Diamine Aqua Lagoon

[DanielCoffey]

INK : DIAMINE AQUA LAGOON

 

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

 

 

Diamine Aqua Lagoon is a moderately saturated strong turquoise with good shading potential. It is substantially more saturated than Diamine Beau Blue although it shares a similar tone.

 

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

 

 

Here is a close-up of the swab...

 

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

 

 

And a close-up of the shading. It shows its shading best on smooth papers such as Rhodia or Clairefontaine Triomphe but drops the shading completely on more absorbent copy paper...

 

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

 

 

As expected, this ink is not at all water resistant but then Diamine never said it was. This ink washes readily and completely off the paper leaving almost no visible remains...

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewAquaLagoonWater.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 in the order of 10s. Rhodia and G Lalo Vergé dried around 30s and Clairefontaine Triomphe took a good 45s.

 

SMEARING : None observed.

 

BLEEDTHROUGH : 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 moderate 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 high. I suspect even a dry fine nib will put down a very good line. Lubrication was moderate despite the ink being fairly wet. It did not feel thin.

 

CLEANING : The ink did not stick to the insides of the converter and was very easy to clean. A bulb syringe will be useful here. There was no staining observed.

[quinden]

This ink looks great; there's a topic in Inky Thoughts on Summertime inks, and I think this would be a top choice

[Uncle Red]

That's a great review. I hate this color, but it's a great review.

[DanielCoffey]

I should add by the way that I have no non-Diamine inks to compare this to and I am aware that there are plenty of other nice turquoises out there. If folks ask "How does this compare to XXX brand insert-name-of-turquise-here?" then you will have to wait till folks with that ink reply.

[ztikmaen]

This looks like a good alternative to Waterman's South Sea Blue!

Nice review

[saintsimon]

This looks like a good alternative to Waterman's South Sea Blue!

Nice review

This is a very intense colour, you don't want to read much written with Aqua Lagoon. It is better for short notifications or für marking text.

 

 

 

[Montblanc owner and lover]

nice one make think to my waterman SSB

[DanielCoffey]

Another pen-and-ink match? Excellent!

[georges zaslavsky]

very nice color indeed thanks for sharing

[Navegador]

I'm thinking about using this ink with my Lamy Safari Aquamarine (this looks like a good pen/ink match), but I'm worried about Diamine inks' tendency to form crud deposits. Does that happen with their blues too? Did you experience any such issues?

[TheDutchGuy]

*bump*

 

This was one of the first inks I bought when I started out with this hobby. I put it in a pen, didn't like it, put it away and never gave it another chance. Since then, along my journey I've learned that paler colours tend to work well with broader nibs, and vice versa. Today I put it into a TWSBI Go 1.1 that was gathering dust somewhere, with very nice results. I've got two other inks that are similiar: Sailor Jentle Souten and Pelikan 4001 Turquoise. In terms of hue, I prefer Souten. That ink is unique, but it's been letting me down in terms of performance and even cost me a really good pen when it went spectacularly bad in the pen. Pelikan 4001 Turquoise looks great, but tends to feather. All things considered, Aqua Lagoon might be the best behaved ink of this trio. (Herbin Bleu Azur is also similar, but much more pale.)

[A Smug Dill]

(Herbin Bleu Azur is also similar, but much more pale.)

Have you tried Lamy Pacific (aka Turquoise) and Pilot Iroshizuku ama-iro?

[TheDutchGuy]

Have you tried Lamy Pacific (aka Turquoise) and Pilot Iroshizuku ama-iro?

No, actually. I'm rather prejudiced when it comes to Lamy and rarely venture into the Iroshizuku range because of its price tag.