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Diamine – Weeping Willow The ink maker from Liverpool is one of the staple brands in ink-land. They consistently produce solid inks for a very reasonable price. Each year, Diamine brings out an Inkvent Calendar with 25 inks to try. This Weeping Willow was the Day 13 selection of the 2023 edition. As we will see, that number 13 is totally appropriate… I recently added a bottle of this ink to an order so I could claim free shipment. I went for this particular ink because the colour looked intriguing – the pictures of ink splashes showed a complexity that spoke to me. Weeping Willow’s base colour is a beige-looking olive-brown with tons of multi-hued undertones. I can see green and pink, but also darker brown and yellow tones that drift to the surface, and work together to create a complex, but balanced, kaleidoscope of hues that looks amazing. What you get is a truly unique colour with tons of character. The name “Weeping Willow” is chosen well: it reflects the multi-hued brown of a willow tree at the start of autumn, just before the falling of the leaves. I filled up a couple of pens with this ink, and started writing and sketching with it – just to get an impression of how it feels. Immediately, it became clear that the number 13 fits this ink so well. Weeping Willow is a demanding ink – superb for drawing, but a really difficult one for writing. It only works with a narrow range of pen, nib & paper combinations. Choose wrongly, and the ink sucks big time. Choose wisely, and you’re in writer’s heaven. So it truly combines the unlucky-lucky aspects of its number. This Diamine ink tends to write very light and with super extreme shading in most of my pens. With dry writers, the ink is quite frankly unusable. First, lubrication is fairly bad which makes writing with a dry pen a very unsatisfying experience… yuk! Second, shading gets really extreme with wispy lighter parts that are barely there, making the text almost unreadable. Both of these issues can only be solved by using seriously wet writers. So far, an unlucky number 13. Once I found the right pens for it, the ink blossomed and showed its true beauty. It gets an almost water-colour aspect, with multi-tonal looks that rise to the surface in the darker parts of the text. The result has a mesmerizing quality to it, and makes for a truly unique experience. Use the ink for drawing, and all these multi-tonal qualities come together to create colours with wonderful aesthetics. And so, definitely also a lucky number 13. To illustrate the colour span of this Diamine ink, I did a swab on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper, where I really saturated portions of the paper with ink. Weeping Willow has a very wide colour range, with tons of contrast between the wispy light and darker parts. This translates to extreme shading when writing, too harsh for my taste with most of my pens. I advise the use of wet pens that stay at the right side of the contrast range – you still get heavy shading, but the result now becomes well-balanced with great aesthetics. On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – the ink behaved perfectly, with very limited smearing. Water resistance is mostly absent though – some ink remains on the paper, and with great effort you might be capable to reconstruct some of your writing. But no, not a water-resistant ink. The ink’s chromatography looks stunning, and shows that kaleidoscope of colours that surfaces so easily with this ink. Nice! I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. My normal Safari test pens were completely useless, so I picked wetter pens for the writing samples. On each scrap of paper I show you: An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation An ink scribble made with a Pilot Capless M-nib fountain pen The name of the paper used, written with a Kaweco Sport with BB nib A small text sample, written with the Pilot Capless M-nib Source of the quote, written with a wet Pelikan M405 Demonstrator with cursive italic M-nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Pilot Capless) The multi-paper writing test shows another of Weeping Willow’s weaknesses. This ink only works well with certain types of paper, even when using wet pens. Hard-surface coated paper won’t cooperate with the ink: not enough ink is left on the page with the lighter strokes, which leads to super extreme shading that looks harsh and totally unappealing. Not nice at all. Furthermore: light olive-brown and yellow-toned paper – not a good combination! So you should restrict yourself to mostly white and ivory paper. But still – there is that narrow zone where paper/pen/nib come together perfectly, and manage to create something beautiful. I warned you: a very very demanding ink, that you need to spend some time with to get to know it. I guess most people would throw their bottle out of the window, but I enjoy that search for circumstances that can make even the most demanding ink shine. And shine it does! When all things line up perfectly, the results are totally worth the trouble. Below you can find some enlarged details of writing samples. The extreme shading on Tomoe River and Iroful paper is obvious. When you have a full page of text, such extreme shading makes it too hard to read the text with ease. More absorbent paper tames that extreme shading, and brings the contrast to a tolerable level. Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing (written on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper). At the top are some samples written with my Safaris – a bit too light for an easy read. Descending the page, I started using wetter pens. It’s fairly obvious that readability improves, and that the ink starts to show off what it is capable of. Related inks To compare Diamine Weeping Willow with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. Weeping Willow shares complexity with Swan Illusion, but is a lot more yellow than the Mont Blanc ink. Inkxperiment – Exploration As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I find this to be a fun extension of the hobby, and these single-ink drawings often present a real challenge. These inkxperiments allow me to explore the colour-range nuances that are present in the ink. I love doing them! The drawing reflects my personal journey of exploration in the world of math and physics. I’ve always been in awe of the complexity of the world around us - from the smallest to the largest scale. And it’s by building models of reality that we can try to gain an understanding of how things really work. Since my university days, lots of new discoveries have been made, and I’m now slowly building up my skill-set again so I can better appreciate and understand all that new science. The drawing's background symbolizes reality – cells in a petri dish? nano-tube material? stars against the microwave background radiation? The connected cubes floating above this reality represent the models we build to make sense of all that complexity. And then there are the people on their life-long journey of exploration… I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper. I put some circular cutouts on the paper, covered it with a kitchen towel, and dripped some water-diluted Weeping Willow on it. This produced a really nice background. I then coloured the circular parts with cotton swabs dipped in water-diluted ink. Next I drew in the cubes that appear to be floating as a space-station above reality. Finally, I added the explorers and used my fountain pen to add some finishing touches. The end result gives you a good idea of the colour range that can be achieved when using Diamine Weeping Willow in a more artistic context. An interesting ink to draw with! Inkxpired – computational art I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper, and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper. I started by applying a cartoon art filter that emphasized lines in the drawing, and as a side-effect created a more grainy background that works quite well. I then used a couple of colour filters to shift the hues to blue tones, and added a few extra explorers to the scene. Conclusion Diamine Weeping Willow is a difficult and demanding ink that has lots of shortcomings and could oh so easily be dismissed. But spend some time with it, learn to know all its nooks and corners, and you’ll find that right combination of pen, nib and paper where this ink will surprise you with some unexpected greatness. I really enjoyed the journey of discovery that this ink provided me. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Pilot Capless, M-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

Triple Ink Shoot-Out : Callifolio Cassis vs Diamine Earl Grey vs Sailor chu shu A couple of weeks ago I did a review of Sailor Jentle chu shu, and noticed I had some other purple-grey inks that look fairly similar in writing – Diamine Earl Grey and L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Cassis. All three of these inks are lovely, so a comparison is definitely in order. But which two of them to compare? Then @yazeh suggested to throw all three of them in the ring to fight it out. Interesting idea … Enter... the Triple Ink Shoot-Out – a special edition of the usual brutal fight. In five rounds, these three inks must engage in fierce battle to determine who is the winner. Choreographing a one-on-one battle is easy, but how to make it work with three contestants? Well… the triple shoot-out idea immediately brought to mind the iconic gun-fight in the final scene of Sergio Leone’s 1966 masterpiece “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. A memorable spaghetti western with an excellent musical score by Ennio Morricone. The ideal setting for a duel between three great inks. The hot summer sun shines brightly above the totally forgettable town Desierto in New Mexico. The shimmering heat creates wavering pictures of three lone riders that approach from different directions. Dust bowls blow through the only street in town when these strangers meet at the saloon. These are serious hombres that are not to be messed with. Tipping his hat, the tall blond stranger introduces himself – L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Cassis (“the Good”). The second rider – clearly a dark and silent type – simply nods his head in acknowledgement. Let’s introduce him: Diamine Earl Grey (“the Bad”). The third rider is the most extravagant of the bunch, and loudly and obtrusively makes his acquaintance: Sailor chu shu (“the Ugly”). Together they head for the saloon, eyeing each other wearily. Three dominant alpha males that come together… that can only mean trouble. A fight is in the air. May the best ink win … Round 1 – First Impressions The three strangers head to the bar. “Whiskey” … “Make that two” … “Tequila”. In one gulp, the glasses get emptied. “Another one”. The barkeep refills the glasses. Gulp … “Another one”. Seems like we are in the middle of a drinking contest, neither man willing to be outdone by the others. All three of these inks make a stellar first impression. Wonderful colours, that look great on paper – both in written text and in swabs. These are inks that can be used for any occasion, both for personal journaling as well as in a business context where they make a great alternative for the more standard blue or black. Also technically solid inks: good contrast with the page, nice and aesthetically pleasing shading, smooth writing. Great looking stuff! In this first round, the three