Diamine Red Dragon
Ink Review #129
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color/properties
Diamine Red Dragon is a bright, saturated red. It has a slight pink undertone, but I would still call this a true red. The ink has some shading that’s mostly noticeable when writing in print as a soft cut between light and dark tones, and as a milky gradient in cursive. Depending on the paper and wetness of the pen, however, this ink will mostly present itself as a more solid color. You might notice some slight golden sheening around the edges of the ink splat and droplets as well. While you might be able to get some slight sheening with the right setup, I didn’t get any in my tests.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Red Dragon should be fine on most fountain pen-friendly papers, but there was heavy bleed-through and feathering on the Kokuyo Sheet. Despite this, there were no traces of bleeding or feathering on the other sheets. I recommend sticking to less absorbent, more ink-resistant papers with this ink.
The dry times were below average, but about what I expected for a wetter, more saturated red. The large nib sizes dried anywhere between 20 to 30 seconds or more to dry, and the fine nib sizes weren’t much better, with the needlepoint even taking up to 10 seconds on most of the test papers. It could be worse, but if you need a fast drying red, this ink isn’t going to cut it.
The water resistance isn’t much better. Water exposure causes instant clouding, and while there are some traces left over, it’s an absolute mess to try to read.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Red Dragon has a consistent medium-wet flow across all of the nib sizes. While I wouldn’t call it slick, it’s still well-lubricated enough to provide for a comfortable writing experience. I ran into a few hard starts while working on my writing sample. It wasn’t much of an annoyance in this case, but it seems to be the result of the ink sometimes drying out too quickly in the nib. It’s a higher-saturated ink, so it’s not surprising, but your mileage regarding this will vary depending on the pen, paper, and writing pressure used.
The cleaning experience was much easier than expected. I could see this ink causing some trouble cleaning if it’s left in a pen for too long, but in my experience, it only took a single soak and flush to clean the nib units of ink, and there weren’t any stains or traces of color or residue on the inside of the barrel.
Written on 52 GSM Tomoe River paper (white) with a medium nib
Written on Midori MD paper (cream) with a medium nib
Performance in a pen: 8/10
Performance on paper: 7/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 1/10
Shading: 2/10
Dry time: 5.5/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 8/10
Shimmer: None
My Personal Thoughts…
I’ve been aware that there’s long been a high degree of popularity for Red Dragon, but to be honest, I pretty much avoided it outright — I truly thought I would hate it. I was always under the impression that it would lean too far into a slightly pinkish tone (and in retrospect, I’m not even sure why I came to that conclusion years ago). I had solidified my place on team Oxblood and only recently ended up getting a bottle of Red Dragon because I thought it would be fun to pair with a new RelicPens Dragon Scale. Honestly, it’s not at all what I thought it would be, and that’s a great thing. It’s undoubtedly a step brighter than the aforementioned Oxblood, but it's not so much that it becomes a sterile and boring reminder of graded school papers. Am I still team Oxblood? Absolutely, but this is nonetheless great ink.
Sample written in a 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook with a RelicPens Dragonscale (medium nib)
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Diamine Red Dragon
RelicPens Dragonscale fountain pens, medium Cypress nibs
RelicPens wood pen rest
Midori A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
Makers South Autumn Harvest A6 notebook cover
GoodInkPressions A5 52gsm Tomoe River notebook
Traveler’s Company brass clip (Amazon)
Tim Holtz card file (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