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Kakimori is a stationary shop in Tokyo Japan. They have a range of inks and stationery, which epitomizes Japanese minimalism and elegance. They also make personalized handmade inks and notebooks, a specialized dip pen nib and nib holders. Their pigment line comes in beautiful bottles: Courtesy of Kakimori store. This is the least beautiful ink in bottle. It is surprising that such an unflattering colour can transform into such a light and joyous orange. According to them: "A perfect omelette reveals its deliciously soft centre. Torori is the colour of anticipation, describing a rich consistency overflowing with flavour." I thought I wouldn’t like this light orange ink. But surprisingly it’s fun to sketch or doodle with. As a writing ink, I found it only enjoyable with a broad nib . But even then, it’s not comfortable to read for me. However, if you want to write unwanted thoughts, or a vengeance letter, with fine nib to make the reader suffer, it's a good for that Ink is dry, wet and has long dry times and is easy to clean. Lets start with Chroma: Writing samples: Text is from The Art of Peace, by Morihei Ueshiba translated by John Stevens. Photos: Watertest: Comparison: I did a tiny doodle, to show it works well as an accent ink. The blue ink is Noodler's Lermontov. Here is another sketch: A tear for the sacred fire: Ink are Kakimori Torori Noodler's Lermontov J Herbin Larmes de Cassis Paper is Fabriano Water-colour · Pens used: Pilot Elite (Ef/Stub) Lamy Safari (Ef/F/M/B), Jinhao 450 with an Ahab nib. · What I liked: Great for drawing. Enjoyable with broad nib. Very easy to clean. · What I did not like: It’s not easy to read, especially with finer nibs. Not good for note taking. · What some might not like: Dry, long dry times. Ugly colour in the bottle. Not recommended for heavy handed writers or overwriter lefties. · Shading: With wider nibs · Ghosting: None. · Bleed through: None · Flow Rate: Wet · Lubrication: On the dry side. · Nib Dry-out: None. · Start-up: None · Saturation: Light · Shading Potential: With wide nibs, some. · Sheen: None. · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: None · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Nope. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: No. · Cleaning: Easy · Water resistance: Very good. · Availability: 30 ml bottles. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

The fact that the autumn leaves are falling reminded me that I have Diamine Autumn Oak in my Lamy AL-Star Copper Orange FP and have not reviewed it yet. The pen has been filled for quite a while, so the ink may have darkened slightly but it's now a lovely autumnal colour. Not yellow, but a darkish orangey golden brown. It's truly an autumnal ink. I've written with it on different papers to show you the effect on a paper you might have. My Tomoe River notebook has heavier TR paper in it. I think it might be 68grams, but I'm not sure of that. These are photos not scans and have been corrected using Photoshop. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.It exhibited very good flow and lubrication and I found it particularly smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It exhibited excellent shading.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.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Coral ink. Diamine Coral is from the standard ink range. It’s an interesting colour. Bright and vibrant. Think the colour of cooked salmon, a pink that’s almost orange. Or an orange that is almost pink. Although it’s not a dark colour it’s still a saturated ink. I found it flowed very well with all of the pens I tried it in, felt quite wet to write with, and it’s lubrication was nicely smooth across the page. I noticed nice shading, plus an element of pinkish sheen that seems to have a halo effect around the ink. My review was written on 100gsm smooth coated paper, that is not very absorbent. I saw no spread or feathering, no show-through, no bleedthrough. The lines were crisp, it didn’t take long to dry on most of the papers I tried it on. On Tomoe River 52gsm paper it took 12-15 seconds to dry and that was it’s slowest dry time. It's not sold as a waterproof ink and it showed no water resistance at all. It stained my hands, particularly near to my fingernails. It took me several washes with bar soap before my hands were clean. It didn’t stain my pens or the insides of my converters that I rinsed out with warm water as usual. On Field Notes paper it didn’t spread or feather. Writing on the reverse side of all of the papers I used would be acceptable as show-through doesn't look as bad on paper than when it is scanned and shown on screen. I’ve seen some reviews of Diamine Coral that make it look more cerise pink than it is. It’s not like Diamine Cerise ink, and I included that ink for comparison to show you the difference between Cerise and Coral. Two inks that look close to Diamine Coral are Noodler’s Dragon’s Napalm and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu gaki. Winter Persimmon is a good description of the colour of Diamine Coral. Lamy Coral is more red and so is De Atramentis Coral Red. Flow Rate: Very good- quite wet.Lubrication: Very good - felt smooth across the page.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Saturated.Shading Potential: Some shading seen particularly with F nib.Sheen: Some sheen with a pink halo effect.Show-Through:Oxford paperField NotesTomoe River 52gsm paperSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used, even Field Notes.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen.Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up.Staining (hands): This can stain your hands. Use bar soap for several washes or Lava soap.Clogging: Not seen.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, and shows no water resistance.Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

