Berlin Notebook No. 3 Green : Medium-Dark Green with Purple Sheen

[Matthew TWP]

When I bought my Berlin Notebook Blue inks, I also picked up the No. 3 Green ink. I've had my Opus88 pen inked up with it for a few weeks now, and I'm pretty happy with it.  In color, it's very similar to the KWZ Discovery Green that is a Dromgooles exclusive, but the Berlin Notebook has a purple sheen instead of red. Diamine Holly and Monteverde California Teal are both similar, too, but a little cooler and more "pine" colored. 

 

 

 

The sheen on this ink is pretty variable. On Tomoe River and Cosmo Air Light, I get quite a bit of strong purple sheen, sometimes more magenta than others. On Rhodia, which usually gives me some sheen for heavily sheening inks, I don't get any real sheen to speak of when I'm writing.

 

 

 

 

Below, I've got a few swatches on the same sheet of Canson paper, trying to show the differences in sheen color a bit. 

 

 

I did a couple of writing samples on plain 68gsm Tomoe River paper, which sheened nicely when viewed in the right light, and on Rhodia (ruled) paper, which didn't really sheen at all. In both cases, I write with my Opus88 Broad Nib, a Diplomat pen with a Medium Nemosine nib, and a Pineider fine nib. 

 

 

 

 

My only real complaint about this ink is that on Tomoe River paper, it does tend to smudge, even after I've let it dry for a couple of hours, and dry time in general is slow. You can see a little bit of that in the image below. On Rhodia, I didn't have any problems. Otherwise, it's a good ink: no feathering or bleeding problems, moderate flow and moderately smooth feeling when writing. 

 

 

On the Rhodia, where there'd be sheen on TR there's simply dark shading. I like it. 

 

 

There's no water resistance. On papers that absorb inks well, a light green ghost image may remain after the writing has been submerged in water, but that's about it. 

 

 

And that's it this time. I think that I'll have an interesting new ink for you tomorrow, though.

 

 

[yazeh]

Thanks for another wonderful review  I'm glad I got over the seeing phase...

[LizEF]

Thanks!  Can't say I like the green, but that sheen-shading is ridiculously cool! Thanks for the lovely photographs!

[Matthew TWP]

4 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Can't say I like the green,

 

Not murky enough for you? 😉  I'm pretty much a sucker for any blue or green. 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Matthew TWP said:

Not murky enough for you? 😉 

Precisely!

[DvdRiet]

I love this ink! (As I mentioned when you reviewed the blue 😉) I was using it in a pen with a fine calligraphy nib and it looks amazing with the wide, crisp lines that nib produces! But I am admittedly a sucker for a very good green and I tried this one because the swatch looked like malachite in the webshop I bought it from.

 

Does anyone know whether these inks happen to be acidic? I was wondering how safe it is to use these inks in my vintage sac pens (one of which has the calligraphy nib), so I emailed the company a couple of days ago but haven't yet received a reply.

[mizgeorge]

What a great review - thank you @Matthew TWP - really nice photography too.

 

This isn't one for me, I'm not that fussed about sheen and the green is sadly in the bit of the spectrum I'm not keen on, but I very much appreciate the qualities of both the ink and the writeup!

[lapis]

Great! Thanks for such a neat review of a crass ink!!

First thing(s) I thought of were the "pines" in CdA's long gone Amazon and then MB's ditto White Forest. But this one's sheening is stunning!!!

[Matthew TWP]

13 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

Does anyone know whether these inks happen to be acidic?

 

Thanks everyone. I don't know whether it's acidic, though I'd be a little surprised if it were. Let us know if you find out!

 

4 hours ago, lapis said:

But this one's sheening is stunning!!!

 

Agreed 🙂 I wish it were a little less smeary, but it's not bad, and a small price to pay in any case.

[DvdRiet]

As promised, the response from Peter Koval of Berlin Notebook on the pH levels of their inks: neutral zone (value of around 7-7,5)

 

 

[Matthew TWP]

2 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

As promised, the response from Peter Koval of Berlin Notebook on the pH levels of their inks: neutral zone (value of around 7-7,5)

 

 

 

Nice! Thanks for following up 🙂

[namrehsnoom]

Great review - thank you. Like @mizgeorge, the green is not for me, but I kinda like the dual-tone nature of this ink. This is one weird kiddo 😉 

[manolo]

Your reviews are wonderful, thank you for your effort.

Another lovely shading ink, very nice. Also, your reviews reinforce my idea that you have to use broad nibs (from a generous M upwards) to really get all what an ink has to offer.