Diamine Cornflower Ink Review

[truthpil]

Hello again to all my FP friends,

[This review has been sitting on my desk for months and I finally got around to posting it.

Stay tuned for a comparison of Diamine Cornflower and Penbbs #116 Cornflower.]

Diamine needs no introduction on this board. Suffice it to say that they have been making inks for over a century and produce many, many beautiful hues, a lot of which are prone to feathering and bleed through on everyday office paper.

This ink up for review is from Diamine’s Flower Series. It is named after the cornflower (centaurea cyanus) which can be various shades of blue or lavender. I’ve never seen the flower in person, but by just comparing with various photographs online, the ink looks like a pretty good match to the flower.

Diamine Cornflower is a deep and very saturated blue with a dash of purple. This ink dries quickly on absorbent paper, but has an average dry time on nicer papers. Sheening is nice and shading possible with wet nibs on good paper. It can be quite a stunning color with the write combination.

Unfortunately, this ink’s downfall as a daily work ink is its tendency to feather and bleed through. Although feathering with finer nibs wasn’t too bad on copy paper, even the Japanese fine nib produced noticeable bleed. Water resistance is passible; a dark purplish line remains legible.

This is a lovely vibrant color that reminds me of a dark counterpart to Noodler’s Baystate Blue. The color is also standard enough that it could be used in most professional environments. They only thing that keeps me from buying a bottle is that the feathering and bleed through make it impossible to use on any paper I would run into outside the house. However, if you like saturated, slightly purplish dark blues and mostly use good paper, then this is not an ink you’ll want to miss.

*A special thanks to lapis for sending a sample of this ink to me!

Pens used (in order):

1. Pilot 78G Fine

2. Lamy Safari Broad

3. Pilot Plumix Italic

4. Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex

5. Hero 5028 1.9mm Stub

Swab

Paper Towel Drop

80gsm Rhodia

Tomoe River

*Many thanks to Lord Epic for kindly sending me some of this paper!

Check out that subtle sheen!

70gms Deli Copy Paper

Moleskine

Water Resistance

Comparison

(More blues to be added later)

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

SDG

Edited August 10, 2017 by TruthPil

[senzen]

Great review, very nice looking ink, thank you!

[amberleadavis]

Great review. I really like this color. I know it stains, but I really like this color. I'm going to ink up with it again, because....I really like this color.

[truthpil]

Great review. I really like this color. I know it stains, but I really like this color. I'm going to ink up with it again, because....I really like this color.

It is a lovely eye-popping blue!

 

I had forgotten to mention the staining. I only had it in my pens for a couple days and I still haven't gotten it totally off the underside of my nib creaper nib. It stained a pilot converter as well.

[BT_Summers]

Nice review, attractive color.

 

I see your comments about the feathering and bleedthrough on Diamine inks but this one looks to be exceptionally bad. It looks like it would bleedthrough not only to the back of the paper but also onto the following page.

[truthpil]

Nice review, attractive color.

 

I see your comments about the feathering and bleedthrough on Diamine inks but this one looks to be exceptionally bad. It looks like it would bleedthrough not only to the back of the paper but also onto the following page.

On cheaper papers like low quality legal pads that is totally possible. Usually Diamine reds bleed like this so I was surprised with this one.

[amberleadavis]

Truthpil, run a fill of Noodler's Rattler red and the stains and gunk underneath should disappear.

[truthpil]

Truthpil, run a fill of Noodler's Rattler red and the stains and gunk underneath should disappear.

Thanks for the reminder! Will Rattler also remove red stains? That would be pretty ironic.

[amberleadavis]

Why yes it does!! I have a post around here that I would show you, but right now I am transfering all my images to a new hosting company.

[truthpil]

Good to know! I have a Hero 100 with a hopelessly red-stained sac that Sailor Do-You did nothing to.

[Gloucesterman]

Thanks for the review and especially for the full range of images. Looks like a versatile ink which shows different aspects with different size nibs.

 

I like the coloring and, for now, I'm focused on thinning my pen herd and getting ready for selling at a pen show in September.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review. I keep forgetting that I have the Flower Collection and both this and Aster were amongst my favorites in the set (and stupidly, there are four I've NEVER gotten around to trying... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[FPRebel]

Thank you soooooo much for this review. I think. Great review!
I'd forgotten this is one I'd wanted to buy; now I need this gorgeous ink more than ever, and that sheen!!

[truthpil]

Thanks for the review and especially for the full range of images. Looks like a versatile ink which shows different aspects with different size nibs.

 

 

Thanks for the comment! Although you don't really get much shading with this ink, it can definitely appear darker with wetter nibs.

 

Thanks for the review. I keep forgetting that I have the Flower Collection and both this and Aster were amongst my favorites in the set (and stupidly, there are four I've NEVER gotten around to trying... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Thanks for reading! I've read several statements that Cornflower is the best color from the set and I can see why. Personally, I'm a sucker for Bougainvillea, but that's when I have a pile of papers to grade on a bright spring day.

 

Thank you soooooo much for this review. I think. Great review!

I'd forgotten this is one I'd wanted to buy; now I need this gorgeous ink more than ever, and that sheen!!

 

 

Thanks for the kind words! If you use mostly good paper then this is a color worth getting, although it doesn't sheen nearly as much as Diamine Sargasso Sea, which is quite sheentastic.

[Chrissy]

Great review. I really like this color. I know it stains, but I really like this color. I'm going to ink up with it again, because....I really like this color.

 

Whatever the dye is that stains, I think that Diamine use it in several inks: Sapphire, Majestic Blue, Sargasso Sea, Tchaikovsky plus several others.

 

It still produces beautiful ink colours though. Diamine Cornflower is one of my all time favourite 'bright blues'.

 

Thank you Truth Pil for the review.

[amberleadavis]

Chrissy, you are probably right and well, I do love Sargasso Sea too.

[aurore]

Hello,

 

how does this lovely ink compare to Diamine Sapphire? Is Sapphire deeper/darker (and maybe a bit more purplish)?

[truthpil]

Hello,

 

how does this lovely ink compare to Diamine Sapphire? Is Sapphire deeper/darker (and maybe a bit more purplish)?

 

It's been a few years since I gave away my bottle of Diamine Sapphire, but from my memory Cornflower is deeper and more purple.

Sapphire has kind of an "electric" radiance to it and is a little better behaved and won't feather as much on copy paper as Cornflower does.

[aurore]

 

It's been a few years since I gave away my bottle of Diamine Sapphire, but from my memory Cornflower is deeper and more purple.

Sapphire has kind of an "electric" radiance to it and is a little better behaved and won't feather as much on copy paper as Cornflower does.

Thank you very much. So you would say Sapphire is less purple and in some way more vibrant but not as deep as Cornflower?

[lgsoltek]

It's a lovely blue. I enjoy the whole flower set.