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milanjuza
August 17th, 2013, 12:03 PM
I saw a swab of Diamine Twilight on Goulet Pens website and I really liked the colour and decided to order it straightaway. Twilight is an amazing ink. It is i one of those that live up or even exceed your expectations. It's not the most well behaved ink in the world. But is has a very deep, noble grey-blue colour which makes is really nice to read and it also looks very elegant. I can see myself using it in almost any situation. With a broad nib, the colour comes across even more clearly. And, if you look closely, there is also a small amount of shading.

I said it was not perfect, so here's what you need to expect: There is some feathering (even on Rhodia), but not to a degree that would bother me. You can also encounter bleed-through, but only with some broad and very wet nibs. For example, I had no problems with Lamy Vista 1.1 italic. On the positive note, compared to some other Diamine inks it dries quite quickly and while it is definitely not water resistant, it remains legible even after short water exposure and that's always nice.

Diamine Twilight has become one of my favourite inks for daily use. And even though it is not perfect, I like the colour so much that I am prepared to forgive some of the shortcomings. You should give it a go too! ;-)

Bigger pics are here available on my blog (http://verticalpaper.net/post/58522985405/ink-review-diamine-twilight) or my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/verticalpaper/9485796417/in/set-72157635022989589).


Paper: Rhodia A4 notebook (90 gsm)
Pen: Vintage Parker Duofold 1.1mm stub nib
Writing sample: J. K. Jerome: Three men in a boat
Water test: drops left on the paper for 1 minute


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The Good Captain
August 18th, 2013, 02:22 AM
Nice to see it on here as well. A great ink.

reprieve
August 18th, 2013, 06:34 AM
I just tried my sample of this ink, and it's very nice. I think I like Diamine Midnight a bit better, but it's hard to decide between them.

milanjuza
August 18th, 2013, 09:01 AM
I just tried my sample of this ink, and it's very nice. I think I like Diamine Midnight a bit better, but it's hard to decide between them.

Interesting. Have you observed any feathering or bleedthrough when using Diamine Midnight? I don't have this ink yet, but consider buying it...

Thanks,
Milan

reprieve
August 18th, 2013, 09:30 AM
I just tried my sample of this ink, and it's very nice. I think I like Diamine Midnight a bit better, but it's hard to decide between them.

Interesting. Have you observed any feathering or bleedthrough when using Diamine Midnight? I don't have this ink yet, but consider buying it...

Thanks,
Milan

On cheap copy paper, especially in a wet nib, yes, there is some feathering and sometimes a bit of bleedthrough. On fountain pen-friendly paper--I have used Midnight on Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Tomoe River, G. Lalo, Apica, etc.--it is well-behaved even in broad nibs. I especially like its ease of clean-up; it washes out of pens relatively quickly with plain water; no special pen flush is needed.

Not to get too off-topic, but I noticed your Rhodia Webnotebook. Although I really love Rhodia paper, and I quite like the format of the Webnotebooks, I must admit that I haven't been pleased with them. My first one wouldn't lie flat. My current dot Webbie (bought a few months ago from GouletPens) lies flat but shows feathering and bleedthrough like nobody's business. It isn't as bad as Moleskine, but it also isn't anything like the wonderful paper in the Rhodia pads--which doesn't show feathering or bleedthrough even if you literally drip ink on the page. I wonder if I got a bad one? What do you think of the paper in yours?

milanjuza
August 18th, 2013, 09:48 AM
I just tried my sample of this ink, and it's very nice. I think I like Diamine Midnight a bit better, but it's hard to decide between them.[/QU
Not to get too off-topic, but I noticed your Rhodia Webnotebook. Although I really love Rhodia paper, and I quite like the format of the Webnotebooks, I must admit that I haven't been pleased with them. My first one wouldn't lie flat. My current dot Webbie (bought a few months ago from GouletPens) lies flat but shows feathering and bleedthrough like nobody's business. It isn't as bad as Moleskine, but it also isn't anything like the wonderful paper in the Rhodia pads--which doesn't show feathering or bleedthrough even if you literally drip ink on the page. I wonder if I got a bad one? What do you think of the paper in yours?

Thanks for the answer. I will have to buy a bottle of Diamine Midnight then ;-)

The notebook I have is Rhodia A4 Plain (http://www.thepaperie.co.uk/rhodia-a4-black-webnotebook-plain.html). It lies flat only after I 'stretch' the binding by opening it as much as it gets. I would much prefer a plain white paper instead of ivory, but I could not find any nice FP friendly notebook with a high quality plain white paper available in the UK. And I don't want a pad, because I prefer the binding to be on the left. Any recommendations?

Concerning feathering and bleedthrough - in my case, it seems to behave consistently with my A5 Rhodia pad. It is definitely way better than Moleskine, and in terms of bleedthrough it is similar to Paperchase notebooks. Paperchase (http://www.paperchase.co.uk/invt/00508586/) is worse than Rhodia when it comes to feathering though.

AtomicLeo
August 18th, 2013, 06:14 PM
Love this color, just wish it would hold up to water a bit better.

milanjuza
August 20th, 2013, 02:58 PM
Love this color, just wish it would hold up to water a bit better.

In my experience, it holds up to water better than several other Diamine inks I tried. But I guess it depends on how much water resistance do you regard as "good enough" ;-)