Ink Review: Diamine Earl Grey

[Chrissy]

Today I’m reviewing a sample of the increasingly popular new ink from Diamine called Earl Grey

Inside the box lid is a label that says “This ink colour was chosen by the members of r/fountainpens, a wonderful Reddit community of fountain pen enthusuiasts.”*

It’s a grey ink that has some purple tones, but it doesn’t particularly lean towards the purple or blue edge of the colour spectrum. I found it a very nice, quite wet and well flowing ink.

It wrote with a smooth glide across the papers I used.

It has some very nice shading, and looks more saturated with broader nibs than with finer nibs.

It showed through on some of the papers I used - see below.

The comparison inks were swabbed with a cotton bud and their ink names were written with a glass dip pen.

• Start-up: Immediate.
• Flow Rate: Very good - wet
• Lubrication: Very good - smooth
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Saturation: Reasonably saturated for a grey ink. Too saturated and they look black.
• Shading Potential: Very good; shading can easily be seen.
• Sheen: None noticed.
• Spread / Feathering: Not seen
• Show-Through:
  
  • CiAK by inTempo
  • Clairefontaine Matris
  • Moleskine Clone
    
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after over a week in the pen
• Staining (pen): Not seen - easy clean-up
• Staining (hands): Not seen - easy clean-up
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: Has no water resistance.
• Availability: Available from Diamine Inks web-site and other outlets.

Diamine Earl Grey.jpg
Diamine Earl Grey 7.jpegDiamine Earl Grey 004.JPG