Diamine Golden Sands -- Nibs & Nails!

 It's been a little while since the last Nibs & Nails post, so thanks for being patient. As with the other inks in this series, the sample was provided for review by Anderson Pens, and the nail polish inspired by this ink is posted over at Right On The Nail. Go check them out!

This is a really golden ink. Perhaps the most golden ink you can find that works in fountain pens. You can get some really metallic inks that work with dip pens, but this is the closest I've seen for fountain pens. Even better, this ink seems to behave itself much better than some of the others in the series. I've had some of these bind up a bit in medium-length writing sessions because the shimmer seems to clog up a little bit sometimes. The Golden Sands, though, they keep flowing. It also seems that the shimmer mixes into the ink more readily than some of the others. It looks really cool in the sample vial. Sometimes I just tilt it back and forth to watch the swirl. It's neat-o.

Check out the review below. Get a sample of the ink for yourself. Go visit Audrey's blog to see the nail polish. Check out my YouTube Channel. Go out to the Patreon page if you want to help support the efforts at the blog and YouTube channel.

Let me know what you think of this one in the comments.

Oh! I put the color comparisons at the end of the post again. There are quite a few, so keep scrolling to find them. 

Written Review

Close-Ups!

I think it's a pretty rad ink. It did look very different in each of the pens I was using it in, though. The Unica puts down about as much ink as the L-Tech, but it's a smaller nib, so I think it puts it all in a smaller space. That makes it look darker. That's just a guess, but the other option that comes to mind is that there was ink left in the Unica that mixed with the gold of the Golden Sands. It's possible, but I don't think that's what's going on. I clean these pens really thoroughly before I use them again. Some ink could have hidden in the feed, but the ultrasonic cleaner does a really good job at making sure that doesn't happen. Thus, my guess about the difference in nibs.

Look at that shimmer!

Video Review and Water Test

Yeah. No water resistance at all. None. Don't address an envelope with this one.

Color Comparisons!

A smattering of inks to come!

Hey folks,

I've been doing a whole lot of grading recently, and so I've been procrastinating a bit. One of the things that I do when I procrastinate is that I make ink swatches. Yeah. It's weird. It also helps me to catalog the inks that I have in my collection. These are all from the Robert Oster ink set, and they were so good lookin' that I had to take some pictures and share them.

Yeah, I'm really excited about these inks.

Robert Oster School Blue

This is the first of LOTS of RO inks that I have to show you. This is a brand that's very new (like, April?), and it came out in a big way. There are something like 40 of them in the collection, and I have samples of most of them. There are so many that I have no idea how this one guy (and I think it's a one-man operation) keeps up with all of them.

This is a blue that I loved almost instantly. It's got the perfect flow and the color is outstanding. It's a rich, blue that doesn't lean purple. There's some shading, but not too much. There's some sheen, but not too much.

On the other hand, it's not the most well-behaved ink out there. There's a little bit of feathering and a little bit of bleeding on copy paper with this ink in this nib. They probably wouldn't be a problem, but they would be even less of a problem if you used a drier or finer nib. It's slight enough (and the color is nice enough) that I'm willing to overlook it. You can see how it acts, below.

You might notice, if you scroll down far enough, that this post is presented in a slightly different order than they usually are. I've got a ton of color comparisons in this post, so I decided to put them all at the end of the post.

Thanks goes out to Anderson Pens for providing the sample for review!

Written Review!

Close-Ups!

You can see a little bit of the sheen in the picture above. There's not a ton of sheen, but it's a nice addition when it shows up on the page. It never seems to overtake the base color, though.


Copy Paper Test!

See?  A little bit of bleed and a little bit of feathering. It's not too bad, though. With a slightly sturdier paper you could totally use both sides of the page if you want to.

Pen Habit Currently Inked Journal!

I  had this ink in an FC Model 20 for a while, but I ran it dry pretty quickly and I kept track of some little squiggles as I ran through it. The final squiggle is from the dregs of that converter-full, and it's a good bit darker. I don't know why, but I suspect it was just a little dried out or condensed by that time.

I'm really into this shading.

Ink Journal Tomoe River!
I actually took this just after I wrote the sample. It's still a little bit wet, but it looked cool, so I snapped the picture. There's more sheen on Tomoe River, but even this paper doesn't let the sheen overwhelm the blue.

Chromatography!

Water Test and Video Review!

Nah, no real water resistance to this one. I wasn't expecting any, and it met my expectations.

The Color Comparisons. LOTS of them. 

***This sample was provided for review by Anderson Pens in return for my unbiased review. Everything here is mine, and YMMV.***

A short Vlog about where I've been and what's coming up soon!

Noodler's Colorado Spruce

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!

As far as I'm concerned, Thanksgiving is the earliest I can put up my Christmas lights, so it's also the right time to start thinking about Christmas trees. Some of those are spruce trees! See? It all links up! Alright, maybe a stretch, but I've only started my first cup of coffee while watching the Macy's Parade. It's a silly morning.

Anyway, this Noodler's ink was made for the Colorado Pen Show in 2016 and that's where I bought it. I got mine straight from Luxury Brands, the Noodler's distributor in the US. While it was a limited release, the Facebook page said they still had some bottles after the show, so you might contact them about where to find one for yourself.

This ink is a super-dark green that is so saturated that it could be a black. Some people like to dilute inks like this to bring out the color a bit more, and I bet you could do that to good effect with this ink. The saturation doesn't seem to affect the flow of this one, though, as I'd say it's a medium-wet ink. I had it in a couple of pens from Faber-Castell's Ondoro line, and those run a little bit wet.

The performance of this ink could have been a little bit better. These are pretty wet nibs, and there was some bleeding from the broad nib and some feathering and spreading all around. I think you might like this ink better in finer nibs. The other issue that I had was that the dry times were pretty long. Where the ink is thickest it can take quite a while to dry. You'll see some more of that below.

Also below: Chromatography! A video! A whole lot of color comparisons! More! Etc!

The Written Review

Close-Ups!

On Some Papers...

These two (above and below) are from a Pen Habit Currently Inked journal. (He's changed them since then, but I think it's basically the same paper.)

The image below is of the ink on Tomoe River paper in an Ink Journal.

Copy Paper Test

Color Comparisons!

The Maruman Word Card below had the worst dry-time. You can see a smudge and a finger print on the card. I thought it was dry after quite a long time sitting on my desk. I was wrong. The bottom edge of the swatch didn't dry for HOURS. Of course, most pens can't put down enough ink for this to be a problem, but dry times are generally long with this ink. Lefties beware.

Chromatography!

Water Test and Video Review

This ink has way more water resistance than I thought it would. Not perfect, but totally legible after being hit with some water.

This isn't going to make it into my list of favorite greens, and I guess that's okay. It's a limited release, so it's not like I could get more of it if I wanted to. The color is intensely sprucey, and the flow is good. Let me know your favorite green ink in the comments!

Hey! Thanks for reading to the bottom. I don't know how many people do that, but you did. Good for you!