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Diamine Ancient Copper


brunico

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Diamine's new ink, Ancient Copper, launched December 2011. A ruddy orange-brown with lots of shading, even on this absorbent cartridge paper, for the many shading fans on Fountain Pen Network. And a line of ancient verse to go with it: could only remember stuff about Corinthian bronze, not copper, so you get something completely unrelated...

 

It was difficult to take a photo today: barely any light in London today, but I wanted to show the colour in daylight outdoors, and by the time I could set up it was getting dark and starting to spot with rain. The photo's not a perfect reproduction, but it's not misleading.

 

Nibs are a Pilot Parallel 2.4mm and a Lamy 1.1mm.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7158/6492878505_994fbe239d_b.jpg

 

Colour. This is an interesting colour, becoming redder in tungsten light and, on newsprint under the fluorescent lights of the London Underground, losing its shading and looking closer to something like Noodler's Habanero. It plays well as a complementary markup colour with Noodler's Zhivago. Somewhere at the back of my mind was the mossy green and burnished orange combination of the Morris/Burne-Jones tapestry Pomona. A blue-black would work well with this colour, too. I got it for this reason, figuring if it didn't work out it would still be good for mucking about with a Pilot Parallel to produce antique-looking scrawls. It's not really bright enough for a markup colour, but it's okay: still, this means you can write a whole page with it and it won't be jarring. Let's call it versatile!

 

Diamine's 30ml bottles have to be the best way to get a range of colours to play with at little cost. Amaranth has shown me that a bluish pink can be a great markup colour, and I have some colours I'll use infrequently at little expense. So hurray for Diamine! On the minus side, you don't get poetic French or Japanese names. But you can tell people it's Cuivre d'antan...

 

Water resistance. What you'd expect, really. A lot washes away, but it's still readable. Haven't done a soak test.

 

Fading. Only had it a few days! But I'm sure it will.

 

Flow. Good: neither stingy nor gushing. Wet enough to shade, dry enough not to be a nuisance. Keeps a fairly tight line, so your EF will remain an EF. Unlike Mediterranean Blue...

 

Drying time. Good. It's not sticky or anything.

 

Feathering. Very good. A good deal of my writing is on whatever cheap copy paper we have at work, and here Zhivago is perfect: no feathering at all. Ancient Copper showed the very slightest hint of a beginning of a tendency here - you had to squint - but the line was still good. You can buy this with confidence if you hate feathering: there's been none on any other paper I've tried, including other brands of copy paper we've had. I found on this copy paper that Diamine Mediterranean Blue, a remarkably pretty colour, turned quite ugly and spidery. Anyone know whether Rohrer und Klingner's Blu Mare would be better-behaved?

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Thanks for the nice review. I have a sample on order and am excited to try it. I have been looking for a subdued orange-brown or burnt orange color and am surprised that there don't seem to be any out there. Hopefully this is the one.

The secret of zen is just two words, not always so.

Shunryu Suzuki

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A really nice review - I do hope that you write more :happyberet:

 

I have to say that I was a little disappointed with my bottle, which I have put in a Pelikan M800 with not a whisper of shading to its name. I can see that I need to try it in a few more pens. The colour is, however, a very good match for the deleted Sailor red Brown, which I suspect was Diamine's intention.

 

John

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Thanks for a great review. I bought a bottle of this ink last Thursday at Vanness Pens. I've only tried it in an extra fine nibbed Sheaffer balance so haven't been able to see the full range of color. I hope to put it in my Studio with a 1.5mm nib and give it a try.

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Thank you all for your comments!

 

John,

 

I do hope to write more. It was the ink reviews that brought me to FPN several years ago, long before I became a member. So I feel I should return some of the help FPN has given me.

 

zenrabbit,

 

Hope it's what you've been waiting for - I've also wondered were the burnt oranges were.

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I've been using this ink in my Lamy 2000 (medium nib) for a few days and I'm absolutely enamoured with it! The colour is gorgeous, and shades brilliantly, and it is very well behaved on the papers I've tried. I find it easy on my eyes and inspiring to write with, but also easy to read and dark and neat enough that I wouldn't be afraid to use it to make 'serious' notes. I think I'll always want a bottle of this around!

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Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I don't see Sailor Red-Brown. I see Mont Blanc Carlo Collodi Brown, but a little darker. Will have to get a bottle.

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I've about 20 untried 30ml bottles, but the day these new 5 came in I ponced on this color and filled a F Pelikan M300 with it. I've been trying to do correspondence or journaling with the ever popular #41 Brown but find it just too dark and boring. I've also been trying to make the Iroshi Yu-Yake (sunset) from the last inkdrop work for me.

Ancient Copper is dark enough to be readable, brown-ish but still I'd call a dark orange, and while I am not a shading fan, the subtle effect with the F nib on Rhodia paper is attractive. (It always was the darker shaded bits that bled through the paper when I was using a FP for schoolwork, so I came to wish the ink would just lie evenly on the page. I still find it odd, though intellectually I get it, that that "defect" is now a prized feature. )

 

Whether I'll stick with it enough over my preferred turquoise blues to need a full size bottleIDK, but it's always good to find that something you've anticipated for months turns out to be at least as good as you were hoping.

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Nice review. Im very anxious to fill my Visconti Opera Master Demo 1.3 stub with this ink. My doubt is if I should order from Diamine site (in UK) or from Nordic Pens :hmm1:

 

 

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I do like that. This is a nice review of a very beautiful ink. Your observation of the colour change under different light is very useful.

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That is a great review and an awesome looking ink. I wish I could pop down to the store and get it right now.

Thanks for the review,

Mars

"fortibus es in ero"

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Thanks all for your comments. Here's another photo of Diamine Ancient Copper, this time with Noodler's Zhivago - my daily writer - and Blue-Black.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6531281713_f1c955e32e_b.jpg

 

The photo is broadly accurate, if a little muted, except that Mediterranean Blue is much paler than it should be. Fortunately, there are at least two more reviews of Diamine Ancient Copper now on FPN, so you should be able to get a good impression of how it behaves in different pens and what to expect.

 

Diamine Ancient Copper jars with Amaranth: I suspect this will hold for a range of pinks, reds and burgundies.

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Thanks for your very fine review of Ancient Copper--I fully agree with you that this ink fills the void left by the disappearance of Sailor Red/Brown! Both the writing samples give us a wonderful look at the shading possibilities of this ink. I've had a bottle of AC over a week now and so far love the way it shades and behaves. I think this one may become my favorite.

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Thanks for your very fine review of Ancient Copper--I fully agree with you that this ink fills the void left by the disappearance of Sailor Red/Brown! Both the writing samples give us a wonderful look at the shading possibilities of this ink. I've had a bottle of AC over a week now and so far love the way it shades and behaves. I think this one may become my favorite.

 

I'm glad to hear that. Sailor Red-brown is one of my favorite inks and I have been searching for a replacement ever since it was discontinued. Montblanc Collodi comes close, but it's just a bit too light and pumpkin-y. Ancient Copper is next on my list. From the scans I have seen, it does seem to be a very likely candidate to replace Red-brown.

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