champions give their best, and down their liquor without blinking an eye: Cassis is at heart a grey ink with strong purple undertones that easily surface in swabs. Sailor chu shu is more of a grey-purple, where purple seems to be the base colour but muted and toned down (it gets a bit lost in the picture, but to the naked eye the purple is much more obvious). Earl Grey definitely is the odd one out: a cool blue-grey ink, but also with definite purple undertones. I personally like the looks of this one the best. In swabs, both Cassis and Earl Grey show lots of depth: you can easily see the purple undertones that are prominently there just below the surface. In contrast, chu shu looks a bit flatter – there is that mix of purple and grey, but it’s all at the surface with less of a layered and multi-dimensional feel to it. Bonus points for the first two. Shading is most prominent with Earl Grey and chu shu: strong but well balanced, enhancing your writing with some extra oomph. Cassis shows more subtle shading with a lot less contrast between light and darker parts. The chroma comparison clearly shows that Earl Grey is the odd duckling – a totally different combination of dyes, resulting in a cool grey ink with a subtle purple undertone. Cassis and chu shu share a similar lineage, with chu shu having more purple in the mix. Of these two, I prefer the darker grey looks of the Callifolio ink. All three inks stand up well to one another, with neither of them giving in. They are all technically solid inks, with great looks both in writing and in swabs. Any of them would be a good choice, but the rules of the game demand that we express a preference. For this first round, Diamine Earl Grey must be the winner – it’s overall the best looking of the three. Second place goes to Callifolio Cassis, simply because of its grey-er looks, and that extra depth in the swabs. Sailor chu shu finishes third – not last, because that makes it sound inferior, and that’s certainly not the case. Round 2 – Writing Sample “Ola amigos! Fancy some cards?” Locals and strangers gather around the tables, cards are shuffled, a friendly game of poker starts. Money changes hands until suddenly… five aces on the table… that can’t be right?!? “Cheating bastardos!” Tables get overturned, fists get clenched and a serious brawl develops. The writing sample was done on Rhodia N°16 Notepad with 80 gsm paper. All inks behaved flawlessly, with no feathering and no show-through or bleed-through. With the EF nib, Cassis feels a bit “grippy” on the page, with sub-par lubrication. This improved considerably when using broader nibs. Earl Grey delivers solidly throughout: smooth and well lubricated in all nib sizes, with good contrast and some really nice shading. Sailor chu shu is also excellent, but a touch less smooth than the Diamine ink. At the start of the fight, “the Good” got a blow to the head, but quickly recovers; “the Bad” immediately grabbed a chair and is mostly untouchable. Chu shu “the Ugly” turns out to be a dirty fighter, dealing some serious damage. Overall, a memorable saloon fight that will be the talk of town for many weeks to come. Counting the points, Earl Grey is the clear winner, followed closely by chu shu and Callifolio Cassis. Round 3 – Pen on Paper After the fight, our trio feels no longer welcome in town. “I heard rumours about a stash of gold hidden by a soldier of the Confederates. Let’s move in with the military to find out more. They have a camp just a couple of miles from here.” The threesome mount their horses and depart town. “Last one at the camp buys the cold beers!”… and the race is on. This round allows the batlling inks to show how they behave on a range of fine writing papers. From top to bottom, we have : Clairefontaine Triomphe, Midori, Tomoe River 52 gsm, Paperblanks and Original Crown Mill cotton paper. All scribbling and writing was done with a Lamy Safari B-nib. All our champions did well, with no show-through nor bleed-through. But this round is not about technicalities, it is about aesthetics and beauty. Are the fighters able to make the paper shine ? One thing is immediately apparent: these inks might all share grey & purple, but they have totally different characters. Cassis is a purple-grey with the grey dominating. Earl Grey is a cool blue-grey with a purple undertone and Sailor chu shu is clearly a purple ink but toned down and muted. All three of them look superbly on the high quality papers in this writing sample. Earl Grey’s bronco consistently takes the lead. Wonderful shading, and lots of depth in the swabs. I love the looks of this ink. Next up rides Callifolio Cassis, closely matched by Sailor chu shu. Very close these two, but the darker hue of Cassis looks just a bit better on the page. When looking at crappy paper, we see that all three inks behave unexpectedly well with no visible feathering. There is some bleed-through – as is to be expected with Moleskine – but minimally so with Cassis. So in this race, Callifolio Cassis manages to enter camp just before chu shu. Earl Grey is already sitting at the bar, awaiting his first cold beer… Up to this round, Earl Grey is defnitely in the lead with Cassis and chu shu coming closely behind. I wonder whether the following rounds will change this picture? Round 4 – Ink Properties Given their experience as outdoors-men, the lieutenant asked our trio to tame some broncos. Fierce horses that are not to be trifled with. Given that this will most surely allow them to gain the soldiers’ trust and thus find out more about that stash of gold, our heroes agree. With some soldiers firmly holding the reins of the semi-wild horses, our heroes mount the saddle. Once the reins are released, the buckling starts… The inks have drying times in the 15 to 20 second range, with