Diamine Ancient Copper Ink Review

[milanjuza]

For high res photos, please visit my blog.

Diamine Ancient Copper is an unusual ink. In terms of colour richness/saturation, you are effectively presented with two very different experiences - all depends on the pen you are using. If you use a fine or medium nib, you get more or less a light brown, not very saturated and quite a bland colour that does not stand out much and may be difficult to read. However, the broader the nib, the more exciting it gets. With a broad or a stub nib (tried with Vintage Parker Duofold stub and TWSBI 580 1.1 italic) the ink really shines. The richness of the copper colour comes across very clearly, it is saturated, beautiful and fresh. Drying times are not very good (but that’s not unusual for Diamine inks), but it does not feather and there was hardly any bleedthrough at all which is always nice.

Overall summary: It’s a great, well behaved, but rather slow drying ink for people who write with broad(er) nibs, but you may be disappointed if you use M/F/EF nibs as it is not saturated enough to stand out.

• Paper: Rhodia A4 notebook (90g)
• Pens: Montblanc Boheme (M nib) and Pilot Parallel (6mm nib)
• Water test: drops left on the paper for 1 minute

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[southpaw52]

Nice review great to know that it would work best in a broad nib.

[Jeph]

Thanks for the reivew. I love this color. I find that in my finer nibs I get a nice dark red on cheap paper.
I think seeing it on Rhodia with a broad nib has finally provided the last incentive I needed to break down and buy some proper paper. That is gorgeous.

[milanjuza]

Thanks for the reivew. I love this color. I find that in my finer nibs I get a nice dark red on cheap paper.
I think seeing it on Rhodia with a broad nib has finally provided the last incentive I needed to break down and buy some proper paper. That is gorgeous.

Yes, it's a really really nice colour. I need to try it with a fine/medium nib or a "normal" paper - I think you are right that it will look great and nicely saturated as normal paper tends to be much more absorbent than Rhodia.

[tandaina]

Interesting how much it can vary. I have a bottle I use with flex pens and it is much darker than that, not so bright. It honestly has a dried blood sort of look, a little brownish, dark, almost "rusty," I like it, but it doesn't look like your sample at all. Perhaps I need to try it in a pen that doesn't put quite so much ink on the page!

[KrazyIvan]

I really like the look of this ink.

[milanjuza]

Interesting how much it can vary. I have a bottle I use with flex pens and it is much darker than that, not so bright. It honestly has a dried blood sort of look, a little brownish, dark, almost "rusty," I like it, but it doesn't look like your sample at all. Perhaps I need to try it in a pen that doesn't put quite so much ink on the page!

Hmm, that's interesting! Can you share a picture?

[KrazyIvan]

It also sometimes makes odd nib crud, according to some threads I have read. Not my picture but this is typically what I have seen people post when it gets really bad:

[tandaina]

I've never seen crud Ivan, but it did "creep" and leave a very thin layer of liquid ink across the whole face of the nib. No clue why, was sorta pretty to have a coppery/brown nib.

Here's a picture. The Matador 334 1/2 is filled with Ancient Copper it is the second writing sample:


Untitled by JoAndRoses, on Flickr

[Jeph]

I do also get the ink crud on my (Stupid) fine Sheaffer nib, but none so far on my Pelikan M. But I use the Pelikan much less.

[milanjuza]

Interesting. I never had problems any with Ancient Copper. Will look out for any signs of crud though...

[cedargirl]

It's not unusual to get a bit of crusting on nibs that have red tones. But they usually have to sit for a while to make it happen.
I get it with Diamine Pumpkin. It makes me wonder whether Ancient Copper is a nicer derivative of Pumpkin.

[Jeph]

Already today using the Pelikan 150 with an M steel nib, after one steno book page of notes I am already getting ink boogers. My other Diamine inks do not make boogers on the same pens. For this color, I will accept ink boogers although it makes me sad.

