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Today I'm reviewing SBRE Brown ink. It's manufactured by Diamine and retailed exclusively by Akkerman inks. SBRE Brown is a yellow/brown ink. Instead of comparing it against brown inks, I think it looks most similar to Diamine Ochre (aka Conway Stewart Kingsand.) It's an attractive shade, ideal for writers who don't like reddish brown inks. Flow Rate: Good. Felt neither wet nor dry in the pen & paper combinations I used..Lubrication: Good with all 3 nibs I used, on several different papers.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Not a saturated ink.Shading Potential: Some seen.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through:Clairefontaine Crokbook Paper (not much. Writing on both sides would be acceptable.)Midori paper.Oxford paper.Rhodia Graph paper.Tomoe River 52gsm paper.Cheaper generic 80 & 90gsm printer papers & lined pads.Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: None seen.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days - very easy clean-upStaining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but has good water resistance.Availability: Available from Akkerman Inks web-site in 120ml bottles. For UK buyers the cost is £35 including VAT & P&P.

My latest ink is Diamine Ochre I've never used Diamine Ochre before. However I have received letters from penpals written with Conway Stewart Kingsand, that is the same ink, and I decided I really liked it. So I decided to try a sample. It's a saturated reddish ochre earth colour with plenty of shading. It's less red than Diamine Ancient Copper and looks darker and more brown than Diamine Terracotta and Montblanc Carlo Collodi. It's like dark sand on a sandy beach.It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. It lubricated the nib very well, but the flow felt slightly dry, as these red ochre type colours seem to be. It's a very water resistant ink. I could still see all of the writing, even after over 30 minutes, and though I blotted my water test with a piece of kitchen roll, the ink dots in the centre of the water test were still legible. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows very good water resistance, as do many inks in this colour range.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy F nib and a 1.1mm nib, this ink took 12-16 secs to dry. That's about average on this paper.It felt maybe a little drier than some other inks I've reviewed, but still flowed and lubricated the nib well enough. 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 bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.