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Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink (Diamine Exclusive for Cult Pens)
Today I'm reviewing Cult Pens Deep Dark Red ink
Cult Pens Deep Dark Red is one of the 6 inks in the “Deep Dark” range that are made exclusively for Cult Pens by Diamine Inks.
Deep Dark Red is a saturated dark red ink that exhibits some shading. I found it flowed very well with the pens I tried it in, felt quite wet, and it’s lubrication was very smooth across the page.
It’s a dark red ink, that lives up to it’s name very well. It’s every bit as good as some more expensive inks such as Louis Vuitton Rouge Libertin and Montblanc Antoine Saint-Exupéry.
My review was written on 100gsm smooth coated paper, that is not very absorbent, and I saw no spread, show-through or bleed-through. It dried very quickly on this smooth paper.
- Flow Rate: Excellent - quite wet
- Lubrication: Excellent - felt smooth across the page
- Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
- Start-up: Immediate.
- Saturation: Very saturated
- Shading Potential: Some shading seen with F nib.
- Sheen: Green sheen seen especially on Tomoe River paper.
- Showthrough seen on Hobonichi Techo and Field Notes. I could have easily written on the reverse of the former, but Field Notes also had bleedthrough that was more of a problem.
- Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used.
- Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen
- Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up
- Staining (hands): Washed off easily.
- Clogging: Not seen.
- Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof, but shows some water resistance.
- Availability: Available in 80ml and 30ml bottles plus International sized cartridges from Cult Pens web-site.
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Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Sort of looks like a brick red. Nice. Thanks for the review!
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
You're welcome. :) I think maybe it's a slightly darker red than brick? At least darker than our regular bricks ;) Maybe slightly more purplish like maroon? I like this type of red. :)
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Thanks, Chrissy. Sadly don't have any of your comparison inks to provide a yardstick, but on my monitor it looks like it sidles up fairly close to Oxblood rather than, say, Syrah - am I way off?
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
Thanks, Chrissy. Sadly don't have any of your comparison inks to provide a yardstick, but on my monitor it looks like it sidles up fairly close to Oxblood rather than, say, Syrah - am I way off?
You're welcome. :)
While you were away for a short time, I reviewed the 8 new Shimmer inks that Diamine introduced for 2018.
Within the 8 new Shimmer inks was an ink called Dragon Blood
I reviewed it on FPG, on my blog, (linked on my signature) and it's just been posted on The Writing Desk as a Guest ink review on Clairefontaine Triomphe paper. Dragon Blood was compared with Diamine Oxblood (and Syrah) because it leans more brown than Cult Pens Deep Dark Red, which leans more purple.
I also composed a workable Ink Review Index for FPG. :)
I would say that Oxblood is way off against CP DDR, and Syrah is lighter and less saturated. Hope that helps. :)
(In order to include Diamine Red Dragon as a comparison ink against Dragon Blood, I've now swapped it into the review form on here.)
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Thank you, Chrissy. Aside from many other things I've learnt, I think I need to recalibrate my monitor.
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
Thank you, Chrissy. Aside from many other things I've learnt, I think I need to recalibrate my monitor.
You're welcome. :) Good luck with monitor calibrating. I don't know how to do that. :noidea:
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Know I did it once, although blessed if I can remember how, so a re-learning experience. First I need the Tuit.
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
Know I did it once, although blessed if I can remember how, so a re-learning experience. First I need the Tuit.
If you're using an iMac please let me know if anything changes. :)
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
I only have square tuits, no round ones sorry.
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
I've been writing again with this ink today on some other papers that I will be posting on my blog. Not sure whether anyone on here wants to see them. I checked my monitor calibration and on my iMac the little black cross is in exactly the right position, so I think it's OK.
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
It washed off of my hands easily with bar soap and water...
You keep saying that in tons of your reviews. What kind of bar soap do you use, and do you have any idea why it's not available in the States? I've NEVER been able to wash ANY kind of ink from my fingers; it always leaves a stain that takes about two days to wear off, even after vigorous scrubbing with hot water and any number of soaps!
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
calamus
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
It washed off of my hands easily with bar soap and water...
