Sailor's Delight was one of two ink formulations chosen by the /r/fountainpens community on Reddit earlier this year, continuing a wonderful trend by Diamine in working with many collaborators - big and small - to create inks. Given all of the recent changes with Reddit, will they continue this project? Who knows, but let me be the first to ask: Mastodon ink when?
If you are Mastodon curious, check out the wonderful community being built at Penfount, where you can find all the details you need. And if you are shimmer ink curious, well, Sailorโs Delight is one you will want to take a look at asap.
The most interesting thing I noticed out of the box with this ink is the underlying color. I thought it would be bright red, and there is plenty of that shade, but the base color underneath that red is peach. That took me by surprise, in a positive way. My 1.1 mm stub nib in the TWSBI 580ALR Prussian Blue pen I used for this review spreads the ink thin at the top of the line, with the ink pooling more towards the bottom of stroke. Thatโs how shading happens, and in this case, thatโs how the peach shade pokes out from underneath the red.
But letโs be clear, you arenโt buying this ink for the peachy-red color - you are buying it for the peachy-red color with shimmer! Diamine says the shimmer is silver, but I see a faint light blue tone where the shimmer breaks through. I think that shade is a perfect match for this ink, giving the ink a purple tone in some areas.
When I bought Sailorโs Warning, I was interested in how it compared to another favorite shimmer ink of mine, Wearingeul Dracula. My guess was that they would be close enough to be interchangeable, but that couldnโt be further from the truth. Dracula is very red in comparison, with a brighter blue shimmer. In the end, these two inks are very different.
If there is any downside to Sailorโs Warning it is that it seems dry, even from this 1.1 mm nib. I expected more ink flow, which shimmer inks need to show off their primary property. I want to give it a try in another pen and a different nib to see if I feel the same way, but Iโve tested several shimmer inks in this pen and flow has never been an issue.
At $22 for a 50 ml bottle, Diamine Sailorโs Warning is priced well. I wouldnโt hesitate to recommend it, but I would make sure to use a wide, wet nib. That goes for all shimmer inks, so that should come as no surprise, but I find it to be especially true with this one.
Thatโs my Sailorโs Warning.
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inkophile
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(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
Spring is in the air, and it's time for some bright and cheerful colors to get me out of the winter fog. I've recently been trying to step outside of my comfort zone in terms of ink colors. Diamine Claret is the first ink as part of this experiment. I normally go for blue, green, and purple inks that feature lots of saturation, shading, and bright character. On occasion, I also enjoy dark inks that are in the blue or blue-green shade. So, reds and pinks are really outside of my normal preference.
Magenta is always a tricky color for me to nail down. Is it pink, purple, or red? The answer is...yes. Depending on the color of the light in your environment, this ink can look more red or pink. In other cases where the ink has pooled, you can detect a hint of purple. It has a lot of character, and I've been surprised by how much it grew on me after writing a few lines. The color is red enough and dark enough to make it easy for me to use on a regular basis, and it has all the pop and saturation that I crave in my inks.
Diamine Claret is really well-behaved, which is something I've come to expect from any Diamine ink. It flows well, has plenty of lubrication while writing, and has a little bit of shading that pops out between the red and pink hues. On top of that, this ink dries really fast. In my tests, it was normally smudge-proof within 10 seconds. That time went up a few seconds for marks that had more ink pooled up, but it was always dry in 15 seconds. This isn't the fastest drying ink out there, but it's pretty respectable. Fast-drying inks isn't something that I look for, but I know that it's really important to many people and many different situations. This is a decent option if you want a magenta ink that dries quickly.
I chose think ink due to the bright color swatch on Goldspot's website. I figured that even if it wasn't a preferred color, it should still be loud and proud of what it is. Claret definitely delivers in this regard, but also provides some extra delight in the moderate shading that comes with it. I have some trouble identifying and/or naming specific colors in the pink and purple range, but I can easily tell that there is a nice amount of variation between different shades when writing with this ink. It's just enough to let you know that this isn't a wide gel pen โ this is a nibbed pen that provides those beautiful little variances and pools of darker ink that collect in some strokes but not others. The more I've used this ink, the more I've come to appreciate and even love it. While it's not a preferred color by nature, it's quickly ascending the ranks of my favorite inks to use.
As the inaugural ink my experiment to push myself to use inks that are outside of my usual preferences, Diamine Claret is a strong and promising start. If you'd also like to try it out and add some spring-time colors to your life, you can pick it up in bottled or cartridge format. Bottles are available in 30ml or 80ml sizes, and the cartridges come in an 18-pack. I went with the 30ml bottle, and that came in at just $8. I'm pleasantly surprised by this cheery ink and look forward to trying more!
(Goldspot provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!