chu shu being the faster drying ink. On the smudge test, the text always remains easy to read, but with the Callifolio ink a lot of the dyes are rubbed off. The droplet test is the most conclusive: Earl Grey shows no water resistance at all, while chu shu easily survives a 15 minute soak in water. Some of the dyes get displaced, but what remains on the paper is certainly easy to read. Cassis retains just enough ink to be able to reconstruct your writing. After only a few seconds, Earl Grey is thrown from his bronco … not a good show! After a minute or so, Cassis’ bronco starts rolling on the ground, and “the Bad” must quickly jump aside in order to avoid getting crushed. But Sailor chu shu demonstrates his prowess and remains firmly in the saddle, calming the bristling horse until it follows his every command. Nicely done! The outcome leaves no doubt: chu shu solidly wins this round in spades. And Earl Grey is the obvious loser – horse-taming is clearly not his forte. Round 5 – The Fun Factor Welcome to the final round. Here I give you a purely personal impression of the three inks, where I judge which of them I like most when doing some fun stuff like doodling and drawing. And for this round, these inks are simply amazing. I did the drawing on HP Advanced Photo paper. The background uses heavily water-diluted ink. The flowers were added with a glass dip pen and pure ink. Their investigations led our trio of inks to a forgotten graveyard and a nameless tomb. Within lies buried the stash of gold. But which of them will take the treasure home? In the spirit of Christmas, they decide that instead of simply trying to kill one another, they will demonstrate their prowess with the revolver by shooting at canteens instead. Each will throw a canteen in the air and try to hit it as often as possible. Three… two… one… go! All three inks masterfully show their purple undertones that easily surface when drawing. Choosing between the inks will be difficult. The revolvers blast, and the canteens get a real pummeling, careening through the air with each solid hit. Unexpectedly, Sailor chu shu shows some really nice red-pink undertones surfacing among the more dark purple hues. Really nice. Cassis is also a really nice drawing ink, with more grainy grey showing in the drawing. I really liked the warmth showing in both these ink drawings. Earl Grey looks great, but looks a bit too cold compared to the other two. After the canteens have fallen to the ground, we start counting holes. Three holes for Earl Grey, four for Cassis and a whopping 6 solid hits for Sailor chu shu. By all rights, the gold is his! The Verdict All three inks in this shoot-out are winners in my book. But a choice has to be made, and so I will tally up the points as they were gained in each round: L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Cassis: 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 9 points Diamine Earl Grey: 3 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 11 points Sailor Jentle chu shu: 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 10 points The heroes of our story have been through a lot together – chu shu therefore decides to split up the loot. After all, there’s enough gold for the three of them! And even though the points indicate that Diamine Earl Grey is the ultimate winner of this triple shoot-out, the difference in outcome is small. Each one of these inks is a solid and beautiful one. You owe it to yourself to try at least one of them. Satisfaction guaranteed! Best wishes to you all for a splendid 2025 !

Diamine’s Hell Bells (German Exclusive) This is an another German exclusive, named after the 1980s, AC/DC song. I bought my sample from fountainfeder. The only thing I liked about this ink was re-discovering the music of AC/DC. You can read more about these inks, and Diamine Guitar series on the Nick Stewart website, and why it has a "metal sheen". https://nickstewart.ink/2022/07/08/hells-bells-its-master-of-puppets-stephan-lucht/ Ink is a dark teal with a red sheen. It’s a finger stainer; my fingers were not happy with all the scrubbing. However, it’s easy to clean out from pens and Surprisingly, short dry times and very well-behaved on copy paper. For some reason the BB nib and the ink didn’t like each other. Sheen is visible mostly on Japanese Paper and not at all on copy paper. The scan shows you the colour and not the sheen. Also, whatever sheen I could see disappeared from Rhodia. If you're into the sheen, use a wet pen, Japanese paper combo. Sheen is most visible under artificial life. The ink has not water resistance, and it will make a mess out of your notebook. I could see an impish person sliding a bottle of this ink in an holier than thou person's Christmas stocking, either in its original or a fake bottle Let's start with the chroma: Writing Samples: Sheen is not captured by the scanner: Photo: Rhodia direct artificial (led) lighting. Photo was taken two weeks after review was done. While the camera captures sheen, my eyes cannot see it. Midori natural light (grey day) Tomoe River 68 gsm (Led artificial light) Iroful artificial (led) light. Gorgeous sheen. Comparison: Water test: Left side 10 seconds under running water. The sink looked pretty blue/teal Art Work: I did some different art inspired by heavy metal imagery. The paper is Talens Notebook. The first 3 are pocket size, while the last one is more of A5 size. Lady sings the blues: Heavy Metal blues If Brian Johnson (Lead singer of AC/DC, since 1980) was a Cat? Grey ink is Kala Nostalgia Gemstone Sillimanite and finally Hells Bells Sheen is obvious when applied generously... Noodler's Lexingtion Graty and Apache Sunset, and J Herbin Terre de Feu · Pens used: Pilot Kakuno Ef / Kaweco (EF/F/M/B/ BB), Osimiorid fountain pen Copperplate nib · What I liked: Re-discovering the song Hell’s Bell and thinking about the myth of faust. · What I did not like: Staining my fingers like hell colour · What some might not like: Name, staining? · Shading: Depending paper, angle and sheen. · Ghosting: No on cheap paper. · Bleed through: No, on cheap paper. · Flow Rate: Wettish · Lubrication: Good with Japanese Ef nib, ok with the Kaweco · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Great · Saturation: Very · Shading Potential: It’s a sheener · Sheen: Yes on all paper but copy. On Rhodia the sheen faded after a few weeks, maybe because the paper was out. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: A bit of flushing, but surprisingly easy. · Water resistance: Non-existent. · Availability: 30ml / 80 ml bottles, Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

