Diamine Prussian Blue

[NeoTiger]

I've been hearing a lot of people on FPN talking about how good Diamine Prussian Blue is, how it's a wonderful dark blue colour.

 

The bottle I've got is a pathetic washed out blue-grey colour, I've tried it through a few different pens but it always lacks the strong blue colour that I want. Is this how it is supposed to be like, or do I have a mislabelled bottle?

 

I can see the attraction in a colour like what I have, sort of like a vintage blue colour, but that's not what I've been hearing people talk about.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Edit: Comparison photo added.

Prussian Blue, Quink Blue-Black, Florida Blue, DCSS Blue.

First swipe is wet cotton tip, second is after the cotton tip has been dried on paper towels.

Edited September 7, 2006 by NeoTiger

[saintsimon]

If you make a juicy colour swash/swab on paper and mess aroun a bit, you'll see the colour you'd like to see.

 

I found Prussian Blue looks rather grayish with XF or dry nibs. With wider (e.g. italic) and/or wetter nibs, you'll achieve better results.

It also shows nice results with (vintage) flexible nibs.

[Chris]

I tend to use medium nibs that also tend to be pretty generous in flow, so I get a good, dense colour. It is not as intense as some of the super-saturated colours that are often spoken of here, but it is certainly not wishy-washy like some blue inks that I've tried (Sheaffer, Quink, Montblanc etc).

 

I think it is indeed a good dark blue and it's a favourite for me. Sorry if it disappoints for you.

 

Chris

[Lee UK]

You've got me worried now. Diamine Prussian Blue was one of the inks that I ordered yesterday. I am hoping for a dark blue as a replacement for the blue-black Parker cartridges I'm currently using. Still I'll be using it in a Parker 100 which writes very wet and has a (broad side of) medium nib so hopefully with what Chris says it will be OK for me.

 

Lee

[KCat]

Hm... I would never have referred to it as a "dark" blue. A lot depends on the flow of the nib. In a dryish writer, it reminds me a bit of Quink Washable Blue (pale, greyish) but in a medium-to-wet writer I'd call it a good shading blue of medium density. The only time it's a "dark" blue is when the pen I have it in has been sitting for a few days unused. Maybe some who find it dark are using it in very wet nibs?

[Lee UK]

Hm... I would never have referred to it as a "dark" blue.  A lot depends on the flow of the nib.  In a dryish writer, it reminds me a bit of Quink Washable Blue (pale, greyish) but in a medium-to-wet writer I'd call it a good shading blue of medium density.  The only time it's a "dark" blue is when the pen I have it in has been sitting for a few days unused.  Maybe some who find it dark are using it in very wet nibs?

It is listed on this site in the Index Of Ink Reviews as "Very, very dark Blue "

 

Lee

[southpaw]

The color is probably more a function of wetness than width. In my pens it's generally a darker blue, but then I like wet writers.

[KCat]

It is listed on this site in the Index Of Ink Reviews as "Very, very dark Blue "

 

Lee

well, then i'd have to argue with the folks who categorized it as such.

 

did you look at my review? Does this look very very dark blue on your monitor? That sounds snitty and I don't mean it to. It's just that if this looks dark blue on your monitor, then perhaps your monitor needs adjusting. I would not call Indigo Blue a "very very dark blue" either. Indigo is slightly darker than Prussian blue and slightly greyer. Both are pretty much "medium" to my eye. A very very dark blue IMO would be like PR's Black Magic Blue or Midnight Blues.

 

http://www.ghg.net/schwerpt/founts/prsnblu.jpg

 

I'd offer to trade your bottle for something I have... but I don't have a dark blue except for Black Magic Blue and i rather like it.

 

I honestly don't know how Michael does his swatches but though they show the *hue* fairly well, I have always felt they show far more saturation than any of the inks actually exhibit.

Edited September 6, 2006 by KCat

[Carrie]

Firstly, hi Lee, just noticed you're from Manchester - I'm not too far from the airport.

I like my Prussian Blue a lot, but it does vary from pen to pen. It can look a greyish blue in finer pens. It's quite a dark blue, but I wouldn't call it very, very dark.

[Dr.Grace]

Levenger Cobalt Blue is a nice rich dark blue if you're looking for that sort of thing.

[Margana]

It is listed on this site in the Index Of Ink Reviews as "Very, very dark Blue "

 

Lee

well, then i'd have to argue with the folks who categorized it as such.

 

did you look at my review? Does this look very very dark blue on your monitor? That sounds snitty and I don't mean it to. It's just that if this looks dark blue on your monitor, then perhaps your monitor needs adjusting. I would not call Indigo Blue a "very very dark blue" either. Indigo is slightly darker than Prussian blue and slightly greyer. Both are pretty much "medium" to my eye. A very very dark blue IMO would be like PR's Black Magic Blue or Midnight Blues.

 

http://www.ghg.net/schwerpt/founts/prsnblu.jpg

 

I'd offer to trade your bottle for something I have... but I don't have a dark blue except for Black Magic Blue and i rather like it.

 

I honestly don't know how Michael does his swatches but though they show the *hue* fairly well, I have always felt they show far more saturation than any of the inks actually exhibit.

