Diamine Oxblood
Ink Review #125
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color/properties
Diamine Oxblood is a deep and bold maroon with a faint pink undertone that’s more visible on white paper than cream. The high saturation overpowers most of the shading this ink has, especially with finer nib sizes. You may still notice a slight gradient with wider nibs, but this is a mostly solid color.
There’s also a dull green sheen that’s visible in the ink splat and droplets. You may notice a slightly shiny luster around the edges of letters, but I don’t expect to see any significant sheen in most writing applications.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Oxblood is mostly well-behaved with my test papers, but there was still some bleed-through on the Kokuyo sheet. It should be fine on most fountain pen-friendly papers, but based on how wet it is I could see this easily bleeding through some less ink-resistant papers when using a wetter nib.
The dry times aren’t great and can often take as long as 30 seconds or more to dry, and even then, it might be dry enough to close a book on, but the high saturation makes this ink susceptible to smudging from residual hand moisture.
The water resistance is also not great. There’s instant clouding after water exposure and the leftover shadows are faint and difficult to read.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Diamine Oxblood has a wet flow and while it’s not quite as slick as you would expect based on that, it’s still well-lubricated and provides a comfortable writing experience. The ink didn’t have any issues flowing through most of the nib units, but I did still run into some minor hard starting with the broad nib. Still, this should be a reliable ink in most conditions. I was especially impressed with how well it worked in the needlepoint.
Something to note is this ink can have the tendency to crust up in some pens (and around the bottle), especially if left unused long enough. It doesn’t seem to be enough to affect the pen’s performance, but it’s something to keep an eye on if you don’t use the pen often.
Cleaning this ink out of the nib units only required the usual soak and flush, but since this ink is highly saturated, I highly recommend the soak if possible to save time. There was also a light pink hue and some residue left on the inside of the barrel that took some extra time to get out. Eventually, it came out with just water overnight, but I would still recommend caution against using this ink with demonstrators or easily stained pens.
Written on Midori MD (cream) paper with a medium nib
Written on 68 GSM Tomoe River paper (white) with a medium nib
Written on Midori MD (cream) with a wet-tuned fine nib
Performance in a pen: 8.5/10
Performance on paper: 8.5/10
Color saturation: 8/10
Sheening: 1/10
Shading: 1/10
Dry time: 5/10
Water resistance: 1/10
Ease of cleaning: 7/10
Shimmer: None
My Personal Thoughts…
Diamine Oxblood seems to be one of the more popular reds in Diamine’s lineup, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a no-nonsense, well-performing ink with the glistening wet flow many Diamine inks are known for, but it’s not too wet like Writer’s Blood which came later. It’s an excellent choice for a daily red too — the deeper red shade gives it a touch of elegance without coming off too edgy, and keeps it from coming off as the kind of bright red ink you might associate with graded school papers. I used this as a daily ink myself for a short time, however, its tendency to get crusty made it a bit too high maintenance for my liking. Still, that didn’t keep me from enjoying it from time to time, and if you were to choose this one for yourself, I certainly wouldn’t blame you.
Samples written in 68 gsm Tomoe River and Midori MD notebooks with a Pelikan M800 (fine) and a Scriveiner Classic fountain pen (medium)
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Diamine Oxblood (Amazon)
Pelikan M800 Red Stripe
Scriveiner Classic Deep Crimson (Amazon)
Traveler’s Company Brass Clip (Amazon)
Fountain Pendulum wooden pen holder and ink bottle stand
Taroko Design A6 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook
Midori MD A5 dot grid notebook (Amazon)
Midori MD A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
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 Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook