Ink Review: Diamine Grape

March 6, 2015

I'm currently reviewing some of my favourite Diamine inks. This is Diamine Grape.

This ink is neither waterproof nor archival
Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and I write with a stub nib, this ink took 15-16 secs to dry.
It flows wet and lubricates the nib quite well. No start-up problems noticed.
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.

March 7, 2015

I have a soft spot for Grape. Interestingly, on extended UV exposure, it loses blue and goes redder.

March 7, 2015

Thanks for the review and especially for the comparisons. I came to Grape rather late, after having tried a number of similar purples but not the ones you included here. The latest was Diamine Eclipse, a great ink but practically always too dark.

March 8, 2015

Would you please post again after a day or two to indicate whether this ink continues to behave well in the Prera fine point? For me, it was fine for the first day and started causing problems on the second.

March 9, 2015

I kept the Diamine Grape ink in my Pilot Prera as I said I would. I first part filled the converter on March 5th. Since I wrote the review I haven't written anything with it until today.

March 9, 2015

Out of curiosity, is restarting after a while not more a pen thing rather than an ink thing.

I imagine there is wildly more variation between pens with the same ink than there is between inks in the same pen?

March 9, 2015

Thank you so much for running the experiment! How interesting. My two pens that didn't tolerate this ink were my most reliable daily writers, quickest to start and problem-free. Both are behaving well again now that they have other ink in them. I wonder whether there might be some variation from one bottle of the same ink to another.

I am wary of trying Grape in either of my other fountain pens, but I plan to see how it works with the dip pen I currently have on order. Such a lovely color...

March 9, 2015

I suggest you advise Diamine about the problem to see if they can assist you with a possible solution to it.

Is it possible that you might have had some other type of ink that had remained in the internal feed after a cleaning session, that could have reacted with the Grape when you added it?

I scrupulously clean out my pens when I change inks. It's particularly easy with Pilot pens as their nibs and feeds come out easily. However, they still need soaking to remove all traces of ink from the feed fins.

March 10, 2015

Thank you again for your advice.

The only other ink I had ever used in the Prera was Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki Shikibu, and I admit that the only action I took before changing inks was to flush the pen with water repeatedly (ten times? twelve times?) until the water ran entirely clear. I have written with fountain pens daily for more than twenty years, and I admit that I have never dared to remove the nib and feed. Perhaps it is time to learn how.

March 15, 2015

I am now using this ink with my dip pens (one metal, one glass) and getting interesting results on different kinds of paper. For instance, I had read on the Goulet website and on reddit that Diamine Grape has a green sheen, but the only evidence I observed when using my fountain pens was a dry residue on the pens themselves. With the dip pens, the green sheen is somewhat visible on Alvin isometric graph paper and really dramatic on Tomoe River paper.

March 15, 2015

Thank you again for your advice.

The only other ink I had ever used in the Prera was Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki Shikibu, and I admit that the only action I took before changing inks was to flush the pen with water repeatedly (ten times? twelve times?) until the water ran entirely clear. I have written with fountain pens daily for more than twenty years, and I admit that I have never dared to remove the nib and feed. Perhaps it is time to learn how.

It's so easy to remove the nib and feed of the Pilot Prera, that I don't consider not doing it.

First ensure you don't do it anywhere near to a sink without a plug in it, and remove the converter. Then, assuming you're right handed, hold the pen grip and barrel with your right hand, then grasp the nib and feed with your left hand and just slightly twist and pull them out. Then you can really clean the nib and the feed.

It is for this reason that I only use pens like Pilots that completely and easily dissemble, when I use inks with particles in them.