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Right so I was looking through my drawer one day and found a bottle of Sheaffer Red, Black, Royal Blue and Brown. I thought I should attempt at making something like Diamine Oxblood from these inks. It turned out AMAZING. The ink shades beautifully and the colour is way too good. Hope you'll enjoy Right. So the ink is very smooth and it writes beautifully. It's got a good dry time and shades well as well, you can zoom in on the uploaded photo if you like. So overall, these are the scores I'd give it: Smoothness: 4/5 Wetness: 4/5 Shading: 5/5 Drying time: 3/5 That gives us 18/20, which is quite respectable IMO. Attaching the file so you can download it if you want to.

Another quickie ink review, on one type of paper only, while I'm testing my (Extra) Fine-nibbed pens and trying to figure out what I want to do with my full ink reviews... Flow: Well/'wet' enough, such that writing produced with the Platinum DP-1000AN with EF nib does not appear dry, and the differences in colour intensity from the various EF nibs I used are not as pronounced as with other inks. Feathering: Effectively none on the Rhodia paper I used, even though the nib on the Sailor 11-0073-120 desk pen is so rough it tore through the coating on the surface of the paper, and got some fibres caught up between the tines a few times: Bleedthrough: Effectively none on the Rhodia paper I used. Drying time: Quick. After 10 seconds, smearing from rubbing with a dry fingertip was negligible. Water resistance: Not much. Shading: Not a whole lot from EF nibs, which is another testament to the ink being 'wet'. Sheen: There is a much darker outline visible when excess ink dries on the page, but not so different in hue than the ink itself that I'd call it sheen.

I have been looking to develop my "Warm Earth" tones in general and my red earths in particular. Diamine seemed to have some good options (I have my "Cold Stone" colors from De Atramentis). I couldn't really find a good comparison so I narrowed it down to the few that I was most interested in and plumped for 30ml bottles rather than samples. It's neither scientific nor thorough, but I thought I would post my initial impressions as I couldn't find anything similar. . . . . which is a scan but the colors for Ochre and Rustic Brown are not true at all. I tried taking a photo, which is a much more fiddly process, but the colors seem truer: Two more bricks that I didn't like on the first page - I thought the Copper was rather strong! The Monaco Red might be a bit too pink in that one? Anyway it seems I have added the following to my "Sub-Tertiary Color Circle": Yellow Earths: Sepia and Ochre Orange Earths: Burnt Sienna and Ancient Copper Red Earths: Oxblood & Monaco Red (both still tending to orange - which is what I was looking for!) I don't have any "True Reds"! Rustic Brown I would count as a Rose - it's really on the purple end (where my sample of Morinda seemed to fit too). On the Orange front I also have Autumn Oak, a decent Coral (house blend!) and an Orange with a cute elephant on the label, but as these aren't anywhere near "brick" they did not seem relevant here. Hmmm, the only thing I might add is that this is my "cheap scribbling" paper (Daiso - great cheap paper for ink work!) rather than anything fancy, so the colors are a bit flatter than they might be elsewhere.

Hello mein inky friends. Today I have quite the conundrum. I recently received some diamine oxblood, alongside a cross aventura and zebra r301. The ink flows fine in the cross and my old pilot parallel, but my zebra r301, which is supposed to be a broad .8 mm, is putting out a dry line of peachish ink at around .5 mm. I had previously used noodler's bulletproof black without any problems, but I soon found that I did not clean out the r301 well enough and it began writing black. It eventually kept lightening until it became the sickening earthen colour it is now. I thought this was do to leftover water and thought nothing of it, but now the pen writes terribly. I believe it may have been clogged somehow. If so, are there any ways to fix it? Feel free to move this thread if I am in the incorrect section; I did not know which board to post this in, but thought you guys would have the most experience.

