Black and blue! From Dr. Inkenstein's blog

[Sailor Kenshin]

Lately, Dr. Inkenstein has been, well, let's say highly INTERESTED in blue-black inks. After all, they are our favorite colors, if you include those inks that lean teal, like Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku and Chesterfield Teal.

So based on various online reviews and scans, I tested a bunch of new inks (all except the Everflo, which is not at all new and has been on my ink hutch for years, and is not a true blue-black but it's here for comparison purposes).

Part of the 'fun'of testing inks is finding a perfect ink/pen combo. The Nemos write dry. The Hero and Lamys write wet. The dip pen dips. So many different factors, including paper!

The paper here was, uhh, an Office Depot composition notebook with Brazilian paper. The scan looks different from the photo. The differences are interesting. The ink colors in real life are also different. On to the particulars.


Brand(s): Everflo, Diamine, OrGaNicS Studios, Private Reserve

Color(s): True Blue, Eau De Nil, BlakWa (sample courtesy of a pen pal), Ebony Blue

Intensity: Ebony Blue the highest and most saturated; the Diamine and OS less saturated. Everflo was tough to place. It's semi-saturated, and not a real BB, but whatever. ;p

Flow: All except the OS had decent flow, that is, until the PR EB had been in the pen for a couple of weeks, and then it needed multiple water-dips to start. It also began smearing badly. FPG had a discussion on similar problems with intensely saturated inks; it appears that it's just part of the breed. Dilute or suffer.

The reluctant nature of the OS was not due to the pen (A Hero Summer Colors), because with its provided cart of Hero ink, that pen is an absolute gusher. I believe the Diamine would have good flow but the Nemo pens are dry writers.

Shading: None whatever in the Everflo. All others had varying good degrees of shading, and the PR had SHEEN!

Summary: While OS and Diamine Eau De Nil look almost identical on paper, in the scans and photos they look quite different, with the OS Blakwa appearing far more green. Possibly the BlakWa shades a bit better than Eau De Nil.


What follows is the scan AND the photo of the four inks.







We have further blue-blacks to test: Noodler's Blue-Black, a sample of Chesterfield Night Sapphire, which I like a lot, and the cart that arrived with the Hero Summer Colors. Until next year!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Two, maybe three more blue-black-parisons coming soon!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Continuing with our blue-black mania, Dr. Inkenstein reviews two new blue-black inks, and casually tosses in a third for contrast’s sake.









The Chesterfield Night Sapphire, we are told, is made by Diamine. There is a rumor going around that every ink on the planet is actually made by Diamine, but we can neither confirm nor deny. Fountain pen forum consensus says Night Sapphire is really Diamine Blue-Black. In pursuit of Ink Truthiness, Dr. Inkenstein will one day have to attain a DBB sample, and test them side-by side. Just not today.



NS shows the teal undertones we are craving, and comes VERY close in color, hue, and intensity to the far-more-expensive Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo (coming up in a casual review of the Pilot Metropolitan).



The Hero ink was a pleasant surprise. Less ‘green’ than the Night Sapphire, it is still a shade-y, flow-y blue-black that does not cost a fortune. Six of these carts came packed in with my first Hero Summer Colors. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to get more. Probably fleabay. Ink and pen are made for one another, and I find myself grabbing it all the time to make quick notes or write letters.




Diamine Denim is loaded in one of Dr. I’s pens at all times, in this case, a Platinum Preppy. There’s little shading, but great flow, and the color is a suave, understated, medium… denim. It leans more gray than either Night Sapphire or Hero, but if you are obssssessssssed, I mean, INTERESTED, in blue-blacks, you need all sorts of hues.



Coming soon: Pilot Metropolitan teamed with Tsuki-yo; and Fat Nib Shootout.

[ethernautrix]

Just replied to your post in fpn:

The Chesterfield Night Sapphire is pretty. I think I had a sample of this, but maybe it was a different Chesterfield blue (blue-black).

It looks similar to Waterman Bleu Mystere. Does it dry to a pretty teal?

[Sailor Kenshin]

Just replied to your post in fpn:

The Chesterfield Night Sapphire is pretty. I think I had a sample of this, but maybe it was a different Chesterfield blue (blue-black).

It looks similar to Waterman Bleu Mystere. Does it dry to a pretty teal?

It really is more blue than teal, but has that green component. In a side-by-side comparison it came out puzzlingly similar to Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo.

[Woody]

Like the chesterfield night sapphire. Reminds me a lot of sailor nano blue black.

[SteveE]

I have tried the Chesterfield Night Sapphire and found that it tends to dry out in many of my pens. For the first day or so all is well, but after the second day, the pen writes dry. These are pens that are otherwise trouble-free, so I blame the ink.

Also, since we are looking at blue-blacks, why are we using EverFlo True Blue? Do you have the EverFlo blue-black to compare? I find the True Blue more similar to Chesterfield Sapphire - it is more of a real blue than a blue-black.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks. I used it 'cause I had it.

And thought it made a good contrast. I don't have any other Everflo ink, and this one is used to dip only, with one pen, a Serwex eyedropper.

The CNS does tend to dry out. The Nemosine Singularity demonstrator has been tuned to write really wet but I still water-dip to get it started.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Here's another blue-black display. One of these days I will remember to take a shot of the pen, too. Really.



I'm pleased with how much the CNS resembles Tsuki-Yo, especially In Real Life, and not from scannage.