It seems there's no Diamine's Brilliant Red review on FPN (not in review index) so I thought I can share my review originally posted on polish fountain pen enthusiasts forum. I'm sorry the text on photos is in polish, however I didn't have time to repeat all the process and write another review in english. Anyway the color is more important than these few sentences that basically say how much I enjoy this ink. SWAB (photo taken on a sunny day) http://imageshack.com/a/img819/861/ccak.jpg Two drops of ink on kitchen towel: http://imageshack.com/a/img34/8626/nqfu.jpg My software identifies this color as follows: http://imageshack.com/a/img59/7483/pik8.jpg INFORMATIONS Producer: Diamine Color: Brilliant Red Saturation: strong Flow: very good in Pilot 78G with B nib Shading: present, I like it Dry time: OK http://imageshack.com/a/img855/5479/zmed.jpg Do I like it: Yes, a lot. Photos : text was written with Pilot 78G with B nib 1. On copy paper printed with dots http://imageshack.com/a/img513/8977/qhec.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img834/5139/fch0.jpg 2. Text written in Oxford notebook http://imageshack.com/a/img849/3446/i1hn.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img829/467/0whb.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img89/1182/sjxj.jpg

I have mixed feelings about Diamine inks - I like the variety of colors and their intensity but many of them aren't well behaved (they tend to clog pens, cause nib creep / nib crud). Syrah used to be my favourite color. I still like it. http://imageshack.com/a/img538/3784/26v4aq.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img908/6766/buyTsY.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img904/1648/xjHimg.jpg Kitchen towel http://imageshack.com/a/img909/907/6JFCS7.jpg Software ID: http://imageshack.com/a/img661/3533/tRsW1s.jpg Color range Calendar - Hero 9300, M nib http://imageshack.com/a/img540/9799/JqJDia.jpghttp://imageshack.com/a/img537/7041/73MG4Z.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img908/3420/gqqaI0.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img673/3581/dsjvED.jpg

I like red inks and I use them on every day basis. I'd like to present you short comparison of ten colors. Of course it would be great to compare more reds but then my samples of Oxblood and Monaco Red are empty. Next time. So the inks I've compared are (in alphabetical order): BRILLIANT RED - Diamine http://imageshack.com/a/img834/7010/tg6s.jpg BRILLIANT RED - Pelikan http://imageshack.com/a/img842/8815/x797.jpg BURGUNDY RED - Montblanc http://imageshack.com/a/img843/6245/qxoy.jpg CIEMNY CZERWONY (Dark Red) - Nicpoń* *Nicpoń is chemistry PhD Student that's active on Polish fountain pen network. He'c created limited line of nice, saturated inks in many colors. http://imageshack.com/a/img834/7862/c9n5.jpg GARNET RED - Graf von Faber-Castell http://imageshack.com/a/img834/7862/c9n5.jpg MATADOR - Diamine http://imageshack.com/a/img834/6818/pmh4.jpg MORINDA - Rohrer & Klingner http://imageshack.com/a/img835/3799/pvp4.jpg RED - Hero http://imageshack.com/a/img842/9356/rew0.jpg RED DRAGON - Diamine http://imageshack.com/a/img842/1002/kwg3.jpg RUBY - Diamine http://imageshack.com/a/img836/6886/yi84.jpg There was an accident. I was ready to make "splash painting" with Ruby. The sample was standing near the sink, I don't know why, but I've abruptly turned and my hand pushed the sample. The rest of the ink flow down the sink to some foreign lands. Ruby is a great color, so it's a pity I couldn't compare it this way. SWABS ON SCAN (Canon MP 250) http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/843/9jsta.jpg SWABS ON PHOTO http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/842/jpna.jpg FEW DROPS OF INK ON KITCHEN TOWEL http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1280x1024q90/835/bqr6.jpgTEXT WRITTEN WITH PILOT 78G, B NIB in Oxford notebook http://imageshack.com/a/img838/576/fra5.jpg TEXT WRITTEN WITH PILOT 78G, B NIB in notebook http://imageshack.com/a/img841/5115/eifu.jpg TEXT WRITTEN WITH PILOT 78G (B NIB) IN CALENDAR http://imageshack.com/a/img842/3936/qgzj.jpg TEXT WRITTEN ON CHEAP PAPER (inks are listed as above) http://imageshack.com/a/img845/3366/v4ws.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img835/7620/sqyd.jpg TEXT WRITTEN ON CHEAP COPY PAPER PRINTED WITH DOTS http://imageshack.com/a/img834/2382/c4e57.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img834/7564/p4hw.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img843/7411/bud7.jpg SUMMARY RED DRAGON stomps. It's amazing deep color. I love it. Second and third place are taken by CIEMNY CZERWONY and MORINDA / MATADOR ex-aequo. There are also colors I dislike, namely: Pelikan's BRILLIANT RED (it sucks: I can't find anything interesting about this ink), GARNET RED (moderate flow, dull), BURGUNDY RED (dull, not interesting). What's your opinion? You can choose few inks from the poll.

