Ink Review #90: Diamine Grape

Today's ink is Diamine Grape. So far, I have found Diamine inks to be pretty well behaved, and there are a million colors. I love that they come in two different bottle sizes. I usually buy the 30ml inks unless I absolutely love one of the colors, then I buy the 80ml bottle. I purchased my bottle from Cult Pens. I know I've talked about this before, but Cult Pens is a great place to buy Diamine inks. I base a lot of my reviews off samples, just because it's too expensive to buy whole bottles of every ink. 30ml bottles in the US are usually around $7 or $8. You can get a sample of Diamine ink for about $2. If you buy a 30ml Diamine bottle from Cult Pens, it's about $2.55 So I own 30ml Diamine bottles in almost every color they make. So now let's talk about Grape:

The color...

Grape is a medium purple with some sheen. Seasonally I would use this ink in the fall.

The sheen switches colors depending on the lighting. Sometimes it looks more green and sometimes more gold.

Dry time: 40 seconds

Water resistance: low

Feathering: only a little bit on Baron Fig paper.

Show through: low

Bleeding: only on Baron Fig paper

Other properties: medium shading, medium sheen

Ink swabs for comparison, left to right (top to bottom for RSS): Diamine Cult Pens Deep Dark Purple, Diamine Grape, and Diamine Bilberry. To see the Diamine ink swabs together, click here. 

Robert Oster Claret, Nemosine Alpha Centauri, and Papier Plume Mardi Gras Indian Purple. To see the purple ink swabs together, click here. 

Longer writing:

I used a medium nib on Tomoe River paper. The ink flowed smoothly, and had no railroading or hard starts.

Overall, I liked this ink, but the dry time is a bit long. If you like Diamine, and you like purple, you can't go wrong with Diamine Grape, or if you like purples more on the bluish side, Diamine Bilberry.

Disclaimer: I purchased this ink myself, and all photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page.