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Hello FPNers, I’m a huge fan of shading inks but dislike sheening inks. In the blue-teal-green spectrum (and nowhere else), can you recommend high shading inks that have no sheen? My current champion blue is Colorverse Supernova and my current champion green is Diamine November Rain. But there have to be more! Again, only in the blue-teal-green spectrum. Thanks! Gary

Today I’m reviewing Diamine Teal I’ve gone back to this colour to try it out, although I had a small sample in a tube for quite a long time but never used it. I decided to go back to it now as my interest in this type of colour was piqued when I reviewed Diamine Eau de Nil. For my money this is not a typical teal. Like many inky experimenters, I have made my own teal inks by mixing blue and green ink, and that is the colour I’ve come to expect as teal. Diamine Teal, though certainly a mixture of blue and green dyes on it’s chroma test, leans slightly more blue than I expected. I actually liked it more because of this. It’s a deep ocean blue-green colour. It felt reasonably dry by comparison to some other inks I’ve used recently, and it’s drying time on all papers was super quick. Apart from it’s dryness, I found it well behaved in my pens, on the papers I tested it with. It also cleaned out easily and washed off of my hands easily. So it’s not a heavy stainer. It’s an easy going ink, that is reasonably saturated, and exhibits some shading on many papers. It also produced some traces of sheen. I liked it best in my Waterman Preface M nib as I felt that showed up the shading better than the Lamy 1.1mm nib. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but it has some 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 3-5 secs secs to dry. That’s very quick on this paper.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.

Today I'm reviewing a new ink that I have just received. Graf von Faber-Castell Deep Sea Green. This was the previous new addition to the G.v.F.C family before they issued their latest colour, Violet Blue. It's been out of stock for a short time, so that's why I didn't manage to review it before I went on holiday to Florida. The first thing I must mention about this ink is the absolutely fabulous bottle. It's based on an Art Deco design, and I think it is the best of all of the ink bottles I have, and those of you who know me will know that I have a few. This bottle is sophisticated and sumptuous, so heavy, and as steady as a rock, so that it will never accidentally tip over. Even for clumsy people like me. The cap goes on tightly and solidly and fits the bottle cap like a glove. So you don't get so much messy and wasted ink around the glass bottle threads, or inside the cap threads. No ink was was in those threads anywhere when I received my bottle in the mail. I'm quite picky about keeping the tops and caps of my ink bottles clean, so this one saves me the effort of wiping it when I use it. I suppose that weight of the bottle does make it more expensive to ship anywhere, but in my humble opinion it is so worth it. Also, this bottle holds a huge 75ml of ink, so it's much bigger than many others on the market. Now I've admired the bottle so much, let me talk about the Deep Sea Green ink. I really like the colour. It's like a greyish/blue-green teal. It's bluer than Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine, and is a cooler colour. However, it fits it's name very well. It may not be the most saturated ink, but it's not at all not watery in use, and it has lots of great shading and some natural sheen. I found drying time relatively slow by comparison to some other inks I've recently reviewed, but I didn't find that a problem. It performs very well. Feeling smooth and lubricated when flowing from the nib onto the paper. It was a pleasure to write with as it feels reasonably wet while you write, and I like that in an ink. According to the information I have read about Graf von Faber-Castell inks, they are all indelible and waterproof. My water test just managed to smudge it a little. Bearing in mind the 100gsm paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Pilot M nib, and a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 20-22 secs to dry. This dry time was reduced on different papers. It flows through the pen very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests. It is currently available in 75ml glass bottles and International sized cartridges. Within the UK it usually sells at £25 in many online outlets.

Today I’m reviewing Diamine Eau de Nil The name means: 'Water of the Nile' I’ve seen previous reviews for Eau de Nil, and decided to try it out. I’m pleased I did because I really like the colour. It’s like a blue with added grey that makes it into a blue teal that doesn’t lean very green. It is not a really saturated ink, and it’s a little drier than some other inks I’ve written with recently. However, it’s an excellent shader and I found no problems with the flow or lubrication. I would say it’s well behaved in the pens and on the paper that I used. I saw no skips or hard starts, and it didn't dry out on the nib while I was doing swab tests. This ink isn't sold as water resistant, but there was some water resistance when I did the water test. I like the way it shades on most papers. This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but it has some 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 10-12 secs secs to dry using the Parker 51 F 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 the latest Pelikan Edelstein ink Aquamarine I must admit I thought it would be a lighter shade than it is. It's a well saturated blue-green teal ink. I found it quite wet because I could see each line of writing still glistening as I wrote the next line, and I found that it took longer to dry on my 100gsm paper than several other inks I've tried lately. I really like the colour though, and I found it beautifully smooth in the 3 pens that I filled with it. I had no problems with any dry out or hard starts while I left the caps off the pens so that I could do the swabs and comparisons. I am aware that it is a similar colour to Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-jaku, but I no longer have that ink. Instead I compared it with Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro, which is more green. It's water resistance is very good. I'm sure it will be a really popular colour like the previous Inks of the Year have been. Thanks to my OH for pressing the camera remote while I operated the piston of the pen.