Diamine Inkvent Sleigh Ride: Ink Review

Overview

Sleigh Ride was Day 15 of Diamine’s 2024 “Black Edition” Inkvent calendar, and it belongs to the calendar’s “Extreme Sheen” sub-category — a burnt sienna, reddish-brown ink where the green sheen is more pronounced than the calendar’s other Extreme Sheen entry, Grotto. It’s now sold on its own as part of Diamine’s regular Black Edition collection, and it’s built for one thing above all else: a dramatic, high-contrast sheen rather than a subtle everyday writer.

Worth flagging: listings disagree slightly on the base colour family — some catalogue it as red, others as brown. It reads as a warm reddish-brown to brick-red base, so treat “Red-Brown” as the fairest description until you’ve seen it in your own pen.

Colour

The base colour is a warm, nutty reddish-brown — a medium, somewhat nutty, warm reddish-brown that on its own would be a fairly restrained, autumnal shade. But that base is almost beside the point here: the colour does shade, but the shading is hidden by the, indeed, extreme sheen, and the green sheen frequently overwhelms the underlying red-brown entirely in heavier pooling.

Swatches make Sleigh Ride’s defining trait obvious — the Col-O-Ring swab shows the green sheen so prominently that it completely obscures the reddish-brown ink beneath it in places. This is an ink where the swab tells a different story from a written line — the sheen dominates in pooled ink but reads more like shading in fine strokes.

Writing Experience

Sleigh Ride is reported as a pleasant, well-lubricated writer. It has a wet flow and is well-lubricated for a very pleasant writing experience. The one caveat that comes up repeatedly with this ink is nib dry-out. It dries quickly in the nib if left uncapped for more than a few seconds, though not as badly as some other high-sheening inks. That’s a common trade-off with heavily dye-saturated sheen inks, and worth knowing if you like to leave a pen uncapped between thoughts.

Shading

Shading exists in name only. It’s rated as effectively absent — and other online reviewers agree the ink technically shades into a slightly darker brown but that this is functionally invisible. The sheen overpowers any shading you’d otherwise see. If shading is what you’re after, look elsewhere in the Inkvent lineup.

Sheen & Shimmer

This is the entire reason to own the ink. Diamine placed Sleigh Ride in its “Extreme Sheen” category, and testers agree the effect is intense, described as having a “monster green sheen”, showing up even on the smallest nib sizes and dominating the ink’s appearance wherever it pools. Shimmer, by contrast, is entirely absent — this is a sheen ink, not a shimmer one, with no shimmer particles present.

Dry Time

On paper, dry time runs slow by fountain pen ink standards — around 60 seconds with a medium nib on Rhodia paper. That’s a common trade-off for heavily sheening inks, which typically need a slower dry time to let the dye separate and pool into that signature sheen effect. Budget extra time before turning the page or resting your hand on fresh writing.

Paper Performance

Menorah Paper — On smoother, coated stock, the sheen effect is at its most dramatic — sheening inks generally need some surface for the dye to separate and catch light, and coated papers tend to showcase that more effectively than absorbent ones.

B7TRN Paper — On more absorbent, lower-quality stock the story is less forgiving: on 20 lb copy paper, testing found feathering in all nib sizes and some bleeding. This is not an ink to trust on everyday office paper — save it for fountain-pen-friendly stock where both the sheen and the line quality can show properly.

Water Resistance

Water resistance is rated low. Product specifications list water resistance as low, meaning this ink will wash away readily under moisture exposure. Combined with its showpiece sheen, this is very much a display-and-daily-writing ink rather than one meant for anything that needs to survive water contact.

Cleaning & Maintenance

Cleaning difficulty wasn’t directly reported across the sources checked. Heavily saturated, dye-dense sheening inks like this one can sometimes require a bit more flushing than a standard Diamine ink to fully clear from feeds and converters, so budget a little extra time when cleaning — but treat this as a reasonable inference rather than a confirmed rating.

On vintage safety and beginner friendliness: neither was explicitly confirmed in the sources reviewed. Given the heavy dye saturation typical of “Extreme Sheen” formulations and the reported tendency to dry out in the nib if left uncapped, this is likely a better fit for an experienced user with a pen they don’t mind dedicating to a showier ink, rather than a first sheening ink or a go-to for an unfamiliar vintage filler. Worth testing cautiously rather than assuming it behaves like Diamine’s gentler standard inks.

Sources referenced: Mountain of Ink ink review; Vanness Pens / Diamine Black Edition product listing; Writing at Large Inkvent Day 15 review; The Writer’s Armory Inkvent Day 15 review; Fountain Pen Companion listing.