Ink Review: Diamine Emerald

[Chrissy]

This is my review of Diamine Emerald ink

I decided to try a sample of this ink after I wrote my review of J Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink Emerald of Chivor. The 2 inks are quite different though. It just goes to show different interpretations of what shade Emerald is.

As usual for a Diamine ink, it's a well behaved ink. It's reasonably saturated and shows a little shading, more so with the round M nib. I found it flowed smoothly across the page, and had no problems with lubrication in the Kaweco 1.1 stub or the Reform M that I used.

This ink exhibits no showthrough and no bleedthrough on my thick Xerox ColorPrint paper.

• The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink, but there is a bit of water resistance.

• Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a 1.1 and a M nib, this ink only took 5-10 secs to dry. That's very quick on this smooth paper.

• It flows through the pen well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.

• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or cartridges.

• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

• It's a reasonable price.

[Sasha Royale]

I like Chesterfield Emerald. It is re-bottled Diamine bulk ink. It is especially beautiful in a demonstrator, with sunlight shining through. It writes nicely. It shades a bit from my Reform 1745.

[Cataleya]

Thanks for the review! In my opinion, the typical Emerald would be more like the Diamine Sherwood Green. But even in the real stone you can have so many shades of green...

Fascinating, how different it looks in your Kaweco and the Reform 1745.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review. I think that Diamine Emerald is probably my favorite green ink. Ironically, I tried a sample of Organics Studio L. Frank Baum, and could not comprehend why that ink was called Emerald Green....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[etaylor33]

Unfortunately, I think the Diamine Emerald is my least favorite color I've tried yet. I find the Diamine Sherwood Green to be a much pleasanter looking green. The Emerald didn't look very emerald to me, and it was a great disappointment after the great looking Sherwood Green. It appeared dusky, almost like it had tints of olive drab and wrote very dry. It wrote so dry that I found I was putting more pressure on my pen because of this. And yes, it does dry very quickly. My Metropolitan F usually writes wet, with most inks I've tried, but not with this one.

In fact, I disliked this ink so much that I finally just flushed out the remaining couple of drops to go to Diamine's Asa Blue, which was like the sun shining through after the forty day deluge. NO MORE Diamine Emerald for me. Gotta find some way to get rid of it. Balance of a 30 ml bottle. Thank goodness I just got 30's to try out new inks. The Diamine Asa Blue, Imperial Purple and Sherwood Green are great looking inks. Guess you can't hit a winner every time.