Night Sky (shimmer), Diamine

In the past few years Diamine has released several series of shimmering inks. Night sky is one of those ink, a black color with silver shimmer in it. The shimmer makes it a bit of a gimmick of course. You will get away with it in the office (for note taking), but the amount of shimmer is definitely noticeable. It looks a it as if someone wrote with a pencil over your black ink. The color is pleasant to read, which makes it suitable for personal notes. For me, I think inks with this high level of shimmer are best used for invitation cards, short notes, or maybe greeting cards.

The ink is good, but not excellent. No feathering, minimal show-through, some shading, well lubricated and wet but not too wet. Drying time is long, 50 seconds, but it's not unheard of for a dark, black ink. Be careful with fluids. You will still see what you wrote, but you will have to rewrite the page. The amount of shimmer in this ink is quite high, much higher than in Herbin inks.Not so easy to catch it on the scanner, but it's clearly visible on paper. I have noticed some 'hard starts' with this ink, something I have never observed in Diamine inks before.

The broad oblique nib brought out some silver sheen you can't see with either the glass dip pen or the TWSBI with broad nib.

Comparing the inks to others seemed a bit pointless. I don't have any comparable black inks, just black inks. So instead the paper shows the different between one, two and three brushes with a q-tip swap.

Comments

Kikyou, Sailor Manyo

A few months ago this new ink series by Sailor was announced. Based on flowers, in a stylish 50ml bottle. What I see is not a flower, but an ink that is stormy blue with a hint of green. Teal? Maybe, but in my opinion it's darker than that, scans and monitors can be slightly deceiving. This ink can be a work horse. Very suitable for note taking, definitely works in the office, but also for personal notes and correspondence. The ink writes like a dream. It's not very wet, but smooth and extremely well-behaved in any pen. Just the combination crown mill vellum paper and a poster nib (as you can see), leads to some feathering of the ink. Drying times are simply fast, with just 12 seconds on this paper! Shading is low. Water resistance is low. Even after days it smears easily with just a tiny drop of water. I called this ink a work horse. It is, and an expensive one. Even though it's wonderful ink, it's simply not special enough to justify the price. Yonaga (Sailor)

Ultra violet shimmer ink, Manuscript

A new caligraphy ink by Manuscript with extreme shimmer. Definitely not something to use in the office but it looked interesting to write some cards with in the upcoming holiday season. This ink is clearly not meant for long notes or letters. A very dark violet or purple with heavy gold shimmer. I find it a hard to use ink. OK to use in a fountain pen like the TWSBI ECO with a stub nib, but a dip pen made the ink feather and spread, even on Clairefontaine or Crown Mill Vellum paper. On Lalo Vergé it was much better. The ink is very wet, causing considerable show-through and even some bleed-through. The drying time wasn't too bad though with 35 seconds. The shimmer smears easily for a bit longer. As can be seen even on this scan, shimmer is gold and very high. A bit of water will keep the ink readable, enough to rewrite. The violet or purple is comparable to Herbin's Améthyste de l'Oural . Diamine's Imperial Purple (no shimmer) is brighter and lighter.

Green Gold #2, KWZ

Searching for a gold colored ink I came across this ink. It’s far more green than gold, but the color is definitely intriguing. Can it be used in the office? I don’t know, maybe in Spring. For now I will stick to personal notes and correspondence with this ink. KWZ produces well-behaving inks and this color is no exception to that. The ink shows no feathering, a beautiful shading, no show-through, good lubrication, and moderate wetness with below-average drying times. I don't have any color that comes close. Herbin's Vert empire or Lierre Sauvage, as well as Grab von Faber Castell's Moss Green are true greens and don't come close. All in all this is a very nice ink and a unique color. A great addition to the collection! N.B. Written on Crown Mill Vellum (off-white)

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