Diamine

Creating inks since 1864

A family-run business, well established, with a good reputation of making a good quality fountain pen, calligraphy, drawing and stamp pad inks. The company began in 1864, in London, England, under the name T. Webster and Co. In 1925 the company moved from London to Liverpool. Then, many years later, in 1964 the company changed its name to what we know today, Diamine.

In addition to producing their own line of inks, the company also produces inks for other companies such as Yard-o-Led and Conway-Stewart to name a few. In 2003, the company entered the North American market with inks under the Diamine brand.

Their ink comes in a variety of bottle izes. The basic line of fountain pen ink comes in a large 80 ml glass bottle. Some colours have been released in smaller, plastic, "tester" bottles that are 30 ml in size. To keep everyone on their toes, there are some special inks that are in 40 ml bottles. The latter including the 150th Anniversary inks in a triangular shape so the entire assortment can fit together to form a circle.

The 80 ml ink bottle is very attractive. It is deep enough to handle the big nibs of the Pelikan M1000 or OMAS Paragon pens. The wider bottom provides stability for the bottle, but creates it own challenges as the ink level in the bottle gets to almost the end.

In 2010 Diamine changed the branding of different lines of fountain pen inks. Gone are the Old English and New Century designations of lines of ink. Now it is simply Diamine Fountain Pen Ink.

In terms of drying time and flow, I find the ink to be overall, very good. I have found, however, some variances with different colours. There have been some variations but the drying time of ink is dependent on a number of factors that include: humidity, paper and the nib (amount of ink on the paper).

One colour that I really liked, but had difficulties with, was Majestic Blue. It was a new colour released back in 2009. I found the ink tends to take just a bit too long to dry on the paper. While this was the "colour of colours" for me, I found the ink did not perform well in my Montegrappa pens. This, was not only my experience, but in talking about the ink with members of my local pen club, I found others also had that experience.

I also found that Havasu Turquoise to be a strong bold colour that I liked, however, an ink with difficulties. This colour stained a celluloid pen nib section after very limited use. On that point, it could happen with any heavily saturated colour. I like Havasu Turquoise use it in a pen with material that would not be subject to staining - good black nib sections!

In 2009 Diamine started to produce ink in 30 ml plastic bottles. I refer to these as sampler bottles as they are one way to sample a variety of colours without the cost of the larger 80 ml bottle. The bottles are small, and for me have limited use. My Pelikan M1000 pen just barely makes it into the bottle.

Overall Impression

I am impressed with Diamine inks. They have good saturation and flow and generally dry on the paper within a reasonable time frame. None of the inks that I have tested so far leave a sticky feeling on the paper or smudge once the ink is dry. They worked well on both good and poorer quality paper. Writing at a very fast pace, taking notes in a hearing, as well as writing at my desk in a normal handwritign speed. Heck, sometimes I would be standing in meetings writing on the back of binders etc. with fountain pen nibs not at their optimum angle. The consistency of performance came through with a high mark.

The Performance of Diamine Ink Performance generally falls into comments relating to:

Feathering - does the ink feather or spread out in an uncontrolled fashion from the line of ink made by the nib?

Viscosity or flow - does the ink freely flow from the feed and the nib, or is there a sense of resistance? Does the ink dry on the paper in a reasonable time, or does it remain "wet" and subject to smearing?

Consistent colour - is the colour consistent on the paper, or is there a wide variance in terms of shading, specially with broad nibs?

Some of the experience in terms of the above comments relates to the nib or the paper and may not be attributed solely to the ink.

Overall I did not find a significant difference in the writing experience using the 70 some colours of Diamine ink. Some were a little wetter than others.

Twilight

The ink is branded as a blue-black ink. I remember using a bottle of this colour many years ago it was a dark blue-black with a tingle of dark green/grey. But I recently purchased another bottle ink is so close to a black. I have looked at other reviews of the ink and the colour range from a grey/black/blue to a grey/black. So I am having a hard time deciding on this ink right now.

I like the rich colour but despite how it may look when you use it, I double it will every look like the colour used to create the label.

Writing performance is very good. There i bit of delay for the to dry, close to 10 seconds depending on the width of the nib.I do not have a lot of shading in the bottle I have been using. I have seen others write with the ink that is a grey-blue and shadowing is prominent.

I saw quite a variation of colour when viewing other reviews of the ink.

Blue-Black

Diamine Blue Black

Blue-Black

I like the flate tone of the ink. Beauty in simplicity. No complicated and messy sheen of other colours. There is blue and plenty of black in this ink. The bigger the nib and darker the ink seems to appear.

It is such a rich sincere colour it looks good in all writing uses - business and personal. You can look back at a full page of writing and not shutter saying "how could I have used that colour!".

Writing performance is very good. I have not experienced feathering when using this ink. It does take a while to completely dry on the page.

Eau de Nil

I like blue ink and there are many varieties. Eau de Nil is a dark teal that looks good when you have a lot of writing on the page. Consistent with inks in the Diamine line, it has good writing performance: smooth flow, reasonable dry time, no feathering.

Bilberry

Billberry

Bilberry

I normally like blue inks with bold colours. I found Blueberry by Diamine has a comfortable appearance with a good saturated colour.

I found this to be a bit more of a drier than some of the other inks in the Diamine line. I would not describe the ink as a problem, but writing with it I found a difference in writing characterisctics.

Sargasso Sea

I like blue inks and better yet, those that are bold. I was not sure what to expect with the name of this ink, but it turned out to be a bright, royal blue - maybe just a bit darker than Diamine's Royal Blue itself.

There was a low level of feathering, and that most likely was a paper issue. I could see the colour through the paper with some when I wrote on both sides.

In the end, the colour has been a little too light for me, but if you like lighter royal blues, it is a colour to consider.

Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet by diamine Ink

Blue Velvet - Special Collection

Blue Velvet is a Special Edition ink that comes in a 40 ml triangular shaped bottle.

This is one of those blue inks that just look so good on paper. I like the rich tone. Also, counter to those who like shimmer inks, this is not an ink with multiple tones. Pure, rich, Velvet Blue. When the ink dries, there is no sticky feel, there is no "raised" feeling when you wipe finger across the words you have written. Love this ink, my only regret is that it does not come in the larger 80 ml bottle. The bottle is relatively shallow and is a challenge for some of my largr pens.

Salamander

Salamander by Diamine

Salamander

If you like olive green, then you are going to love this ink. I have bought bottles of this colour. I really like writing with it in terms of the easy to take, but interesting colour. It is a rich subtle green and looks good in both business and personal writing.

Generally I can use this ink across any of the paper and notebooks that I use, although on a few, with slightly lower quality paper, there has been some bleed through. But they are cheaper quality books, who knows what kind of paper, so I am not going to lose sleep over that experience. But it is a good flat colour, no sheen, and has consistently come across as a beautiful green.

Grey

Diamine Grey

Grey

For a number of years I was on the search for the perfect grey ink! This is a dependable colour, although generally, depending on the nib, it comes across darker than the mid town greys which really say "grey ink". Sometimes it came across almost as a black ink. It is also a cooler grey colour. The iroshizuku has both a warm and a cool grey colours.

Diamine also has Earl Grey as another colour options. This is a slightly darker grey.

There was not a lot of colour variations as I wrote with the ink and it was a good flat colour. On some of the cheaper paper I have had to use there was a bit of feathering from time to time. Finally, flow is reasonable, it does not feel like a dry ink that requires you to work as your write.