Another Oxblood review... http://lh5.ggpht.com/-6Qomou8mdjQ/Uf4YR1LHGXI/AAAAAAAABFk/-yMMqQ6qe6U/Oxblood1.jpg?imgmax=800 Subjective Why I like Oxblood: The sheer depth of bloody colour when laid on thickA dark red that works for markup but also notes and is fairly easy on the eye (if you can stand the sight of blood)Clean up isn't too onerous, unlike a lot of red inkAnother ink that flows and lubricates wellObjective Pens Lamy Safari and Vista with OM, OB and 1.5mm italic nibs. Sheaffer 300 medium. The OM and OB were used in my Evergreen review. The Vista is relatively wet and the Sheaffer is probably the wettest pen I own. Paper Rhodia Bloc No. 16, 5x5 grid. Also a scrap of generic copier paper for showing bleed through. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_r_UhdypLXc/UiMwj97JveI/AAAAAAAABLA/9fjyqRYSmEo/s400/oxblood.jpgLike any ink the wetness of a pen will affect how this ink looks; unlike Evergreen I don't really like the product of a dry writer. The line from the OM nib is an insipid pink rust colour. It really needs a wet nib to do the ink justice. Feathering and Bleeding It more or less holds itself together even from a wet pen on copier paper, and doesn't bleed through badly. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-05ypNYoqloc/UiMwsCVs9NI/AAAAAAAABLI/8McC_jyeUyc/s320/oxblood_copier.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0qY71LvVIgA/UiMwyYIFG0I/AAAAAAAABLQ/tqQ5vpSOE8M/s320/oxblood_bleed.jpgFlow and Lubrication Superb, with lubrication just a hair less than Evergreen. Very nice. Water Resistance Well... http://lh3.ggpht.com/-uT3nfVt0jGU/UiMwOia97JI/AAAAAAAABKo/6a5RbS3QGSs/Oxblood-rinse1.jpg?imgmax=800 http://lh6.ggpht.com/-gYIUv_Y7zFk/UiMwPG5aDuI/AAAAAAAABKw/b0mJcngQNVM/Oxblood-rinse2.jpg?imgmax=800 http://lh5.ggpht.com/-erLo9zpieCY/UiMwP3KaUUI/AAAAAAAABK4/CVgRDK9iNAE/Oxblood-water.jpg?imgmax=800 Only the wettest lines have any residue. This was after about a minute of running water. Dry lines stand no chance... Cleaning Despite the poor water resistance the ink took a while to flush out completely, but it didn't stain. Generally OK. Summary Everyone seems to love Oxblood. I think it's a great colour but it's not as versatile as Evergreen owing to the performance in dry nibs. For a drier pen I'd choose Red Dragon which is similarly dark but has more character when thinly laid on. But that's just my preference. As Evergreen is my benchmark, here's how Oxblood compares: Flow and Lubrication: as goodVersatility: slightly less due to unremarkable colour in dry pensClean up: slightly harder to remove, but not badWater Resistance: slightly improved, but still very poorVerdict: a very appealing colour that will get regular use in a limited number of pens. Also on my blog.

Just a quick one, as I bought some DDR to make up the postage when ordering DD Purple (oh noes, more ink). I've compared Red Dragon and Oxblood before on my blog. Difference between those and DDR is subtle, to say the least. Scans are a bit more saturated than normal light but you get the idea. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oQquYmTTg6o/UtrBCjrNdqI/AAAAAAAABR4/9gUnwvHKEu8/s1600/red.jpg

I'm currently reviewing some of my favourite Diamine inks. This is Diamine Oxblood. It's not quite as red as Red Dragon, but I think it's also a reasonable alternative for Montblanc Hitchcock. In fact it's more saturated. This ink is neither waterproof nor archivalBearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and I write with a stub nib, this ink took 14-16 secs to dry.It flows quite wet and lubricates the nib quite well.It is currently available in 30ml plastic bottles and 80ml glass bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's reasonably priced.

I have always liked reddish-brown inks. Maybe it is because I associate this color with Lloyd Reynolds who turned me to the Italic side. I like using them as everyday inks. This doesn't work if they are too brown, in my opinion. It certainly doesn't work if they are too red,although maybe that's true just in Western-European cultures. Having just received my first bottle of Akkerman Garuda Red, I did a comparison of it with the other reddish-brown inks I have on hand for my own edification. Although you cannot get a real feel for attributes like dryness from my worksheet, it does give a sense of the subtle gradation of color, I hope. Sheaffer Red was included to have a purer red with which to compare the other inks. Here is a closer look at the inks arranged in a spectrum: When first laid down and still wet, the Black Swan in English Roses is more red than Garuda Red, but it becomes more brown as it dries and, compared to Garuda Red, has more shading. Compared to both Garuda Red and Oxblood, BSinER is slightly more yellow. Oxblood also gets redder as it dries. But these three inks - Garuda Red, Black Swan in English roses and Oxblood - are quite similar in color. If I had arranged these three in order of dryness, they would be in the same order, with Garuda Red the driest, at least in the pens in which each was loaded. I have favorite pens for BSinER (a CS Belliver) and Beaver (a Nakaya Decapod). I haven't used the other inks enough to have paired them with preferred pens yet. I'm glad I did this comparison. I hope some others also find it helpful or, at least, of interest. Happy writing! David

I like Oxbood...but it is a bit brown especially in some pens in which it looks only brown. I have seen Red Dragon and it appears beautiful more more red than dark red. Oxblood is dried blood. Red Dragon looks like fresh blood. I am looking for the colour of clotting blood (and yes, I do know exactly what that looks like). Had anyone experimented with mixing these 2 colours, and if so, what ratio worked best? (I do not want to buy a totally different ink so not looking for a Noodler's suggestion for example)

Do you know of a blue that behaves and flows like Diamine Oxblood? Preferably a medium blue, that is wet and flows easily. A dark or light blue would be alright, but I prefer dark or medium. I'm open to shading. Thanks!

I have two new pens arriving next week - a Teal Pilot 78G and a much lusted-after TWSBI Diamond 580. I have some Diamine Oxblood that I used to use for marking school books before I switched to Kelly Green, and some Onyx Black as well. So, where does the Oxblood go, and where does the black? My initial reaction is the Oxblood in the 78G and the black in the TWSBI. I think the deep, dark red of the Oxblood would play out nicer in a stub, and the black would make for a better everyday scribbler. What do you all think?