Diamine Celadon Cat
Ink Review #79
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
This is one of two 2022 inks of the year made by Diamine for r/fountainpens.
Overview
The color/properties
I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide whether Diamine Celadon Cat is a pale blue-green or a greenish-blue. I think it falls more into blue than green, but it’s also going to be heavily dependent on the kind of paper you use — cream papers are going to make this ink take on a much greener appearance than a whiter paper. The ink also has some grey-brown undertones to it, and with a large enough nib you can start to see the ink lighten up a little to show them, but it’s not all that prominent. I originally had the impression that this would be a multi-shading ink, and while it’s not too far off, I wouldn’t quite call it that either. Still, as far as shading is concerned there’s quite a lot of it, and the transition between its lighter and darker tones is very crisp. For a pale ink, I also think it’s pretty usable! It’s obviously not going to be as easy to see as say, Oxford Blue, but hey, it’s easily visible and the color doesn’t get drowned out easily by something like graph paper — no complaints there. Honestly, the color comes as a pleasant surprise from Diamine’s main ink line: if I hadn’t already known what it was, I would have assumed that it was something from one of the boutique ink makers. Very nice.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Celadon Cat’s performance on paper is also good. There wasn’t a lot of bleed-through on the Kokuyo sheet and no visible feathering or bleeding on the other test sheets. This ink seems pretty gentle overall and should be fine with most fountain pen-friendly pages, even if you’re using a wetter nib with it. The dry times are a hair above average: the large nib sizes mostly dried within 15 seconds, and no more than 20. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the water resistance wasn’t great, and if this ink is exposed to water there won’t be much left that’s salvageable.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
I’ve heard whispers and complaints that this is a dry ink, and from my experience, this is partly true, BUT I don’t think it’s that bad. I said it. I would consider this to have more of a dry-medium flow, rather than an outright dry one. You can visibly see that it isn’t that dry while writing with it. There’s definitely flow, and it didn’t have any issues keeping up with fast writing regardless of the nib size, so it gets a pass. As for the lubrication? It’s also not that bad. Of course, it’s not that slick either, it’s not Oxford Blue, but it’s fine. It’s comfortable. It’ll be okay.
There weren’t any hard starts or skips either, and cleaning this ink out of the pen was a non-issue: the nibs were clean with a single soak and flush, without any visible residue or color remaining in the pen or the nib units.
Performance on paper: 9/10
Color saturation: 4/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 7/10
Dry time: 8/10
Water resistance: 1/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My Personal Thoughts…
As with so many inks, I was very curious about the meaning behind the name “Celadon Cat” (anything with “cat” in it piques my interest). After some short research, it appears that the Reddit user who proposed this ink mentioned that they wanted something similar to Kyo No Oto’s Hisoku. Fair enough — I still had no earthly idea what the specific meaning behind Celadon Cat could be, but what got me more interested was the meaning behind “celadon.” What is celadon? Surely, it’s more than just a blue-green color, or a city in the Kanto region.
Celadon is also a distinctive blue-green glaze used in pottery, not too unlike our ink in question! (And I suppose it wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary to make, say, a ceramic celadon cat in this fashion). Celadon pottery can come in a wide range of colors, usually from pale blue-green to even a near jade-green, so as a representation, Celadon Cat is more than close enough, and the longer that I think about it, the more I feel that sentiment holds for this ink as a whole. Is it on the dry side? Yes, it is, but it still performs substantially better than comparable inks in its color range. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s more than usable, and I like it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a good ink that did exactly what it set out to do.
Written in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook (print) and a 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook (cursive) with a Kaweco Sport “Iridescent Pearl” (broad architect grind)
Comparisons:
More images/info:
Sources:
Original post containing the suggestion: https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/uhbu4c/2022_diamine_reddit_ink_vote_ink_colour_name/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A 68gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook