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Ink Review : Diamine Bach (Music Collection) Pen: Lamy AL-star, M-nib Paper: Rhodia N°16 notepad 90 gsm Leipzig, a late afternoon in November 1726“I have left the busy city for a quiet walk in the woods. It’s cold and dark and somber – the gloomy mood intensified by the dark brown towering oaks that resemble an open-air cathedral. This setting inspires my muse. I hear in my mind a grand baroque piece commemorating the Death of Christ, ideally suited for a performance in my beloved St Thomas Church (Thomaskirche). I think I will name it the Matthäeus-Passion.” In 2015 Diamine released the Music Collection, a set of 10 subdued ink colours named after well-known composers. In this review, we take a look at Bach. After the above introduction, you're sure to remember that this is a dark-brown ink. Diamine Bach is a dark-brown ink, which to my eye is close to a true brown, with very little red in the undertones. This is also evident from the chromatography. Bach is a well lubricated ink with excellent contrast to the paper. An ink that easily tolerates even the finest nibs. With broader nibs, it starts to show some really nice subdued shading, without too much contrast between the light and darker parts of the text. Nicely done! The ink behaved perfectly on all the papers I tested – with only a touch of bleed-through on the notoriously bad Moleskine paper. Drying times are mostly in the 10-15 second range, but tend to increase on more glossy paper (all with M-nib). The ink’s look & feel is fairly consistent across paper types, and the result looks good on both white and more yellow paper. The ink has no water resistance to speak of – even short exposure to water will obliterate your writing. Technically a very good ink, but for some reason it fails to speak to me. I tried to like it… but nope… didn’t work. I’m sure though that there are others out there that will appreciate this incarnation of brown. Inkxperiment – Heron at a PondI’ve recently started to experiment with ink drawings, keeping things simple and more-or-less abstract. I find it to be a fun extension of the hobby, and have found single-ink drawings a nice challenge. It also gives you an idea of what the ink is capable of in a more artistic setting. For this drawing I used 90 gsm sketch paper. I used a piece of cardboard dipped in ink to create the background together with the trees. For the pond I applied ink with a dip pen, and used a water brush to spread it out. I then added in the heron and the rest of the plants. The end result gives you a good idea of the colour span that Bach is capable of (which is limited – Bach is more at home as a writing ink). ConclusionDiamine Bach is a nice dark-brown writing ink that works well with any combination of nib and paper. The ink has a limited colour range though, which makes it less suited for drawing. Also of note is its complete lack of water resistance. Bach is technically an excellent ink, but I find it hard to get excited about it. A decent ink, but – for me personally – not a keeper. My overall score : B Technical test results on Rhodia N°16 notepad paper using a Lamy Safari

I'm currently reviewing some of my favourite Diamine inks. This is Bach from the Diamine Music Gift set. I didn't think I would ever be able to afford to buy the Diamine Music Gift Set, so I was really pleased to find that Diamine now sell all of their Gift set inks in 30ml plastic refill bottles. To be honest, the glass bottles in the set are much nicer, but as the ink is exactly that same, it means that at least I can try some of them. The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and I used a stub nib, this ink takes longer to dry than some others.It flows very well and lubricates the nib very well. No start-up problems noticed.It is currently available in the gift set of 10 x 30ml glass bottles, or single 30ml plastic refill bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's reasonably priced.