Red Dragon versus Oxblood

When it comes to dark red inks that are beautiful, can be used for other purposes than grading and Christmas cards, and are even acceptable in an office environment, two Diamine inks lead the pack: Red Dragon and Oxblood. At first glance they look somewhat similar.

However, Red Dragon is a purer, brighter red. Fresh blood if you will. Oxblood leans more towards brown and can be compared to dried blood. In behavior the inks don't differ much. Both quite wet and behaving really well with all pens I've tried them in.

In the scan I have used the same pens to do the writing samples. Using three different languages to show the effect and behavior better. The paper is Original Crown Mill Vellum (off-white).

There is no argument about taste, pick your own favorite.

In everyday writing show-through and bleed-through are no concern with these inks, as long as you stick to decent paper. You can easily use the backside in your Rhodia notebook. There is a difference though. Red Dragon is slighty more wet. Resulting in more show-through and bleed-through while using the poster nib.

Comments

Orange!!

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Kikyou, Sailor Manyo

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Around the World in 80 Days, Montblanc

Visiting Paris last month, I couldn't resist visiting the Montblanc flagship store and pick up a bottle of ink. Around the World in 80 Days is a limited edition ink, part of the recent collection about Jules Verne's description of Phileas Fogg's adventure. Nicely packed and in the well-known beautiful bottle. The ink is someone between blue and green, increasingly green in a wetter, broader nib. As such it is suitable for both the office as well as personal notes and correspondence. Personally, I like the ink best in finer nibs. It seems more dark and blue that way. I have tried the ink on both Tomoe River and Rhodia paper. The ink behaved flawlessly and feels a little bit on the dry side. Drying time is neither slow nor fast, 40 secs on Tomoe River. On Rhodia paper On Tomoe River (52g) The ink doesn't handle water very well, even after a few days the ink smears easily when some water drops are applied. Careful! The full characteristics: F

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