Ink Review: Diamine Safari (150Th Anniversary Ink)

[Chrissy]

My latest ink samples from Diamine include one of their 150th Anniversary inks: Safari So that's the ink I'm reviewing today. It's what fountain pen inks users might describe as a 'murky green ink'. These 'murky green' coloured inks are becoming more and more popular, especially at this time of the year.

Diamine Safari is more green than Salamander, Noodler's VMail Burma Road Brown and Montblanc Racing Green, although it can occasionally look a little more brownish on some papers, depending on the nib used. It's a good performer in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It's not deeply saturated but I saw lot's of shading and no noticeable sheen.

It felt quite wet in my Lamy NexxM with M nib. Both pens I used wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow was very good, slightly wet, with my M nib and the lubrication also felt good along a line. The dry time on all of the papers I used was 18-20 secs, which some may consider is quite a long dry time. Once dry there was no smearing.

Although I forgot to do the water test before I scanned the main review sheet, this ink has great water resistance despite not being sold as a water resistant ink.

This is one of my favourites of the 150th Anniversary series. I like the murky yellowish green colour. In fact I prefer it to some similar inks in this colour range that usually just look either very dark brown or almost black.

 

• Although this ink isn't sold as a waterproof ink, it exhibits very good water resistance.
• Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 18-20 secs to dry from both nibs on each of the different papers I used. No smear after dry.
• It exhibited very good flow and good lubrication and I found it smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.
• It is currently only available in 40ml bottles.
• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
• It's a little more expensive than the standard series.

 

 

Some similar swatches

 

 

 

Rhodia paper

 

Cheap printing paper

 

Ink drop on paper towel

 

Box and bottle

[namrehsnoom]

Thanks for the thorough review. Safari and Terracotta are my favourites from this set. It's been a while since I used them - time to put it back in a pen :-)

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the thorough review. Safari and Terracotta are my favourites from this set. It's been a while since I used them - time to put it back in a pen :-)

 

You're welcome. Safari and Terracotta are two of my favourites too along with both blues: Blue Velvet and Regency Blue.

[The Good Captain]

It's a great colour and thanks for the review, as always.

[Clumsy_Penman]

Safari and Terracotta are my favourites from this set. It's been a while since I used them - time to put it back in a pen :-)

 

Thanks Chrissy for the review of this fantastic ink. Similarly to namrehsnoom, Safari is may everyday use ink (the same as terracotta) since I purchased first inkwell of it nearly two years ago. I love this seaweedy 'murky' green you called. I love the way it looks on smooth paper (especially ivory toned Midori or Tomoe river). Shading is looking awesome!

 

I did short rev too on my blog back in time. I may revisit it again and add more cool pics. This ink definitely deserves it.

 

 

Looks toxic on wet paper

 

http://www.clumsypenman.com/wp-content/fpngallery/diamine-safari/P1030711.jpg

 

 

http://www.clumsypenman.com/wp-content/fpngallery/diamine-safari/P1030899.jpg

 

http://www.clumsypenman.com/wp-content/fpngallery/diamine-safari/2015-11-09-11.53.21.jpg

[InkedUp]

I recently picked up a bottle after getting a random sample of it, I really love the way it behaves even on some less-than-reliable papers *cough*Moleskin*cough* It's not something I would have picked out colour wise but I find myself writing with it daily. Hell I've refilled the pen it's in 3 times, usually with samples I'm one and done and want to switch things up by the time they run dry.

[jbutle04]

I love this ink too, but I think of it as a pretty dry ink, so I was surprised OP said it's pretty wet with a M nib. I can't really distinguish between the wet—dry spectrum and the saturated—unsaturated spectrum. So I wonder if what I perceive as the dry property of this ink is what OP perceives as its relatively unsaturated property. Interesting.

 

Anyway, this ink is very well behaved, IMO.

[Chrissy]

I love this ink too, but I think of it as a pretty dry ink, so I was surprised OP said it's pretty wet with a M nib. I can't really distinguish between the wet—dry spectrum and the saturated—unsaturated spectrum. So I wonder if what I perceive as the dry property of this ink is what OP perceives as its relatively unsaturated property. Interesting.

 

Anyway, this ink is very well behaved, IMO.

 

For me a dry ink is an ink that feels dry as I write with it along a line. It feels like there isn't much ink coming through the feed and out of the nib. When I can still see wet ink after I've written a line I don't consider the ink to be dry.

[Tom Kellie]

~ Chrissy:

 

I'd read your review of Diamine Safari earlier this year.

It arrived a couple of months ago but sat unused until tonight.

In an M nib it writes very well.

I'll be using it to write book notes and vocabulary comments.

Thank you for the persuasive review.

The seaweed hue is ideal for my needs.

Tom K.

[Chrissy]

You're welcome and I agree with you that the seaweed hue is an ideal shade.