Review: Diamine Onyx Black Ink

[biffybeans]

Click Here for full review with pictures.

 

Diamine New Century Onyx Black ink tested in an off-white ruled Paperblanks journal with an EF Lamy Safari fountain pen.

 

IMHO - the darkest, most saturated of Diamine's 3 black inks. In fact, it seems as though it may even be darker than Herbin's Perle Noire - my current favorite black ink because of its saturation and flow.

 

Right now, I have this Onyx ink in one of my favorite Lamy Safari's and it's flowing effortlessly. Very saturated and I can't really see any shading.

 

This ink may beat out the Herbin as my favorite black ink. I've noticed that the Perle Noire will sometimes push through on certain papers. If the Onyx does not, it just might become my number one black ink. Further tests & comparisons will need to be performed but for now, I am definitely keeping this one.

 

Buy Diamine Inks in the UK at The Writing Desk or directly from Diamine and in the US from The Pear Tree Pen Company Ink is sold in 80ml glass bottles, 30 ml plastic bottles, and selected colors are available in cartridge form.

[1000km]

I also initially thought that I had found a black ink to challenge Herbin and Aurora. Great flow, nice smoothness - a deep, velvety black.

 

Then I flushed out my favourite Pelikan only to find that this ink had stained it an ugly dark red. I was only able to remove it with lots of scrubbing with an ammonia solution.

 

I would advise against using this ink in all but the most disposable of fountain pens.

[uzkntuocmw]

How does it compare blackness-wise to Private Reserve's Fast Dry Ultra Black? That's the blackest black I've found so far (considerably blacker than Perle Noire), but I've had all kinds of problems with it being too runny for Lamy F nibs.

 

I notice you said the flow was fine -- the only one of the Diamine blacks I've tried was Quartz Black, a long time ago, and I've yet to find a pen with which I can write with it at all. That put me off Diamine black, although I've never had any issues like that with any other Diamine ink.