Ink Review: Diamine Coral

[Chrissy]

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Coral ink.

Diamine Coral is from the standard ink range. It’s an interesting colour. Bright and vibrant. Think the colour of cooked salmon, a pink that’s almost orange. Or an orange that is almost pink. Although it’s not a dark colour it’s still a saturated ink.

I found it flowed very well with all of the pens I tried it in, felt quite wet to write with, and it’s lubrication was nicely smooth across the page.

I noticed nice shading, plus an element of pinkish sheen that seems to have a halo effect around the ink.

My review was written on 100gsm smooth coated paper, that is not very absorbent. I saw no spread or feathering, no show-through, no bleedthrough. The lines were crisp, it didn’t take long to dry on most of the papers I tried it on. On Tomoe River 52gsm paper it took 12-15 seconds to dry and that was it’s slowest dry time.

It's not sold as a waterproof ink and it showed no water resistance at all.
It stained my hands, particularly near to my fingernails. It took me several washes with bar soap before my hands were clean. It didn’t stain my pens or the insides of my converters that I rinsed out with warm water as usual.

On Field Notes paper it didn’t spread or feather. Writing on the reverse side of all of the papers I used would be acceptable as show-through doesn't look as bad on paper than when it is scanned and shown on screen.

I’ve seen some reviews of Diamine Coral that make it look more cerise pink than it is. It’s not like Diamine Cerise ink, and I included that ink for comparison to show you the difference between Cerise and Coral.

Two inks that look close to Diamine Coral are Noodler’s Dragon’s Napalm and Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu gaki. Winter Persimmon is a good description of the colour of Diamine Coral. Lamy Coral is more red and so is De Atramentis Coral Red.

• Flow Rate: Very good- quite wet.
• Lubrication: Very good - felt smooth across the page.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Saturated.
• Shading Potential: Some shading seen particularly with F nib.
• Sheen: Some sheen with a pink halo effect.
• Show-Through:
  • Oxford paper
  • Field Notes
  • Tomoe River 52gsm paper
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used, even Field Notes.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): This can stain your hands. Use bar soap for several washes or Lava soap.
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, and shows no water resistance.
• Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus cartridges from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Great review! This looks like Pelikan 4001 Brillant-Rot, only that the Pelikan ink is mistakenly marketized as red, whereas this ink doesn't try to trick you that way. Points just for this initial fact.

 

About the color, it's that not-quite-pink-orange-or-red hue that makes me incline my head questioningly like dogs do when they're trying to understand something. It's... unsettling.

[Chrissy]

You're welcome.

 

I know what you mean about the colour. I considered calling it peachy, but I also got a sample of Peach Haze to review, and that one's definitely peachy.

 

Thinking about it, the coral from a scallop should be a very similar colour.

[RocketRyan]

Whoa, not my colour but I like it's vividness.

[Chrissy]

Vivid it is. For sure.

[Intensity]

This seems to be in line with what's usually referred to as "coral" -- a bright red-orange. I prefer it on fabric prints or decorations, but apparently not in ink (though a shiny coral red cap on a glass ink bottle would look nice). I feel the same about pink inks like Lamy Vibrant Pink (meh, like a middle school annotated class notebook).

[EBGBs]

Thank you for this nice and comprehensive review Chrissy.

 

I have a bottle of Coral somehow somewhere on its way to me. I like the idea of a colour between pink and orange, and liked the colour of splashes I saw, so I went for it.

There are words in your review that I’m really happy to see; “almost neon”, “nice shading”, “Halo of sheen”, “unusual”. All these make it look like it will really be an ink for me! I am looking forward to trying it.

[Chrissy]

Thank you for this nice and comprehensive review Chrissy.

 

I have a bottle of Coral somehow somewhere on its way to me. I like the idea of a colour between pink and orange, and liked the colour of splashes I saw, so I went for it.

There are words in your review that I’m really happy to see; “almost neon”, “nice shading”, “Halo of sheen”, “unusual”. All these make it look like it will really be an ink for me! I am looking forward to trying it.

 

You're welcome. I hope you like it when you receive it, and please come back to this thread and let us know.

[bluebellrose]

looks kinda like Noodlers Georgia Peach

[bobje]

Chrissy, great review of a rich ink. Pink sheen, halo, orangey pink. Can’t think of another ink that checks off those boxes, and certainly not in this elegant way. Thank you for investing the time in these review details. The paper samples ... wow.

[Chrissy]

Chrissy, great review of a rich ink. Pink sheen, halo, orangey pink. Can’t think of another ink that checks off those boxes, and certainly not in this elegant way. Thank you for investing the time in these review details. The paper samples ... wow.

 

Thank you for your kind comments, and you're welcome.