Monteverde - Olivine

The third and last of the Monteverde gem inks I have.  With each ink performance has improved and I do like a green ink so ……….

In previous reviews I have explained where to purchase these inks in Australasia and again I would just say contacting Monteverde directly is also good, they respond immediately and are very helpful.
Olivine is a group of rock forming minerals usually found in igneous rock, igneous rock is formed from the cooling and solidification of magma / lava.  It is usually green hence the name and because it is a group there isn’t a single chemical composition.  Silicon and oxygen features in all (SiO4) but it can contain e.g. iron Fe2SiO4 or magnesium Mg2SiO4.  It is familiar to most as it is the mineral of the green gemstone peridot.

Olivine has a very high crystallization temperature, so it is one of the first minerals to crystallize from magma.  Magnesium rich olive has also been found on the moon and Mars and in meteorites

Based on the ink bottle you know this is going to be a dark green ink.  The label may suggest olive but the ink looks very dark.

Chromatography shows it is a combination of green shades and I would definitely call them olive.

Col-o-ring it is a dark green.  It doesn’t come across that well in the photo but it seems to have hints of a yellow base which is surprising given the chromatography.

You get more hints of the yellowy green colour to the right of the Tomoe river swatch.

I have quite a few green inks and could not find another that was in any way close to this.  I do have another olive ink and they couldn’t be any more different, I have always found the J Herbin olive yellow and it makes the Monteverde olivine look dark dark green.

I used my Esterbrook pen for this test and knew that if there was a hard start it was NOT the pen.  The ink didn’t start immediately but I wouldn’t call it a very hard start just average like many other inks.  A very pleasant surprise after the last two Monteverde inks I reviewed.
I started with cheap notebook paper.  It is a very cheap paper but I was using it to get the ink flowing so just continued.  It dried to a pleasant green with minimal shading and very little feathering which was a surprise but show through is still an issue.

I then used Midori paper and with nothing to say wrote out some song lyrics.  It is a nice shading green that dries reasonably quickly.  No feathering and no show through.

Last but by no means least Rhodia.  I enjoyed it so much on this paper I continued to use it for handwriting practice – which I know I need.

I was pleasantly surprised by this ink, it behaved well and I like the colour.
In summary –
Saturation – high
Shading – minimal
Sheen – no
Flow – good once it got going
Nib dry-out – no
Nib creep – none
Start-up – not immediate but not annoyingly slow
Feathering – minimal on cheap paper
Drying – very quick on cheap paper, slower on Tomoe and a very respectable time on Rhodia – clearly depends on the paper which seems to be a feature of Monteverde inks
Cleaning – easy
Water resistance – not sold as water resistant but a good amount of ink remained after washing