Ink Review : Diamine Mozart (Music Collection)

[namrehsnoom]

Ink Review : Diamine Mozart (Music Collection)

 

 

Pen: Lamy Al-Star, M-nib

Paper : Rhodia N°16 notepad 80 gsm

 

 

Review

 

Vienna countryside, summer of 1788

A hot late-summer afternoon just after a refreshing shower. Farmers in the red-brown freshly plowed fields. A friendly wrestling match between two young men trying to impress their lovers. Yey ! Mudfight. How hilarious ! This setting inspires my muse. I've got a splendid idea for a comical opera buffa with lovers as a theme - I think I will call it "Cosi Fan Tutte."

 

In 2015 Diamine released the Music Collection, a set of ten inks named after well-known composers. This is a collection with serious, subdued colors. In this review, we take a look at Mozart - after the above discussion, you're sure to remember that this is a red-brown ink.

 

 

Diamine Mozart is a nice red-brown ink, almost pinkish red-brown as shown in the chromatography. This ink writes well, with good flow, and exhibits some nice shading. Looks real good in broader nibs where the shading is more pronounced, and where the red-brown color shows its best. In finer nibs though, I find that the ink looks rather bland and uninspiring. Because of my small handwriting I typically use the finer nibs, so this Mozart is not really my thing.

 

 

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. Nice-looking on this white paper
• Paperblanks journal paper - drying time 10-15 seconds, no feathering, some minor show-through, no bleed-through. Looks more reddish on this more yellowish paper
• Generic notepad paper 70 gsm - drying time 10-15 seconds, no feathering, no show-through nor bleed-through
• Moleskine journal - drying time ~5 seconds, no feathering, significant show-through and bleed-through. Looks more reddish on this off-white paper

Mozart is a well-behaving ink on a wide variety of paper. Personally I like it best on pure white paper. On off-white, more yellowish paper, it looks really red. Too red for my taste. The ink is smudge resistant, but totally not water-resistant. Short exposure to water leaves a reddish residue that remains more or less readable. After a longer soak, the text is gone and only red-brown mudstains remain.

 

Conclusion

 

Diamine Mozart is a well-behaving ink with good flow, that tolerates a wide variety of paper. Even Moleskine journals are OK if you use only one side of the pages. A shame about the complete lack of water-resistance though. The color - as always - is a personal thing. Myself, I'm not a fan of this Mozart. It's a bit too red for my tastes. But if you like red-brown inks, this Mozart might just be your thing.

 

my overall score : B

 

 

 

 

 

 

[visvamitra]

Excellent review, can't wait to see more from you in the future. When it comes to this Diamine set I'm not particularly fond of any of the colors. They're not bad but there's just nothing really capturing about them.