Dominant Industry Winter Pine
Ink Review #43
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
Overview
The color/properties:
Winter Pine is a cool pastel green that shades with a crisp cut where the ink pools, as well as a fine deep green outline around the shading areas. There’s not a lot of tonal variation, but you might notice some subtle pink or purple undertones — especially with wetter and wider nibs.
As far as pastels go, this one is especially light, but that contributes substantially to its cool and wintry hue. To me, it’s too pale to be an everyday ink, but I doubt that was the intention anyway. It’s not too pale to be a fun ink. With that said, it's worth noting that this ink is particularly challenging to read on grid paper, or if a darker ink is used on the previous or following page.
Ink Splat
Droplets
Performance on paper:
Winter Pine was well-behaved on paper. There was some minor bleed-through in the Kokuyo notebook with the larger nib sizes, but otherwise, there wasn’t any noticeable bleeding or feathering on the other pages. The dry times were a touch above average: all of the nibs dried within the 20-second mark, but they were notably better on the Midori, Maruman, and Kokuyo papers.
There was some water resistance. After being exposed to water, the ink left behind light shadows of what was written on the paper, but they were too faint to be easily legible.
Water resistance
Chromatography
Performance in the pen:
Unfortunately, the performance was subpar. Winter Pine has a dry flow and immediately, I wasn’t able to get it to work with the needlepoint. I also experienced frequent hard starts with the extra fine, fine, broad, and stub nibs during my tests. Despite that, once the nibs got writing I personally didn’t find the ink to feel unlubricated or unpleasant. Results from pen to pen may vary, but I would suggest a wetter pen to combat the dry flow.
Cleaning the ink out was easy, and it washed out in a single flush with no traces of color or residue left behind in the pen.
Value/cost per ml:
As of writing, the price of Dominant Industry Winter Pine is $17 in the US for a 25ml bottle, placing it at $0.68 cents per ml.
The bottle/packaging:
Winter Pine comes in the standard Dominant Industry bottle, packed in a kraft paper box and tied in a drawstring dust bag. The design is simple but has an elegant appearance, and overall the bottle and packaging feel well-made.
The usability is unfortunately where this bottle fails. The bottle is more stable than you’d initially expect because of the pear shape making it more bottom-heavy, but the opening is small and makes filling the pen a somewhat uncomfortable experience. Dominant Industry does supply you with a pipette, but it’s small and inconsequential unless you’re filling an eyedropper.
Score: 54/70
Price per ml: 4.5/10
Performance in a pen: 5/10
Performance on paper: 9/10
Color saturation: 3/10
Sheening: 0/10
Shading: 5/10
Dry time: 8/10
Water resistance: 2/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Bottle form: 5/5
Bottle function: 2.5/5
*Only 70 of the 100 available points are required for an outstanding score.My personal thoughts…
Winter Pine is a very pale ink, which will more than likely be a point of contention, but as I stated earlier, I doubt that Dominant Industry intended for this to be anyone’s daily workhorse ink, and I won’t judge it in that light. I’ll judge it for what I think it was meant to be: a fun and seasonal ink.
As a color, it achieves that well. It’s cool and serene, reminiscent of crisp air and frosted pine trees. I really like it. But being objective, it’s not a painless experience. The dry flow and hard starts were frustrating at best. With the right pen, I think this ink could be a great time, but unfortunately, I can’t outright recommend it without some caveats.
Written with a Sailor 1911S Music nib in a Leuchtturm1917 Notebook
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 are 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