Diamine Fountain Pen Ink (80mL) - Autumn Oak

Great shade. Really looks like autumn oak

Great shade and fast drying.

I was expecting a more orange colour that shaded from yellow to red-orange. Autumn Oak, with my pen and paper combos, and in my swabs on white TR 52 gsm, it looks more like a PO49 quinacridone gold in watercolours. It sits between Diamine Golden Honey and Ochre, being browner than the former and more orange and lighter than the later. It is also more orange than P.W. Akkerman SBRE Brown.

I find it a bit light in dry pens or thin nibs; it’s not an overly saturated ink. I’ve observed some silvery sheen on TR 52 gsm paper, visible only in heavily saturated areas where the ink pooled in swabs: during normal writing I’ve observed none. In wetter pens, the ink offers nice shading and some type of darker outline, which is not constant, and hard to describe. I’ve seen no feathering, no bleedthrough, just the usual ghosting on thinner papers with wet pens. I find the ink to be a bit thin under the nib of my Sailor 1911S 21kt H-M, but does OK with the other ones: I consider the ink to have average flow.

It’s a nice colour, but not one I would use for daily writing or for copious notes; I do see myself using it for corrections, marginalia and underlining, though. I prefer this ink on white paper and in wet pens: TR or Graphilo paper and a Sailor 1911L 21 kt H-MF or H-B nib.

I got this as a sample, so this is based only on swatching and brief writing. In terms of usability, this has all the nice, dependable Diamine traits of good flow, reasonable dry time, and it doesn’t bleed heavily or feather. The colour I got on Midori MD paper is much more brown than what I see on the screen, definitely a leaves-on-the-ground, vintage-toned kind of colour. I’m really into it and have added this to my shortlist of orange inks, but if you’re not sure about the shade, order a sample.

Personally I don't like shading in my inks. This one actually has a good bit of shading (more than I expected) and even dries into another shade altogether. It acts fine overall, flows well and isn't a bad Diamine ink. Some suggest this as a substitute for Noodlers Apache sunset, which I say it is not. It does not have as much diversity in shading from Orange to red to yellow. Still, I won't give it a bad review just on these characteristics because they are probably what the manufacturer was going for. If you like the properties of diamine, you could be happy with this ink.