5 Best Diamine Inks

[A Smug Dill]

I wonder if a lot of posters here are placing diamine inks in their top 5 based on how unique those inks are or how well they serve a particular need in the context of what other companies offer.

That has to go right back to which question was asked and/or which question someone is answering (if even it wasn't specifically the one that was posed), no?

 

The fact is that Oxblood, Red Dragon, Green-Black, Sherwood Green and Evergreen were the first five Diamine inks I ever ordered, selected based on whether I was attracted to what I saw in respective reviews for them online, out of hundreds of others I could have chosen; and, now that I have used it, I certainly don't dislike Oxblood for either its aesthetic qualities or its performance; I always have it on the ready in this gold-nibbed pen or that, whereas I haven't put Evergreen in any pen for over a year.

 

Of course, I already had/have plenty of other non-Diamine inks at that point.

 

But if you had only diamine inks to choose from, would those be in your top 5?

 

Does that mean one can only have five inks, and they all have to be Diamine inks? Or that if one could have as many Diamine inks as one likes (say, in excess of one hundred) but no inks of any other brand, which five would be considered best in performance and/or quality, even if the inks are all (say) black and blue-black, but one also needs a green ink and a red ink for some everyday, concrete use case?

 

Or, flipping it around, if I really need a decent black ink and a sombre blue ink for everyday use cases for work, would I put all reds and greens in my "top 5"? I can't see why not, if I can have 150 Diamine inks in my collection, including black and blue inks that satisfy my requirements for those use cases even though I don't think they're the best inks of any colour, in terms of performance or outstanding qualities, that Diamine has to offer as a brand.

 

If the question was, "I'm going to buy only five inks (ever, or to get myself started), and try to satisfy as many of my requirements as possible. I'm looking at Diamine inks because I can buy them cheaply per bottle as well as per unit volume, and thus minimise my spend. Which five would you suggest I get?" then I wouldn't be entertaining the question or answering it at all.

 

It occurs to me that I rarely see anyone talk about Diamine blacks. Do they just make garbage black inks? I have not tried one, partly because it never comes up in lists of recommended black inks.

 

I haven't tried any Diamine black inks myself.

I don't assume Diamine's black inks are "garbage", worthless or bad. I simply don't see anything remarkable about them in reviews; and I already have more than enough black inks of other brands, many of which I would gladly recommend.

Edited August 30, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[RJS]

I'm going to buy some 30ml bottles of Diamine, and maybe one bigger bottle, to get myself free postage on an order, so this thread made interesting reading. What would everyone recommend out of the following:

* Diamine Steel Blue

* Diamine Red Dragon

* Diamine Midnight Hour

* Diamine Blue Velvet

* Diamine Ancient Copper

* Diamine Twilight

* Diamine Asa Blue

* Diamine Bilberry

* Diamine Orange

* Diamine Eau de Nil

* Diamine Regency Blue

* Diamine Terracotta

 

The main thing that would put me off is bad behaviour[/], I just can't tolerate it in inks. Sargasso Sea and Majestic Blue in particular were prone to dry between phrases, hard to clean out, and tended to skip when I used those a few years ago. I owned and enjoyed Ancient Copper before, and maybe 1 or 2 others, before I moved house and gave away lots of ink. Colour wise, the ones in that list that appeal to me most are Twilight, Bilberry, Midnight Hour and Eau de Nil.

 

If any of those inks are particularly badly or well behaved in your opinions, please tell me. Thanks.

[lapis]

Wild Strawberry again. Otherwise Poppy Red. Both are my standard reds.. Both replace Skrips Red as a most well-behaved red for anything red. Pure, neutral, bright, universal....

[I-am-not-really-here]

I'm going to buy some 30ml bottles of Diamine, and maybe one bigger bottle, to get myself free postage on an order, so this thread made interesting reading. What would everyone recommend out of the following:

* Diamine Steel Blue

* Diamine Red Dragon

* Diamine Midnight Hour

* Diamine Blue Velvet

* Diamine Ancient Copper

* Diamine Twilight

* Diamine Asa Blue

* Diamine Bilberry

* Diamine Orange

* Diamine Eau de Nil

* Diamine Regency Blue

* Diamine Terracotta

 

The main thing that would put me off is bad behaviour[/], I just can't tolerate it in inks. Sargasso Sea and Majestic Blue in particular were prone to dry between phrases, hard to clean out, and tended to skip when I used those a few years ago. I owned and enjoyed Ancient Copper before, and maybe 1 or 2 others, before I moved house and gave away lots of ink. Colour wise, the ones in that list that appeal to me most are Twilight, Bilberry, Midnight Hour and Eau de Nil.

 

If any of those inks are particularly badly or well behaved in your opinions, please tell me. Thanks.

