Hi,

This won't be a full review, just some quick first impressions of the inks I just got in the mail from The Writing Desk. Check this site for better reviews of the same inks. I've based my purchase on your opinions For your information: all were tested with an M Pelikano which is a pretty wet writer. PR Midnight Blues gives problems with this pen because it's too wet. Paper used was high-quality recycled and brownish, i.e. not the cheap kind that ink soaks through. In my experience, this paper behaves better than some other papers, but of course it affects the colour experience.


Visconti Blue (in a Van Gogh bottle, i.e. the cheap bottle): Pretty wet but okay. Slightly slow to dry. Very subtle tone variation. Very full blue colour. I don't have too many blue inks, but it's by far my favourite: it looks very luxurious.

Diamine Umber: Very good flow, no problems, easy to write with. My first green ink, purchased based on the discussions here. It has a mossy hue which is quite nice and stylish. Very little colour variation.

Diamine Dark Brown: The laugable name aside, this is a very comfortable ink to write with, like the Umber. It's a nice soft brown with beautiful colour variation. The first brown I ever wrote with, and I loved it until I wrote with the next ink

J.Herbin Café Des Îles: Also a very comfortable ink to write with, possible even more so than the Diamine inks. The reason is that, while it writes as smoothly, the line seems a bit more controlled. I can imagine the 2 above Diamine inks would feather on cheaper paper and the Café Des Îles wouldn't. The colour is much deeper than the Diamine Dark Brown and the colour variation is spectacular. Overall, I'm very impressed with this ink.

J.Herbin Poussière De Lune: Pretty wet flow, but okay. Like the Visconti Blue, I have to watch out my nib isn't too wet and my converter isn't filled all the way (seems to give a bit too much pressure). Very little colour variation. My first purple, it's a very nostalgic colour. I like the way it's unusual but subdued: it's not a colour that will make people go "wow" but it will still be noticed as not being any average ink.


Conclusion: I love all of these inks Café Des Îles is a much nicer brown than Diamine Dark Brown in many respects, but the latter has its own character, being redder and brighter. The Diamine inks are definitely very nice, but the Visconti and the J.Herbin stick out because of the unmistakable luxury they breathe. Unfortunately, I only have 2 pens so I can't use all of them at the same time. I've filled my Pelikano up with Poussière De Lune and, when my Graf von runs out of Diamine Registrar's, it'll probably get a refill with Café Des Îles (after a heavy-duty rinse).

Next week, I'm expecting another shipment of inks, this time Rohrer&Klingner and De Atramentis. And nope, no extra pens yet to put all of these inks into


Peter.

Thanks for writing your impressions of these inks. I have been curious about many of them so it was helpful to me. I hope you will update again when you receive your shipment of R&K and De Atramentis inks!

Peter, you need to get a dozen Haolilais or something for all that wonderful ink!

Definitely looking forward to hearing about the next batch as well. I got some R&K Alt Bordeaux in a trade and I think it's my new favorite ink. Well, no, thinking about my beloved Golden Brown, I think it's my new second-favorite ink.

Update !

When my convertor of Diamine Registrar's ran out, I filled my Graf von with J.Herbin Café des Îles. I love this ink's colour and line variation. However, it quickly turned out that it doesn't behave well in my Graf von. After less than a page, the flow stopped. I had to give the convertor a few turns to get it restarted, but soon, it happened again.

First, I thought I'd ruined my pen with the Registrar's. That's because of all the horror stories I hear here about iron gallnut inks. My Pelikano is filled with J.Herbin's Poussière de Lune and worked fine as a backup. So today, I gave my Graf von a decent rinse. The brown just kept coming out. Even after several rinses, the nib was still giving out ink. Not even the Registrar's, which is obviously heavy in particles, does this.

I refilled the Graf von with Poussière de Lune, as I know this ink behaves well, and I've written about a page now without problems. A few fast lines (which gave problems with Café des Îles) afterwards were fine, too. Tomorrow I'll be taking notes with the pen again, but I don't expect any problems anymore.

A shame, because I loved Café des Îles. I'll try it in my Pelikano and see if it works better then.


Peter.

2nd update !

I've just finished a convertor of Visconti Blue and it's definitely a keeper. The writing experience is one of the best I've ever had. And pages written with it are quite beautiful. I won't go back to standard (Pelikan & cheap copies of it) blue anytime soon !


Peter.

PS: shipment #2 is on its way.

Thanks for the reviews Peter. They're very useful.

I quite fancied getting some Visconti Blue...mainly because of the cute little bakelite container for the cartridges to take with me when I'm travelling (I really don't want to carry bottled ink around - yep, have thought about the travelling ink well - but I'm not very brave)

Then I saw another review that raved about Visconti Blue, so I did intend to get some. What's annoying is, I was in a shop twice last week that stocks it, and I completely forgot!

So, your mention of it is going to get me heading straight back there to get myself a bottle (and one of them cartridge packs!)

- Mark