Diamine Celadon Cat Disclaimer: My initial review of this ink was as harsh as Jacques Herbin, Les toits de Paris as both are quite similar and that I don't particularly appreciate washed out inks. But with time it grew on me, especially for drawing. So read this review with a pinch of salt and make up your own mind. A dryish green grey by Diamine designed by r/fountainpens on Reddit. I wanted to review this after Jacques Herbin Les toits de Paris. These two inks are very similar, the former leaning green, the latter, blue. Both need soft smooth nibs and are paper dependant. I would say, Celadon Cat is slightly more lubricated. Personally, I hated the writing experience with Lamy (and I’m restraining myself) in the beginning. It was ok with Pilot Elite, thanks to its gold nib, but the ink was too pale, so I had to press it. In the vintage Waterman W2 flex nib the writing was agreeable. However overtime, the more the ink languished in the pen, the better it became and the lack of lubrication less pronounced. So give it time I think this ink would be suitable on absorbent paper and maybe Iroful. It has some halo effect on Midori, which was nice. Chroma: Very nice! Writing Samples: If the scan look blue, it's not. It's definitely green. Check comparison colour with Jacques Herbin Les toits de Paris on the Iroful scan. Halo effect not visible in scan. Comparison of the blue-grey Les toits de Paris and Diamine Celadon Cat Photo: Top text is again Jacques Herbin Les toits de Paris or Gris Toits Comparison: Water test: Left side 10 seconds under running water. Art Work: Samurai celadon Inspired by Japanese Celadon pottery and samurai statue and obviously the ink itself Ink was applied generously by directly dipping the water brush in the sample vial. Diamine Celadon Cat (Kimono) Jacques Herbin Les toits de Paris (Background) Noodler's Lexington Gray (cat and mouse) Platinum Carbon Black (Outline) · Pens used: Pilot Elite Ef, Lamy (EF/F/M/B,1.1), Waterman W2 flex · What I liked: The colour in abstract, halo effect, getting rid of the ink. · What I did not like: Writing experience was like cat nails on a scratching post · What some might not like: Not lubricated, pale colour. · Shading: Depending on nib/ paper. · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper, but you might get away with it with a M nib. · Bleed through: Same as above. · Flow Rate: Watery · Lubrication: Yuck. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Ok · Saturation: Pastel · Shading Potential: Yes, but who cares. · Sheen: Some halo effect with B nib on Midori · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: Very easy · Water resistance: Ok. · Availability: 30ml plastic /80 ml glass bottles. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

Diamine x Niche Pens Alexandrite Many thanks @JungleJim for the sample. This was a part of blind test on the FPGeeks. Ink is made by Diamine for Niche pens aka Purepens Uk. Ink comes in both shimmering (30 ml bottles) and non-shimmering (30 ml /80 ml bottles). This sample was the non-shimmering version. It’s a gorgeous, saturated teal /turquoise, with beautiful shading and a red sheen on most papers. The writing experience is so exquisite that makes you forget about the world. Dry times are about 25s on Rhodia, so ink is not suitable for lefty over writers. I left the ink for a long time in the pen. Surprisingly cleaning while needed quite a bit of flushing was easy. While there's some water resistance, you don't want this ink anywhere close to sweaty palms/ pools etc. The amount of dye that washes out is impressive Ink is best used with Japanese paper, where the shading/ sheening is most prominent. Copy paper is not for this ink and with Rhodia the sheen is present mostly with the wettest pen (Nib creaper) The wetter the pen, the more prominent the sheen, the dryer the “sheen” becomes shading. The sheen is very subtle with EF-F nibs on Midori, Tomoe River 68gr, obvious with M, B nibs, disappeared with the stub, and with Semi-flex nib creaper it became prominent. On Iroful paper, the shading appears as sheen, with the flex nib, the sheening was massive. Chroma: Writing Samples: Photo: Papers are Midori /Tomoe River 68 gr /Iroful Nibs are B/Stub/ Semi-flex Comparison: Water test: Left side 10 seconds under running water. Sample was written with glass nib. So, amount of ink is more than a normal nib. Sample was left 1 hour under fan. While there's some resistance to water, you really don't want this ink any place near water Art Work: Sailor Kiwa-guro, Diamine X Niche Pens Alexandrite and Noodler's Polar Brown. · Pens used: Lamy (Reverse Ef, EF/F/M/B, 1.1) , Noodler’s Nib creaper · What I liked: Writing experience, artwork and cleaning. I also liked how you could have both shading/ sheen. · What I did not like: Long dry times, and close to water it can be messy (nit picking) · What some might not like: Long dry times, copy paper. · Shading: Gorgeous. · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. · Bleed through: Yes, on cheap paper. · Flow Rate: Wet · Lubrication: Excellent. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Great · Saturation: Saturated · Shading Potential: Yes baby! · Sheen: Yes · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: A tiny bit on copy paper. . · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): Not at all. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: Quite easy. · Water resistance: Non-existent. · Availability: 30 ml (shimmering), 30 ml/ 80 ml bottles (non-shimmering) Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