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.

As I plug my last cartridge of Lamy Copper Orange into my Al-Star, I start to consider replacements. So I have to ask: which inks the network believes are good look-alikes for Lamy Copper Orange? Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!

The Chesterfield Fire Opal was way too bright for me. So, I toned it down a bit. This combo is Chesterfield Fire Opal + Super Copper + Bright Gold + Black Pigment. The dust I used in this is Pearl Ex. http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g318/AlteredPaper/Ferris%20Wheel%20Kisses/11402266_10153462542691934_8234333748470623799_o_zpsr8gsmkvk.jpg

Kaweco sent me a Kaweco Classic Sport Red FP in exchange for an honest review, and they included a pack of Sunrise Orange ink cartridges in the box. So I thought some of you might like to see it. I have reviewed the Kaweco Classic Sport here and used a writing sample of this ink in that review. Here it is again: I gave the pen a couple of shakes after inserting the cartridge, and it wrote straight away. Sometimes you need to squeeze a little water through Kaweco Sport pens before writing with them, but I didn't do this. The ink flowed quite smoothly, and lubricated the nib quite well without a hard start or any skipping. I saw plenty of shading in the ink. It felt slightly dryer that some other inks that I have used lately, but I don't find any of my Kaweco Sport pen and Kaweco ink combinations to be wet. The orange ink colour is attractive, and isn't so bright as to be retina searing. In fact, compared with some of the orange inks I've tried before, it's quite sophisticated and restrained. The ink didn't show through on any of the papers that I tried it with, apart from the 50gsm Tomoe River, and all inks seem to show through on that paper. It didn't bleed through on any of the papers I tried it with. It dried fairly quickly on all of the papers. Comparison swab tests of orange inks: Picture of cartridge pack: Chroma tests with water for comparison. Left to Right: Diamine Marigold, Diamine Orange, Diamine Pumpkin, Diamine Sunset, Kaweco Sunrise Orange, KWZ Orange, Montblanc Ink of Joy, Montblanc Gandhi, Noodler's Operation Overlord Orange, Sailor Apricot. (Note: If you notice the ink dots on the chroma tests, this was an accident after the chroma tests were dry)

