Diamine Ochre

[DanielCoffey]

INK : DIAMINE OCHRE

 

PAPER : RHODIA #16 A5 white lined

 

PEN : Onoto Magna 261 Medium nib tweaked for wet flow by John Sorowka (Oxonian).

 

Scanner : IT8-calibrated Epson V600 flatbed

Colour Space : Adobe RGB

Matte : 50% grey and 100% white

Post-process : Unsharp Mask

 

Phil from Diamine kindly provided me with a pre-release sample of this ink which will be available from Diamine and authorised resellers from June 1st 2012.

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewOchre.jpg

 

 

Here is a close-up of the swab. Despite checking, there does not appear to be any metallic sheen in this ink....

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewOchreSwab.jpg

 

 

And a close-up of the shading. Despite this nib being so wet, I think this ink will have excellent opportunities for shading...

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewOchreShade.jpg

 

 

As expected, this ink is in NO way water resistant but then Diamine never said it was...

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewOchreWater.jpg

 

 

Due to an accident with the cotton swab, I ended up with a good dollop of Ochre between my fingers. Despite repeated soap washings, I found an interesting colour buried in this ink. The Yellows wash away really easily but there is a Magenta component that bonds VERY firmly with skin. I dabbed the swab on a piece of kitchen paper a few times, let it dry then slowly dripped water onto the ink...

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewOchreChroma.jpg

 

 

DRYING TIMES : The writing tests above were done in a very wet medium nib that had just been cleaned. Drying times on Xerox 90gsm were between of 5-10s. Rhodia and G Lalo Vergé were around 20-30s. Clairefontaine Triomphe took a good 30-45s to dry.

 

SMEARING : None on any paper. This ink bonds nicely with the paper and noes not sit on top, even on Clairefontaine Triomphe.

 

BLEEDTHROUGH : Since the ink is so saturated, some bleed through may be expected on copy papers with wet or fat nibs. I would not expect bleeding on dry or fine nibs or when the ink is used on a good quality paper. Given the wet nib I used above, I recorded the following... Xerox 90gsm had moderate bleed through and a little feathering. Rhodia had no bleed through and no feathering. Clairefontaine Triomphe had no bleed through or feathering. G Lalo Vergé had no bleed through or feathering.

 

FLOW AND LUBRICATION : Flow for this ink seems to be good to high. I suspect even a dry fine nib will put down a good line. The ink seems "wet" and is not reluctant to penetrate the paper. Lubrication was excellent in the pen tested (my medium above). The writing experience was very enjoyable.

 

CLEANING : There were no colour residues left on the converter and this ink washed out nicely. It did not cling to the pen insides. I had to be fairly thorough with the bulb syringe simply because the ink is saturated but there was no issue with getting rid of it out of the pen. Getting that pink splat off my hand however...

[Laura N]

What an excellent review! Thank you so much.

[whitelily]

Excellent review - what an interesting and nice brown! The shading is superb!

[DanielCoffey]

Thanks for the compliments.

 

I think we can see from the inks Diamine have released over the past 9 months or so the direction they are going in... more highly saturated inks with better shading properties but still maintaining the easy-to-clean reputation that they have earned. I can't wait for the folks with Flex nibs to weigh in with reviews once these inks are in general release next week.

 

On that note, Sargasso and Ochre were the two inks I was kindly allowed to review in advance. I will of course be ordering the last three in a week or so but for now I will just settle back and enjoy the others that I purchased along with the review samples. Look out for reviews of the other 15 newer inks (apart from Denim which I have already done) soon. In an attempt to choose which to review, I may decide to become the Reverse Alphabetical Reviewer for a bit and start with Z... or Wild Strawberry anyway.

Edited May 24, 2012 by DanielCoffey

[Mauricio]

[tawanda]

I would say that this ink is not really saturated in the vein of, say, PR.

 

The more saturated an ink, the less likely you are to get dramatic shading properties from it. In my experience, although I would agree it is more saturated than Diamine have offered in the past, I still maintain it is just a little above average, and that is why it shades magnificently.

 

Diamine certainly are heading into the realms of deeper saturation, but I hope they will pull back before they hit PR levels. Very few PR inks really shade well, due to the high saturation levels. (A lot of them smell strongly too )

[jandrese]

Thanks so much for this as well as your other recent Diamine reviews. What an interesting ink. How close it it to MB Carlo Collodi? Diamine has so many winners lately. With the iron galls and the Diamine inks I've totally lost my battle to reduce my overwhelming ink collection.

[DanielCoffey]

Thanks for the comments.

 

I have no MB inks so you will have to do a side by side with another review I am afraid.

[DanielCoffey]

It seems from dcpritch's review of sepia toned inks HERE that MB Carlo Collodi is a warmer ink with more of a terracotta/pink hue whereas the Diamine Ochre has an orange/brown feel.

[goldiesdad]

Great review ... Nice pics as well ...

 

Looks a lot like Rome's Burning but lighter ...

[tawanda]

Thanks so much for this as well as your other recent Diamine reviews. What an interesting ink. How close it it to MB Carlo Collodi? Diamine has so many winners lately. With the iron galls and the Diamine inks I've totally lost my battle to reduce my overwhelming ink collection.

 

Welcome to the IAA - Ink Addicts Anon. - pull up a chair, take a long cooool (dr)ink and tell us how it all began :roflmho:

[alexander_k]

IAA: I knew I was a full member ever since the Penman inks. I just hope it will never end.

[Newjelan]

Fabulous colour... Another one for my wish list, love it!

[tawanda]

IAA: I knew I was a full member ever since the Penman inks. I just hope it will never end.

 

Mine began with the old Parker Blue-black as a child in the 70's. Just the name fascinated me. How could something be blue and black at the same time? We were only allwoed to use Blue or black but I got away with BB or a while. Then, one day I decided to turn rebel and wrote my homework up in Parker turquoise. I was busted straight away. But the teacher did not haul me up over the ink colour, she let fly a barrage about how bad my handwriting was, how lefties cannot use fountain pens, and demanded I use a ballpoint from then on in. It scarred me for many years. I only came back to FPs about five yrs ago.Even now, whenever I use turquoise ink I feel quite rebellious!

[dannyboy]

Love this color and its shading properties! Thanks for this very helpful review--I agree that Diamine has given us many inks that shade beautifully and I, too, hope they don't get too enamored of saturated inks in their lineup.

[DanielCoffey]

If you think the one shades well, make sure you look at Ancient Copper!

[Ad_Astra]

Doesn't this markedly resemble Ancient Copper? Or is that just my monitor?

[DanielCoffey]

Ancient Copper is more of a red/orange brown... I posted the review yesterday so you can do a side by side comparison now.

[rudyhou]

very nice indeed. brown is a favorite color of mine. this diamine ochre reminds me a bit of noodler's golden brown. though this does have more orange tone to the color.

[DanielCoffey]

I found that one disadvantage to Noodler's Golden Brown was that the bulletproof black component in it had a tendency to settle over a few days so if the pen had been sitting for a while the colour would lose its vibrancy. Apart from that, however, I agree that the Noodler's is a nice colour.

 

For us in Europe, Noodler's is very hard to come by but Diamine is readily available.