Diamine Lady Grey with Platinum rose gold 14kt nibs: a warning
TL;DR
Mainly 14kt Platinum 3776 Century rose gold nibs but possibly the gold ones too react with Lady Grey. The ink becomes green when in contact with these nibs. This doesn't happen in rhodium plated ones nor in steel ones.
Beware: there's a chance that it could ruin the plating in these nibs!
I mark this as a review just because I have no idea nor the competence to declare this ink not safe. I'm not a chemist!
FULL STORY
As soon as the Platinum Misty Bloom arrived (about 2 weeks ago), I decided to ink it with Lady Grey. I thought that this ink would suit the Misty Bloom perfectly
Platinum 3776 Century Misty Bloom with Diamine Lady Grey
Since I'm a lazy lad, I just inked it without washing it first. I have a good bunch of Platinum pens now, and I never happened to find one with residues, so I confidently just filled it.
The next day I took it to write and the ink came out green. Here's a quick example. The area inside the black line is the same exact pen with the same exact ink about 24 hours apart:
Diamine Lady Grey in the Misty Bloom, right after inking it (grey) and the next day (green)
My first thought was about some residue of testing of the nib at the manufacturer. The pen box was completely wrapped sealed when it arrived to me: there's no way that the shop opened it to test it. If it was residue, it was from Platinum themselves.
I washed the pen and re-inked it with Lady Grey. I inked up a Preppy for control at the same time.
I washed and inked both the pens on Dec. 29th. Here's how the ink looked on the 30th
So: it wasn't residue. The Preppy showed the ink just fine, as it should have been. In the Misty Bloom the ink turned green.
So I decided to test with other pens.
A Platinum 3776 Century with Rhodium trims.
A Kaweco Sport with gold colored steel nib.
A Pilot Kakuno with steel nib
I inked up 3 other control pens, including a 3776 with different nib plating
The next day I checked:
Platinum rhodium nib was apparently immune from this effect. And so it was for 3 steel nibs (Preppy, Kaweco and Kakuno)
I decided to test the ink with other Platinum 3776 Century:
- the Kaga Hira Maki-e Sakura (gold trims)
- the Shape of a Heart Black (rose gold trims)
- the Shape of a Heart Chai Latte (rose gold trims)
- the Shape of a Heart Bluerbird (rose gold trims)
while keeping the rhodium pen inked. The other pens I washed and put away: steel wasn't the problem here.
I dipped the pens this time, I didn't want to throw away too much ink, but I made sure to saturate well the feeds.
My intention was to keep everything tidier, but the moment I dipped the Shape of a Heart Black, the ink already was showing slight signs of discoloration! I wanted to take immediate note of the phenomenon and order went out the window
From Dec. 31st to the next day, all the rose gold pens showed a change in the ink color. Not the same amount of change.
Top: gold trims (maki-e sakura); bottom: rose gold trims (SoaH Black)
Without having a direct comparison, in some cases it's difficult to see. Up here there's a photo of how the ink should show up (upper half of the image) and how it shows up almost as it should but not quite (bottom half of the image)
With the Shape of a Heart Bluebird the difference is more dramatic:
In the upper half, the Chai Latte seems to write in the correct color if compared to the bottom half of the photo. Compared to the unaltered ink, though, the Chai Latte itself shows an ever so slightly alteration, a subtle greener hue. Nothing compared to the Bluebird. The Bluebird shows a dramatic change, very similar to the one shown in the Misty Bloom.
An interesting thing: droplets of ink on the nibs in these pens ALL show up green, even in the gold colored nib.
Kaga Hira Maki-e Sakura - Gold trims - Green droplets of Lady Grey
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From what I know, frequently gold is mixed with copper, in particular if it's rose gold.
I tested the rhodium nibs and the ink keeps its own original color both in writing and in droplets on the nib.
Lady Grey in the Platinum 3776 Century Clematis, with rhodium trims. No alteration
My hypothesis it's that copper reacts with this ink and it seems that "eats away" the warm tints used in it leaving behind the cooler tints (blues and greens).
I just wanted to raise awareness about this thing. For now my nibs are perfectly fine but if there's a chance that a prolonged use of this ink in these nibs may ruin them, it's good if you know it and take precautions. In any chemical reaction something is taken and given and/or transformed. So pay attention and if you discover other nib materials that react strangely, let us know!
Posted Jan 1, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC