review: diamine salamander

Let's take a gander at Diamine Salamander! Ooh that rhymed.

I have quite a lot of Diamine inks. They're a great quality for the price (and even cheaper if you're living in Europe, thanks to cheaper shipping). That's not to say that they're cheap, which I think sounds bad—they're very affordable, and they're good!

Diamine inks come in two sizes: a smaller, plastic 30 ml bottle, and an 80 ml glass bottle. Both sizes are quite nice. The glass bottle is hefty and has a good shape to it for filling pens with. The 30 ml would be a great option if you're traveling.

Diamine Salamander is a dull, gray-green on normal papers. However, it's especially fun to use on Tomoe River paper... but more on that in a second.

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Diamine Salamander doesn't have very much water resistance. A whole bunch of lifts off when it hits water.

It dries fairly quickly; in under 30 seconds.

There isn't much difference between the fine and broad nib on this Kokuyo MIO paper. They both shaded ever so lightly and have no sheen.

On Tomoe River paper, it goes down much more green, then slowly dries into the brown-gray-green tone you see here. It's a deeply fascinating ink, and I love to watch it dry.

I compared it to other dark greens that I own, and as is pretty clear, Diamine Salamander is quite different. All the inks I have here are much more saturated. Nagasawa Kobe Sorakuen Tea Green in person is somewhat close, but it's more of a tree green. De Atramentis Dark Reseda and Colorverse Interstellar Space are both "fresher" as well.

I have this ink in my TWSBI Diamond 580, and it's a fun ink to use. I really enjoy the color of it, and I think it would do better in a broader nib (while this pen ostensibly sports a broad, it writes closer to a medium).

This is a fun color, much in the same vein as something like Sailor Jentle Rikyu-cha (though the final color is much different). I really enjoyed using this ink!

Where to buy

I received this sample as a gift from a pen pal.

• JetPens: 30 ml, 80 ml bottle
• Wonder Pens: 80 ml bottle + sample