads.

The Sherwood Green Fast Dry exploded off of the pen. It was unuseable. I used the same dip pen on all of the samples. The only one worse was PR Purple Mojo. Swisher Intense Red also feathered badly. To my eye the PR DC Supershow Green was close to the same shade. I was cautioned not to take the colors to seriously as some ink testers do not clean the pens before testing.

I did buy some PR Fiesta Red and Chocolat along with Diamine Burnt Umber and have tested them all. Had to have something to put into the new pens. All these inks worked great along with Noodlers Sequoia.

I've officially given up on Sherwood Green. Tried adding water, tried adding some Waterman Black, tried it in my driest, finest pen (where, contrary to my expectation, it just gummed up and didn't flow well at all). Nope. My patience is gone.

So. Enough. Lesson learned, moving on. Good to know PR Purple Mojo is just as gushy - I liked the looks of it but I'll stay away for now.

Me too GreenVelvet!
For the peeps here who say it works for them.... they can have it. I want no part of Sherwood Green!