Diamine x Niche Pens Alexandrite

[yazeh]

Diamine x Niche Pens Alexandrite

  

Many thanks @JungleJim for the sample. This was a part of blind test on the FPGeeks. 

 

Ink is made by Diamine for Niche pens aka Purepens Uk. Ink comes in both shimmering (30 ml bottles) and non-shimmering (30 ml /80 ml bottles). This sample was the non-shimmering version. 

 

It’s a gorgeous, saturated teal /turquoise, with beautiful shading and a red sheen on most papers. The writing experience is so exquisite that makes you forget about the world. Dry times are about 25s on Rhodia, so ink is not suitable for lefty over writers. I left the ink for a long time in the pen. Surprisingly cleaning while needed quite a bit of flushing was easy. 

 

While there's some water resistance, you don't want this ink anywhere close to sweaty palms/ pools etc. The amount of dye that washes out is impressive  

 

Ink is best used with Japanese paper, where the shading/ sheening is most prominent. Copy paper is not for this ink and with Rhodia the sheen is present mostly with the wettest pen (Nib creaper)

 

The wetter the pen, the more prominent the sheen, the dryer the “sheen” becomes shading. 

The sheen is very subtle with EF-F nibs on Midori, Tomoe River 68gr, obvious with M, B nibs, disappeared with the stub, and with Semi-flex nib creaper it became prominent. 

 

On Iroful paper, the shading appears as sheen, with the flex nib, the sheening was massive. 

 

Chroma:

 

 

 

Writing Samples:

Photo:

Papers are Midori /Tomoe River 68 gr /Iroful
Nibs are B/Stub/ Semi-flex

 

Comparison:

Water test:

Left side 10 seconds under running water. Sample was written with glass nib. So, amount of ink is more than a normal nib. Sample was left 1 hour under fan. 

While there's some resistance to water, you really don't want this ink any place near water  

 

Art Work:

Sailor Kiwa-guro, Diamine X Niche Pens Alexandrite and Noodler's Polar Brown. 

 

 

·      Pens used: Lamy (Reverse Ef, EF/F/M/B, 1.1) , Noodler’s Nib creaper

·      What I liked: Writing experience, artwork and cleaning. I also liked how you could have both shading/ sheen. 

·      What I did not like: Long dry times, and close to water it can be messy (nit picking) 

·       What some might not like: Long dry times,  copy paper. 

·      Shading: Gorgeous. 

·      Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. 

·      Bleed through: Yes, on cheap paper.

·      Flow Rate: Wet

·      Lubrication: Excellent. 

·      Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. 

·      Start-up:  Great

·      Saturation:  Saturated

·      Shading Potential: Yes baby! 

·      Sheen: Yes 

·      Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: A tiny bit on copy paper. . 

·      Nib Creep / “Crud”: Did not notice.

·      Staining (pen): Not at all. 

·      Clogging: Did not notice.

·      Cleaning: Quite easy.

·      Water resistance: Non-existent. 

·      Availability: 30 ml (shimmering), 30 ml/ 80 ml bottles (non-shimmering)

 

Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier  

 

 

 

[LizEF]

Great review, @yazeh!  On my screen, the scans lean strongly green (but still look teal), but the photo looks very blue (not much teal there).  The images on Pure Pens do the same thing (first leans strongly blue, the other is greenish teal).  I'm guessing reality is in the middle, with paper, lighting, and amount of ink making a noticeable difference.  Whatever the case, it looks quite appealing.

 

Funny quotes.  Gentleman mousey again.   And what a distinguished birdie!

 

Thanks for another review and introduction of an ink I hadn't heard of before!

[InesF]

Oh yes, I feel mainstream, I'm attracted by this turquoise ink. I like especially the subtle grey undertone!

 

Thank you, @yazeh, for this ink review, for finding this nice quote, for keeping cat almost dry, for the wonderful dove traveller (or postal dove?)  and for sending me out to a mission: find and get this ink!

 

Always a pleasure!  👍

Again, Hammermill paper does it well, but I like also the ink appearance on TomoeRiver and Rhodia. There are so many similar turquoise inks out, this one is a tiny bit different, enough to make it interesting.

 

Have a good week, see you next review day!   (if I'm back from my mission)