Diamine Matador

[DanielCoffey]

INK : DIAMINE MATADOR

 

PAPER : RHODIA #16 A5 white lined

 

PEN : Onoto Magna 261 Medium nib tweaked for wet flow by John Sorowka (Oxonian).

 

Scanner : IT8-calibrated Epson V600 flatbed

Colour Space : Adobe RGB

Matte : 50% grey and 100% white

Post-process : Unsharp Mask

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewMatador.jpg

 

 

Here is a close-up of the swab. There is no metallic sheen to this ink and the swab shows it is a purer, darker red than Diamine Wild Strawberry....

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewMatadorSwab.jpg

 

 

And a close-up of the shading. This ink is only a moderate candidate for shading. Maybe reviewers with different nibs will be able to show better results...

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewMatadorShade.jpg

 

 

As expected, this ink is in NO way water resistant but then Diamine never said it was...

 

http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewMatadorWater.jpg

 

 

DRYING TIMES : The writing tests above were done in a very wet medium nib that had just been cleaned. Drying times on Xerox 90gsm was between 5s to 10s. Rhodia and G Lalo Vergé were around 30s. Clairefontaine Triomphe took a good 45s to dry.

 

SMEARING : None on any paper. This ink bonds nicely with the paper and noes not sit on top, even on Clairefontaine Triomphe. A careless wipe with a damp finger, however, will result in the colour moving.

 

BLEEDTHROUGH : Since the ink is so saturated, some bleed through may be expected on copy papers with wet or fat nibs. I would not expect bleeding on dry or fine nibs or when the ink is used on a good quality paper. Given the wet nib I used above, I recorded the following... Xerox 90gsm had high bleed through and moderate feathering. Rhodia had no bleed through and no feathering. Clairefontaine Triomphe had no bleed through or feathering. G Lalo Vergé had no bleed through or feathering.

 

FLOW AND LUBRICATION : Flow for this ink seems to be medium to high. I suspect even a dry fine nib will put down a good line. The ink seems "wet" and is not reluctant to penetrate the paper. Lubrication was excellent in the pen tested (my medium above). The writing experience was very enjoyable.

 

CLEANING : There were no colour residues left on the converter and this ink washed out nicely. It did not cling to the pen insides and a simple fairy/water then rinse was all it took to get the pen clean. I found a few gaps in the converter that some red had crept into but it soon got the idea who was boss. Easy to clean.

[DanielCoffey]

I know there is quite a bit of copy/paste in the reviews I have been putting in recently but to be honest, apart from the differences in colour, all these inks behave very consistently within their colour groups.

 

These new Diamine inks all seem nicely saturated and bring all the benefits such as ease of cleaning that non-water resistant inks offer.

[RudyR]

Thanks for the review Daniel. I see you have used the grid with hot cup of coffee/tea placed on it to duplicate the real world possibility of disaster. I was contemplating a similar test on a future review. It looks like a good test.

[DanielCoffey]

That one is fun to do... I pour a little bit of cold water from the kettle onto the work surface, sit the coffee cup down on it and turn it a little, pick it up and plonk it down on the grid, think "Oh (bleep), my lecture notes/journal/shopping list!", move the cup and dab it dry with kitchen paper without rubbing. Remember to check the bottom of the cup as it will now be ink-coloured.

[Maduro]

Thank you for the review Daniel. Do you happen to have any pictures to show Matador alongside any other red inks you have?

[DanielCoffey]

I will be doing Diamine Sunset today but will go through the single ink scans to do a side by side of Matador, Wild Strawberry and Sunset. I don't have a single piece of paper with writing in all three but I can do a composite scan.

 

Till then you will just have to open two browser windows and do a side by side check.

Edited May 26, 2012 by DanielCoffey

[lapis]

Nice review again! Daniel, my friend, it's not your fault that this and the strawberry wildness reports have a similar Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V-ness. It's Diamine's! Nows I need both inks.

 

MIke

[Maduro]

Thanks Daniel, I checked out your reviews of the other Diamine inks for a comparison.

[DanielCoffey]

I know it wasn't a robust comparison, but I found that the Matador was a truer red and a little darker than the Wild Strawberry. The Wild Strawberry had slight peach highlights in it which the Matador didn't. The Sunset was much more like an orange with red tones.

[pen2paper]

very much enjoying your ink reviews, thanks!

wonder how this compares to R & K Morinda

[georges zaslavsky]

very nice red color thanks for sharing