Ink Review : Diamine Blue Velvet (150th Anniversary Ink) Pen: Lamy AL-star Ocean Blue, M-nib Paper: Rhodia N° 16 notepad 80 gsm Review This ink is part of the 8-color set that Diamine released to celebrate their 150th anniversary (1864-2014). The set has quite a number of interesting colors. This pure blue ink is one of them. Blue Velvet... the name evokes the image of a bright late-spring day with a deep blue sky. At the banks of the mighty river Anduin, Galadriel - the beautiful queen of Lothlórien - dominates the scene with her blue velvet reginal robe, waving her goodbyes to the Fellowship... This ink captures the setting well. It is a deep pure-blue ink with no colored undertones, as shown in the chromatograpy. The ink flows well in my pens, and shows some nice - but not too much - shading. A simple but elegant blue for everyday writing, at home in your journal as well as in the workplace. Fortunately for Galadriel, it is a bright sunny day without rain, because this Blue Velvet ink has no water resistance at all. Both the droplet and running water tests show without any doubt that water obliterates this ink. No legible traces remain. A shame, because this ink is otherwise very well-behaving. Let's have a look at how it behaves on paper. For this, I did some tests: Rhodia N° 16 notepad 80 gsm - drying time 15-20 seconds, no feathering, no show-through nor bleed-throughPaperblanks journal paper - drying time ~20 seconds, no feathering, no show-through and no bleed-throughGeneric notepad paper 70 gsm - drying time ~15 seconds, no feathering, no show-through nor bleed-throughMoleskine journal - drying time ~5 seconds, no feathering (that's nice!), but significant show-through and very noticeable bleed-through (making the backside of the paper unusable)Blue Velvet is a very well-behaving ink. Only with the awful Moleskine paper it leaves to be desired. On other paper, it behaves perfectly. You can't go wrong here. Conclusion Blue Velvet is an all-around true blue ink, that behaves well om a wide variety of paper. It's big downside is that it has zero water resistance. Myself, I don't care much about that. But... for me the ink doesn't strike a chord. It's a decent ink for everyday use, but no queen material. This is one dress that will spent more time in the wardrobe than being worn. my overall score: B+

There are currently (August 2013) one hundred colours available in the standard series from Diamine. Below I have written one line with each colour first on low-absorbent paper (Rhodia No 18 dotpad) and second on normal absorbent paper (our corporate printer’s stock “cartridge” paper). All lines are written with a medium Lamy Z50 nib on a Lamy Safari pen. Apologies for the corporate branding: I do not have blank cartridge stock paper. I hope it does not distract too much from the inks. If you want to calibrate your monitor, the blue and orange colours in the logo are Pantone Blue 072 and Pantone 1375, respectively. There are 25 colours on each sheet so 4 sheets in total. I will write more about the sorting of the ink colours later. For now: enjoy! and I hope this is useful. (And if someone wants to send me samples of the special edition Diamine inks that I do not have, then I will be happy to add them. This is mainly the Music set.) Colour set 1 Low-absorbent paper (Rhodia) Normal absorbent paper (cartridge)

Diamine Vivaldi Thanks for @Lithium466 for the sample. This review is in three parts: Feel free to jump to your preferred part. In a nutshell: a gorgeous dark purple, which is almost black with EF nibs. It doesn’t appreciate cheap paper. It’s wet, well lubricated. It’s Diamine. Chroma: What’s in a name? I’m confused by the Diamine Music set. It’s composed of 3 baroque composers: Bach, Vivaldi and Handel. 