Ink Review: Diamine Matador

[Chrissy]

My latest ink is Diamine Matador. This is a bright red. It's brighter than Red Dragon and is what I would call a perfectly balanced red in the middle of the red range. Not too much blue or orange/yellow.

Because I like to compare the inks I am reviewing against other inks that I have, I decided to use Red Dragon, Monaco Red and Crimson as my comparison inks this time. However, no matter what I tried in Photoshop CS6, I couldn't get an exact colour replication for both Matador and Red Dragon on the same document for some reason. So I matched the document as closely as I could to Matador. Red Dragon has slightly more of a pinkish tinge than Monaco Red and Matador, but is less pink than Crimson.

I decided to use a parker 45 as I had one clean on my desk. It's been a while since I used one but I found this ink behaved very well with it. I believe it's a M nib. It was a pleasure to use with Matador ink.

I don't particularly like the idea of comparing blood red colours, as in D. Matador, Mb. Alfred Hitchcock or D. Oxblood. But if you wanted to do that, Matador is a bright red more like arterial blood than venous blood.


The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink but it shows a little water resistance.


Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a M nib, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.


It flows through the pen well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.


It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic refill bottles.


Diamine (http://www.diamineinks.co.uk/) sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.


It's a reasonable price


21556

[stub]

I had a lot of problems with this Ink. It would dry out on the nib and leave nib crud like Ancient Copper some times does. I still use Ancient Copper because I love the color so much for me Matador was not worth it. Ymmv.

[Laura N]

Oh I'm glad you reviewed Matador. I've always been interested in this one.

[Chrissy]

I had a lot of problems with this Ink. It would dry out on the nib and leave nib crud like Ancient Copper some times does. I still use Ancient Copper because I love the color so much for me Matador was not worth it. Ymmv.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'm leaving this Parker 45 filled with Diamine Matador lying around for a while to see what happens.

[stub]

Chrissy,

Thanks for taking the time to confirm this.

The P45 has a pretty stellar cap so it mightn't rear it's ugly head so quickly on your pen but I did notice it on my Faber-Castell, it was quite disgusting on my pen but I notice red and brown inks (must be some inherent properties of those dyes) tend to crud up more than other colors. In fact the only inks I have had that did this were reds and browns.

Anyway a sample size of one pen (me) is not a great one so I will be curious to know if it happens on your pen.

[Chrissy]

Chrissy,

Thanks for taking the time to confirm this.

The P45 has a pretty stellar cap so it mightn't rear it's ugly head so quickly on your pen but I did notice it on my Faber-Castell, it was quite disgusting on my pen but I notice red and brown inks (must be some inherent properties of those dyes) tend to crud up more than other colors. In fact the only inks I have had that did this were reds and browns.

Anyway a sample size of one pen (me) is not a great one so I will be curious to know if it happens on your pen.

I have one or two pens :wink: (please, no laughing!) so I will try it in a few different brands, with different cap types, to see if I can replicate your problem. :)

[bluesea]

I like your use of the term "gusher" in Further Notes/Comments :) :D

Thanks for the great review, as I'm definitely looking for a red ink.

[Chrissy]

Diamine Matador is a good, bright red ink but if I could only have one red ink I would have Red Dragon.

[bluesea]

^ Thanks, have put it on a short list for a red ink sample order. The only other ink so far is J. Herbin Caroubier--a very different red.