The leaves are falling from the trees and cold weather is moving in. Thanksgiving is all that remains between fall and the blustery winds of winter. Before we bid fall adieu, let's celebrate its fading glory with one final fall ink review. Diamine Autumn Oak is a mellow orange ink with excellent shading properties. The color resembles that of an autumn leaf, with shades of orange and brown.
Autumn Oak is relatively dry and has a moderate dry time of slightly more than 20 seconds. The ink is all about shade, and Autumn Oak has the best shading properties of any ink that I've tried so far. It works best with wider nibs or flex nibs which show off the ink's shading properties. Autumn Oak can be used in finer nibs, but it's a bit too light to use as a daily workhorse ink, unless the nib is really juicy. Autumn Oak has medium saturation, with little distinction between the second and third bar in the ink test.
Diamine Pumpkin is my favorite orange to date, and its low shading and vivid color make it worthy of always being inked up. Compared to Pumpkin, Diamine Autumn Oak is much lighter on the page and leans closer towards brown. Pumpkin resembles the bright leaves at the beginning of fall, while Autumn Oak shows off the orangy browns of leaves that have fallen from the trees.
Diamine Autumn Oak isn't something that I would keep inked up all the time, but the ink's phenomenal shading properties and color make it a worthy addition to any ink collection.
Stats
- Dry Time: Less than 30 seconds
- Wetness: Low
- Shading: High
- Feathering: Low
- Saturation: Medium
Tools
- Lamy Safari - F nib
- Noodler's Ahab - Flex nib
- Pilot Parallel - 6mm nib
- Rhodia DotPad
Here's the standard ink review, in case you want to compare with other ink reviews on the site.