Diamine Quartz Black
Ink Review #141
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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Overview
The color/properties
Diamine Quartz Black is a foggy, pale black that shades with a milky gradient throughout the writing, as well as a soft cut where the ink pools heaviest in both print and cursive writing. Surprisingly, there’s also a dull black sheen that often appears around the edges of letters (as well as anywhere that the ink pools heavily enough).
Ink splat
Ink droplets
Performance on paper:
Quartz Black is very well-behaved. I find any signs of bleeding or feathering on any of the test papers, and this ink should be safe on most fountain pen-friendly papers.
The dry times are average, often taking between 15-20 seconds to dry with the larger nib sizes, but also slightly below average with the finer nib sizes, in many cases taking up to 15 seconds to dry. (While not necessarily relevant to standard writing circumstances, I’d also like to note that some parts of the ink splats and droplets never truly dried)
Water exposure causes immediate clouding of the color, but although it’s messy, there’s enough retention that anything that was written should still be legible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
The performance here is mixed. To start, the ink absolutely did not like working with the needlepoint nib, often requiring a lot of time and effort to even get it writing, only for me to have to get it going all over again after a few seconds of not writing in between notebooks. While the other nibs were a lot better, the ink was still prone to some hard starting with a few of the nibs (the fine, the stub, and even the medium nib I used for the writing samples). The ink seems to be awfully nib-picky and prone to drying out quickly in the nib when lifting off too long during writing; however, when it works, it has a nice medium flow, and while it’s not as juicy and slick as some of Diamine’s other inks, it’s still a very enjoyable and adequate writing experience.
The cleaning process was easy, and the ink quickly washed out in a single soak and flush without any visible color or residue remaining in the test pen or nib units.
Written on 68 GSM Tomoe River paper (white) with a medium nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream) with a medium nib.
Performance in a pen: 7.5/10
Performance on paper: 10/10
Color saturation: 7/10
Sheening: 2/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 7/10
Water resistance: 2.5/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My Personal Thoughts…
Although I’m not often drawn to black inks (and rarely do I get them for myself), I was drawn to Quartz Black specifically because it seemed like it would be a great off-black. The label on the bottle even had more of a grey look to it (and I won’t argue with anyone who calls it a grey ink). For the most part, that’s exactly what I got. It’s far from being an all-business, no-frills workhorse you would normally expect from a black ink, but instead, it’s a dark, dynamic, and moody ink that maintains a ton of personality. Of course, that means if you’re looking for a more serious black, you’ll probably be disappointed by this. Thankfully, there are already plenty of basic blacks to choose from, and call me superficial, but this is the kind of black ink that gets my attention, and it’s great as long as you get it in the right pen to match.
Written on 68 gsm Tomoe River paper with a Cross Townsend Year of the Dog (medium nib).
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Diamine Quartz Black
Cross Townsend Year of the Dog, medium nib
Odyssey Notebooks 68 gsm Tomoe River notebook
Midori MD A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
Franklin-Christoph pen roll
Traveler’s Company passport-size traveler’s notebook
Traveler’s Company brass clip (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