I’ve had KWZ Hunter Green inked for almost two months, in an Edison Herald with wetter medium nib and in a Lamy Safari with dry fine nib. It seems like an ink of moderate, or slightly dry flow, but it never dried out in the nib or failed to start for me.
Hunter Green is a dark brown-leaning green, especially dark from a wet nib like the Edison. Hunter Green is fairly saturated. As a result, it does not shade very much, but it’s always legible. In the dry-writing Safari with fine nib, the color is much lighter, but still quite legible, and there’s a little more shading.
Here is a writing sample from both pens on Rhodia.
And here is a closeup to show how dark and rich it looks from the Edison with medium nib.
KWZ Hunter Green is an ink that feathered a bit with the Edison on the worst copy paper, but even on paper like that, it’s useable.
Hunter Green did very well on my everyday paper, Staples Sustainable Earth. I had no bleedthrough, hardly any showthrough and hardly any feathering. Here’s a closeup of the writing from the Edison on Sustainable Earth.
On cream-colored Tomoe River paper, Hunter Green looked its most green, and least brown. Tomoe River brought out more shading, too, though still only subtle shading.
I found dry time fairly long on Tomoe River paper with the Edison.
Hunter Green is dark and fairly saturated, but it has KWZ’s wonderful habit of being very low-maintenance. I had it in my pens for eight weeks, but it still cleaned out very easily with a few flushes of water.
Perhaps that’s why Hunter Green has just about the least amount of water resistance I’ve ever seen. Here is what remained of KWZ Hunter Green after running water over both absorbent regular paper and Rhodia that used to say “KWZ Hunter Green water test.”
KWZ Hunter Green may not like water, but the color still puts me in mind of a lush swamp or deep forest. I suspect it’s named Hunter Green because the khaki color could be used in camouflage.
I am a fan of muddy green inks, but I found no match to KWZ Hunter Green among my swabs. Here is a comparison with some of my favorite unusual green inks.
Hunter Green is either browner and greener than any of these. I suppose Hunter Green is closest to Rikyu-Cha, when you look at the swabs, but not at all when you write with the inks. In feel, Hunter Green reminds me more of Verde Muschiato, though the colors turn out to be very different. I’ve reviewed Rikyu-Cha here and KWZ Iron Gall Green Gold, an ink I really like, here.
Since KWZ Hunter Green didn’t seem close enough to any other inks from my list of favorite “unusual greens,” I thought I’d compare it to some browns. No luck there. Hunter Green isn’t brown enough to be classified as brown or sepia. Here’s a comparison to some “unusual browns.”
I guess this is why KWZ Hunter Green stands out for me. It’s more brown than most brownish greens, but it’s much more green than a brown. KWZ Hunter Green has a color that you just don’t see every day in inks.
Here is paper towel chromatography of KWZ Hunter Green.
Showing why you don’t see an ink like KWZ Hunter Green every day.
Let me just add one more comparison. Here are some other greens I have had inked up during this same time period. The first, Kaweco Palm Green, is the perfect exemplar of a standard or “normal” green. Then comes KWZ Iron Gall Green #4, which I recently reviewed here, which has a gray-green cast. Then Sailor Waka-Uguisu, a new favorite yellow green, reviewed here. Finally, KWZ Hunter Green.
Fountain Pen Follies 
Great review. I’m really fond of greens, I have a lot of them. My favorite is currently Organics Studio Join or Die Green Sepia. Just out of curiosity, how do you do the paper towel chromatography? I’d like to do that with some of my own inks, such as the Green Sepia.
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J.Herbin-Vert Empire is one I have wanted to try, but just haven’t yet. Stipula- Verde Muschiato is one I will also have to put on the try list. I have both Sailor-Tokiwa matsu, and Miruai. R&K Alt-Goldgrün-I have it too. Waka-Uguisu is a possibility, although it is not as high on my list. I have several green inks, if I didn’t, Waka-Usuisu would probably be higher on my sample list. I have also wanted Noodler’s Burma Road Brown, but I haven’t tried it yet either.
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At first I thought of the Stipula Musk Green, but your swabs/samples cleared that up. My, there are a lot of colors on Earth, aren’t there? 🙂
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That’s a great way to put it. 🙂
I really thought Hunter Green would be similar to Verde Muschiato/Musk Green. But, yeah, as it turns out, not really!
As an aside, I think Verde Muschiato is one of the great inks. Not everyone will like it: it’s a muddy, unusual color. But it’s one of those “only in fountain pens” colors that is the reason we get so sucked into this never-ending quest.
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Yep, never-ending. Just saw another today: Monteverde Yosemite Green. Rats.
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I thought that I would get a sample of this ink. (before I read your review) Now I am having serious second thoughts about that one. I find your reviews to be something I definitely look forward to. I guess the shading aspect varies greatly with the pen and nib you use.
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That’s very true about shading varying depending on the pen. Hunter Green is not an ink that shades a lot in any pen, but you see more in the Safari. And on Tomoe River paper.
For an unusual green that shades, I can recommend sampling J. Herbin Vert Empire, Stipula Verde Muschiato or KWZ Iron Gall Green Gold (I promise I will finish my “iron gall inks are safe” piece; I had to shelve it when I got the flu). Sailor has good ones, too: Tokiwa-Matsu is most people’s favorite though I adore Waka-Uguisu. Diamine has a gazillion. And many people love R&K Alt-Goldgrün. And there are definitely many others!
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When I had a sample, and filled one of my pens with it, just before I spilled it all over my desk, I found it became darker and darker and ended up as an ‘almost black’ after a couple of days.
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I definitely can see that. Even on the swabs you can see the almost-black quality.
For me, it stayed a very dark brownish green, but those pens I used may have very tight caps. The thing is, even when you can tell it’s green, Hunter Green is dark enough, and brown enough, that it could be used as a substitute for black. And I liked it better the darker it was: from first to last I preferred Hunter Green in the Edison.
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Well, is it really thought of as a “green ink?” Strange!
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Maybe we should call it mostly green. 🙂
More seriously, I think it is definitely green, just a really unusual green.
However, I just added one final photo, at the very end, which lends supports for your point of view. 🙂
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You’re right, it’s an unexpected colour for an ink, and I prefer brighter greens when it comes to inks. Of course this one could well be used in a business environment as a bold statement of individuality.
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I agree on both counts.
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