Ink Review : Diamine Silver Fox (150Th Anniversary Ink)

[namrehsnoom]

Ink Review : Diamine Silver Fox (150th Anniversary Ink)

 

 

Pen: Lamy Logo, F-nib

Paper: Rhodia N°16 notepad 80 gsm

 

 

Review

 

This ink is part of the 8-ink collection that Diamine released to celebrate their 150th anniversary (1864-2014). The set has a number of very interesting colors, and this is one of the better inks in this collection.

 

Silver Fox... the name evokes the image of a snow-covered pine forest at sunrise. A black and white painting: white snow in the clearing, the almost black silhouette of the pine trees, dirty-grey snow on the forest floor. All is quiet... then movement... a shy silver fox silently appears, blending in with the landscape. The fox's fur providing perfect camouflage, with specs of white, light and dark grey, to almost black. A blink of the eye, and the stealthy canine has disappeared. All is quiet again... only paw-prints in the snow remain.

 

This ink perfectly captures the above setting. A lovely grey with great shading properties, that covers the gamut from very light to almost black-grey tones. This is a pure grey with no colored undertones, as shown in the chromatography. A very satisfying ink with good flow and fabulous shading - even with the finer nibs.

 

 

You might think that grey is dull - but not in this case ! This ink is like the playful fox... a joy to write with, and with a very eye-pleasing result on the paper. This ink is at home with all types of writing - from intimate love-letter to formal business letter. This Silver Fox adapts very nicely... I'm really fond of it.

 

OK - but how does it behave on paper ? For this, I did some tests:

• Rhodia N°16 notepad 80 gsm - drying time ~35 seconds, no feathering, no show-through and no bleed-through
• Paperblanks journal paper - drying time 15-20 seconds, no feathering, no show-through, no bleed-through
• Generic notepad paper 70 gsm - drying time ~20 seconds, no feathering, minimal show-through, no bleed-through
• Moleskine journal - drying time ~10 seconds, no feathering, noticeable show-through but no bleed-through (with my fine nib)

This is a very well-behaving ink, even on cheap paper like that of a Moleskine journal. Drying times on fountain-pen-friendly paper are on the long side, but this hasn't really bothered me. Water resistance is surprisingly good. Even with 30 seconds under running tap water, a perfectly legible light-grey text remains. All-in-all, a top-notch ink.

 

Conclusion

 

Silver Fox is definitely a crown-jewel in the 150th Anniversary ink collection. It is a very well-behaving ink with a beautiful grey color. And that shading... it's just phenomenal ! Excellent work from Diamine.

 

my overall score: A+

 

 

 

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the comprehensive review. I particularly liked that you showed it in a variety of nib widths.

I have a sample of this but haven't gotten around to trying it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Uncle Red]

Great review and a nice ink. Silver Fox makes me think of Ian McKellen or Timothy Dalton, but that's me.

[OCArt]

Nice review. I have this ink and like it a lot but, oddly, I don't find my self using it much. Your review hbasreminded me to fill up a pen with this beautiful ink.

[Mew]

Hi,

 

Thank you for the review.

 

I have this ink since the past one year but it hasn't been used even once.

Can you tell me how it's lubrication and flow is as compared to sailor inks (if you have used any)? I use finer nibs so these attributes of any ink are of significant importance.

[namrehsnoom]

Can you tell me how it's lubrication and flow is as compared to sailor inks (if you have used any)? I use finer nibs so these attributes of any ink are of significant importance.

Hmm... I haven't used Sailor inks yet, so I can't comment on that. But I do use mainly EF and F nibs in my pens, because I have small handwriting. In my opinion this ink works well with finer nibs - with a good flow and not at all scratchy. I don't use it in my EDC pens because it dries a bit slowly - I prefer fast-drying inks for use "on the road".

[visvamitra]

Excellent review of very nice ink. I enjoy your reviews a lot

[Mew]

Hmm... I haven't used Sailor inks yet, so I can't comment on that. But I do use mainly EF and F nibs in my pens, because I have small handwriting. In my opinion this ink works well with finer nibs - with a good flow and not at all scratchy. I don't use it in my EDC pens because it dries a bit slowly - I prefer fast-drying inks for use "on the road".

