My first ink review, it had to be this one. Possibly the most beautiful ink color I have, Oxblood by Diamine. It is a strong, dark red, leaning towards brown. It draws people's attention, but is classy enough for business use, and even better for personal correspondence. I always have a pen filled with this ink. But I use it more fall/winter than in spring/summer.
Most of the time Diamine comes in the practical 30ml plastic containers, for this color I have also bought the beautiful and less easy to obtain 80ml glass bottle.
The ink behaves really well, it's smooth and quite wet with long drying times (30-35 seconds). I only use high quality paper like Crown Mill, Rhodia or Lalo. There is no point in wasting precious quality ink on cheap copy paper. I particularly like the shading in this ink, it's very noticeable but never extreme.
To give an idea, I have included some comparisons with Vermeer's Steenrood (PW Akkerman), Rouge Grenat (Herbin), Crimson (Diamine), and Garnet Red (Graf von Faber Castell). The difference with Steenrood (stone red) is small, especially in a scan, but the color is brighter and significantly more brown. Garnet red, Crimson, and Rouge grenat are far less brown. Garnet is a lot lighter and has some purple in it. Crimson lacks the brown but the difference in writing is less than the swaps suggest.
This ink is not only beautiful, but also excellent value for money, highly recommended!
