Ink Review: Cult Pens The Great Wall of China -Diamine Exclusive Wonders of the World

[Chrissy]

Today I'm reviewing Cult Pens The Great Wall of China ink. It is one of their exclusive Diamine inks from a 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:

“Made up of multiple sections of defensive walls, the Great Wall of China is a remarkable feat of engineering. The wall is 21km long with construction beginning as early as the 7th century BC right up until the Ming dynasty, which ended in 1644. The wall was mainly built from rammed earth, stones and wood but later, during the Ming dynasty, construction materials included bricks, tiles and lime. We thought a muddy green colour matches the characteristics of the wall well, so we've gone with that for the ink!”

The Great Wall of China ink is an unsaturated, yellowish green ink. It’s an attractive mossy or olive shade of ink with decent flow that feels wetter when writing with broader nibs. Lubrication across the page felt reasonable with a bit of feedback.

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.

There were no start-up problems after leaving the pens overnight.

I saw some show through and bits of bleed through on Exacompta FAF and Whitelines papers but still could have written on the reverse. I only saw a couple of dots of bleed through on the original Xerox sheet.

The ink exhibits some nice shading but no sheen.

• Flow Rate: Reasonable. Wetter with broader nibs.
• Lubrication: Reasonable. A little feedback.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Unsaturated ink.
• Shading Potential: Some nice shading seen.
• Sheen: No sheen seen.
• Show-Through: Some seen on Exacompta and Whitelines.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days in the pen. Easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): Clean after one wash.
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof but exhibits some water resistance.
• Availability: 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles exclusively available from Cult Pens, UK.

My thanks to Diamine Inks for sending me this sample to review.

Great Wall of China 2.jpg

[karmachanic]

Lovely review, but colonial upbringing does not allow the use of green ink.

[mizgeorge]

Thank you Chrissy - this is another one from this series that I had to have in a full size bottle.

(Sniggering behind my desk lid @karmachanic)

[carlos.q]

Lovely review, but colonial upbringing does not allow the use of green ink.

I don't understand the reason for this statement even though I am a victim of colonial upbringing myself. Maybe the day this was taught at school I was absent?

[Yazeh]

Thanks for an excellent and thorough review
I like the colour. It has a nice chroma, probably great for washes

Though it seems to have either show-through or bleed through on Rhodia or am I mistaken?

[Chrissy]

Lovely review, but colonial upbringing does not allow the use of green ink.

You're welcome. That's a shame. LOL

[Chrissy]

Thank you Chrissy - this is another one from this series that I had to have in a full size bottle.

(Sniggering behind my desk lid @karmachanic)

You're welcome. I agree this is one of the better colours that I've reviewed so far in this series.

[penwash]

Wasn't the color that I expected based just on the name, but the explanation helps.
And I love olive, mossy colored inks.
Thank you for the review, Chrissy.

[Chrissy]

Thanks for an excellent and thorough review
I like the colour. It has a nice chroma, probably great for washes

Though it seems to have either show-through or bleed through on Rhodia or am I mistaken?

You're welcome. Some white papers occasionally show up as almost pink and I have to edit by adding a Curves layer to make the paper colour more accurate. It appears that I forgot this with the piece of Rhodia Dot Pad. I've corrected it now and when looking at the actual piece of Rhodia paper it doesn't show through enough to stop me writing on the reverse.

[Chrissy]

Wasn't the color that I expected based just on the name, but the explanation helps.
And I love olive, mossy colored inks.
Thank you for the review, Chrissy.

You're welcome. It wasn't the colour I expected from the name either. Maybe they selected a piece of wall that was shaded enough to grow some moss? LOL.

[junglejim]

Oh, another lovely murky green. Love the color! Thank-you for another very thorough review, Chrissy. (Sorry, haven't been on fpg for a while and playing catch-up with all the articles, LOL!)

[Chrissy]

Oh, another lovely murky green. Love the color! Thank-you for another very thorough review, Chrissy. (Sorry, haven't been on fpg for a while and playing catch-up with all the articles, LOL!)

You're welcome junglejim. Nice to see you back here.