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Today I'm reviewing Diamine Apple Glory ink. Diamine Apple Glory is a nicely saturated bright green dye based ink that leans slightly more towards the blue range of the spectrum than the yellow range. It’s a summery, bright, grassy green colour and is from Diamine Inks standard range. Diamine Apple Glory leans slightly less blue that Diamine Ultra Green and is a very similar colour to J.Herbin Lierre Sauvage, but is more saturated. Kaweco Palm Green and the old discontinued Caran d’Ache Colours of the Earth Amazon are also very similar colours. Flow Rate: Very good. Felt quite wet in the pen & paper combinations I used.Lubrication: Good - It felt smooth across the page in the pens I used.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Saturated inkShading Potential: Some shading seen with F and M nibs.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through:Royal recycledOxford paperField NotesTomoe River 52gsmGeneric 80gsm lined padsSpread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen, even on Field Notes.Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof and has no water resistance.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

Today I'm reviewing Diamine Meadow ink. Diamine Meadow is an unsaturated, yellowish green, dye based ink. Its from Diamine Inks standard range. This is a darker and greener shade than J.Herbin Vert Pré/Apple scented and P.I. Chiku rin, and a lighter and less gold/brown shade than R&K Alt. Goldgrün and Sailor Waka uguisu. In fact I dont have an ink really similar as a comparison. I found it quite an unusual ink to write with. Sometimes it shaded a lot and felt wet and lubricated, particularly with my M and B nibs, yet when I first used it in my Lamy 2000 with F nib, it felt drier and less lubricated. It seems to behave quite differently depending on the pen, its nib, and the paper. Flow Rate: Good. Felt wet with my M & B nibs.Lubrication: OK - better with M & B nibs.Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: Unsaturated ink.Shading Potential: An unusual shading ink, quite variable.Sheen: None seen.Show-Through:Tomoe River 52gsm.Tom Bihn Lined.Generic 80gsm lined pads.Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.Nib Creep / Crud: Not seen, even after over 1 week in the pen.Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen - easy clean-up with water.Staining (hands): Easy clean-up with bar soap.Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof but has surprisingly good water resistance.Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and many other outlets.

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

I’m reviewing samples of the new set of Diamine Shimmer inks. This one is Diamine Golden Ivy It’s a strong, saturated, dark ivy green ink with some nice shading and sheen as well as gold shimmer. It’s a similar shade to Diamine Tropical Green (150th Anniversary) but leans more green and slightly less blue than that ink. I found it a very wet and well flowing ink. It had very good lubrication with the pens I tried it with. With broader nibs it looks much more saturated than it does with finer nibs, although it’s wet enough to show the gold shimmer with all nibs. It showed through on some of the papers I used. The pens I used were a Jinhao Pearl Windows with M nib, Lamy Nexx M Stub 1.1mm nib, Lamy Nexx M F nib. In the past my Jinhao Pearl Windows pen has occasionally dried out when it has contained a shimmer ink. This one is wetter, so it hasn’t dried out in my pen. The comparison inks were swabbed with a cotton bud and their ink names were written with a glass dip pen. I found Golden Ivy a well-behaved ink. I didn’t experience any ignition or clogging problems with it. I had no problem cleaning it out of pens using cold water or off of skin using soap and warm water. It is not sold as a waterproof ink but it is water resistant. The Mebin UK Notebook I used was supplied by someone on FPN who sold TR 68gsm Notebooks. The paper in the Mebin UK Notebook is quite thick at 95gsm, it’s acid free, and has a really smooth surface with no drag or tooth at all. Inks generally take longer to dry on this paper, so wetter inks tend to pool and I knew that they would show their shimmer well enough for me to photograph the sheen. The Moleskine Notebook is a UK clone, and I found there was very little spread on it. Flow Rate: Wet, very good.Lubrication: Wet, very goodNib Dry-out: Not noticed.Start-up: Immediate.Saturation: A saturated inkShading Potential: Very good; shading can easily be seen.Sheen: Gold shimmerShow-Through:Tomoe River 52gsm.Cheaper generic 80gsm printer papers & lined pads.Field NotesSpread / Feathering: Not seenNib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over a week in the penStaining (pen): Not seen - easy clean-upStaining (hands): Not seen - easy clean-upClogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.Water resistance: Has some water resistance.Availability: Will be available from Diamine Inks web-site and other outlets. Back Mebin, then Back Moleskine

