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My latest ink sample from Diamine is Diamine Claret Diamine Claret is an ancient ink from Diamine. It's been around for a long time. Bearing in mind Diamine celebrated their 150th anniversary last year, when they first manufactured this ink, real claret was used to make it. However, there are now many rules about what inks can be made from, so Diamine have had to recreate it from available dyes, to try to get as close as they could to the original colour. So if any of you used it many years ago, you may have noticed a change. The colour really surprised me, as I expected Claret to be a darker red. I looked at my pen wondering if it wasn't properly clean when I filled it, but I knew it was. I'm fastidious about that. This ink is a full blown raspberry pink shade that leans blue. Not that I'm suggesting it's any the worse for that. It's reasonably saturated, and exhibits plenty of shading. 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. Although the flow feels slightly dryer than some of the inks I've recently tried, in that I couldn't see wet ink glistening on the line above the one I was writing, it didn't feel particularly dry. The dry time was quite quick and there were no smears after it was dry. It has no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread very quickly. I didn't really have any inks that were the same colour to compare it against. The ones I have are either brighter, with even more blue, leaning more towards purple, or darker leaning more red. So it was an interesting colour to try out. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.Bearing in mind the review template is on thick paper with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib this ink took 16-17 secs to dry. 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 and bleed through on cheap paper.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

In my latest set of samples I deliberately chose two pinks, so that I could compare them. I was confident that when I reviewed Hope Pink, I really liked it. I'm now reviewing Diamine Cerise and I'm not sure which one I like more. Todays review of Cerise shows that it isn't a purply pink with lots of shading like Hope Pink. Cerise is a lovely 'pure' pink, more saturated than Hope Pink, and it also behaved extremely well in both of my Lamy pens. Interestingly, it took longer to dry than Hope Pink, and it showed through on my 100gsm paper. It's still a bright pink, in no way subtle or boring. It's very bright and cheery. The cherries that I buy are a darker colour than this though. This isn't a waterproof ink, and it isn't particularly water resistant. The water was on the grid for about 15 minutes.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, this ink took 11-12 secs to dry.It flows very well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did the swab tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

I have decided to review some of my inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order. This one is Diamine Amaranth. I would call it a bright, slightly purplish, pink. It's a very good colour match to the Amaranth flower. Sorry about my poor drawing representation, but the flower is that sort of shape. If you compare this ink with Pelikan Edelstein Turmaline, you could almost call this a slightly muted or toned-down version. I plan to review Turmaline very soon. Water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the nib used at that time was a 1.1, this ink took 11-12 secs to dry.It flows through the pen well but feels drier on the page than some other Diamine inks. Some may call it slightly chalky. Especially as I have reviewed Bilberry recently which is wet. It still seems to lubricate the nib quite well, although I could hear some feedback. I saw no skips or hard starts from either of the pens that both stayed uncapped while I swapped and changed, and did swabs and comparisons with other inks.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottles. It's also available in cartridges.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price