Diamine is a British ink manufacturer that makes all types of inks, from fountain pen inks to stamp pads. In the U.S., they are mostly known for their huge selection of different fountain pen inks, found Here. They offer both 30mL and 80mL bottles and are readily available in most places that offer ink.
Diamine released Hope Pink a while back in both 30mL and 80mL sizes, and donates a part of all sales to breast cancer research. This is a very noble cause for Diamine, so if you really enjoy pink inks, get this one!
Hope Pink is super bright and vibrant, not it is not “neon” per se. A whole page of it does get quite a bit hard to read, so I would NOT recommend writing a term paper in this, no matter how tempting (unless you want to spite the professor). It is quite in between some more neutral reds, like Rouge Hematite, and some more crazy ones like Noodler’s Rachmaninoff.
I actually like this color very much, and it is often in my daily rotation. Great for making a bold and bright statement on casual things. Here is a writing sample of it.
All these photos of the writing used were taken with an iPhone 6 and have been color corrected to the best of my ability. They mostly represent the true color of the ink, regardless of the lighting conditions. Find me on FPN as musicman123!
The review was written with my favorite, the Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator, in a TWSBI B nib. The TWSBI B is slightly finer than the Nemosine B, but not by much. It’s only a hairline difference.
The paper used is standard HP 32lb Premium Laser Paper, found readily at Staples and Amazon. The paper takes ink just as well, if not better, than Rhodia and Clairefontaine. It is my go-to paper for all tasks.
Here is the swab of the ink.
This ink is well behaved on paper, but does exhibit some problems in a pen. The ink is very wet and has a high amount of lubrication. There is some shading as you can see, with no feathering, show through (ghosting), or bleed through. However, the ink does stain clear converters and barrels. I would not recommend using this ink in a demonstrator, unless you want to have a pink barrel. I filled a converter with this for a week, and found the converter thoroughly stained. It took about a month of normal usage for the stains to go away.
It takes about 14-15 seconds for this ink to dry on my paper. It’s not bad considering how smooth and glossy it is.
Here is a water test. The top grid had drops of water placed for 10 seconds, then vigorously wiped downwards. The bottom text did not receive any drops of water and was only wiped with in the same motion as the grid. The ink was average in this field. There is definitely some lifting of the ink in the grid, but it is still visible. There is a good amount of wet smear, but it’s not the worst.
Lastly, here is a scan of the review. Use the scan to read the rest of the review. I did not intend for it to show color accuracy. The pictures are the most accurate representation of the color.
That’s all folks! All in all, I really like this ink, but I would like it more if it didn’t stain!
Stay tuned for more to come!