Kaweco Classic Sport Red FP Review Source Kaweco sent me this pen in return for an honest review. The Sunrise Orange ink cartridges were included in the box. History (reproduced from the Kaweco web-site) Kaweco - In 1883 the manufacturer of high-quality writing instruments was founded in Heidelberg Germany. Kaweco has been producing a wide range of fine writing pens and has been setting a great value on classy design and high standard manufacturing. The first Kaweco Sport was founded in 1912 as a pocket fountain pen for ladies, officers and sportsmen. In 1930 the brands and models of Kaweco and Aurumia fused and the Ka We Co three part circle emerged. This circle is still used today on nearly all of it’s pens. Even Sepp Herberger already appreciated these characteristics. It was with a Kaweco Sport that the former coach of the German national soccer team wrote on a piece of paper his winning tactics which brought the Germans to the world cup in 1954. In 1993 H & M Gutberlet GmbH made it’s first prototypes for a relaunch of the Kaweco Sport under the name Trekking, but gained and registered the rights to rename as Kaweco in 1994. The Kaweco Sport was newly produced as a cartridge holder in 1995, but the design remained the same as the 1935 model. In 2000 the first Limited Sport edition was produced in green celluloid, and the AL Sport as well as the Art Sport were launched in 2003. Kaweco's product range is perfectly described by the keywords "tradition" and “innovation" Appearance and Design The Kaweco Classic Sport starts off as a small and compact pen until you remove it’s octagonal shaped cap, and replace it on the end of the barrel to make a decent sized fountain pen in your hand. It's one of the very few fountain pens that I use with a posted cap. The Classic Sport range differs from the Skyline range in having gold plated accents. I usually tend to prefer gold plated to platinised accents, so this suits me very well. I also like the very attractive milled edge on the end of the barrel. Kaweco supply a standard 23kt gold plated steel nib unit, with iridium tip, with this pen, that matches it’s Kaweco gold plated metal cap emblem as well as the gold coloured ‘Kaweco Sport’ script on the barrel. This pen is bright red. You can buy this pen with or without a matching gold plated clip. It comes in a standard sized Kaweco Sport cardboard box. Construction and quality Although this pen is made from plastic, it feels well made and quite substantial in your hand and performs as well as many full sized pens. It’s lightweight, but not at all flimsy, and it has a nice size, well shaped grip. The cap is intended to be posted on the barrel for all Sport pens and the pen feels nicely balanced in your hand when the cap is posted on the barrel. As always with Kaweco Sport pens, the cap and the barrel screw together very well for a close fit, on smoothly machined screw threads. Weight and Dimensions Weight: 10grams. Measurements: Closed; 105mm, Posted; 135mm, Nib; 17mm. Nib and Performance The 23kt gold plated steel nib units for this pen come as a complete section, as opposed to the screw in nib and feed units that Kaweco make for their metal Sport pens. So you can swap any complete nib unit into this pen. You can usually buy them from Kaweco stockists. They are available in nib sizes EF/F/M/B/BB I found this nib wrote after a couple of shakes as soon as I fitted a cartridge. I was really impressed with the smoothness of the nib, that needed no adjustment at all. It gave me a smooth writing experience that rivalled that of some gold nibs in more expensive pens. There is no flex with these steel nibs, but I don’t really mind that. Filling system and Maintenance Kaweco sent me a couple of pens to review, and in with them are two packs of cartridges in two brand new colours. These are Sunrise Orange and Smokey Grey. I selected a Sunrise Orange cartridge for the Red Classic Sport. The cartridges are standard International Short cartridge size. If you’re looking for a pen with a sophisticated piston filling system, then you might be disappointed with this pocket-sized pen. Kaweco make two different converters that would fit this pen, the Kaweco Squeeze converter "Sport" and the Kaweco mini converter. However, I only used the Sunrise Orange cartridge with it for the purposes of this review. I find that both types of Sport converters generally contain less ink than a cartridge, but either one is useful if you want to use bottled ink. It isn’t a difficult pen to clean out. I just used an ear bulb and pushed some lukewarm water through it to clean out the ink after I had used it. The ink was non staining and it is an attractive addition to the Kaweco range of ink colours Cost and Value I found this pen for sale at WeLovePens for £17.99 in the UK. I think thats a reasonable price to pay for this pen. It’s an average online price for the Kaweco Classic or Skyline Sport range. Overall Opinion Kaweco Sport pens have a really good screw cap that prevents their cartridges from drying out, and I have always liked that in these pens. I also like the way they are compact pocket sized pens that extend into good size pens that are easy to write with. If you want a clip or a converter they are available separately, but I find it as easy to refill cartridges from bottled ink with a syringe, as using the converters that are made to fit this pen. I'm quite a fan of Kaweco Sport pens and have a small collection of them. So, all in all, I really like this pen and I would recommend it especially if you like bright red pens to go with your red inks. Writing sample: Kaweco Sunrise Orande Ink (cartridge)

