In case you haven't noticed, I love orange. My EDC has pops of orange, I have an orange and canvas Filson briefcase (more on that in the future), and I had to come up with a slightly absurd justification to myself to buy the amazing Lamy Al-Star in Copperorange. So, it makes perfect sense that I have a few orange inks to fill my pens with.

I recently got a vial of Diamine Sunset in a sampler pack from Goulet Pens and it was the first ink I ran through my Copperorange Al-Star. I fell in love with it, and I'm apretty sure I'll have a full bottle of it in the future (though Iroshizuku Yu-Yake Sunset is very tempting too).

Prior to getting the Diamine, my only orange ink experience had been with Noodler's Apache Sunset. Since they share the sunset moniker, I thought what better way than to put them together on one page for a wild-west-style sunset showdown.

Once they were on the page side by side, my allegiance to the Diamine Sunset only grew stronger. It's a much darker orange that shades wonderfully, but I think what draws me to it is the richness of the color. Don't get me wrong, Apache Sunset is a lovely orange ink, but in comparison it seems almost thin and watery when writing. The thinness is a double-edge sword. On one hand, it seems almost like there isn't enough ink getting on the paper, but on the other, it allows for beautiful shading that really gives the impression of a sunset in the desert.

I tried to give some variety in my handwriting so you could really see where the letters hold the ink. I do like the range of oranges you can see in the Apache Sunset, but when I look at it all together on the page, I just don't think I like it as a whole.

I'm back to only one orange after I used the last of my Diamine Sunset to fill the Lamy before this showdown. I will still find occasions to use the Apache Sunset in my pens though. It sure looks good in demonstrators like the Pilot Prera and I've enjoyed playing with in my Pilot Parallels. If I don't end up with a bottle of the Diamine soon, I'll probably be buying some more orange samples in the very near future.

Do you have a favorite orange ink you can recommend?

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