Which Diamine inks shade best?

[DiveDr]

8 minutes ago, es9 said:

Yes—so long as you use their non-pigmented, non-shimmer inks, and you stay away from riskier colors. See this post by Richard Binder. The only non-vintage pens I own are a Lamy 2000 and a TWSBI for travel; all my other pens would be considered vintage. I pretty much only use diamine (twilight, denim, early gray, and 1864 blue-black) or waterman (mysterious or serenity blue) ink. 

Thanks for the reply!  I generally use Waterman but the colors are very, well, boring!  Will try some Diamine.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Here's what I'm thinking of getting.

Tyrian Purple ,,,yes. Shades well and I don’t think I have that shade.

 

Ancient Copper  “”Diamine Ancient Copper has decent shade too. I've had that ink in dozens of different pens and I've never, ever had it crud up a nib. ….very nice color and shading……”””    ++ Am willing to risk nib crud for this shading ink.

 

Tobacco Sunburst. Second review makes it worth getting. (Germany only or was; but I’m in Germany.)

Presidential Blue  more than OK after looking in two-three reviews.

Thanks to everyone for their favorites…..these are left from your recommendations.

Now to see if I can get my B&M to do the work for me. I’d rather he gets the euro, than have him go bust, which he’s close to doing. Between Covid and Inflation it’s been hard for him.

It’s not really worth my while to hunt for the best price + postage for peanuts.

Besides which I can dither until New Year.

[es9]

I’m not sure I would use any other than presidential blue in a vintage pen. Even if something doesn’t clog the feed (or, in the case of a 51, the collector), it could still put lots of miles on a latex sac. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ancient Copper is the one with the bad rep.....come down to it I can needle load a cartridge. And I have a rubber baby bulb to clean out C/C pens.

The others don't seem that saturated....

 

Some of the original list had little items like,,,,,if you like sheen you can put up with a bit of bleed through....that killed a few of the inks recommended.

 

Woolly lines and bleed through are no no's by me.

[Penguincollector]

I like the shading in Autumn Oak and Beau Blue. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

8 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

Autumn Oak

Looks like a real nice orange ink....but right now I'm not into orange. My wife won something at a live auction, and decided to do me a favor and bought me some MB Orange at my B&M....a real blaaa ink. Something one looks into the alchemist section to see how to breath life into it.

 

I've been muttering about getting some Herbin Indian Orange for well over a decade. So that would be first, so I have a real base in orange.

 

I had a few cartridges of a flea market bunch of long discontinued W. Germany 4001 inks, the two different grays were great as was the orange.

[Penguincollector]

Orange Indien is nice, one of the few orange inks that doesn’t feel super dry, although that might be useful for Pelikans. Violette Penseé is another nice shader from Herbin. But as this is about Diamine, other shaders are Marine, Meadow, Earl Grey, Silver Fox (love this ink), Blue Black, and Sepia. Once you find one you like, I would love to see it with one of your lovely flex pens. I tend to use 90gsm Rhodia or Clairfontaine, not sure how those papers compare with yours.

[es9]

Has anyone used Ash before? I’m wondering how it compares to Earl Grey. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

5 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

I tend to use 90gsm Rhodia or Clairfontaine, not sure how those papers compare with yours.

I use both of those papers...the 90g Rhoda not the 80g....and the Clairefontaine Triumph 90g.

Those are some of my treat me papers.

 

For cheaper slightly less slick but still good paper I use Clairefontaine 90g Velote` and Oxford Optic 90g spiral notebooks, in they are = to me. Right this second, the Oxford optic.

Oxford Optic 90g, is the paper used in the Red & Black notebook.

 

It's a slower journey getting good to better papers even when one finally learns paper is more important than the ink. I usually advise getting a ream or a box of good to better paper with every three inks.

 

Writing is 1/3rd nib width and flex, 1/3 paper and 1/3 ink and in that order.

 

 

[Penguincollector]

Yes, paper is my first love. I inherited a ton of paper, India ink, and dip pens from my mother’s father at 14. He worked for an import house and collected Spanish, American, and Italian papers. I wish I still had some, will probably never see the like again.

[DiveDr]

Optik is pretty good.  Clairefontaine Triomphe is the bomb! 💣 

[Mercian]

On the ‘right’ paper with the ‘right’ pen, Diamine ‘Amazing Amethyst’ shades in a way that I find delightful.

I recommend ‘wet’ pens on hard, coated paper such as Oxford Optik or Rhodia.

 

It is generally ‘dusky’, and shades between rich dark purple and a ’greyer’ purple with light blue undertones - just like the stone after which it is named.

 

But, like most inks, if you are writing on absorbent paper with a very ‘dry’ pen, all the shading will be suppressed, and it can look a bit ‘pale’ or ‘washed-out’.

[Sailor Kenshin]

On 12/23/2022 at 3:07 PM, es9 said:

Has anyone used Ash before? I’m wondering how it compares to Earl Grey. 

 

I don't have Earl Grey, but Ash looks a bit like pencil that has almost a green outline.

[DiveDr]

Have found that wetter inks sitting on top of non absorbent papers like Optik, Clairfontane, Rhoda and the like, will shade better.  Shading variations/characteristics seem much more expressed under these conditions.  Some of the homebrews I have worked to shade heavily will do so on coated laser paper however, even those are better on the good stuff.

[Bo Bo Olson]

1 hour ago, Mercian said:

hard, coated paper such as Oxford Optik

I think of Rhoda and Clairefontaine Triumph as hard coated slick papers.

 

Not so Oxford Optic 90g or Clairefontaine Velot` 90g; it's equal. ..... it's good to have another view of my normal favorite papers.

Either and both are my normal papers in they are affordabel. I do have a bit of both Rhoda 90g and Triumph 90g.....that I don't use quite as much as the easier for me to get Optic or Velot`.

 

The long passed Piembi, our then Pelikan Expert and MB user, sent me an Oxford Optic 90g thin school booklet with some twenty different inks jumping over the lazy dog. I was a three ink noobie, and Lamy Turquoise the the then basis for turquoise inks, was nice but rather blaaaa on my 80g copy paper.

I looked it up when only two had revived that ink.....and for both it shaded.....both used 90g paper!!!!

 

Ah HA!!! I dug out the booklet and tried out that Optic 90g paper. And got hooked on shading.

Oxford Optic was impossible to get in Heidelberg, I'd had to go to Frankfurt.....I was totally against unsafe online....and online is still for me the last not the first option. I however was then able to lay my hands on Clairefontaine Velot`, then a pall sent me some Oxford from England. Now I can get Oxford at a supermarket where I shop.

In both Oxford and Velot` I use the spiral notebooks.

 

 

[DiveDr]

Clairfontane Triomphe is my favorite, Optik is pretty good too.  Honestly some of the generic spiral composition notebooks can be good too but they are hit or miss.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 12/23/2022 at 6:08 PM, Penguincollector said:

Silver Fox (love this ink)

read a review  on it, so will be adding it to my wish list.

[Penguincollector]

27 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

read a review  on it, so will be adding it to my wish list.

I can’t wait to see how Silver Fox writes in one of you flex nibs, it’s so pretty and I am sure it’s properties will be on full display.

[Runnin_Ute]

In addition to Diamine Silver Fox, Saddle Brown shades nicely. I have also seen some from Ancient Copper. 

 

At least on better papers. Tomoe River 52gsm, Rhodia and the like.

[Bo Bo Olson]

 

Here's what I ordered online, in my German B&M doesn't do Diamine inks anymore.

"""Tyrian Purple ,,,yes. Shades well and I don’t think I have that shade.

 

Ancient Copper  “”Diamine Ancient Copper has decent shade too. I've had that ink in dozens of different pens and I've never, ever had it crud up a nib. ….very nice color and shading……”””    ++ Am willing to risk nib crud for this shading ink.

 

Tobacco Sunburst. Second review makes it worth getting. (Germany only or was; but I’m in Germany.)....wasn't in the living in Germany only list anymore....so everyone can get it.

 

And Silver Fox which turns out to be 3 X as expensive as the other regular inks, being a 150th year anniversary ink.