Ink Review: Van Dieman's Blackened Seas Midnight Series

[Chrissy]

Van Dieman’s fountain pen ink from Tasmania is made in Launceston and is inspired by the rich and majestic colours of Tasmania.

Blackened Seas is an ink from The Midnight series. According to the manufacturer:
“These are inspired by the dark and sombre hues that come out when the sun has gone away.”

Blackened Seas is a saturated, slightly green toned, blue-black ink. It has a dark red sheen that I didn’t see much on my papers although there was some around my nib. The depth of blue depends on how much ink you lay down on the paper. The wetter the writing the more blue it looks.

It flowed well through my pens and didn’t suffer from any hard starts or non-starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance.

It washed off of my hands after one wash and easily flushed out of my converters and pens just using warm water.

Thanks to junglejim for sending me this sample. This ink was MI#35 in our Mystery Ink series.

• Flow Rate: Good. No problems.
• Lubrication: OK. Fairly smooth across the papers I used.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Start-up: Immediate.
• Saturation: Saturated ink.
• Shading Potential: Some shading with fine nibs or dryer writing pens.
• Sheen: None noticed when I wrote with my sample.
• Show-Through:
  
  • Basildon Bond
  • Tomoe River 52gsm
  • Whitelines
  
  
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after weeks in the pen - easy clean-up with water.
• Staining (hands): Clean hands after one wash
• Clogging: Not seen. Seems unlikely.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof but has some water resistance.
• Availability: In Australia this ink comes in boxed 30ml or 50ml glass bottles priced at AUS $13.95 or $19.95 plus shipping. Some stockists outside of Australia are listed on the web-site.

Van Dieman's Blackened Seas M.jpg