Diamine Celadon Cat: Fountain Pen Ink Review

Diamine Celadon Cat ink bottle and writing samples on white paper and light blue background

For the past several years, members of the reddit /r/fountainpens subreddit community vote on a new ink color, and this year there were 2 winners. Diamine Celadon Cat is a soft greenish-gray with blue undertones, or bluish-gray with green undertones depending on how you look at it. It's a lovely soft shade, so check out what we think about this new ink from Diamine.

Diamine Celadon Cat Writng sample on white dot grid paper

Diamine Celadon Cat writing on Tomoe River white paper

Diamine Celadon Cat writing on cream Leuchtturm1917 paper

Ink Review

Supplies Used:

LAMY AL-star with medium steel nib
Rhodia No. 16 dot pad, 80g white paper
Tomoé River 52 gsm white paper
Leuchtturm1917 80g notebook

Smear Test (Dry Time):

20-30 seconds – While it still smeared at 5 and 10 seconds, by 20-ish seconds you can feel confident in closing a notebook, or flipping a page over to write on the back with little concern of it smearing!

Drip Test (Water Resistance):

Low – This ink is not what we could call water resistant. Avoid getting it wet, and you're good, but if it gets wet, prepare to lose your writing.

Saturation:

Medium – This ink is fairly light with just one pass, but on 2-3 passes with the ink, or a thicker nib, it gets darker and prettier. It's a nice greenish-gray that leans to blue and even has a little purple undertone. The more ink you have on the page, the more of these colors you see.

Ease of Cleaning:

High – This ink was very easy to clean out of the pen.

Shading:

High – There's a lot shading present on the bottoms of letters.

Flow:

Dry – This is one of the drier Diamine inks out there. If you want a wet flowing ink, this is not it, but it's good in thicker nibs, because it does go down drier.

Packaging and Aesthetics:

This ink comes in the standard Diamine packaging in an 80ml glass bottle, and a 30ml plastic bottle.

Diamine Celadon Cat fountain pen ink bottles and writing samples

If you're interested in similar colors, check out our Swab Shop where you can compare colors side by side.

Summary:

While this is a more subdued color, and some could consider it almost pastel, it's a nice color in thicker nib sizes. It looks better on cream paper, because that gives it a bit more depth. Overall it's a nice color, with good dry time, and some interesting saturation with more ink put on the page. We call this one a winner for 2023!