Red Inks Comparison #3

[@peterbowenwalker6987]

Thank you for making these ink comparisons. They have been exceptionally helpful. Please keep them coming.

[@oseenerby3031]

I look all your comparison videos twice or more, because I like them. But sorry, I only can hit the thumbs up button one time.

[@jamesaritchie1]

You hit another of my favorite reds with the first ink. My number one red ink is Diamine Rede Dragon, but I love Diamine Syrah, as well. Iroshizuku Momiji is also one of my favorites. So is Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki, which is a red-orange. It's listed as a persimmon color, and that's pretty accurate. In truth, I haven't found an Iroshizuku ink that I don't love. There are individual inks from other brands that I love to death, but overall, Iroshizuku is my favorite brand of ink. This is the brand of ink I could take to a desert island, and spend my life writing away without missing any other brand. The number one ink I love that you missed is probably Noodler's American Eel Cactus Fruit. It's a lubricating ink, bright red, and very, very wet. I usually like darker reds, but Cactus Fruit is an ink I love. I also love Monteverde Ruby, Monteverde Fireopal, J. Herbin Red Rose, and J. Herbin Rouge Opera. Inks I really, really like but don't use often enough come from De Atramentis, and favorite brand of mine. They are De Atramentis Poppy Red, De Atramentis Dark Red, and De Atramentis Rose Flower. I'm growing more and more fond of inks with "Rose" in the name. I'm also growing fonder and fonder of scented ink. I do really like De Atramentis Lilac, but I'd still buy it just for the scent, even if I didn't like the color. I love the scent of lilacs, and they get it just right.

[@pepperpath]

Thanks for the comparisons. I love OkU Yama and Momiji ; Yodaki is also one of my favourites

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

Love Momiji (the red and gold is so beautiful) and enjoy Oku-Yama a good bit!

[@catchacoolbreeze]

Love your ink videos! (all of your videos actually). Thanks for showing us more inky options!

[@PenultimateDave]

Glad you like them!

[@kenkalstein9424]

I very much enjoy your ink comparisons. Thank you. I am in process of replacing my supplies.

[@PenultimateDave]

You are welcome!

[@UARELOVE1010]

Wonderful video! I like the pilot Momoiji a lot. I have Diamine Syrah and Poppy red.

[@iswish_41]

The Diamine and Twsbi inks are the only ones you can objectively say "this is red". Thanks for the video!

[@Lalupin464]

These videos are great! Red is one of those colors I love, but am very picky about certain shades. I have a bottle of monteverde strawberry shortcake that turned out to be too coral for my taste. My top three are Iroshizuku Yama-budo, Pilot 100th Anniversary Bishamonten (both of which share Momiji's gold sheen), and De Atramentis Dante Aligheri (which for some reason has vanished from U.S retailers). Thanks for the videos!

[@PenultimateDave]

You are right, Strawberry Shortcake is definitely more coral or pastel in colour/shade, so you have to want something a little more pastel to like it.

[@audreycaldeira-hankey2951]

Great comparisons!! But for red I love diamine poppy to stand out when marking text!!

[@PenultimateDave]

Diamine Poppy Red is a great red!

[@SwayvillDelgarian]

Thanks for the video Dave. Momiji would definitely be my next red ink purchase if it was slightly more red and less pink. I also have Sailor Shikiori Oku-yama, it does not appear nearly as dark on my swatch as in your paper though.

[@Alsry1]

Actually look at the pilot standard red, the one that comes in cartridges and 350ml bottles. Might be what you’re looking for.

[@raphthecollector3824]

Would love to see what you think of monteverde red

[@PenultimateDave]

I'll have to see if I can get that, the only Monteverde Red I have so far is Strawberry Shortcake.

[@UrbanHafner]

I did get Diamine Syrah pretty early on. I haven't used it it for a long time either.

[@PenultimateDave]

I really don't know why, it's a nice ink but there are just some inks that I just find don't get used as much.

[@fsdfsdgvdfsgsdfg7075]

My favourite red ink is Sailor Irori ink. I strongly encourage you to try it. It was first produced as a limited edition ink about 10 years ago by Sailor but Sailor has since then resumed manufacturing it on a regular basis and you can easily get hold of this true red ink.

[@petrisz]

Thank you Dave, it’s very informative. 🙏

[@PenultimateDave]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@PauloRLustosa]

Muito obrigado

[@audreycaldeira-hankey2951]

Have you also tried Pure Pens Cadwaladr? A deep red that I find easy on the eye, great for journaling. I also appreciate seeing the colours of the ink when they have dried. Many thanks.

[@PenultimateDave]

I haven't tried any of the Pure Pens exclusives but I believe they are made by Diamine.

