Vinta Sea Kelp Leyte
Ink Review #66
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Vinta Sea Kelp Leyte is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a medium, earthy green that reflects the color of sea kelp. This ink shades with a soft cut between light and darker tones in areas where the ink pools. While there isn’t a lot of tonal variation, the more I look at this ink the more I see hints of yellow in areas where the ink didn’t lay down as heavily.
Ink Splat
Ink Droplets
Performance on paper:
This ink is mostly well-behaved. Most of the test papers showed no signs of bleeding or feathering, but there was significant bleeding on the Kokuyo sheet. It should still be fine on more ink-resistant papers, but you may have issues on papers that are prone to bleeding, especially using wetter nibs. The dry times were mixed and overall inconsistent. For the most part, the dry times remained under 20 seconds, but the finer nibs often showed longer-than-average dry times. There wasn’t a lot of water resistance. There are yellow traces left behind of what was written, but they’re faded and cloudy. Readability may vary.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
The first thing I noticed when writing with this ink was how slick it feels to write with. It was a notably enjoyable writing experience. It has a mostly consistent medium-wet flow, but for some reason, the flow was noticeably heavier than normal with the broad nib. I didn’t run into any hard starts or skips while writing with this ink. It was very well-behaved. Cleaning was easy, as well, and the nibs were clear of any ink or residue in a single soak and flush (although the soak hardly felt necessary).
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 7.5/10
Color saturation: 6/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5.5/10
Dry time: 6.5/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 9/10
Shimmer: None
My personal thoughts...
As Vinta describes it, the name Sea Kelp Leyte 1944 is in reference to the 1944 Battle of the Leyte Gulf, but also refers to the kelp production industry in Leyte. I think this ink does justice to its namesake. I love it when inks (and especially green inks) take on a more earthy and natural appearance, and Sea Kelp Leyte does that wonderfully. It’s very satisfying to watch the color dry from a more vibrant green as it comes out of the pen into its deeper, more subdued shade. It’s not just the color that’s great though: this is probably one of the smoothest green inks I’ve ever had in the test pen, and I don’t say that lightly. It was shockingly enjoyable to write with this ink, and I would absolutely recommend it.
Written in a Profolio Oasis notebook with a Franklin-Christoph Model 20 (S.I.G. Medium)
More images/info:
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook