Diamine Autumn Oak (Handwritten)

December 5, 2014

I just got a bottle of Diamine Autumn Oak about 3 days ago to celebrate the Autumn colors—guess its a bit late for that though. Admittedly, this is one of my favorite inks now due to its shading (you will see that later!) and the fact that it is my newest ink. I'm a big sucker for new things! Anyhow, I have got a 80ml bottle from Diamine as I don't believe it is available in cartridge form. Here is the link to GouletPens for it.

http://www.gouletpens.com/diamine-autumn-oak-80ml-/p/D7102

This review will be taking the same format as my other review on PR Tropical Blue as it is only my second formal one that I'm posting. Got more coming though! As well, note that the images taken appear darker than they are. They were taken with an iPhone 6 and have not been color corrected in any way.

So, let's begin shall we? Here is the top-down picture of the ink. As you can see, it is an orange ink, which is a tad leaning towards a light red. Please view basic properties of the ink, and writing sample, in the last full scan, if they are difficult to read here.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0156.JPG

This is the Q-tip swab. I actually didn't do it with a Q-tip because I didn't have my trusty q-tips handy at that time. I just took off my converter, and rubbed it on the page. I guess it does the same thing. Trust me, I'm not an engineer! Also, please ignore the crossed off swab on the left. I screwed up. Don't ask. The red is a Pilot Parallel Red cartridge.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0157.JPG

Here comes a drop test! This one is new for me, because I didn't think about doing this one on my other review. I dripped 1 drop onto the paper from my converter, let it sit for 3 seconds, then put a paper towel on it. I found that this helps to see the darkest and lightest parts of the color.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0151.JPG

As well, here is the basic ink comparison test. I didn't have any other oranges to go by, so I did what I had readily inked. Use these colors as a reference as well to check your monitor and the picture lighting etc.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0153.JPG

Now onto the actual writing portion of the ink. I used a Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator for this review with a 0.6mm stub nib. The paper is my standard ink review HP 28lb paper with lines printed onto it. I also use it for school because why not!

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0148.JPG

Here is the dry time test. The ink proved to dry at a medium pace. I have seen much worse—oh much much worse!—and much faster. This ink dries in approximately 10 seconds give or take depending on the paper and pen combo. I would expect this to take about 8 seconds with a medium nib and 7 seconds with a fine nib but those are just my approximations. As well, my paper is not coated unlike Rhodia or Clairfontaine so this increases the drying speed on mine.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0150.JPG

Now, as I promised earlier, I will go on and on about the shading of the ink! This ink is a marvelous shader! The ink shades very readily on this stub nib, which actually isn't that wet at all. I didn't have to put excessive pressure to shade, and the ink just seemed to naturally do it! The ink shade goes from a really light orange (almost yellow) to a dark orange (borderline red at times). Also, this ink is very much like Noodler's Apache Sunset—which I did get a chance to try but not to do a comparison... sorry —as both of these inks shade readily. Apache Sunset begins the shade from a much lighter yellow, to a much darker red. The Autumn Oak is a bit more neutral on both sides of the shade, and it ultimately less eye-searing. Without any more babbling, here is a closeup of one of the words of the writing sample.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0154.jpg

Next in the same vein of shading is one of my accidental drop tests (Don't expect this to happen again!) I think I splattered ink here on the first edition of this review. Was halfway done but had to redo it because of this darn splash! This test really brings out all the different possible shades of this ink in a clean and concise drop.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0141.JPG

OK! New topic! Water resistance! Here is my standard water test before the water! Nothing special. Just a sentence, a grid, and scribbles.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0152.JPG

And here is the test after some dreaded water. The sentence experienced drops of water for ten seconds, when a tissue was lightly placed to soak up the water. The grid faced the same thing, but with tissues wiping downward instead of soaking. The scribbles did not encounter water drops and was wiped down in the same stroke as the grid. The ink does not seem to feather out badly in contact with water. There was some noticeable feathering but that is to be expected. However, this ink does readily wipe straight off as seen through the grid's lack of ink. However, in some cases, the ink remains legible. Also, this ink will readily smear when wet, as seen through the scribbles on the bottom. This ink is not marketed as waterproof so there is no reason to believe it so.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/IMG_0162.JPG

I didn't take a lovely picture of the bottle this time and I'm too lazy to do it now so yeah. However, I did do a scan of the full review to look at. Scanned with a Brother MFC-4620JW flatbed with the included software. No external color corrections have been made to this scan which is in full 600dpi quality. This color is fairly representative in normal conditions if not a tiny bit bright.

http://felixjen.com/files/Inks/Reviews/Diamine/Autumn%20Oak/Review.jpg

Edited December 5, 2014 by musicman123