[@blazeoconnor9899]

great video. I got iroshizuku momiji and i have to say my didn't have that gold sheen. It is a great red color but for some reason i doesn't have that red sheen.

[@PenultimateDave]

Are you using Tomoe River paper? More so 52gsm, that's really where I find it will sheen. Most other papers it won't sheen.

[@blazeoconnor9899]

Penultimate Dave I use it on other papers. I did some simple ink test and I can now see the sheen. I didn’t know it had any sheen until I saw your video. Thank you for your response. I’ll try getting your remembered paper and see the results.

[@daytonthodos9915]

Nice video! Which pen and nib is that?

[@PenultimateDave]

The pen used in this ink comparison is the William Shakour Titan Dip Pen, it’s a pen made by a UK Pen Collector William Shakour. I have a review of several of William's Titan pens including the full size and dip pens along with other accessories. You can see them on this playlist kzbin.info/aero/PLDQYlJurkfnQ7V2KQlMCs61twKXzQB-XJ You can contact William at [e-mail] or on Instagram at instagram.com/williamshakour

[@RobertLaTuso]

Which blood red inks with water resistant properties would you recommend?

[@humanfirst11]

I don't know, I feel like these are not true reds. But then again, every individual sees colors differently, it's never the same. We all have the general perception, but the actual color that our brain perceives differ. Awesome video as always!

[@kevinu.k.7042]

Thanks for these. I've been hankering after Montblanc Corn Poppy, now long gone. It seems to me Diamine Poppy Red is very close indeed. Any comments on that please? Cheers

[@PenultimateDave]

I'd say Montblanc Corn Poppy Red usually when it dries will dry a lot darker than Diamine Poppy Red but it really depends on the pen you put both inks in, some pens I've noticed Diamine Poppy Red can dry more darker and not quite as vibrant.

[@kevinu.k.7042]

@@PenultimateDave Thanks for comming back and telling me that. It's appreciated. :)

[@dapprman]

Just to point out, Franklin Christoph do two bottle sizes. Smaller one is a 30ml/1 oz bottle with a wide neck and easy to even fill monster pens from, the other is 60ml/2 oz, as you have there, which is designed to fill eye dropper pens (hence the cap). I generally find it seals well, unless you've not noticed the top cap is fully in place - almost dropped Dark Emerald over my carpet when I got it wrong ...

[@PenultimateDave]

The clear plastic screw caps that screw on top of the black eye dropper actually all have holes in them which I still can't quite fathom because if you unscrewed that it's perfectly fine to fill eyedropper with but I don't see the point of having pin pricks in the clear caps that need tape over them to stop them leaking.

[@dapprman]

@@PenultimateDave Odd - just looked at the two I have and neither are like that and can be shook around. My other four F-C ink bottles are all the smaller type.

[@PenultimateDave]

All of mine came with tape over the caps and when I remove them there's a pin hole in the caps.

[@jamesaritchie1]

To me, 60nl is too small a bottle to use anything other than a standard cap. Fortunately, I decant any ink I use regularly. I'm a huge fan of inkwells, and have been all my life. When I was a kid, we had inkwell holes in our school desks. No one still used them, but in fourth or fifth grade, a teacher brought an inkwell, ink, and a handful of dip pens to school, and showed us how earlier generations did their schoolwork. She let us each use the dip pens, and I was hooked from that day on. I still buy inkwells. And writing boxes. Several companies are making writing boxes again, and I'm surprised more fountain pen lovers don't use them. They making using fountain pens much easier, and have such a strong nostalgic feel to them that it just makes everything more joyous, at least for me. I prefer original writing boxes because it's a lot of fun to think about the people who used them over the centuries. It's fun to wonder who they were, what they wrote, who they wrote to. Love letters, hate letters, business letters, what? It's also fun researching such boxes, and sometimes actually learning one or two people who owned them. Anyway, I do love inkwells. And sometimes I just decant to a prettier, fancier bottle. Whatever it takes. But I also use dip pens, both glass and steel, nearly as often as I use fountain pens, so inkwells really do help. So do good ink bottles. They're really a necessity for dip pens.

[@stephanfeinen3923]

What a lovely line-up of red inks. I'm searching for a shop that sells "Ravens Red" as it seems to be a very beautiful dark red ink but apparently it's out of production. None of the dealers listed on the OS website have it and PurePens in the UK recently changed their shop entry from "Sold Out" to "Unavailable" for a lot of OS inks, so I'm afraid, that this is another brand slowly going out of business.