This is a fairly quick review, so that I can get up some reviews of the 8 new Diamine inks for you to look at. I haven't tried them all on lot's of different papers yet, but that will come later. Yesterday I was writing with them in my British Mebin Notebook that is made from the thicker version of Tomoe River paper. I think it's something like 65gsm compared with thinner Tomoe River that is 58gsm. It's still really smooth paper, so dry times are very long for these wet inks. It's a cream paper, and inks don't show through on there as much as they do on the regular version of Tomoe River. I photographed my quick reviews of Dark Forest and Golden Honey because Dark Forest has a wonderful red sheen, and Golden Honey has a really interesting red halo effect. I hope I can get both of these aspects to show up on screen. The other images I've posted have been scans, where color accuracy onto a screen is sometimes more difficult. Hopefully these photographed images will be better. I noticed that these new ink samples have wet flow, good lubrication and some shading. On this paper I can see sheen too. They clean up very easily from skin and pens. I've had these inks in these various pens for over 2 weeks now, and they all start up immediately with no problems. Sorry, I haven't yet tested for water resistance, and I will do that soon. I will also get around to comparing them with other ink colours, I'm planning on comparing Dark Forest against Green/Black as it looks like that sort of color. I don't have Cult Pens Deep Dark Green, but I'm guessing that would be similar. These inks will be available from Diamine in the 150th Anniversary range bottles as well as packs of 20 cartridges. I don't yet have any bottles to show you.

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Evergreen It’s an unusual dark green. When you write with it or swab it, it looks like a dark petrol blue, but then it dries very quickly to a dark green. I found it had good flow and lubrication while I was writing with it. I didn’t see any spread or feathering, nor any woolly line with the Pelikan F nib. With the Lamy M nib it looks much darker, more like what you would imagine Evergreen to look like. When I tested it on the selection of papers, it looks darker on them all than it actually came out when scanned. When I took a photo it just looked black. So I taped all of the papers down and scanned it instead. Evergreen looks quite well saturated, especially with my M nib. It exhibited plenty of attractive shading with the F nib in the Pelikan Go! pen. I found it behaved very well, and I like it. I didn’t experience any clogging or clean-up problems with it. In fact clean-up was very easy. It washes off hands with soap and water. It’s a lot darker than Pelikan Dark Green, and is almost as dark as Diamine Green/Black, but is more noticeably green, and not as grey. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but it shows a little water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used several different nibs, this ink dried very quickly with the F nib, but took longer to dry when I used my Lamy M nib.No smear after dry.It exhibited good flow 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 available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.​

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Cool Green It’s an interesting greenish/turquoise. This shade reminds me of my Viridian Green pigment. I found it had good flow while I was writing with it. I didn’t see any spread or feathering, nor any woolly line with the F nib. I saw a couple of signs of woolly line on the Oxford paper and when I first started writing on the Midori paper with the wet Jinhao M nib. However, that nib had just been dipped into the ink. Sadly, on the review form, I managed to get some water from the water test to run all the way across the page before I blotted it. So some of the writing in the Further Notes/Observations has been water damaged. Cool Green looks quite saturated, especially with my broader nibs. The M and BB nibs also made it look a darker colour. It exhibited plenty of very attractive shading with all of the nibs I used. I found it behaved very well, and I like it. I didn’t experience any clogging or clean-up problems with it. In fact clean-up was very easy. It washes off hands with soap and water. It’s darker and more saturated than Pelikan Edelstein Jade. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but it has reasonable water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used several different nibs, this ink dried very quickly with the F nib, but as it’s a wet ink it took longer to dry when I used my broader nibs.No smear after dry.It exhibited good flow and I found it very smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price. Chroma Test

