Read all about Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber ink, from one of the newest brand additions to the Pen Chalet inventory just introduced in 2020. Van Dieman’s Tasmania Series is here and we’re shouting it from the rooftops! Well, we don’t actually have access to the roof here at Pen Chalet, but we’ll throw open the windows now and then and shout about it – that counts, right?

All About the Ink Maker: Van Dieman’s

Back by popular demand for another ink review feature, Van Dieman’s inks have been a bit with Pen Chalet customers ever since we stocked them earlier this year. The Australian ink maker produces a wide variety of ink in several different ink series. At Pen Chalet, we carry 5 different Van Dieman’s ink series now (the NEWEST series was JUST released, stay tuned!)

• Van Dieman’s Original Fourteen Colours of Tasmania
• Van Dieman’s Tassie Seasons Series
• Van Dieman’s Midnight Series
• Van Dieman’s Wilderness Series; and the new
• Van Dieman’s Harvest Series

At the moment, we offer over 60 Van Dieman’s ink colors at Pen Chalet and a new shipment just arrived this week so we just restocked!

The Ink Series: Van Dieman’s Original Colours of Tasmania Ink Series

This week’s ink is from the Van Dieman’s Original Colours of Tasmania ink series that includes fourteen different ink colors. All the fountain pen inks in the Original Colours of Tasmania series capture a little piece of the natural beauty in the Tasmania region that Van Dieman’s calls home.

This Week’s Featured Ink: Original Colours of Tasmania Leatherwood Honey Amber Ink

Leatherwood Honey Amber fountain pen ink is a slightly yellow (leaning towards amber) infused light brown ink color. In the spirit of the ink series dedicated to the beauty of nature in the Tasmanian region of Australia, Leatherwood Honey Amber ink is inspired by the honey produced from the native Leatherwood plant. Honey aficionados may already be aware, but Leatherwood honey is considered by many to be one of the best honeys in the world. Leatherwood Honey ink’s soft brown color shows up well on paper and has some nice traits.

*** If you’re sticking around for the review details, buckle up, the next step is to dive right in, but if you don’t have the time or patience to read all the details about this week’s ink right now, you can skip directly to the giveaway posted at the end. We’ll allow it – we get impatient sometimes, too.

It’s Time: Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber Ink Review

This week we put Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber fountain pen ink through our standard ink review tests. Read on to see what we found out!

Ink Review Testing Factors (to keep things scientific):

During this week’s review we used: a French-made J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen (with a tip comparable to a medium fountain pen nib), and Rhodia dot pad paper.

Let’s Talk About the Van Dieman’s Ink Bottle:

This week’s featured fountain pen ink comes in the new standard 30 ml. glass ink bottle. The new ink bottle is a round, basic medicine style bottle with a large, wide-mouth opening. The packaging is nice, and simple and has the ink color clearly indicated in both color and print. The ink blot on the packaging design is printed in the color of the ink inside.

How Much Does Van Dieman’s Fountain Pen Ink Cost?

Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber fountain pen ink comes at a reasonable price for a 30 ml. bottle, especially since it is directly imported from Australia. Check for the latest discounted price at PenChalet.com.

How Did This Week’s Ink Fair in the 1-Dip Test?

We conducted a 1-dip test with Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber ink using a J. Herbin spiral glass dip pen and Rhodia dot pad paper. (For the 1-Dip Test, we dip the pen in ink once for each of three writing samples, “S,” “X,” and scribble lines to see how well the pen performs). This Leatherwood Honey Amber fountain pen ink wrote across the paper on all three writing samples and the ink color remained strong all the way to the end.

How Fast Does Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber Ink Dry?

Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber fountain pen ink showed a dry time of about 10 seconds with medium saturation, which is quick enough to be considered a good everyday ink choice.

Does Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Amber Honey Ink Bleed Through?

We saw no bleeding during normal use on Rhodia paper. And we saw only slight bleeding at the wettest points during the heavy saturated cotton swab test.

Was There Any Feathering While Using Leatherwood Honey Amber Ink?

We saw no feathering during normal use. And we saw almost no additional feathering during the water test.

How Does the Ink Stand Up to Water?

For the water test, we let an ink sample dry for about 3 minutes before running a wet cotton swab over the sample. Again, Van Dieman’s’s Leatherwood Honey Amber ink isn’t waterproof, so it’s not surprising that we did see some very light color smearing due to the lighter color of this week’s ink. The lines were still very legible with no visible feathering after the water test.

Does the Fountain Pen Ink Have Good Shading Traits?

Leatherwood Honey Amber ink showed some possible shading traits with the right nib and penmanship – from a deep, dark brown to soft brown to a lighter amber honey color.

Final Conclusion on this Week’s Featured Van Dieman’s Ink:

This week’s ink is very reasonably priced with a nice color appropriate for home or office, notes, journals, letters, or special projects. The amber-infused, soft brown ink color shows up well on paper and has a reasonable dry time of 10 seconds. Made by prolific ink company, Van Dieman’s Ink from Down Under in Australia, the inks arrive in a 30 ml. round, medicine-style glass ink bottle with a wide opening for easy fountain pen filling. Happy writing from Australia!

Enter to Win a Van Dieman’s Fountain Pen Ink:

Enter to win the actual bottle of Van Dieman’s Leatherwood Honey Amber ink that Pen Chalet used in this week’s ink review: