Retro 51 Top-disc Favorites Survey

You may have heard that we are making one final Retro 51 for the upcoming Pen Addict Kickstarter campaign, and now is your chance to help decide which Retro 51 artwork is displayed around the barrel. My friend Alexander pulled as much finial artwork as he could find, and populated a list where you can choose your five favorites. The goal is to get an idea of the most popular designs, so when it comes time to present 50 of them on a pen barrel, we have our bases covered.

Head right here to make your selections!

Posted on February 7, 2020 and filed under Retro 51.

Diamine Scribble Purple Ink: A Review

Diamine Scribble Purple ink is dark purple with lots of gold sheen. The shade is so dark, that it looks like black ink in finer nibs.

You can see the gorgeous gold sheen on the Col-o-ring Card, both in the swab and in the writing. The ink splats are entirely gold.

On Rhodia white paper, the gold sheen is almost non-existent except for a hint in the swab. Still, the white paper brings out the purple color quite well. The ink is wet and takes a good thirty seconds to dry (I would leave it longer just to be sure). It’s definitely not waterproof.

Chromatography reveals all the shades of this complex ink. There’s quite a bit of pink, some lavender, gold, and deep purple.

Of course giant lettering brings out the best in sheeny inks. I used my Handwritmic ruling pen on MD Cotton paper. The purple and gold colors stand out magnificently.

I’ve been using Diamine Scribble ink for over two months. It’s in my Lamy 2000 with a fine nib, and it writes beautifully, though it’s difficult to tell that the ink is purple (it looks black). I like its wetness and good lubrication. I’ve also inked my Leonardo Furore in Deep Purple (review here) with this ink. It is great for the luscious stub nib and the purple and gold sheen come through more evidently in the wider nib.

I thought Scribble Purple might be a good substitute for Lamy Dark Lilac (review here), but, in fact, Dark Lilac is a much lighter purple with gold sheen. I prefer Lamy Dark Lilac over Diamine Scribble Purple simply because, if an ink is purple, I want it to be obviously _purple_not so dark it looks black. But, of course, Dark Lilac was a limited edition, so if you’re looking for a purple ink with gold sheen, Scribble Purple is a good option.

You can get a 80ml bottle of Diamine Scribble Purple from Cult Pens for £5.90 (=$7.63 depending on conversion rate).

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


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Posted on February 7, 2020 and filed under Diamine, Ink Review.