Terry Finney
This is the second in the series of Cult Pens Deep Dark ink reviews, this time for Cult Pens Deep Dark Red.
There’s not a lot to add to my previous descriptions of the standard Cult Pens box and bottle given in the the Diamine Crimson Ink Review or the Cult Pens variants described in the Cult Pens Deep Dark Blue Ink Review other than in this case the box and bottle cap don’t have the silver ink name sticker, so the only place the ink is actually identified is on the front label of the bottle. The supplier is Cult Pens and again the ink is low priced. This batch of reviews will get very repetitive very quickly.
The test pen with Cult Pens Deep Dark Red was the Pilot MR White Tiger with a medium nib.
Water resistance was negligible leaving only faint grey lines, and water drops obliterated the lines completely. Cleaning was easy. Drying time was one of the best for the series at around 30 seconds.
Rhodia Dot Pad No 16
No quibbles about the performance of this ink on good paper. The notes describe this as a brownish red but on reflection I would call it more of a rich chestnut brown – very nice.
Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm
This is probably the weakest of the writing samples on what is turning out to be one of the most challenging papers at the moment. The spread has diluted the colour almost to a wine red.
Yellow Post-It
This isn’t too bad, the coverage is quite variable though.
Field Notes – Pitch Black
Sorry for cutting off the left hand side. The spread again led to a more wine red colour, but the results are okay.
Mnemosyne Word Card
This shows some of the shading possible as well as a green sheen which didn’t appear in the writing samples.
Cult Pens Deep Dark Red – Conclusion
The more I look at this ink the more attractive it appears to me. The drying time and ease of cleaning are obvious advantages and I would consider it to be more suitable for general note-taking than markup. Although it’s reminiscent of one of my favourite inks, Noodler’s Black Swan in English Roses, I can’t see it replacing the Noodler’s ink in my affections, at least not yet.
