Franklin-Christoph Olde Emerald

Here's the second of the 5 Franklin-Christoph writing fluids. I would say that this one is a little bit better than the Dark Denim. Some people find Dark Denim to be a bit under-lubricated, though I didn't. Olde Emerald, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have that problem at all. I've used it in several different sorts of nibs (including a whole raft of Franklin-Christoph nibs that I picked up for my Collegia), and it has worked well in all of them.

I enjoy a good green, and Olde Emerald is likely to get into my regular rotation, if there is such a thing. This green shades really well, as you can see in the swatch to the left.

The Franklin-Christoph site lists the ink with a ph of 8.5, so it's just a little bit basic. I wouldn't worry about it harming a pen, but I would be really careful about mixing this ink with anything.

I actually forgot to take a picture if this page without the pen in the way, but I guess it doesn't obscure too much. 

You can see that the model of the pen is significantly darker than the text below. I had inked this pen up, and then it sat around for a while without being used. It wasn't hard to get started, but it was darker for a while. 

The 11 second dry-time isn't all that bad on Rhodia, but it's not super-fast either. 

There are a bunch of images below that I took of this ink in various nibs that I've just recently gotten for my Franklin-Christoph Collegia. It's a great pen that uses nib-units which can be screwed in to the pen, not unlike an Esterbrook or a TWSBI. They're pretty much a local company for me, since I live near Raleigh, and the nibs aren't all that expensive for the quality you get. (I'm not affiliated with Franklin-Christoph.)

Clockwise from the top, I have an EF, M, Broad Stub, and Broad nib.

I don't have a fine nib, but I think I have a pretty nice set of nibs to test with, now. Olde Emerald doesn't change a whole lot from nib-to-nib, but you can see a little bit of difference. I like the broad stub the best, but Mike Masuyama is an excellent nib-grinder, and he grinds all of the custom nibs for Franklin-Christoph.

Here's the review video. I got to talking about this ink a bit, and it's a little longer than average.

Long story short, Olde Emerald has some water resistance on regular (or sub-regular) papers, but not much on the coated Rhodia paper that I mostly review on.

**This ink was provided to me free of charge. No money changed hands, and this review only reflects my opinions and experience. **