The UK based Diamine company, have been manufacturing fountain pen inks since 1864 using traditional methods and formulas for their production. I have just tested 78 samples, which I’ll be posting over the coming days. Here is my third Diamine review of those 78 featuring 15 test swatches of Green fountain pen inks.
Inks tested: Racing Green, Evergreen, Classic Green, Green Black, Green Umber, Umber, Wagner, Spring Green, Light Green, Beethoven, Delamere Green, Wood Green, Ultra Green, Dark Green and Cool Green.
And what a diverse group of Greens these are – they blend well, react with a neon gold to bleach and flow easily through a nib for great writing. Every single one of these is worth having. Let’s start with the chromatics – the Evergreen, Classic, Umber, Wagner, Beethoven, Delamare and Wood greens all show gorgeous chromatic qualities of which Evergreen, Wagner, Beethoven and Classic are definitely going to be tested further. For you sheen freaks, most of these have a deep rich sheen to them, maybe not so dramatic and colourful as other colour ranges, but sheens non the less. For colour subtlety, these 15 inks shown together, demonstrate how visually close some inks may initially appear but on closer inspection they are indeed unique. But that Wagner… it’s mesmerising!
Of note – there are over 100 colours in the Diamine fountain pen ink range plus more colours in the composers and flowers gift ranges – all of which are all supposedly unique. So what I’ve done, is classify batches by colour so you can see the gift inks next to the standards and you can judge for yourselves whether or not this is fact. With such a huge range, some colours are bound to appear similar, but from what I can see, those fine subtleties of difference are evident.
From a creative point of view, Diamine inks really do hit the mark – they blend with water and each other beautifully, they pretty much all react with bleach and they always look spectacular. There’s also chromatography, sheens and shimmers too. Combine this with their very affordable price point – what’s not to like?
I hope you enjoy the results as much as I have testing them. And by the way, there are many other Diamine reviews throughout this blog. If you’d like to know more about this about this project, please take a look at the Mission Statement.
All tests on Bockingford 200lb watercolour paper using a dip pen with titanium zebra G flex nib for the bleach work and a Noodler’s Ahab for the ink work.
Diamine samples sourced from Vijay at Stationery Shop stationeryshop.scotland@gmail.com.
Just for the record – I do this for myself, I receive no remuneration what-so-ever and I tell it exactly how I see it.
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 