Diamine - Graphite

​I have a number of grey inks but think this is only the second I have reviewed.  Everytime I look at grey inks I wonder when is grey grey?

​Graphite is the crystalline form of carbon with its atoms arranged in a hexagonal structure

Graphite is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions, under high pressure and temperature it becomes diamond. Graphite is used in pencils and lubricants. It is a good conductor of heat and electricity. 

80ml

I have brought this up before, the packaging for Diamine inks is so plain and unadorned.  You wouldn't know what the ink in the 80ml bottles is if it wasn't for the small sticker on the cap, at least it is on the label of the 30ml bottles.

30ml

​With chromatography you could be forgiven for thinking this is a green ink.

There was not much to choose between Col-o-ring and Tomoe.  It is hard to capture but there is definitely a hint of green in this ink.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe

For the writing again cheap notepaper, Midori and Tomoe.  I really enjoyed the writing experience for this review as I didn’t mind the ink colour and it just seemed perfect for the pen wrt to flow and everything.  The pen (GMcustom pens India) is a perfect size for me – just love using it.

The ink was very well behaved on cheap paper, no feathering or show through and was surprisingly slow to dry.  It dried darker than I expected and had some nice shading.

On midori a lighter grey and quicker to dry.  Whoops I have just ntoiced my smudge in the photo.  Shading again quite nice.

you can just see the smudge at 25 secs

Tomoe river is white paper but looks very cream against other white paper.

On Tomoe it dried to a similar coliur to Midorie – paler grey, dry time about what you would expect for this paper.  A lot of nice shading.

Ok so I like a grey ink – I wasn’t expecting that.  It just behaved so well on all the papers and was a pleasure to use.  In previous Diamine reviews I have recommended buying directly from Diamine and I still make that recommendation.  I can’t offer any dupes, see below all my grey inks no two are alike.  This ink is third from the right and against all the others it looks quite green.

In summary -
Saturation - high
Shading – yes on all papers
Sheen – no
Shimmer - no
Flow –good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – Excellent 
Feathering - no
Drying – acceptable time
Cleaning - good
Water resistance - none