[@stardust5379]

Doris Day sung a song about Diamine Syrah. "Que Syrah, Syrah whatever will be, will be". 😀. Perhaps you should play it when you are using it. Poppy red is my favourite which is permanently in a pen.

[@taze9999]

Hey Dave, this was a very informative video. Do any of these inks stain the barrel, I have heard comments about red and purple inks staying the fountain pen barrel. In particular does the momiji cause staining? Thanks!

[@PenultimateDave]

Hi Tajinder, thanks! Most of the inks don't stain, but it really depends on the material the pen is made from. Some cheaper resins and demonstrators are more prone to staining as well as some celluloids. I haven't had any staining in my demonstrators for Momiji.

[@taze9999]

thanks for the response Dave, I want to use it with my Visconti crystal dream but was scared that it might cause staining. The fact that you haven’t seen anything like it gives me a lot of confidence

[@PenultimateDave]

I haven't had any staining in say my Visconti Opera Master demonstrators myself with Momiji, although I have had one stain but I used a different red ink, so I think that pen is more susceptable to staining and not necessarily down to the ink as I've used that ink in other pens with no staining.

[@jamesaritchie1]

I have quite a few demonstrator pens, but I try not to use red and purple in most of them. This said, I have an inexpensive TWSBI ECO in red, and another in purple. Both have barrels somewhat stained with red or purple, and that's fine. It was really the idea I had in mind when I bought them. I long ago lost count of how many reds and purples have gone through the pens, and don't even know which stained, and which didn't. The large majority of my pens have solid barrels, so staining isn't an issue, but I do avoid using staining inks on thin celluloid. One trick I've done for years is to keep a bunch of Jinhao 992 clear demonstrator pens on hand. Before Covid-19 hit, we kept pencil holders full of this pen on a "take one if you want one" basis. The idea was to get people started on fountain pens. But I always kept the clear ones for testing inks. If an ink doesn't stain a 992, it won't stain anything.

[@x-ballpointuser3686]

I could have sworn the pilot mimoji was pinkish red swaying my decision to not acquire it seeing it now.... I'll be ordering before I go to bed. And I didnt know poppy red came in a full bottle!? Where from?

[@PenultimateDave]

All the Diamine inks come in 30ml and 80ml bottles, it's just not all retailers will stock the 80ml bottles.

[@x-ballpointuser3686]

@@PenultimateDave ah I see a particular store (won't name) only has the smallest size distributed to them.... it was a let down to see that... I actually thought that was the actual size

[@mikes10663]

Is the Sailor Jentle Okuyama the same as Sailor Shikiori Okuyama?

[@PenultimateDave]

Yes I believe so, Sailor discontinued the regular Jentle range of inks and replaced them with Shikori, some of the inks have transitioned across into the smaller Shikori bottles like Kin-Mokusei too, but some haven't made it across from what I've seen. I don't believe there's any colour shifts between Jentle and Shikori but I don't have any Shikori bottles yet so can't really say for sure.

[@muruganandamd]

Hi, May i know what pen you use for sampling ?

[@PenultimateDave]

It's a 3D printed pen by William Shakour in the UK - instagram.com/williamshakour

[@tr4nscend]

Monte's red is a standout

[@sistergoldenhair0727]

Booo! Not really any good choices here except for the pilot momiji! The rest of these are more purply or drab colors. It’s great to be able to get a sense of these! I really love these videos!

[@jamesaritchie1]

I don't think they're drab at all. To me, they stand out beautifully on the page. But Try Noodler's Cactus Fruit, or Monteverde Ruby and Fireopal. There's nothing drab about any of these three. They're bright red, wet, and just plain fun.

[@sistergoldenhair0727]

James Ritchie Montblanc corn poppy red and j herbin hemitite and Diamine poppy are my favorite go-to reds. Cactus fruit is more of a magenta and not a true red. I’ll take a look at the other two you mentioned. Thank you;)

[@sistergoldenhair0727]

James Ritchie Ruby is brilliant but fire opal is more an orange red and I prefer true reds but this is a great color to use for an orange or a brown pen;)

[@humanfirst11]

@@sistergoldenhair0727 what about Diamine Wild Strawberry?

[@sistergoldenhair0727]

@@humanfirst11 too bright for my taste. I like a darker red. Have you seen the writers edition homage to Arthur Conan Doyle from Montblanc called ‘Scarlet Red’ ? That’s my jam!

[@Michelt007]

Let me say that, for reasons I do not know, any review of Diamine Syrah fails to show how nice that ink is on paper, when you see it "live".

[@Crazytesseract]

You will never use many of your inks in your lifetime! Some, maybe once or twice.

[@PenultimateDave]

I have used all of the inks that I currently own and more than once or twice.