Ink Review : Diamine Beethoven (Music Collection)

[namrehsnoom]

Ink Review : Diamine Beethoven (Music Collection)

 

 

Pen: Lamy Safari, M-nib

Paper: Rhodia N° 16 notepad 80 gsm

 

 

Review

 

Vienna, Wienerwald, April 10th 1810

Guten Tag, Mein Herr... welcome in Wienerwald. My name is Ludwig van Beethoven, and I am enjoying my afternoon walk in this beautiful pine tree forest, with its saturated green colors. Look over there - see these rabbits playing in the bushes. Ah... my good friend Elisabeth should have been here to see this. This saturated green setting inspires my muse... I've got an idea for a lovely composition. I think I will call it "Für Elise."

 

In 2015 Diamine released their Music Collection, a set of ten inks named after famous composers. All inks in this collection have serious, subdued colors. In this review, we take a look at Beethoven - after the above introduction, you're sure to remember that this is a saturated green ink.

 

Diamine Beethoven has a nice, dark-green color. Like all inks in the Music Collection, it is not a vibrant color, but a more subdued green. There is some decent shading present. All in all, not a bad color, but in my opinion, the "Wow" factor is rather low. This is not a must-have ink if you already have some greens.

 

OK - but how does it behave on paper ? For this, I did some tests:

• Rhodia N° 16 notepad 80 gsm - drying time 20-25 seconds, no feathering, no show-through and no bleed-through
• Paperblanks journal paper - drying time ~10 seconds, noticeable feathering, no show-through, some occasional bleed-through
• Generic notepad paper 70 gsm - drying time 15-20 seconds, no feathering, minimal show-through, some bleed-through
• Moleskine journal - drying time ~5 seconds, noticeable feathering, significant show-through and significant bleed-through

Beethoven is not a well-behaving ink. It is ok on more-or-less glossy paper, but feathers easily on cheaper and non-glossy paper. It also has serious issues with bleed-through. For some reason this is one of the few inks I have encountered that have problems with Paperblanks journal paper. There is some noticeable feathering and occasional bleed-through. This is something to take into account if you're a fan of Paperblanks journals.

 

Another issue to take note of - this ink writes badly in my EF nib. Ink flow is not good, and the writing was scratchy as hell. You can really see this in the writing sample: this ink is not pleasant to use and see when writing with finer nibs.

 

Water resistance is also bad. The color disappears in seconds, leaving only a faint greyish trace.

 

Conclusion

 

This ink falls short in several areas. The color is ok, but nothing special. But the ink has several technical shortcomings: significant feathering and bleed-through, doesn't like the finer nibs, no water resistance. All in all, not an ink that I would recommend.

 

My overall score: C (and maybe even a C-)

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by namrehsnoom

[lapis]

You did it again! What a good and loveable review. Thanks for all of your explanations and notings of this and that. The colour itself -- which I do like -- may well be as usual a very subjective thing but its shortcomings as to feathering, bleeding and non-resistance to water... that doesn't make it a very good ink. Good thing that I don't mind those insufficiencies all that much.

 

Deine Elise

[migo984]

Another interesting review, thank you. I have this ink but don't reach for it very often. I have experienced behaviour issues, but nothing like as bad as yours.

A rather forgettable ink, in a crowded area of the colour scene.

[sheeptotherescue]

Reminds me of a slightly diluted Sailor Epinard, which is much better behaved. Lovely color and review though!

[austollie]

I absolutely love Diamine Beethoven and haven't experienced any of the behavioural issues described. I have predominantly used it with a medium Parker Sonnet and haven't tried it with an EF nib.

 

For years, I exclusively wrote with black ink and wanted to spice things up with a bit of colour. I work in a fairly conservative profession so that I would not be comfortable writing with flashy colours in meetings. Prior to using Diamine Beethoven, I used Lamy Petrol. While I love that colour (please Lamy- make some more) it is so dark that almost looks like black. Diamine Beethoven is clearly green, but is subdued enough to be acceptable in a conservative office. For me, it's just right.

[namrehsnoom]

I absolutely love Diamine Beethoven and haven't experienced any of the behavioural issues described. I have predominantly used it with a medium Parker Sonnet and haven't tried it with an EF nib.

Glad to hear that it worked for you. With my favourite paper, combined with dry-writing Safari pens, my experience was not so good. What I learned the past couple of years is that the right combination of pen, ink and paper can make a huge difference for the writing experience.

[Cursive Child]

Thanks for the nice review! Torn about the color. Like asutollie, don't want to use too flashy colors, but want something more than blues and blacks at work.