Ink Review: Diamine Asa Blue

[Chrissy]

My latest ink is Diamine Asa Blue

I haven't tried Diamine Asa Blue before, and I read that several users thought it was a really nice colour. So I decided I should get a sample and review it.

I'm pleased I did as I really like the colour. It's a saturated, darker sky blue type. Although it's a similar shade to several sky blue inks, it's darker and more saturated than quite a few of them. If you compare it against other inks on the Diamine colour charts, Asa Blue is darker than Florida Blue, Kensington Blue, Mediterranean Blue, and Aster. It's also darker than Sailor Sky Blue/Souten, P.E. Topaz, and P.I. Kon-peki

Also, it seems to lean a little more red than some. I saw lots of red sheen on the feeds of my pens while I was writing, and in several of the writing samples I've done with it.

It wrote straight away without any hard starts or skipping. It felt quite wet in the pens that I filled with it, so it flowed well and lubricated the nib well too. Despite feeling reasonably wet, it dried really quickly on my thick and smooth 100gsm paper.

It's reasonably water resistant. I forgot about the water on the review sheet and left it for over half an hour. After blotting, I could still see the dots and lines though.

These sky blues are tricky to reproduce accurately on my scanner. It seems like the closer I get the ink I'm reviewing, the further away the comparison inks go. I did several Photoshop adjustment layers to make it look as accurate as I could get it next to the review sheet in good daylight.

 

• Although this isn't a waterproof ink, it shows reasonable water resistance, as do many Diamine inks, especially their blue ones.

• Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny surface, and I used a Waterman F nib and a Lamy 1.1mm nib, this ink took 5-8 seconds to dry

• It felt a bit wetter than some other inks I've reviewed, so lubricated the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests with my pen caps left off.

• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles or 30ml plastic bottles

• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

• It's a reasonable price.

[namrehsnoom]

Thank you for the review - I like the colour

[the_gasman]

I'm convinced; it's my next ink on the shopping list.

 

David.

[Ceilidh]

One of my favorites.

[MKeith]

Great review of an ink I always keep on hand. It's blue, turquoise and even sort of teal in different pens.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Very nice color. I like blues any way.

[mulrich]

I'm a sucker for blue ink and I'll have to add this one to my list to try.

[PS104]

It is a nice dark blue ink but I'm afraid I just don't see the turquoise aspect of it. Maybe my eyes are getting a bit gimpy. But definitely on my blue short list.

​Thanks for the review

[Mastiff]

Thank you for the review. This is my favourite blue ink.

[Chrissy]

It is a nice dark blue ink but I'm afraid I just don't see the turquoise aspect of it. Maybe my eyes are getting a bit gimpy. But definitely on my blue short list.

​Thanks for the review

 

Maybe 'dark turquoise' was the wrong description. I was trying to show the differences between a dark sky blue type, not leaning red or purple, and a Royal Blue type leaning red and/or purple. If you see what I mean

[VivienR]

I'm really not a big blue fan, but Diamine Asa Blue is one of the blue ink I like.

[jmccarty3]

In 2012, member thinkink told us about Asphire, his mixture of equal parts of Diamine Asa Blue and Sapphire Blue. This recipe has been fairly popular.

[Tom Kellie]

My latest ink is Diamine Asa Blue

I haven't tried Diamine Asa Blue before, and I read that several users thought it was a really nice colour. So I decided I should get a sample and review it.

 

 

~ Chrissy:

 

Thank you for the very nice review of Diamine Asa Blue.

This evening it's in a 1949 Parker 51 Aerometric Burgundy F nib.

I'm using it to underscore book passages. The smooth writing and saturated blue are ideal.

If I acquire a large bottle, I'd like to try it in a Montblanc BB nib, to see how it shades.

Your review helps me appreciate it more.

Tom K.

[inkstainedruth]

Hadn't tried this one. Might have to get a sample now (I've liked a lot of the Diamine inks I've tried).

Thanks for the review -- and not....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[KKay]

I love this blue. It is so well behaved, and it is a heavy shader. I haven't seen any sheen though, at least not yet. I have a 30ml bottle of this. When it gets close to empty, I will probably buy a large bottle of it.

[npweston]

My all-time favourite ink!

[JulieParadise]

#50shadesofbluechallenge (link to the hashtag on Instagram) is the hashtag for the ongoing challenge over at the German PenExchange forum for July & August 2020. Since I inked up all my pens for this challenge with all the 50+ blue inks I have I also want to share my snapshots here.

 

 

Asa Blue really surprised me in a Platinum 3776 Chenonceau White with a DIY Italic Medium nib. Why do I have all these beautiful but hardly explored/used inks in my stash!?!

 

[welch]

I bought this years and years ago because I was using Iroshizuku Asa Gao all the time. Thought it might be similar. It seemed more of a straight blue than a glorious purplish blue, like Asa Gao...Diamine's Sapphire Blue (my first favorite) seems much closer. So maybe it's time to try ASA Blue again. Or even a mix of Sapphire and ASA, as mentioned above.

[RJS]

A few people saying it's their favourite ink or favourite blue... one of my favourites too! Looks so much nicer in reality than in reviews. An interesting and varied blue on paper.

[Wil D]

I like the color.