Handwritten Review of Lamy Blue-Black

[Breck]

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr76/fbchumley/27-LamyBlue-BlackBalance.jpg

 

Fig. 1: The review, a little larger than life, color balanced by Brian Excarnate.

 

This is an iron gall ink, and as such requires frequent flushing to avoid corrosion of fountain pen materials (here comes the debate). Modern iron gall formulations are said to be less catastrophic for pens, but it's good to be on the safe side on these things.

 

A benefit to iron gall inks is that they're permanent. These were pretty much the first permanent inks used in the Western world, to my knowledge (I'd be happy to be informed otherwise, though).

 

So the thing with iron gall blue-blacks is that they change color. Not just from wet to dry, but once dry they continue to change. The iron in them oxidizes and blackens, and the blue that was there when the ink was fresh on the page gets overwhelmed.

 

The above photo was taken about 18 hours after I wrote the review. The color looks pretty good at this point, I think. I'll take another in a week or so and update this post so y'all can see how it changes over time.

 

I tried to use this ink in my Lamy 2000 for a while, but it's a dry ink and the line was so puny I felt like I had to bear down all the time to get something readable.

 

In the Esterbrooks it didn't seem quite so dry, but certainly not lush by any means, either.

 

You know, before I wasn't really happy with the color, either, but it has really grown on me.

 

 

edit: Sorry, I keep forgetting this part: Previous reviews by The Noble Savage, who must have scanned it immediately after drying to get that blue, Goodwhiskers, who was very concise and found much the same characteristics as I did, Rasendyll, who has enviable handwriting, and Kadymae, who also must have scanned immediately.

Edited January 10, 2009 by Murderface

[RayMan]

Thanks for the review. I'm looking for a good blue-black. The only one I've tried so far is Quink, which I don't like because it dries to a greenish black. I actually like the color of your Lamy sample.

 

Thanks for the review.

[saintsimon]

Thanks for your extensive review.

 

Lamy BB is quite dry (it did not work in my dry Pelikan Level L5 at all), so use a wet pen. As this ink hardly ever feathers, wetness is no proplem.

[Goodwhiskers]

Thanks for citing my work . I reviewed the cartridge blue-black (supposedly without iron gall?). I haven't tried the bottled blue-black, but reports here seem more positive about the bottled one. That doesn't make much sense to me since Lamy Safari pens, the most likely market niche for Lamy cartridge ink, are usually on the dry side. The color of the bottled one certainly looks better.

 

I'm surprised to hear that bottled Lamy Blue-Black writes dry from the Lamy 2000, which is supposedly on the wet side. Maybe the fine point makes it drier?

[BoxerDad]

Same as Montblanc Blue-Black

[Yoda]

Lamy Blue-Black is a fantastic performer. In my medium 2000 it is smooth without feathering and offers such great shading.

 

My other favorite is Pilot Blue-Black, which is on the bluer side of the spectrum.

 

 

 

[lovemy51]

love the shading! thanx for the review!

[CharlieB]

My other favorite is Pilot Blue-Black, which is on the bluer side of the spectrum.

 

Me too! I love Pilot Blue Black. I've recently redeveloped a fondness for Pelikan Blue Black, which seems to be somewhere between the Lamy and the Pilot on the color spectrum.

[Ernst Bitterman]

For cross-referencing purposes-- I've found this ink (now that I've found it in a local store!) to be the very image in performance and colour of a vintage Waterman's blue-black from the 1940s. I suspect that vintage pens will quite like it, generally; the '49 Sheaffer Statesman I put in into thinks it's the cat's pajamas.