Ink Review: Diamine Macassar

[Chrissy]

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Macassar

A dark brown ink from the standard range. The word ‘macassar’ means a kind of oil that men formerly used on their hair to make it shine and lie flat. Makassar is a spelling variant. Makassar is also a former name of Ujung Pandang, a seaport on SW Sulawesi in central Indonesia.

• Flow Rate: Very good. Quite wet in the pen & paper combinations I used.
• Lubrication: Good with the M nib on several different papers, a bit more would have been nice with the Safari F nib.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Good.
• Shading Potential: Some seen with the Safari.
• Sheen: None seen.
• Show Through:
  • Tomoe River 68gsm.
  • Cheaper generic 80 & 90gsm printer papers & lined pads.
  • Field Notes
  • Tom Bihn Lined
  • Whitelines
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Only a little seen on Field Notes.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the pen
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up
• Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap. Two washes required with liquid soap.
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: Quite water resistant, but not sold as waterproof.
• Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting how different it looks on the different types of paper. I have a sample of this, and couldn't decide if I liked it enough to warrant a full bottle. Now I'm going to have to revisit Macassar and see how it does in some different pens.

Thanks for the review. And not....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[bobje]

Sweet ink, Chrissy. Your reviews display photographs that show exactly what the ink looks like in daily use. Thank you!

[farazqamar]

i ordered a bottle for myself but it was out of stock at LcDC and i didn't want to delay the rest of the order because of this ink. Now i see i should have waited.

[Jan2016]

Thanks for the review!

So many browns :-)

This looks like a " real" brown, without nuances to the red or yellow or green

The mother of brown

[Chrissy]

Interesting how different it looks on the different types of paper. I have a sample of this, and couldn't decide if I liked it enough to warrant a full bottle. Now I'm going to have to revisit Macassar and see how it does in some different pens.

Thanks for the review. And not....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

You're welcome. I think this is a good brown ink to have if you don't like your brown inks to be either too red or too yellow.

[Chrissy]

Sweet ink, Chrissy. Your reviews display photographs that show exactly what the ink looks like in daily use. Thank you!

You're welcome. I like to ensure the ink colour looks as accurate as possible, next to the written exemplar.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the review!

So many browns :-)

This looks like a " real" brown, without nuances to the red or yellow or green

The mother of brown

You're welcome. Yes this is a 'real' brown. I was surprised that I didn't have anything to match it when I chose the comparison inks.

[fuddmain]

Excellent review.

 

Brown inks aren't my favorite and Macassar is the only one I own (needed an ink for my copper/brown Esterbrooks ). As you've shown it's a very nice ink.

[RockingLR]

Just when I thought I had my brown picked out! hahaha. I'm surprised at how light the noodlers walnut looks in the comparison.... I think I may change my mind and go with this brown instead. Lovely review! thank you!!

[JakobS]

I got a 80ml bottle of this a month or two ago, and have found it to behave similarly. Of all the browns I have, its nice to have a nice solid brown finally in my ink collection!

[namrehsnoom]

Thanks for showing this nice brown. I’ve got a small 20ml bottle of it, but haven't tried it yet. Time to ink up a pen with it...

[Chrissy]

Excellent review.

 

Brown inks aren't my favorite and Macassar is the only one I own (needed an ink for my copper/brown Esterbrooks ). As you've shown it's a very nice ink.

 

You're welcome. I'm glad that you like it.

[Chrissy]

Just when I thought I had my brown picked out! hahaha. I'm surprised at how light the noodlers walnut looks in the comparison.... I think I may change my mind and go with this brown instead. Lovely review! thank you!!

You're welcome. I was surprised at how yellow Noodler's Walnut was by comparison. In fact I swabbed it several times next to Macassar on an old piece of paper to make sure the first swab wasn't a fluke.

[Chrissy]

I got a 80ml bottle of this a month or two ago, and have found it to behave similarly. Of all the browns I have, its nice to have a nice solid brown finally in my ink collection!

I'm glad that you like it.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for showing this nice brown. I’ve got a small 20ml bottle of it, but haven't tried it yet. Time to ink up a pen with it...

You're welcome. I know you have some nice pens to try it out in.

[Chrissy]

i ordered a bottle for myself but it was out of stock at LcDC and i didn't want to delay the rest of the order because of this ink. Now i see i should have waited.

Next time around.

[Chrissy]

I found some darker brown inks to compare against Diamine Macassar:

 

[chromantic]

Great review as usual, Chrissy; always enjoy your presentation. Macassar and Yama-guri are my go-to browns.

 

Macassar does sheen (here it is next to Yama-guri). First pic, cam flash pointing against worklight shining from opposite direction, so sheen doesn't show; second pic, cam flash turned off, pronounced sheen exhibited. (Macassar is the first 3 lines, YG is the 4th.)

 

 

Macassar is in a M250 F that writes very fine, comparable to the Sheaffer Cadet F1 the YG is in. The sheen was even more apparent when I had it in a Sport F that laid a slightly heavier line.

[rollerboy]

Makassar is also a former name of Ujung Pandang, a seaport on SW Sulawesi in central Indonesia.

 

 

I think we now have two reviews each of which only covers half the etymological trail behind the ink name. Let's put the two factoids together:

 

The ink colour appears to be named after the wood Macassar Ebony. The wood is named Macassar ebony after the seaport of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi where it grows