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Ink Review: Diamine Eclipse


Chrissy

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I thought I would get a sample of Diamine Eclipse to see what it was like.

It looks black in the bottle, but I see it as an almost black blue-black. It is leaning towards the end of the blue range of the spectrum, so that it almost goes into blue-violet, but I don't see purple in it. Just a very dark blue-black. I think it's name fits it very well. The inky blackness of a night sky that has a faint hue of blue about it.

As someone who isn't a fan of black, grey or blue-black ink, I was surprised to find myself liking it. For me it's better than black as it has that very dark blue tint in it.

I'm currently into attempting to match my pen barrel colours with the inks I use to fill them. So I filled my black carbonesque Pilot Capless (VP) with this ink. I had an empty, clean and dry cartridge, and syringed this ink into it. Pilot inks flow really wet in this Capless, but this seemed to write a bit dryer than some inks I have used recently. I head some slight feedback on this smooth, thick paper. It wasn't a bad thing, and it means the ink dries fairly quickly.

  • The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink. I bet that will put some people off it, however, it has a bit of water resistance.
  • Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the nib used at that time was a 1.1 stub, this ink took 12-15 secs to dry.
  • It lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts from either of the pens that both stayed uncapped while I swapped and changed, and did swabs and comparisons with other inks. So far as flow goes it's less wet than some Diamine inks I have reviewed.
  • It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottles. It's also available in cartridges.
  • Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
  • It's a reasonable price.

fpn_1437060550__diamine_eclipse1.jpgfpn_1437060561__diamine_eclipse2.jpg

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Nice review. Great ink. In the meantime one of my favourites of all. As usual, it depends so much on the pen(s) used. Especially all Bs and BBs on my wettest pens really do a good job with this ink. I also find it quite wet. As I see it, it's definitely a purple-black. Purple to be sure but even darker and blacker than what i see of your writing on my screen.

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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Strangely, I saw no purple in there. However, I'm advised that if you water it down a little and use a very broad nib, you will see it.

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As mentioned, i live with broad nibs but I never dilute (well, w/a, then Noodler's)....

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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I really like this ink. I have a hard time finding satisfaction with inks, but with this one I have experienced one of those few times when I noticed I really liked how it looked on paper. Writing experience is nice, very lubricated in my extra fine Lamy nib, as is the case with some (if not most) of other Diamine inks. I particularly noticed the good lubrication and flow with this ink, which seems on par with Diamine Evergreen which feels pretty smooth to me, althought I don't like the color very much..

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Thanks for the review. I really like Eclipse, even though it is *very* dark (more black-blue than blue-black IMO). Don't remember noticing any purple undertones, but I haven't used it recently because of having a whole lot of new and newish samples to go through; plus I've been leaning towards brighter and lighter colors with the spring weather.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Nice review. Great ink. In the meantime one of my favourites of all. As usual, it depends so much on the pen(s) used. Especially all Bs and BBs on my wettest pens really do a good job with this ink. I also find it quite wet. As I see it, it's definitely a purple-black. Purple to be sure but even darker and blacker than what i see of your writing on my screen.

 

Mike

I agree Mike. The purple is usually very distinctive, so I went to check my bottle & did a swab & the purple is clearly there. And it certainly shows up clearly when you flush out a pen that's had Eclipse in it => purple water :-)

 

Here's Eclipse contrasted next to Diamine Midnight so you can (hopefully) see the purple tones.

 

 

 

 

Edit: forgot to mention that this swab is on cheap copier paper. On an "ink resistant" paper like Tomoe the green/gold sheen shows up more.

Edited by migo984

Verba volant, scripta manent

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Thanks for the review. I really like Eclipse, even though it is *very* dark (more black-blue than blue-black IMO). Don't remember noticing any purple undertones, but I haven't used it recently because of having a whole lot of new and newish samples to go through; plus I've been leaning towards brighter and lighter colors with the spring weather.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

In Photoshop it shows me that it is right at the blue/violet edge of the colour spectrum, so there is possibly a vague hint of red starting to creep into the blue.

 

However, I see it as a very deep blue-black.

 

Even when I put a blot on a piece of kitchen roll and wet it, I still wouldn't call it purple. It doesn't have enough red in it for me to call it purple.

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I really like almost-but-not-quite-black inks. At work, we're supposed to use blue or black ink, so I like to push the envelope with blue-black, etc. This is certainly one of those inks. Thanks for the review. I really like this series.

"One can not waste time worrying about small minds . . . If we were normal, we'd still be using free ball point pens." —Bo Bo Olson

 

"I already own more ink than a rational person can use in a lifetime." —Waski_the_Squirrel

 

I'm still trying to figure out how to list all my pens down here.

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I really like almost-but-not-quite-black inks. At work, we're supposed to use blue or black ink, so I like to push the envelope with blue-black, etc. This is certainly one of those inks. Thanks for the review. I really like this series.

Thank you Frank, and you're welcome. :)

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You wouldn't happen to have any Noodler's Nightshade lying about to compare it to?

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For me, the real color of this ink manifests when I use an extra-fine nib and cover several pages with handwriting. The optical mixing with the bright white of the paper then reveals this to be a lavender-ish dark grey rather than a black. Its subtleties intrigue me.

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You wouldn't happen to have any Noodler's Nightshade lying about to compare it to?

 

Sadly I don't. I could get some from Goulet's but not until I visit Florida later this year.

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For me, the real color of this ink manifests when I use an extra-fine nib and cover several pages with handwriting. The optical mixing with the bright white of the paper then reveals this to be a lavender-ish dark grey rather than a black. Its subtleties intrigue me.

 

I would agree with you that it's a lavender-ish dark grey rather than a black, (or even a purple) and that it has intriguing subtleties. :)

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Thanks for the review. I love this ink in all respects. The only problem is that with most pens it seems practically black, without the wonderful purple undertone. I was thinking of phasing it out in favour of Grape but maybe I should try it in a Capless, too: they tend to be on the dry side with Diamine inks.

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Thanks for the review. I love this ink in all respects. The only problem is that with most pens it seems practically black, without the wonderful purple undertone. I was thinking of phasing it out in favour of Grape but maybe I should try it in a Capless, too: they tend to be on the dry side with Diamine inks.

 

I like Grape and Damson too :)

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For me, the real color of this ink manifests when I use an extra-fine nib and cover several pages with handwriting. The optical mixing with the bright white of the paper then reveals this to be a lavender-ish dark grey rather than a black. Its subtleties intrigue me.

 

I also prefer it with a finer nib, it was nicer with my wet XF Lamy nib than my moderate F Lamy nib.

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