I did this little written look at Skrip Orange since there wasn't one up in the review list. Here's a photo of the 1st two (of 3) paragraphs: I had included a scan of the whole page but the scan is too red so I've left it out. This photo is much closer but still a little off in that the ink has just a little more yellow to it. The ink is on the watery side but dried fairly quickly on the BnR, looks a little flat once it dries. Noticeable show-through on cheap memo. Some shading, as you can see. With all the nice oranges out there, there's no particular reason to pick this one, unless you have a Sheaffer cartridge pen. I find it rather pleasant in its own way; it's a happy color and it actually looks better in person than the photo suggests.

KRISHNA MANGAL The review is simultaneously posted at my blog here : LINK Krishna Mangal – Ink Bottle (old style) In Indian Fountain Pen industry or Circles, Dr. Sreekumar is quite known for his hand-turned fountain pens and almost 20 types of nib tuning. However recently he has shelved in to making fountain pen inks under the brand name of KRISHNA. These inks are sold on eBay India Page for Rs. 550 (8 USD) each for 5 Nos. 30 ml ink bottle plus shipping. Now they come in new glass bottles. Krishna Ink – New Glass Bottle The inks that are being produced have now increased to 35 nos. and even certain names have changed. Krishna Inks – 35 Colors The new names are as follows: Pencil Neelambal Dark Chocolate Purple Lake Blue Vivid violet Sapphire Ruby Monsoon Sky Pink Barleria Summer Rain Silent Night Sky Bronze Leaf Wild Cherry Pumpkin Nilwanti Cool Breeze Gold Rush Orange Crush After Dark Yellow Valley Glory Vine Dark Rose Magic Blue Orchard Lily Writer’s Night Peacock Neelkurinhi Emerald Mangal Dew Leaf Njaval Meadow Green Ghat Green Officer’s Blue Black I would like to thank Dr. Sreekumar for sending me the samples and also for the effort that he has put in seeing the limited resources at his disposal. This review is of Mangal ink which is very close to terracotta brick tiles used here in India for roofing. I am in love with this colour. It actually has grown on me. It is not that orangish that will make the ink bright but yes just gives you look of burnt brick. This did not gave me any nib creep problem like Diamine orange inks. INK SPLASH Krishna Mangal – Ink Splash on JK Cedar 100 gsm I love Pastel orange colour ink. DROP ON PAPER NAPKIN Krishna Mangal – Ink Drop on Paper Towel COLOUR MATCH Krishna Mangal – Colour Range WRITING SAMPLES Krishna Mangal – Writing Sample on JK Cedar 100 gsm Krishna Mangal – Writing Sample on JK Cedar 100 gsm – Angled View The ink even shades in medium and fine nibs. Ink has got no sheen and does not feather. Flow is superb. INK SWABS Krishna Mangal – Ink Passes on JK Cedar - 100 gsm Krishna Mangal – Ink Swab on Jk Cedar - 100 gsm Krishna Mangal –Scribble on JK Cedar -100 gsm WATERPROOF TEST Krishna Mangal – Waterproof Test Ink is not water resistant at all. INK DRYING TIMES Krishna Mangal – Ink Drying Times Well surprisingly the ink drying times are quite low. Just around 20 seconds. BLOW UP WRITING SAMPLES Krishna Mangal – Blow up Writing Sample on JK Cedar 100 gsm Krishna Mangal – Blow up Writing Sample on JK Cedar 100 gsm - Angled View There is no feathering of this Ink as you can see from this close-up. CONCLUSION: Its a lovely colour and I can think of Diamine Ancient Copper to be of similar colour. The ink behaves very well with no crud or feathering or even staining. This ink flows really well and is moderately lubricated (of course not as great as sailor inks). However these are well worth the money. Kudos to Dr. Sreekumar. Beautiful ink which has lovely shading. Following are the summation of ink properties: Feathering : NoSheen : NoShading : Good amountLubrication : ModerateFlow : GoodWater Resistance : BadDrying Times : GoodNib Creep : NoClogging : NoneOdor : None Feedback and Comments are welcome. The ink can be bought from the ebay store of Krishna Pens. Link is given below. LINK TO EBAY STORE : KRISHNAPENS

