Diamine Blood Orange Ink Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Diamine Blood Orange, part of a collection of inks released to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Diamine, is a stellar red-orange that hits a great balance between bright orange and murky blood.

When you buy an ink from Diamine, you can be sure that it will perform well and be easy to clean. The same is true of Blood Orange.

The first thing you probably noticed about this ink is the color. When you hear the words "blood orange," a wide array of colors come to mind. With this ink, I think Diamine has hit the perfect balance between all the colors that come to mind in this combination. It's a medium blood red mixed with just enough bright orange to make the ink pop. It's a great color, but probably not work-friendly. It's perfect for Halloween, though.

Like all Diamine inks I've used, the flow is great. It starts immediately and doesn't have any issues with skipping or starting. In the pens I've tried with this ink, it hits the middle of the road in terms of ink flow. One of the pens I tried is a dry writer, and this ink did just fine with lubricating the nib and providing enough ink to form consistent and reliable lines.

I haven't noticed any feathering when using broad nibs and good paper (by good I mean anything 80gsm or higher), but it does start to feather a bit on cheap copy paper. Being an orange-red, the show-through is also minimal. In most cases, you can't see any ghosting or ink spots on the back side of the page.

One of my favorite features of any ink is the shading, and this ink doesn't disappoint. It's not a dramatic amount of shading, but it's enough to move from a light red-orange to a darker blood-orange color. The fading back and forth is really pretty, and I enjoy it a lot. It's very similar to Diamine Ancient Copper in terms of shading, but lighter and with more orange tones.

Overall, I'm really impressed by Blood Orange and have enjoyed using it in a variety of pens. It looks great in broad or specialty nibs, but the character still shows through in small nibs. If the color appeals to you, I highly recommend picking this up.

You can order this ink in a special 40ml bottle or a 20-pack of cartridges.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on October 11, 2017 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Diamine, Ink Reviews.

Support The Pen Addict With A Membership

As The Pen Addict is barreling towards its 10 year anniversary in November, and I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to the Pen Addict members who support me and the operation of the site. There is no better thanks to a content creator than direct support, so thank you to the nearly 500 (!) members for allowing me to do this for a living.

If you have ever considered becoming Pen Addict Member now is a great time. I’ll be recapping the Live at Field Notes event this weekend, plus I have already teased my next Retro 51 collaboration, which will be available to members first, and at a discount. Members also get access to the full Refill archives - all 92 issues so far - plus other great benefits.

For $5 a month or $48/year you get all of the extra content Pen Addict members receive, and support me and the site directly. Thanks to the members I have been able to do things I never thought possible, and I hope you will consider joining in on the fun.

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Members.

Modern Fuel Mechanical Pencil 2.0 Review

Andrew Sanderson, the owner and designer behind Modern Fuel, sent me a prototype of his 1.0 mechanical pencil last year to get feedback on. I liked it, but didn’t love it, and explained to him why. It was too light, and the balance was a bit off. The refinement for a 1.0 release wasn’t there, at least in my book.

With Version 2.0, Andrew has made all the updates I personally was looking for in a quality machined mechanical pencil, and, after getting to test out this prototype, I am happy to back his current Kickstarter project.

The change list from Version 1.0 to Version 2.0 is large, and includes new materials, a retractable tip, and most impressively, a custom built internal mechanism. That last item alone had to be quite an engineering feat.

By designing his own mechanism, Andrew allows you to easily swap out the internals of the pencil and change the lead size. 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm , and 0.9 mm mechanisms are available, and you can even order all three for a single pencil. The retractable tip was a pleasant surprise as well. I didn’t expect that at all, but it is a big bonus for mechanical pencil fans.

My prototype model is made from stainless steel, and is accordingly heavy. Not too heavy, mind you, but I prefer using the 0.9 mm mechanism due to the weight. In general, the heavier or larger the pen or pencil, the wider the tip I prefer. The 0.9 mm delivers a line similar to using a wooden pencil, and allows for a greater range of motion when writing. I’m still surprised at how much I like the width.

One add-on that I haven’t seen offered before is an option for an eraser plug. The standard configuration ships with an eraser, but you can buy an accessory that allows you to remove the eraser and seal the opening. I’m generally a no pencil eraser person, but I think I prefer having the eraser available on this style of pencil. I don’t think the plug adds anything style or functionality wise and likely isn’t worth the additional $12 unless you are really committed to the look.

Like most of our buying decisions, this one comes down to value. Will you get enough usage out of this product to justify the price? The Modern Fuel Mechanical Pencil starts at $70 for Stainless Steel, Brass, or Copper, and $130 for Titanium. That’s very expensive, but worth it in my book. The amount of engineering alone justifies the price for me, plus I like supporting people who make cool things. After using this prototype for the past few weeks I decided to back the Stainless Steel model, and am excited to get this in the rotation once the project completes.

My thanks to Modern Fuel for loaning me this prototype for purposes of this review.

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