Noodler's Black has been my goto ink for some time, but the rapid expansion of my pen collection meant that it was time to branch out. Orange is my favorite color, so it was an easy choice for my second ink. I wanted a bright color to mark up student documents, and orange is a nice alternative to traditional and fear-inducing red. Fall is my favorite season (insert pumpkin spice sipping anecdote here), so the fall themed Diamine inks, like Pumpkin and Autumn Oak, were calling to me. Diamine Pumpkin appeared to be the brightest of the bunch so I committed to an 80 ml bottle.
Diamine Pumpkin is a vivid orange that lays down a bright line on the page. The ink works very well with flex and wider nibs and offers a bit of shading, but it can run a little dry on finer or dryer nibs. It has a relatively fast dry time and does tend to leave little crusties on my nibs. I've read that this is common with bright reds and oranges, but it's barely noticeable and very easy to clean.
I absolutely love Diamine Pumpkin. I typically keep this inked up in my Ahab flex pen or TWSBI 580AL, which has a juicier fine nib. Although inks like Noodler's Apache Sunset or even Diamine Autumn Oak are a better choice for shading, Pumpkin is perfect for a bright but consistent ink.
Stats
- Dry Time: Less than 30 seconds
- Wetness: Low
- Shading: Low
- Feathering: Low
- Saturation: Medium
Tools
- Lamy Safari - F nib
- Noodler's Ahab - Flex nib
- Pilot Parallel - 6mm nib
- Rhodia DotPad