I have had nib crud on two different pens while using Diamine Orange. Other than Red Dragon, which I don't find particularly exciting, I have no experience with the others on your list.

[sansenri]

Midnight

Blue Velvet
Bilberry
Oxford

Sargasso Sea

[RJS]

I ended up buying about 20 different 30ml Diamine bottles last year from two different retailers, and have been playing around testing them. Overall I have to say I'm very impressed. I've had some hit and miss experiences with Diamine in the past *cough*MagesticBlue*cough* but these inks have been very consistent and well behaved, with only one exception.

 

The stand out from those I bought was Asa Blue, a complex and interesting ink that shows different qualities on different paper types. Well worth the 2 quid!  

 

The only duff ink of the bunch was Twilight, which turned out to be a slightly faded black- nothing like the colour I expected or I saw in any reviews. Incorrectly labelled, perhaps?

 

Considering how good these inks are compared to the "premium" brands, often at less than 10% of the cost, they really should be first choice for most people. The only downside is the shape of the bottle, that is deliberately designed to be difficult/impossible to fill via the nib of a pen.

 

As I continue to use these inks with more pens and on more paper types I'll post an update if I find anything remarkable.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, RJS said:

The only duff ink of the bunch was Twilight, which turned out to be a slightly faded black- nothing like the colour I expected or I saw in any reviews. Incorrectly labelled, perhaps?

 

 

[RJS]

11 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

 

I just replied to that thread. It seems Diamine isn't very consistent when it comes to that ink...

[A Smug Dill]

1 minute ago, RJS said:

It seems Diamine isn't very consistent when it comes to that ink...

 

I dunno whether it is or isn't. To me, consistency (say, from batch to batch) should be tested through chromatography — assuming the same substrate (e.g. a particular type of laboratory-grade filter paper strip), solvent, and volume of ink is used — in an attempt to minimise the impact of differences in ‘wetness’ of the pen and type of paper used by the individual user, and take the perspective (or narrative) away from his/her first-hand experience and outcomes from writing with the ink. Expecting to get the same colour from what is perceived through looking at an image on one's computer that has been posted by a different user with a different pen and handwriting technique using their paper of choice has plenty of room for error.

[RJS]

I agree there's tons of room for error between photos online and what you'll actually end up with.

 

But a yellow shouldn't be red, and my bottle of Twilight shouldn't be straight up black. 

[chromantic]

^^ RJS - That picture of Twilight above certainly looks like the Twilight I got. I loved the color but for me it was a horrible bleeder so I stopped using it and gave it away.

[es9]

Mine is lighter... Looks like the writing in this review.  Maybe paper color/characteristics are partly responsible.  

 

 

On 6/9/2015 at 11:56 AM, Chrissy said:

I have decided to review some of my inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order.

This one is Diamine Twilight. I would call it a blue-black ink. It leans more towards the green portion of the colour spectrum than some dark blues like Tchaikovsky, Regency Blue and Midnight. It's more like a darker version of Prussian Blue, or Eau de Nil that both have green tones in them.

It's a well behaved, quite saturated ink with a little shading. I found it flowed smoothly across the page, and had no problems with lubrication in both of the pens I used. I think it looks better in the Lamy Nexx M with it's 1.1 nib.

This ink exhibits showthrough and a little bleedthrough on my thick paper, so I tried it on Rhodia dot pad paper. Showthrough and bleedthrough are both noticeable.

• The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink. In fact it almost completely disappeared after a few seconds.Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the nib used at that time was a F, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.
• Showthrough and bleedthrough are both noticeable.
• It flows through the pen well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts from either of the pens that both stayed uncapped while I swapped and changed, and did swabs and comparisons with other inks
• 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

 

 

[dfd2]

Adding my favourite ones to this great thread. I think I'm very much in line with the crowd here:

Oxblood

Ancient Copper

Majestic Blue

Imperial Purple

Bilberry

[PithyProlix]

For my my predominant use, which is note-taking with a Japanese fine (or equivalent) or very fine italic:

• Prussian Blue
• Indigo (very much like Prussian Blue but a little more happy and spring-like)
• Salamander
• Chopin (in the right pen)
• Vivaldi (in the right pen)

I seem to be liking Damson in the right pen more and more so maybe it will up here someday soon.

 

Colors I am very interested to try:

• Classic Green
• Racing Green (if I could get it ...)
• Misty Blue
• Ancient Copper
• Espresso
• Lilac Night
• Silver Fox
• Terracotta
• Regency Blue
• Safari
• Snow Storm
• Seize the Night (smitten by the recent previews from the current Inkvent)

Looking forward to seeing further previews of a few others from the current Inkvent.