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Green Umber It’s an interesting green, with added blue (and brown in the chroma test.) I think green umber is a good description of the colour. I found it had good flow while I was writing with it. I didn’t see any spread or feathering, nor any woolly line. When I first started writing the review form I had just filled the cleaned pen. It became slightly darker in colour when left in the pen for a few hours. At first I found it looked less saturated but after a while it looked more and more saturated, especially with my broader nibs. It also exhibited nice shading that was more noticeable with the fine nib. When I came to do ink comparison tests with other inks, I found that I didn’t have an ink that was the same colour. So it was an unusual coloured ink to write with. Green Umber is an old natural earth colour, and it fits it’s description very well. Overall I found it behaved very well, and I like it. I didn’t experience any clogging or clean-up problems with it. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, and it has no water resistance.Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used several different nibs, this ink took 12-15 secs secs to dry. No smear after dry.It exhibited good flow and I found it reasonably smooth to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles.Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.​ Chroma test

I've heard that the release date for these new inks is 4th November; Fountain Pen Day, so I'm posting separate reviews for them on here. I assume they will come in the same type of bottles as the previous set of shimmer inks, but I haven't seen the retail bottles yet. Currently I only have samples that Diamine very kindly sent me to test, and to review 'if I wanted to', but I've noticed that my samples don't need much shaking to mix the particles in, and the pens need very little shaking once they are filled.Generally speaking, I found all 12 of these new shimmer inks to be wetter than all of the other shimmer inks I have used.I have had these inks in these pens for over 2 weeks now. Every pen/ink combination has started straight away without a problem, and I have experienced no stopping or skipping.Some take longer to dry than others, and a couple just soaked into the paper straight away. The most saturated inks will show through and bleed through on cheap paper.None of them are waterproof inks.Diamine Shimmer Golden Oasis is a bright green ink that is darker than Diamine Kelly Green. It's a reasonably well saturated ink with gold shimmer. The gold shimmer shows up really easily. I used a Parker Sonnet Moonbeam that has a M nib and I had no trouble seeing the excellent gold effect. This ink feels quite wet, and takes a little longer to dry than some. I have regularly used this Parker Sonnet with shimmer inks, but this one was the wettest that I have tried in this pen. The first picture is a scanned review form, and the second is a photo. These have been adjusted with Photoshop to get the colour you see to look as close as possible to the actual ink colour.

I've recently reviewed 3 golden or brownish Diamine inks; Amber, Golden Brown and Antique Copper, so now I'm moving onto a couple of greens that I have. This one is Kelly Green. I know it's a popular bright green, but this is the first time I have ever tried it. It is my understanding that it was named by FPN's Ann Finley I'm not usually a fan of light green inks, especially when I can't read them easily on paper, but this one was a pleasant surprise in that respect. It is dark enough to read easily, while still being a bright green ink. The best of both worlds. It's noticeably darker and easier to read on paper than Diamine Jade Green (still to review), P.I. Chiku-rin and J.Herbin Apple scented. The P.I. Chiku-rin swab on the review form came from a swab card taken from a sample. I no longer have any. It's a bright Spring-like green ink. The colour of brand new yellowish-green leaves opening on trees in Spring. It leans more towards the yellow side of the colour spectrum than the blue side, and I like it for that. I found it lovely and smooth to write with, very good flow and lubrication, and saw some shading, particularly with my Pelikan M400 EF nib. It almost becomes more concentrated when using a fine nib as opposed to the more yellow hue that comes across with broader nibs. It gets a big thumbs up from me. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has reasonable water resistance. The pool of water was left on the test patch for 30 seconds then was blotted off with kitchen roll.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Pelikan EF nib plus a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.It flows very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did all of the swab tests.It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.It's a reasonable price.

I found a stash of old reviews that got misplaced during a house move, so this one's pretty old. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/cKbAUr.jpg