Thank you for the info.

 

I mainly use Japanese F nibs and sometimes EF as well. I noticed that you used lamy F which would be Japanese M. So in case this works well with an EF nib you use, I may be able to use it without any problems.

I have no issues with drying.

[lapis]

Excellent review. Especially your nib-width-comparison! I like this ink a lot and it is in the meantime a favourite grey of mine. Almost too many adjectives to further embrace this colour here!

 

Mike

[Newjelan]

Nice review. I have this ink and like it a lot but, oddly, I don't find my self using it much. Your review hbasreminded me to fill up a pen with this beautiful ink.

+1

[alexander_k]

Thanks for this great review. It echoes my experiences with this excellent addition to the Diamine range. I've been a fan of Diamine Grey for a few years but now I'm switching to Silver Fox because it's lighter.

[inkstainedruth]

Great review and a nice ink. Silver Fox makes me think of Ian McKellen or Timothy Dalton, but that's me.

 

Yeah, it must be you -- because when *I* think of Timothy Dalton, I think of him as the French king in The Lion in Winter....

As for the ink, I want to now compare it both to Diamine Grey and to De Atramentis Tchaikowsky/Silver Grey.... The ideal would be to put Silver Fox in the Vac Silver Pearl Major so I can do a fair and objective comparison with the same pen that I've used for the other two inks. But there is a part of me that really wants to put it in something with some flex to it -- the vintage Pelikan 400, or the blue Duofold Laidtone....

Oh, decisions, decisions....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[naimitsu]

Can you tell me how it's lubrication and flow is as compared to sailor inks (if you have used any)? I use finer nibs so these attributes of any ink are of significant importance.

 

Are we talking the Jentle/Four Seasons line, the Kobe line, the Storia line, the BungBox line, or some other line of inks by Sailor?

 

Compared to Jentle/Four Seasons, they seem to write roughly the same in feel out of both the stubs and EFs that I use.

The Kobe ink I have feels a bit dryer to me, but then again, it could have been the pen. I haven't tried it in another pen yet.

And IMO, nothing writes better than the BungBox inks.

[Mew]

 

Are we talking the Jentle/Four Seasons line, the Kobe line, the Storia line, the BungBox line, or some other line of inks by Sailor?

 

Compared to Jentle/Four Seasons, they seem to write roughly the same in feel out of both the stubs and EFs that I use.

The Kobe ink I have feels a bit dryer to me, but then again, it could have been the pen. I haven't tried it in another pen yet.

And IMO, nothing writes better than the BungBox inks.

I apologize for not getting back to you earlier.

 

I don't have any Bungbox inks apart from the unopened bottle of ink of the witch, but I do have the entire line of pen & message, Shousaikan, Maruzen and 4-5 other shops. But their performance is more or less the same.

If they work as well as 4 season, then it is good enough for me.

 

Thank you for the help.

[mehandiratta]

thank you for the review...

[epx]

Did anyone have problems with clogging pens with this ink?

[alexander_k]

No clogging observed here and I'm using it in a Pilot Capless (VP) - not the most forgiving pens, especially if left unused for a couple of weeks (they hate us taking holidays without them, I suspect).

[JakobS]

For me this ink behaves perfectly, flows well, doesn't feather, but I find I prefer Diamine Grey a bit more simply as a matter of color choice. I find all the inks I have tried in the150th line (Safari, Terracotta, Golden Honey, Silver Fox) behave incredibly well, and do not regret getting full bottles of each.

[minddance]

Thank you for the excellent review, which helped me decide that I still prefer Diamine Grey + Kodak photoflo

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 4/12/2016 at 6:40 PM, namrehsnoom said:

Silver Fox... the name evokes the image of a snow-covered pine forest at sunrise. A black and white painting: white snow in the clearing, the almost black silhouette of the pine trees, dirty-grey snow on the forest floor. All is quiet... then movement... a shy silver fox silently appears, blending in with the landscape. The fox's fur providing perfect camouflage, with specs of white, light and dark grey, to almost black. A blink of the eye, and the stealthy canine has disappeared. All is quiet again... only paw-prints in the snow remain.

Beautiful description.....will find out how I like the ink, tonight.