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Hello, This is a first and a mini review. To me personally the colour, shading and sensation are important. Yet, I can forgive many things, if the ink has that ​je ne said quoi factor. In preparing this review, I appreciated many times more, the work of so many reviewers, that I've enjoyed over the years, thank you. From what I understand Red Cashmere, in its powdered form, was the genesis of Black Stone inks, in Australia. I was intrigued by this ink, thinking it would be a nice sheening variation, albeit darker version of Rouge Hematite, but cheaper. My sample came from fountainfeder and it was the first ink I excitedly tried... I was taken aback by the colour as it transformed from a full throated luscious red into dark, almost blackish red. But it grew on me as I played around with it, especially when I could appreciate its shading, which can be quite dramatic, especially in scans. To me it's a reddish version of Ancient Copper. One issue, I found with this ink was startup. Nothing that a dip in a water wouldn't solve, but still. I hope it was a fluke. The ink has low to non water resistance on Tomoe River paper, but can survive pouring taking a short shower on cheap absorbent paper. I used a vintage Conway Stewart with OB flex nib and Jinhao 450, with a medium nib for my testing and Rhodia notebook. I wish I had other dark reds, shading inks to compare with, but I will leave that to the more seasoned members of this forum. Close up photo: Water test on cheap amazon copy paper... Notes that Amethyst de L'Oural with a fude nib, feathered into a bird..... Before After Most survived the water...but with Tomoe River they just washed out..... Before After - Yours ink-ly Bob

I have decided to review some of my inks. Today I selected two red wine associated inks. This one is Syrah. I compared this ink with Diamine Amaranth, and with Diamine Flowers Gift set Burgundy Rose. They are both slightly more red whereas Syrah leans towards the pinky purple side of the red spectrum. If I could only have one out of Merlot or Syrah, I would choose Syrah. It's a really nice pinky purple shade. Less dark than it's name suggests. The 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 was a Lamy medium, this ink dried quite quickly: 6-9 secs to dryIt flows neither wet, nor chalky and lubricates the nib well. I noticed no problems with flow start-up or drying out, or lubrication.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price

Oh, and I'm producing a low cost, high performance flex pen, and need your input! Do you love flex? Please, if you haven't seen it already, complete this survey for one of seven chances to win a prototype! I had a sample of Diamine Syrah rattling around for ages. When I first tried it, I used it in a Leuchtturm1917, and a Lamy fine nib, and I was blown away, I was in love. A few days later I tried it in a Lamy broad, and I was…underwhelmed. I decided to do a thorough review in the hopes that I could make up my mind at last over whether I should invest in a bottle. This is me messing around with my Waterman frankenpen on some Tomoe River Paper with Syrah. Here are couple more close up pics so you can see the sheen and how it lays down on the paper.

When I buy a new pen, it is often with a particular ink in mind. About a month ago, I bought a Pelikan M400 White Tortoise with an M nib with the intention of inking it up with some black ink, and it's currently happily inked up with Aurora Black. Then I bought a Pelikan M200 with a B nib with the intention of inking it up with some Diamine Syrah, which I thought would look gorgeous if used with a broad wet nib. Alas, the M200 B nib turned out to be awfully dry, so much so that it turned Syrah's rich burgundy color into something rather pink. After much tinkering (think: flushing, brass shim work, ink changes), I found that my M200 works decently well with Aurora Black. Granted, it makes Aurora Black look lighter than Waterman Intense Black looks in some of my wetter pens , but then, I've always been a "black is black is black is black" kind of gal, so I don't particularly mind. Except that now I have two broad-ish nibbed pens inked up with black ink, and none with Syrah, which made me consider inking up the M400 with Syrah. But! My M400 is a white pen. Diamine Syrah is a red-ish ink. You see where I'm going with this... So here's my question: will Diamine Syrah stain my pen? Has anyone tried using this ink with a white pen (or with a demonstrator)? Did anything bad happen? Reason for editing: spelling

Hey folks, I'm working through the bottles of ink that Franklin-Christoph gave me to review, and this is the third. (You can see Dark Denim and Olde Emerald on FPN or on my blog.) I tried this ink out in a bunch of different nibs, and it definitely works better in a wet, broad nib. It's a great color if you're looking for a wine to add to your ink cellar. Check out the full review on Inkdependence.com.