Diamine Grape
Ink Review #23
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Diamine Grape is a pale purple that is mostly a mostly solid color but does have a small degree of shading. Depending on the tune of the pen you might notice a light gradient between varying intensities of the color, but I don’t think that you’ll get vastly different results between different pens — It’s not really a shading ink, and it’s not trying to be.
I was surprised and amused when I saw that the droplets showed a murky green sheen. I found it mildly perplexing, and I suppose that it might be possible to force some sheen out of this ink with some very specific conditions, but Diamine Grape is also not a sheening ink, and I don’t think it would be worth the effort.
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Diamine Grape performed well. I didn’t notice any detectible feathering or bleed-through on any of the test pages. The dry times were mostly average, with the dry larger nibs drying within the 20-second mark, though they seemed ever so slightly better on both the Rhodia and Leuchtturm papers.
There was some degree of water resistance. However, it yields a purple haze over the paper and smears the letters to the point that I find them largely illegible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Diamine Grape is very well-behaved. There was a medium and consistent flow across all of the test nibs. The first thing I noticed while writing with this ink was how slick it was. It wasn’t to be mistaken for wetness, but it did make for a very comfortable writing experience. I didn’t run into any hard starts, skips, or stops during my tests, and cleaning the pen took almost no effort at all.
Value/cost per ml:
At the time of writing Diamine Grape sells for $17 for an 80ml bottle from most US retailers, making this ink $0.21 per ml.
The bottle/packaging:
Diamine Grape comes in the standard Diamine bottle with a gold cap and a bright purple label that generally represents the color inside. The glass could be crisper, but the bottle is inoffensive and unassuming, if not slightly akin to artistic supplies. I think it does well to capture Diamine as the long-standing and historic ink maker they are. Functionally, the bottle is fine. It’s wide at the bottom, making it stable for filling. The opening isn’t the widest though and I do find it more comfortable to syringe-fill the pen rather than from the bottle.
Score: 66/70
Price per ml: 8.5/10
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 1/10
Shading: 3.5/10
Dry time: 7.5/10
Water resistance: 3.5/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Bottle form: 2/5
Bottle function: 3/5
*Only 70 of the 100 available points are required for an outstanding score.My personal thoughts…
I have to admit that when I think of the color of grapes the colors that come to mind — unless I’m thinking of grape soda — are usually red or green. In retrospect I’m not really sure why. Lots of grapes are purple, wines are purple, Diamine Grape is purple. It’s a very close match too, especially if you take into account the foggy bloom that you’ll often find on grapes — It’s a very dusty purple. If you like this color, it performs very well and I think it’d be a perfect color for the fall (which happens to be peak grape season).
Written in a Leuchtturm1917 notebook with a Pilot Custom 74 (Selvedge nib by Nib Tailor)
More images/info:
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 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