Diamine Ochre

[DanielCoffey]

Since Diamine will be releasing their five new colours on June 1st, here is a little teaser to help make up your mind. It was posted on FPN but well, you know..

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INK : DIAMINE OCHRE

PAPER : RHODIA #16 A5 white lined

PEN : Onoto Magna 261 Medium nib tweaked for wet flow by John Sorowka (Oxonian).

Scanner : IT8-calibrated Epson V600 flatbed
Colour Space : Adobe RGB
Matte : 50% grey and 100% white
Post-process : Unsharp Mask

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Phil from Diamine kindly provided me with a pre-release sample of this ink which will be available from Diamine and authorised resellers from June 1st 2012.




Here is a close-up of the swab...




And a close-up of the shading. Despite this nib being so wet, I think this ink will have excellent opportunities for shading...




As expected, this ink is in NO way water resistant but then Diamine never said it was...




Due to an accident with the cotton swab, I ended up with a good dollop of Ochre between my fingers. Despite repeated soap washings, I found an interesting colour buried in this ink. The Yellows wash away really easily but there is a Magenta component that bonds VERY firmly with skin. I dabbed the swab on a piece of kitchen paper a few times, let it dry then slowly dripped water onto the ink...




DRYING TIMES : The writing tests above were done in a very wet medium nib that had just been cleaned. Drying times on Xerox 90gsm were between of 5-10s. Rhodia and G Lalo Vergé were around 20-30s. Clairefontaine Triomphe took a good 30-45s to dry.

SMEARING : None on any paper. This ink bonds nicely with the paper and noes not sit on top, even on Clairefontaine Triomphe.

BLEEDTHROUGH : Since the ink is so saturated, some bleed through may be expected on copy papers with wet or fat nibs. I would not expect bleeding on dry or fine nibs or when the ink is used on a good quality paper. Given the wet nib I used above, I recorded the following... Xerox 90gsm had moderate bleed through and a little feathering. Rhodia had no bleed through and no feathering. Clairefontaine Triomphe had no bleed through or feathering. G Lalo Vergé had no bleed through or feathering.

FLOW AND LUBRICATION : Flow for this ink seems to be good to high. I suspect even a dry fine nib will put down a good line. The ink seems "wet" and is not reluctant to penetrate the paper. Lubrication was excellent in the pen tested (my medium above). The writing experience was very enjoyable.

CLEANING : There were no colour residues left on the converter and this ink washed out nicely. It did not cling to the pen insides. I had to be fairly thorough with the bulb syringe simply because the ink is saturated but there was no issue with getting rid of it out of the pen. Getting that pink splat off my hand however...

[DanielCoffey]

Edited to add the missing text from the bottom of my review on FPN.

[eriquito]

DanielCoffey!

THANK YOU for this incredible introduction to Diamine Ochre.

I had the feeling I would need some of this ink when news of its release hit the FPGeeks website. Now with your review, I can't WAIT to try this ink.

=) Eric

[fountainpenkid]

I love the color! But for me, the deciding factor is the bleedthrough and the feathering, on cheap copy paper. The paper I use in my notbooks is Staples colledge ruled lined paper with 3 hole punches. it is like 35 cents per ream. Could I see a sample on cheap copy paper?

[KrazyIvan]

This one looks nice. I bought my first full bottle of brown ink and it arrived Tuesday. I may need to get my second.

[fourseamer]

Thanks for the review. This is a really interesting color. My first thought was that it looked similar to Diamine Ancient Copper. Maybe a little lighter.

[Bogon07]

mmm DIAMINE OCHRE is a lively looking brown. I like the almost luminous shading effects.

Nice bit of ink chromotography too. that pinkish magenta component is a bit of a surprise.

[DanielCoffey]

I love the color! But for me, the deciding factor is the bleedthrough and the feathering, on cheap copy paper. The paper I use in my notbooks is Staples colledge ruled lined paper with 3 hole punches. it is like 35 cents per ream. Could I see a sample on cheap copy paper?

Some of that Stables 20lb paper is pretty decent stuff. I have to say that the pen I am using was specifically adjusted for wet flow at my request so is not really representative of a more moderate pen or one with a fine nib. The Ochre will be available for sale from today so I think your best bet if you need to be sure before you buy is to ask on the forum for someone in your geographical region to send you a sample. Plenty of us who were in the FPN Ink Exchange have 5ml sample vials - we just need to know where you are.

[melissa59]

I thought I had my brown sample narrowed down to Noodler's Kiowa Pecan. Now I'm not sure. I may have to make this my first brown sample. It's really a beautiful shade!

[DanielCoffey]

I do happen to have reviews of other Diamine Browns... I have older reviews of Golden Brown (yellow brown), Saddle Brown (neutral brown), Rustic brown (red brown w. shading), Macassar (dark neutral brown) and Merlot (purple brown). I'll see what I can get posted today when I have time.

I think many of us started with Waterman Havana Brown (reddish brown) and then migrated to different brown hues. I went to Saddle Brown then split off into the yellower and redder browns. Now Diamine have hit us with their new colours, Macassar is a winner!

[fountainpenkid]

Some of that Stables 20lb paper is pretty decent stuff. I have to say that the pen I am using was specifically adjusted for wet flow at my request so is not really representative of a more moderate pen or one with a fine nib. The Ochre will be available for sale from today so I think your best bet if you need to be sure before you buy is to ask on the forum for someone in your geographical region to send you a sample. Plenty of us who were in the FPN Ink Exchange have 5ml sample vials - we just need to know where you are.

I'll send you a p.m so you can send me a little sample! thanks!

[KrazyIvan]

I went ahead and ordered a bottle of this ink. Thank you again for this review Daniel.

[DanielCoffey]

Let us know how you got on with it.

[goldiesdad]

Nice review ... was going to get Noodler's Beaver but I really like this ... hum

[southpaw52]

Great review of another promising ink color from Diamine. I just wish the dry times were a bit quicker.

[fountainpenkid]

Great review of another promising ink color from Diamine. I just wish the dry times were a bit quicker.

so a standard trait for diamine inks is a slow dry time?



Will

[DanielCoffey]

Not really, no - they are about normal.

As I did explain in the review, the reason I am reporting such long dry times is that I have a pen with very wet flow and am using hard-surface papers such as Clairefontaine Triomphe. I don't raid my printer and try to use copy paper with a fine nib in an attempt to control bleed through. Diamine on copy paper will dry in ten seconds or less.

[chad.trent]

This is one of my favorite colors right now. Dark enough to use for work, but still pretty enough that it's not boring.

[fountainpenkid]

I received the ink samples many months ago, but I thought I'd say this...
I like Ochre, and the Rustic Brown was cool as well (red browns), but Ancient Copper and Macassar blew them out of the park! (so to speak!) I bought a bottle of Ancient Copper soon after. I will get a bottle of Macassar when I buy a new pen.

[KrazyIvan]

Is Ancient Copper easy to clean? Ochre was very difficult to clean out of a piston filler.