You keep saying that in tons of your reviews. What kind of bar soap do you use, and do you have any idea why it's not available in the States? I've NEVER been able to wash ANY kind of ink from my fingers; it always leaves a stain that takes about two days to wear off, even after vigorous scrubbing with hot water and any number of soaps!
The soap I've been using came from the hotel I stayed at in Florida, so it does come from the US.
I found that liquid soap didn't wash ink off of my hands, so I started using those small soaps that I frequently bring home with me. It purports to be made by Bvulgari, a white hand soap. I've also used a Dove bar that's white soap.
Basically they are white soaps with or without perfume. They work very well, at least for the Diamine inks that I use.
I'm quite particular about not having any ink on my fingers, and tend to wash it off when I see it, even if that means interrupting an ink review to wash my hands, then going back to it.
Yesterday I was writing with this ink again, using my Parker Ellipse, that always leaves ink on the side of my middle finger, plus I had ink on my little finger (when I do dry time tests.) One wash was all that was needed to wash it off. No scrubbing required.
If I use a different ink brand and it won't wash off as easily with bar soap as most Diamine inks do, then I use Lava soap (from Amazon) or Reduran hand cleanser (Kresto.) Both are available in the US.
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
I use a green Scotch-brite pad that takes off most of the stain for all but one or two inks I have encountered so far.
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
Know I did it once, although blessed if I can remember how, so a re-learning experience. First I need the Tuit.
If you're using an iMac please let me know if anything changes. :)
Mac Book, and despite finding the elusive Tuit nope, no change. Probably just that elusive nature of colour and how we perceive it - when you think about it it's amazing anyone can agree on any colour given our brains are making it up as they go along!
And if you want to play with colour calibration on a Mac, this page has a nice simple walkthrough. I found it rather like an eye test - after a bit your eyesight starts to feel like its going screwy. :blink:
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
...And if you want to play with colour calibration on a Mac,
this page has a nice simple walkthrough. I found it rather like an eye test - after a bit your eyesight starts to feel like its going screwy. :blink:
My brain hurts just reading that, let alone diving into calibration. (Posted with my 2015 MacBook Pro.)
Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FredRydr
Quote:
Originally Posted by
grainweevil
...And if you want to play with colour calibration on a Mac,
this page has a nice simple walkthrough. I found it rather like an eye test - after a bit your eyesight starts to feel like its going screwy. :blink:
My brain hurts just reading that, let alone diving into calibration. (Posted with my 2015 MacBook Pro.)
I found it helped to read it as you do it, rather than trying to understand it in the abstract.
Sorry, Chris, in danger of hi-jacking your review here. Apologies!
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Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
Quote:
Originally Posted by
calamus
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Chrissy
It washed off of my hands easily with bar soap and water...
You keep saying that in tons of your reviews. What kind of bar soap do you use, and do you have any idea why it's not available in the States? I've NEVER been able to wash ANY kind of ink from my fingers; it always leaves a stain that takes about two days to wear off, even after vigorous scrubbing with hot water and any number of soaps!
The soap I've been using came from the hotel I stayed at in Florida, so it does come from the US.
I found that liquid soap didn't wash ink off of my hands, so I started using those small soaps that I frequently bring home with me. It purports to be made by Bvulgari, a white hand soap. I've also used a Dove bar that's white soap.
Basically they are white soaps with or without perfume. They work very well, at least for the Diamine inks that I use.
I'm quite particular about not having any ink on my fingers, and tend to wash it off when I see it, even if that means interrupting an ink review to wash my hands, then going back to it.
Yesterday I was writing with this ink again, using my Parker Ellipse, that always leaves ink on the side of my middle finger, plus I had ink on my little finger (when I do dry time tests.) One wash was all that was needed to wash it off. No scrubbing required.
If I use a different ink brand and it won't wash off as easily with bar soap as most Diamine inks do, then I use Lava soap (from Amazon) or Reduran hand cleanser (Kresto.) Both are available in the US.
Ah ha! Thank you kindly, ma'am!
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Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
azkid
I use a green Scotch-brite pad that takes off most of the stain for all but one or two inks I have encountered so far.
And thank you, sir!
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Re: Ink Review: Cult Pens Deep Dark Red Ink
Quote:
Originally Posted by
calamus
Ah ha! Thank you kindly, ma'am!
You're welcome. :) I love the Thank you line. :)