Van Dieman's Underwater Collection Part 3

Van Dieman’s recently released a new Underwater Collection. We’ve covered the first eight inks from the collection so today let’s take a look at the next four. Two samples came from a kind reader and I purchased the other two samples from Vanness Pens.

Swabs:

Left to right: Bioluminescence, Twilight Zone, Blue Ringed Octopus and Ghost Ship.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Dry Time: 80-100 seconds

Water Resistance: Medium

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: None

Other properties: medium shading, high-monster sheen and no shimmer. Bioluminescence, Twilight Zone and Blue Ringed Octopus have monster sheen and Ghost Ship has high sheen.

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was lots of feathering in every nib size as well as some bleeding.

Comparison Swabs:

Bioluminescence is closest to Vinta Andrada.

Twilight Zone is similar to Colorverse SM1.

Ghost Ship is close to Diamine Purple Rain.

Blue Ringed Octopus is close to Blackstone Barrier Reef Blue.

Longer Writing:

I used a Taroko Odyssey notebook. Bio. and Blue Ringed have dry flows, and the other two have an average flow. All four feel sticky, for lack of a better word, but that’s rather common with super sheeny inks. All of them can be smeared, even after fully drying.

Overall, out of the four inks I think Twilight Zone and Ghost Ship are my favorite, but I’m not in love with any of them. For my personal use I stick to inks with high sheen or less because I hate it when my inks smear after drying. They don’t have a great consistent flow-there’s some skipping and railroading and they take a really long time to dry at 80-100 seconds. They look really pretty in writing, but they’re not the inks for me.

Disclaimer: Two samples were provided by a reader and I purchased two inks myself. All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and this post is not sponsored.