[velo]

I've got this ink in my TWSBI 1.1. No crud or boogers but it can be a little dry.

[Jeph]

Ancient Copper Ink Booger Cause

I am pretty sure that I have figured this phenomenon out.

First it is clear to me that this ink and inks like it contain something that makes it predispositioned to booger formation. Whether this is due to a red component, or a yellow component as has been proposed, I will leave to the experts. The booger formation comes from extended contact with air. The boogers only form at the ink-air interface and it does not take long.

I knew that my (stupid) fine Sheaffer made boogers using Ancient Copper. I also remembered that my Pelikan 150 also has had Diamine Ancient Copper loaded almost for as long as I have owned the pen yet I do not remember ever seeing ink boogers on it.

Today I used the Pelikan as my only pen at work and kept the Sheaffer lying on the desk. Within the first steno pad sized page of notes I had ink boogers on the Pelikan. I kept using it and the boogers kept getting worse. Note that at work I leave my pens uncapped unless I am leaving my desk. It finally got to the point where the boogers had covered the tipping and my first word was overly broad, then reverted to normal. Other than that, there were no writing issues. I wiped off the nib at that point and checked the Sheaffer. There was nothing on the Sheaffer. I decided that it was the air contacting the ink, so I left it uncapped for the rest of the day. You can see from the pictures how that ended up. At the end of the day the Sheaffer still had nothing.

Tonight I will clean both nibs. Tomorrow I will only use the Sheaffer at work, uncapped, and leave the pelican on the desk capped. I am absolutely confident that the Sheaffer will grow boogers and the Pelikan will have none by the end of the day.

It is not some crazy fungus, or failing to keep your pens clean. It is just the way this ink reacts when exposed to air for prolonged periods. It comes off immediately and completely. I will post an update tomorrow.

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IT Note: In this forum the preview option works properly.

[reprieve]

Yes, it does seem to be due to air exposure. I have found that this sort of nib crud is more likely to occur in slip-cap pens (as the caps aren't quite airtight) or in pens with a breather hole in the cap. Diamine Ancient Copper has been crudless for me in every pen except for a Parker 51 that has a slightly loose cap.

[Mod_wolves]

I've found that I can't find a consistency towards the gunking up. I had diamine pumpkin in my lamy safari...gunked up every couple of days. In every other pen slip caps and screw caps nothing.

Now ancient copper in my parker IM it gunked up every couple of hours, put the ink in my safari, 2 weeks later and nothing, a completely clean nib. It is the ink but it appears to be only certain inks with certain pens and the severity depends on the pen. I just now know what ink I shouldn't put in certain pens.

[fountainpenkid]

My Esterbrook j experienced the booger phenomenon while capped. My Pelikan m400 and manny's Swan I've been using have had no "booger" problems with the ink though, even though I've left them uncapped for good amounts of time. I don't think it is a problem with the Q.C of Diamine (i.e different batches have different performance), but something about the pen ink combinations. I'll ink some other pens with it and see what happens. Maybe it has something to do with the materials used in the nib and the feed?

[cwent2]

My Esterbrook j experienced the booger phenomenon while capped. My Pelikan m400 and manny's Swan I've been using have had no "booger" problems with the ink though, even though I've left them uncapped for good amounts of time. I don't think it is a problem with the Q.C of Diamine (i.e different batches have different performance), but something about the pen ink combinations. I'll ink some other pens with it and see what happens. Maybe it has something to do with the materials used in the nib and the feed?

For what it is worth I have had Ancient Copper in a Noodlers Konrad Ebonite for two weeks now with no Issues.

[Carole]

Great discussion--I use this ink a lot and find that the color and flow varies with each and every nib and pen. Which does keep things interesting.

I'm wondering, though, if I should continue to use it in this vintage Ajax pen--it's my favorite combo but, like tandaina, I often see that veil of ink over the face of this nib. The feed on this pen is amazing and even writing with no pressure, the fine line is pretty saturated and shaded.
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