2 Classical era composers: Mozart and Beethoven. (Cancelling Poor Haydn) And 5 romantics. Schubert and Chopin, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Strauss. Though technically you can argue that Schubert is early romantic, and Tchaikovsky late romantic. And then there is Strauss which I’m assuming it's Richard and not one of the Johann's . I don’t understand the logic behind the names. Diamine could have chosen some fabulous English composers, granted they would be mostly renaissance, baroque, and then jump to early 20th century, Byrd, Tallis, Dowland, Hume, Purcell, Sullivan, Elgar, Delius, William, Britten etc.. Or they could have chosen one composer per European country. This is just a mishmash of composers, with no rhyme or reason. Vivaldi’s micro bio and music (1678 - 1741) Now a bit about Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi is one of the pillars of the Baroque era and codified the concerto form. He was the musical director of Ospedale della Pietà an orphanage. He was admired by Bach who transposed some of his concertos for Harpsichord, died in poverty and his work was promptly forgotten until the early 20th century, until his work was re-discovered. He composed some 500 concertos about 50 odds opera, religious music etc. His nicknamed was il Prete Rosso, the Red Priest. (He was ordained a priest) The Four Seasons his most famous fiery tempo, dynamics contrasts with the colour of the ink: Or his lovely Lovely lute or Mandolin concertos. Here is the slow movement of his Lute Concerto RV 93. Or If you’re an opera fan, and have 3 hours or such to spend you can try his opera Orlando furioso, don't ask me the story, it's a medieval fantasy story Ink review: Now for the ink, again I don’t understand why would any one would choose this dark purple for Vivaldi, who's nicknamed the Red Priest, thanks to his reddish hair, and his passionate music. This one is not an ink for a Vivaldi over. Writing Samples: I used a Pilot F3A for the Japanese Ef and is it semi-flexible, I flexed it at the end to give you an idea of "flex". Photo: Comparison: Water test: Decent water resistance. and finally An art work. I had a bit of difficulty. While I appreciate his music, he's not one of my favourites composers. 😛 Anyway here's is one of Vivaldi's cats playing one of his concertos on an imaginary gondola I used a bit of of Octopus Grey Merkat and the brownish ink was created by mixing the purple with De Atramentis Artist Orange: · Pens used: Pilot F3A (JEf /Semiflex)Lamy (EF/F/M/B, BB) · What I liked: Colour, Doing washes. · What I did not like: Name didn’t correspond to the fieriness of composer nor his music · What some might not like: It doesn’t like copy paper. · Shading: Only with wide nib. · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. · Bleed through: Yes, on cheap paper. · Flow Rate: Wet · Lubrication: Well lubricated. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: Ok · Saturation: Dark · Shading Potential: Not so much. · Sheen: No. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): Did not notice. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: Easy. Though as a purple ink it might stain · Water resistance: Not bad. · Availability: 30 ml bottles. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

Diamine Dark Forest Many thanks @Lithium466 for the sample. 🙏 This is a dependable dark green/ teal, part of Diamine's 150th anniversary inks It’s a very well-behaved dark green, especially with a Japanese Ef nib, which was quite pleasant. From M onwards the colour changes from a dark green to a dark teal (shading appears also from M nibs onwards, despite what the scan wants you to believe. And it doesn’t like copy paper. It's a great ink to do washes, surprisingly creating a teal effect, even though I don't see any blue in the chroma: Writing Samples: My apologies for the misspelling. I must have been thinking of another Forrest I couldn’t fill the Nib creaper, so it is not a real representative of a flex nib, and finally I stumbled on my Tomoe River notebook (don’t ask) hence the major smudging, which I believe shows the range of the ink Photo: Comparison: Water test: and finally an art work. As you saw with the quotes, the name of the ink, conjured the Enchanted Wood, by Enid Blyton. This is a rendition of the Magic Farway tree, by my child's mind. Noodler's Polar Brown Sailor Kiwa-guro Octopus White Polar Bear J Herbin Éclat de Saphir · Pens used: Pilot Kakuno Ef, Lamy (EF/F/M/B, BB, 1.1), Nib creaper dipped · What I liked: Writing with M/ B nibs. Doing washes. · What I did not like: Nothing much. · What some might not like: If you use copy paper, it’s not for you. · Shading: M nibs onwards. · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. · Bleed through: Yes, on cheap paper. · Flow Rate: Nice and wet. · Lubrication: Generous. · Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. · Start-up: I had some difficulties when switching nibs. · Saturation: Nice and dark. · Shading Potential: M /B nibs. · Sheen: Did not notice. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Did not notice. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: Did not notice. · Cleaning: Easy · Water resistance: Inexistant. · Availability: 40 ml bottles / Cartridges Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier