Diamine Autumn Oak ink When I first saw samples of Autumn Oak online, I immediately fell in love with the orange yellow gradient. I’m using this ink with my Lamy Safari, medium nib. Upon contact with paper, the ink is light but darkens as it dries. It doesn’t have any sheen like the Pilot Iroshizuku - Konpeki ink that I was initially using with my Hobonichi (I will be writing a review on that ink too).

Diamine Autumn Oak in Lamy Safari

When writing with Autumn Oak, be sure to write in a well lit environment as this is a lightly coloured ink. The gradient is beautiful as expected when writing on A4 sized paper but may not be optimal for the original sized Hobonichi (if writing with a medium nib). When writing small (as I do in my Hobonichi), it is difficult to read half the words because of the light gradient in some parts of the words, especially in areas where the ink does not pool together. Also, the combination of a medium nib and less viscous consistency could be contributing factors to less readability.

Diamine Autumn Oak Sample text in Tomoe River

I’ll be using this ink with my Lamy Safari medium nib for a bit with my Hobonichi for the month of January. So far so good. The ink works well on Tomoe River paper as expected. No skipping or bleeding despite how ‘watery’ the ink’s consistency is. The only problem is, the ink bleeds through to my watercolours on the next page similar to what has happened with my Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Gel inks. Not sure how to get around this but to be careful to place my watercolours back to back so there is no chance for the ink to bleed through.