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!!

It's Spring, we just had King's day and the European Championships football are being held next month. More than enough reasons to fill up some pens with orange inks. I was surprised to see I had gathered eight inks in the past few years that qualify as orange. Some true bright orange, some leaning more towards red or brown. Which one is your favorite? Written on Tomoe river, 52g

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.

Fountain pen inks reviews and comparisons

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