Ink Review: Diamine Classic Red

[Chrissy]

My latest ink is Diamine Classic Red

Diamine Classic Red is a good, bright red ink. Not quite as bright or as eye-catching as Wild Strawberry, but still a nice, bright red. Classic Red leans more towards the pink end of the spectrum than Wild Strawberry does. In fact, even though I thought I had many reds, I couldn't find any in my collection, that I would say are almost identical to it. It's a well behaved ink in all of the pens and on all of the paper I tried it with. It's not overly saturated but I saw plenty of attractive shading.

It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. The flow is very good and so is it's lubrication at the nib. Although the flow feels slightly dryer than Wild Strawberry, it didn't feel particularly dry. The dry time was fairly quick and there were no smears after it was dry.

It has virtually no water resistance at all. The red inky water spread quickly.

I think it's a very nice bright red ink, especially if you prefer pink leaning bright reds. Kaweco Ruby Red was the most similar colour, but that leans more purple than Classic Red.

• This isn't sold as a waterproof ink,and shows no noticeable water resistance.

• Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Lamy M nib, a Lamy 1.1mm nib and a Waterman F nib this ink only took 15 secs to dry. No smear when dry.

• It exhibited good flow and lubrication and I found it well behaved to write with. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.

• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles

• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

• It's a reasonable price.

 

[lapis]

Thanks for the nice review. I see the pink, also a tick of chalk. Got any Diamine Wild Strawberry or Poppy lying around? Any Skrip Red?

 

Mike

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the nice review. I see the pink, also a tick of chalk. Got any Diamine Wild Strawberry or Poppy lying around? Any Skrip Red?

 

Mike

 

Yes I reviewed Wild Strawberry last weekend, and that was similar to Poppy and Skrip Red.

 

However Classic Red is much pinker.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.

I like Classic Red because it looks like RED. Not burgundy, not tomato, not blood, not berry.

A lot of people think of Skrip Red as the quintessential red ink, but I found it had sort of brownish undertones. For me, Classic Red is RED.

I just wish it was somewhat water resistant -- so for those times I have Noodler's Park Red, which is a tad pinker, but is still pretty vibrant.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[chromantic]

It's certainly red.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for the review.

I like Classic Red because it looks like RED. Not burgundy, not tomato, not blood, not berry.

A lot of people think of Skrip Red as the quintessential red ink, but I found it had sort of brownish undertones. For me, Classic Red is RED.

I just wish it was somewhat water resistant -- so for those times I have Noodler's Park Red, which is a tad pinker, but is still pretty vibrant.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

It is certainly red, and it fits it's name very well. When you buy Classic Red, you get exactly what it says on the bottle.

 

I have a story associated with this ink. As I was reviewing it, I have various pens filled with it, and I write with it on various papers. Not surprisingly, I get pieces of kitchen roll with plenty of Classic Red ink splotches on them.

 

Don't read on if you are squeamish about blood. OK?

 

So, on this particular day, my OH was pottering about somewhere, then came in from the garage bleeding all down his forehead and face, from quite a long cut, right on top of the crown of his head. He had bent down near the garage door, and caught his head on a sharp metal bracket. It was a mad few minutes while we decided what to do, but we eventually got him fixed up when the local hospital cleaned him up and superglued his head wound back together.

 

However, at one moment, during all of this panic, I could't help but think that the bright red blood on the pieces of kitchen roll that we were holding on his head, looked exactly like the Classic Red ink on the other pieces that were on my desk.