Diamine Pumpkin ink review

Diamine Pumpkin is yet another orange ink from Diamine. How does it measure up to other orange inks? Does it shade? Is it worth picking up? Why Pumpkin over other inks? Pumpkins in March? All these, and more, will be answered shortly.

But first, a short reminder that I tested this ink in my Kaweco Sport Classic with broad nib and eyedropper conversion.

Bottle and pricing

Bottle capacity: 80 ml / 2.7 oz
Price: $12.95
Price / ml: $0.16

Color and saturation

Diamine Pumpkin is, once again, an orange ink. It is bright and very saturated, though not the cheeriest of oranges. It's not a pure orange, as Diamine Orange is (see comparison in the copy paper writing sample at the bottom), but a bit dirty. It's very pumpkinish in fact, and I find the name very appropriate for once.

To get a better idea of the exact shade of orange Pumpkin exhibits, I'm illustrating this via a comparison with a couple of other orange inks I've tested: Sailor Jentle Apricot and Noodler's Dragon's Napalm (as well as Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki in the photocopy paper sample at the bottom).

When placed side by side like this I actually find Pumpkin to be more fiery and expressive than both these inks, though each is beautiful in its own way.

Shading

Some inks are completely flat, as is the case with Diamine Orange, but Diamine Pumpkin is not. It shades very nicely, and that gives it a lot more character than its purer sibling. It's very easy to obtain darker patches of fiery orange and almost-red on top of lighter shades of orange. In writing, the shading is obviously more easily discerned with a broad nib, as is the case here.

Feathering

None.

Bleedthrough

None.

Flow, lubrication, and smoothness

I can't complain here: Diamine Pumpkin flows very well in the Kaweco Sport and is appropriately wet. It's not the wettest ink out there and your experience may certainly differ if you are using a medium nib or thinner.

Drying time

On cheap paper (photocopy), Diamine Pumpkin dries almost instantly, but this time is considerably lengthened on Clairefontaine 90g, dependent, of course, on the nib. I'm assuming it would take less than 30 seconds to dry with a thinner nib.

Smearing when dry

None

Water resistance

Diamine Pumpkin is not water resistant but after being exposed for 1 minute to running water some faint traces remain. This component seems to be pink in color.

Conclusion

I am suitably impressed by Diamine Pumpkin. I was expecting this to be a plain ol' orange ink but it has more character than more reputable inks (whether that reputation is well-earned or not). What I like most about Diamine Pumpkin is that it's not just a generic orange, but instead has that "dirty" look (while staying bright and saturated) which gives so much justice to its name. And then the beautiful shading only helps to make it better. I would urge you to try Diamine Pumpkin. If you like orange inks, I'm betting you'll love it too.

Following are the two writing samples on photocopy and Clairefontaine 90g paper, respectively.