Cult Pens Colosseum - New Wonders of the World series - Diamine Exclusive

Today I'm reviewing Cult Pens Colosseum ink, one of their latest Diamine Inks exclusive inks. It is the first of a new series of inks inspired by modern Wonders of the World and by 'modern' they mean still in existence. This is what Cult Pens says about this ink:

“The Colosseum in Rome is a lot older, having been built in the 1st century by order of the Emperor Vespasian. It was capable of holding up to 80,000 spectators, who gathered to watch the gladiators, animal hunts and mock battles, and is the largest amphitheatre ever built. Our ink is a pale ochre, the colour of the travertine limestone and volcanic rock form which the Colosseum was constructed.”

Colosseum is an unsaturated, sandy brown ink that resembles the colour of the original amphitheatre. It’s a pale ink that initially felt a bit dry to write with but flow improved during writing and was markedly better with broader nibs. Lubrication across the page was OK.

It didn’t suffer from any hard starts or non-starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance. It dried quickly on most papers and once dry it didn’t smudge or smear.

I found no start-up problems after leaving the pens overnight. In fact I deliberately left one of my caps very loose to see if the colour slightly darkened and not only did it darken, it still started up immediately.

I saw hardly any showthrough and no bleedthrough on any of the papers I used. I deliberately used the very lightweight Eaton's Erasable Bond USA paper to see if writing on the back was possible.

I saw some shading but no sheen.

• Flow Rate: A bit dry at the start but improved with writing.
• Lubrication: OK
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Unsaturated ink.
• Shading Potential: Some shading seen.
• Sheen: No sheen seen.
• Show-Through: Hardly any seen on most papers.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen. Very easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Clean after one wash.
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof but exhibits surprising water resistance.
• Availability: 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles exclusively available from Cult Pens, UK.

My thanks to Cult Pens for sending me this sample to review.

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Thanks Chrissy. Great review :thumb:
It seems Cultpens has jumped in the pale ink trend. The colour looks interesting for artwork or writing stuff we want to forget ;)

Sort of agree. A great review, but... I am not drawn (hah!) toward inks that are beyond a certain level of paleness. I feel an ink should make some kind of statement, as well as be easily legible. I appreciate that this is just my personal preference, but seeing this one has got me to thinking about pale inks in my small collection that perhaps have no place there. Funnily enough one of those is Iroshizuku Shin Kai, which has always seemed to me to paler in real life than when viewing various reviews. I haven't really explored the vagaries of nib widths and flow, so there is that info missing from my thoughts.

Ooh, the paleness of this one makes it a great coloring candidate.

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Originally Posted by Prettypenguin

Ooh, the paleness of this one makes it a great coloring candidate.

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Yes I agree. :)

Great review! But I will pass on this one.

Out of the two I've tried and reviewed I prefer Taj Mahal but that one is quite paper dependent to avoid show through. :)

Great review, but not a color I would ever pick!

I got this just before I went away in June and took some with me. I've been using it a lot and really like it. But then again, I have been drawing quite a lot of sand...

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Originally Posted by mizgeorge

I got this just before I went away in June and took some with me. I've been using it a lot and really like it. But then again, I have been drawing quite a lot of sand...

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Sounds like a very good idea for it. :)