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I participated in a blind testing on the fpgeeks forum of three ink samples. This is the 2nd sample. Paradoxically, I enjoyed using it for drawing. I was really excited by the complex chroma but ultimately but in the end it left me indifferent. Maybe I've become to blasé Note: in the reviews, you see it mentions as Mystery ink #52. Lets start with the delicious chroma: Writing samples: Note how dry times double with Japanese paper, isn't that ironic? It doesn't like copy paper: Photos: Paper is Mnemosyne Watertest: Paper is Mnemosyne. On absorbent paper it doesn't budge when sufficiently dry. Comparison: and finally a sketch, it's a homage to Mabie Todd, Swan pens. Inks used: Pilot Blue Black, Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-guri Sailor Kiwa Guro pigment Organic Studios Oscar Copper (red) and the nib was done with a gold metallic marker. · Pens used: Lamy Safari (Ef/F/M/B), Osmiroid copper plate nib, Jinhao 450 (fude) · What I liked: The chroma, price and for drawing, · What I did not like: Colour, washed up blue, long dry times on Japanese papers, short on Rhodia (I don't use the latter 😇) · What some might not like: Same as above. · Shading: Yes. · Ghosting: Yes, on cheap paper. · Bleed through: Yes, on cheap paper. · Flow Rate: Excellent. · Lubrication: Good. · Nib Dry-out: No. · Start-up: No · Saturation: No · Shading Potential: Yes · Sheen: A hint · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: No. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: No. · Staining (pen): No. · Clogging: No. · Cleaning: I had to use pen flush for the Osmiroid and the Jinhao feed. I was too lazy to wait for more than a day. · Water resistance: The more absorbent the paper, the more water resistant it is. · Availability: 70 , 350 ml bottles, cartridges. Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

First of all I must apologise as this ink should have been launched at the same time as the other Diamine new colour: Classic Green, that The Good Captain launched in his excellent review. However, due to me having been laid very low by a bacterial stomach infection, I'm late on parade with this review. Still, the show must go on, so I have written with this ink a few times and finally managed to get the review form done and scanned. So I'm back in bed with my trusty MacBook typing this. As many of you will know, Oxford Blue has to be a dark blue. That is Oxford University's team colour, whereas Cambridge University's colour is light blue. This is a fabulous dark blue. When I wrote with it, I thought I knew of several dark blues that I could use as comparisons to it, but when I actually came to find similar colours, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Oxford Blue is more blue than Montblanc JFK Navy Blue, and it's darker than Diamine Midnight. It's a well saturated really dark blue, with plenty of shading. I'm sure it will be a popular colour. I really like it. I'm not sure of the exact launch date, but it's not too far away. This isn't a waterproof ink, but it has good water resistance. The water was on the grid for about 1 minute before being swabbed and blotted by kitchen roll.Bearing in mind the paper I use is thick with a shiny, smooth surface, and I used a Lamy F and 1.1mm nib, this ink took 12-16 secs to dry.It flows very well and lubricates the nib very well. I saw no skips or hard starts despite leaving the pen uncapped while I did all of the swab tests.I'm not 100% sure yet if it will be part of the standard range, but I think it will. If it is, it will be available in 80ml glass bottles and 30ml plastic refill bottlesDiamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.

Given that Bung box ink is rather dear here...I would like some advise on which blue black to indulge in...deciding between 4B and Silent Night has me in a quandary. Any sage advise? BTW this would be my first purchase of a true blue black ink. I'm extraordinarily picky about ink.