Here's a comparison of Prussian Blue, Indigo and Quink Blue-Black. The lighting is poor where I am working so the colors may be inaccurate. But the relationship between the colors should still be discernable. The samples were done with a dip pen on Binder paper.

[NeoTiger]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Hmm, the Prussian Blue sample that Margana has just posted looks a lot nicer than what I have. KCat's sample looks closer to what I have, but even then she has a nicer blue colour.

 

I'm finding that my one really is more of a grey-blue colour. I will try it in a wetter pen when I get the chance, and maybe get a photo of that to put up here.

 

 

Yeah I've heard a lot about Levenger's Cobalt Blue, but it's not easy to get in Australia. Levenger really should think about better shipping options if they are selling things on the internet.

[NeoTiger]

I've added a photo of my Diamine Prussian Blue in my first post, written with a Lamy 2000 Medium nib, the wettest nib ever (and also too broad for writing with).

 

Advice for anyone thinking about a Lamy 2000, get at least a size or two smaller than what you want. A lot of people buy it with XF.

[AndrewW]

I haven't touched Blue-Black in years, and am very surprised at the two samples of the Quink Blue-Black. I remember using this in school, circa 1978, and it looked more like the first photo of Prussian Blue than anything else, only much more intense. Have Parker changed the colour of their blue-black during the past 25-30 years??

[KCat]

Margana's beautiful sample is with a dip pen and you can see that this concentrates the ink in a finer, wet than the pen I used. Makes it a darker color.

 

I too wish Levenger made it's inks more accessible outside the US because I think the Cobalt is an especially lovely true dark blue. I've been using Black Magic Blue as a substitute though has a slight purple hue. Someday I shall have to give in and buy another bottle of Cobalt probably.

[L&R]

I've been using Black Magic Blue as a substitute though has a slight purple hue.

Have you tried Private Reserve Midnight Blues? Nice dark blue with no purple tones.

 

Bye.

[brownkovitz]

I too have been disappointed with Prussian Blue. I understood that it was supposed to be more blue than Diamine Blue Black, but it looks more gray and washed out in my pens. I love the Diamine Blue Black. My experience is based on a fresh bottle of Prussian Blue that I bought about two weeks ago. Perhaps Daimine made a bad batch recently.

[Chris]

I can only say that Diamine Prussian Blue - my sample - is darker and less grey than Waterman Blue-Black and more intense than Waterman Florida Blue but it does seem that people's experience here varies considerably.

 

Margana's sample is even better than my experience, so I will try now to find if I can come close to that with other pens I have. Certainly, like most inks I've tried, the colour varies with the pen and I think that is all to do with flow, nib width and even the paper itself.

 

I think I have called it dark blue in the past, and to me that is still OK when comparing to the long-term standard inks like Waterman, Sheaffer, Quink, but of course we now have some intense colours available to us, like Private Reserve & Noodler, and Diamine is not in that group imo.

 

Chris

[Lee UK]

Well my bottle of Prussian Blue arrived yesterday along with Monaco Red, Umber and Dark Brown. I have to agree with NoeTiger in that it is a very grey looking blue. It doesn't look washed out though and shows good shading but it does appear to me to be more grey than blue, maybe you could describe it as slate grey. It certainly does not look like the samples from KCat and Margana which both look blue. I have it in a Parker 100 with a medium nib and whilst this was too wet for my liking with the Parker blue-black cartridges the Diamine ink makes it much more manageable. (The pen is the opal silver with graphite grey cap so the ink complements this pen perfectly by the way.) I tried scanning a comparison of the Prussian Blue with Parker Blue-Black and Lamy Blue but I couldn't get it to look anything like the colour I was seeing on paper I'm afraid.

 

So I'm not sure what to make of this ink, do I like it or not? I like the shading and intensity, it does have as someone else described, a nice vintage quality, which I like, but it was not the colour I was expecting. The more I look at it though it does seem to be growing on me and I will keep and use it but I'll have to keep looking for the right blue, maybe Sailor blue or someone can suggest a darker blue easily obtainable in the UK.

 

I've not tried the Dark Brown yet but I have filled a Waterman Expert 2 medium nib with the Monaco Red and a Lamy Al-Star medium nib with the Umber and this shows the limitations that scanned images in the review section have. Whilst the Monaco Red looks fairly similar the Umber looks less dark and more emerald green in the highlights than the reviews show. Still I guess ink looks different in every pen/nib combination and I have to say that I like both these colours very much indeed. I thought I would only really need the bottles of ink I bought along with maybe 2 or 3 more but now I can see why some people have accumulated dozens. Even if I just stick to the colours I have, blue,red and green I want to try the red and green in darker shades and there are so many shades of blue. Thats before a dark brown, a purple, a.................. Oh my gosh what have I started

[sonia_simone]

And it only gets worse. I have so many ink samples that I am seriously considering buying more pens just because I want to try them all. The madness, the madness.

 

For example, I have a nice sample of Prussian Blue and no uninked pen for it. I will scrounge in the case and see if I can find something to dip with.