My latest ink is Diamine Amber I thought I would try Diamine Amber because I found a bottle of Pelikan Edelstein Amber last year and I really like the colour. So I wanted to see if Diamine Amber was similar. However, I found it more of a yellow/orange than P.E. Amber and less saturated than Diamine Marigold (that I also have to review) and Sheaffer King's Gold. It has that very bright eye-popping tone in it like Montblanc Gandhi and Diamine Pumpkin that my scanner finds almost impossible to reproduce. I tried my best to make as many adjustments as I could to get it as close as possible to the colour of the ink I see on the paper. On the whole, I think Amber should be a little more brown than this in order for it to look like it's namesake. It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. It lubricated the nib well enough, flowed well and didn't feel at all dry when I was writing with it. However, it took longer to dry than I thought it would. As with many yellow/orange inks it can be a bit difficult to read, particularly if you like F or EF nibs. So if you use it you may want to try it in a broader nib as that makes it easier to read. As you can see if you compare the writing from my 1.1 stub and my F nib. On the other hand, I've seen many inks that are more difficult to read than this one. So it's not so bad. It's not water resistant at all. It washed away after less than 30 seconds. So I wouldn't recommend using it for addressing postcards or envelopes in wet weather areas. Neither waterproof nor water resistant.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy F nib, M nib and a 1.1mm stub nib, this ink took 18-20 secs to dry. That's slower than some other inks I've reviewed recently.It's not a very saturated ink. There are some gold and orange inks that are more saturated than this one.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.

My latest ink is Diamine Gerbera from the Flowers Set. I decided I should try to complete reviewing the Flower set inks, as I have reviewed all of the Music set inks. I find the Flowers set consists of brightly coloured inks whereas the Music set are more muted. So maybe I'm not always in the mood to write with brightly coloured inks. I decided to use Diamine Pumpkin, Caran d'Ache Infra Red and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki as my comparison inks this time. Gerbera is a pinkish orangey shade, Pumpkin is bright orange, Caran d'Ache Infra Red is a pinkish scarlet red, and Pilot iroshizuku Fuyu-gakei is a salmon colour, unfortunately one that didn't come out as well on my scan as the others. I cleaned out and refilled my orange Lamy Nexx M with it's 1.1mm nib for Gerbera, but I immediately found the ink dryer than Pumpkin. It didn't glisten and flow along the line while I was writing as Pumpkin did, and I felt like I had to work a little harder to write than I had with that orange ink. I was quite surprised at the difference. Maybe it needs a wetter pen? It's a nice colour though. Not saturated. I know some like less saturated inks. It's certainly easier on the eye than Pumpkin. It also has some rather nice shading. Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows a little water resistance for a relatively unsaturated ink.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a 1.1 stub nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.I found this ink a bit on the dry side in this particular pen. However, I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 30ml glass bottles within the Flowers gift set, or in 30ml plastic refill bottles from Diamine.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

Is there an orange ink that matches Rhodia Orange? Thanks.

Here's a nice, heavily shading ink from Private Reserve that I enjoyed reviewing. However, I still think Apache Sunset—more saturated, even heavier shading—is the better orangey/yellowy ink. Apache Sunset is the benchmark by which all other shade-heavy orange/yellow inks are judged. Still though, Shoreline Gold is a great ink most definitely worth a try. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/547/rd75.jpg Please remember to vote on this ink in the poll!

Using bright ORANGE Iroshizuku Fuyu gaki to be assured the Broncos WIN! "It's only weird if it doesn't work!" Super Bowl here we come!