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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Orange ink. Diamine Orange is a saturated orange dye based ink that I think is the perfect orange. It neither leans towards the yellow end of the colour spectrum, nor the red end of the colour spectrum and is from Diamine Inks standard range. Diamine Orange is a well named ink. It does “what it says on the jar” absolutely spot on orange. More orange than Blaze Orange and Sailor Jentle Apricot, but not quite as “retina searing” as Pumpkin. I found it flowed well in the pens I used it with, although it felt very slightly dryer than Coral and Peach Haze. Lubrication was good, but I would have liked a little more. No shading or sheen noticed. I haven’t had this ink in my pens for an extended period, but I know that many orange or yellow inks can have a tendency to cause “ink crud” on some pen nibs. Flow Rate: Good.Lubrication: Good. I would have preferred slightly more.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Saturated inkShading Potential: No shading seen.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through:Rhodia Dot PadTomoe River 52gsmOxford lined padSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen, even on Field Notes.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof and has no water resistance.Availability: Available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic bottles and cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Peach Haze ink. Diamine Peach Haze is a saturated orange dye based ink with a slight pinkness about it. It’s a well-named peach or apricot colour and is from Diamine Inks standard range. Peach Haze is more orange than Diamine Coral, Noodler’s Dragon’s Napalm and P.I. Fuyu gaki, but more pink than Diamond Orange, Noodler’s Operation Overlord Orange and P.I. Yu yake inks. I found it flowed well in the pens I used it with, although it felt slightly dryer than Coral. Lubrication was reasonable, but I would have liked more. No shading or sheen noticed. Flow Rate: Good. Felt slightly dry in the pen & paper combinations I used.Lubrication: Not bad - I would have preferred more.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Saturated inkShading Potential: No shading seen.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through:Hobonichi TechoRhodia Clic BlocSilvine NotebookField NotesTomoe River 52gsmGeneric 80gsm lined padsSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen, even on Field Notes.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof and has no water resistance.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Blaze Orange I have seen members writing with Diamine Blaze Orange and singing it’s praises, so I decided it was time I tried it. I’m very pleased that I did. I think it’s a great orange ink! It’s not too light to read, and it’s not too dark to be a true orange. It’s neither pale, nor retina searing. I found it was a nicely flowing ink that was neither wet nor dry, and I noticed good lubrication on my nib while I was writing with it. I didn’t see any spread or feathering on most of the papers I tried it with. With broader nibs it looks considerably darker, while not going as dark as a ‘copper’ ink. It showed through on some of the papers I experimented with. See the pictures. Diamine Blaze orange is quite well saturated. In fact, more saturated than some well known orange inks I compared it with. It exhibited plenty of shading with the F and M nibs in my Lamy Al-Star pens. I didn’t see any sheen. I found it behaved very well, and I really like it. I didn’t experience any clogging or clean-up problems with it. In fact clean-up was very easy. It easily washes off hands with soap and water. Diamine Blaze Orange is going to become my regular go-to orange ink from now on. It exhibited no water resistance at all, so I wouldn’t use it on the outside of an envelope if it might get rained on. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and it shows no water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used a M nib, this ink dried after 15-17 seconds.No smear after dry.It has good flow and I found it smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.​

I've heard that the release date for these new inks is 4th November; Fountain Pen Day, so I'm posting separate reviews for them on here. I assume they will come in the same type of bottles as the previous set of shimmer inks, but I haven't seen the retail bottles yet. Currently I only have samples that Diamine very kindly sent me to test, and to review 'if I wanted to', but I've noticed that my samples don't need much shaking to mix the particles in, and the pens need very little shaking once they are filled.Generally speaking, I found all 12 of these new shimmer inks to be wetter than all of the other shimmer inks I have used.I have had these inks in these pens for over 2 weeks now. Every pen/ink combination has started straight away without a problem, and I have experienced no stopping or skipping.Some take longer to dry than others, and a couple just soaked into the paper straight away. The most saturated inks will show through and bleed through on cheap paper.None of them are waterproof inks.Diamine Shimmer Inferno Orange is a bright orange ink that is a similar colour to Diamine Pumpkin. It's a quite saturated ink with gold shimmer. The gold shimmer shows up quite easily. I used a Lamy Nexx M (Orange) that has a 1.1mm nib and I had no trouble seeing the golden effect. This ink is quite wet and has quite a long dry time. The first picture is a scanned review form, and the second is a photo. These have been adjusted with Photoshop to get the colour you see to look as close as possible to the actual ink colour.

My latest ink sample from Diamine is Diamine Sunset This ink is a bright reddish orange shade that fits it's name really well. It's well saturated, and exhibited plenty of shading in my writing tests. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping with both of my pens on several different papers. The flow is very good and so is it's lubrication at the nib. it didn't feel particularly wet or dry. The dry time was reasonably quick on the papers I used it on, and there were no smears after it was dry. I didn't have many inks that were a similar colour to compare it against. The ones I have are either more orange or more yellow. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and it shows no noticeable water resistance.I used a Lamy M nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib and this ink took 15-16 secs to dry on my Rhodia Dot Pad 80gsm paper. No smear when dry.It exhibited good flow and lubrication and I found it well behaved to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did my swabs and dry time tests.It exhibited some show through on cheap copy paper.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesIt's a reasonable price.