Lovely Liquids De Atramentis Dokumenttine Dark Blue /DA Document ink Dark Blue Dear FPN friends, Here is another review of a De Atramentis Document Ink. The Document Inks are available in the following colours. · Blue · Dark Blue · Black · Magenta · Turquoise · Green is being developed now. This time it is the De Atramentis Dark Blue, which is a Blue Black ink. I have already reviewed the Blue document ink the link can be found here. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/263866-de-atramentis-document-ink/ The De Atramentis Document Dark Blue has a lovely dark blue greyish colour. It isan excellent writer which dries quicker than a camels bottom during a dessert stroll. It is a Permanent Ink and ultra-proof against Bomb Raids. Because I am a lazy (bleep) I copied some of the text from my previous review DA Document ink Blue down here in blue italic This ink is mentioned for doctors, lawyers etc. and for all who need a permanent ink for official Documents To be qualified as a document ink the ink has to meet certain standards. The standard in Europe is ISO 12757-2. This means that the ink has to be lightfast and may not be influenced by any outer influences. To show you the resilience of the inks I have poured several aggressive Fluids over it and… Nothing happened. It is like if the ink was carved in stone…. Amazing… It is not only bulletproof but also bombproof … I believe the ink even survives a nuclear accident or bomb attack (sorry for not testing that ) The ink is extremely lightfast. This is tested and certified with the Woll-Skala, wool scale in English. This may sound peculiar, but isn’t that strange on second glance. In history quite often the same pigments used for Dyeing wool where used for inks as well. The Woll-Skala reaches from 1 not lightfast over 5 extremely lightfast to 8 extreme lightfast. The ink “of course” is WS 8. There are other resilient inks like inks based on iron gall or soot. The problem is that iron gall inks are very aggressive to both paper and nib. (the paper of old Dutch documents from the golden age are often eaten away partially by the ink) Both iron gall and soot inks may also clog the feed of your fountain pen. The De Atramentis inks are, as far as I understand, made with nano-particles. According to the noble Fountain Pen King Sire Richard of Binderheart. Nano-particle inks can be safely used in Fountain pens. I always have one Fountain Pen filled with the ink for work and flush it once every 2 months… No problem at all There are a few differences in the testing method though. I have also attacked the written text with other inks, the Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Green and purple. Well you guessed it nothing happened. I also used a drop of another whisky. First of all not to shock MIGO 984 as Talisker is her favourite malt whisky. Second but equally important is that I used Connamara Irish Malt whisky to please GMAX who is from beautiful Eire (Ireland) Conclusion: it can handle Connemara Whisky as good as I do (probably better) Down here are some of the technical specs (as suggested by Ann Finley 2007) (not copied in but for this ink) points 1-5 1 = 5= Fountain Pens: Online best writer 0.8 italic nib: Lamy Joy 1,5 Italic Paper: Leonardo Ringbuch,average quality school note book made in Austria Drying time: Ultrafast points 5 Flow: Like a dam break points: 5 Lubrication: smooth in both pens points: 5 Bleeding: stronger in broader nibs points: 3 Feathering: none points 5 Shading: none points: 0 Waterproof: no need to mention here points:5 Package: Only in bottles,Wide opening for easy filling up points: 3-4 (bottle is quite nice but the not very special, although the label is beautiful) Availabilty: In Europe Good, D-A webshop www.tinten-online.de, Amazon, La Couronne Du Comte (NL), USA Amazon, DA Webshop www.de-atramentis.com maybe Brian Goulet www.gouletpens.com points: EU 4 USA??? Quality: Hand Made in Germany points: 5 Down here are the technical specs (taken from the German website) dokumenten-Tinte DUNKELBLAU. Sie ist für alle Füllfederhalter geeignet. (suitable for all FP’s) Technische Daten der Tinte: - Lichtechtheit: 8 (Light fastness) - ph-Wert: 7,5 (PH value) - Oberflächenspannung: 60 mN/m (surface tension) - Viskosität: 1,2 mPas (viscosity) - Feuchtigkeitsbeständigkeit: ja/yes (moist-/waterproof) - Temperaturbeständigkeit: ja/yes (heat proof) - Farbe: Dunkelblau (Colour Dark Blue) - Inhalt: 35 ml (bottle contents) - Die Dokumententinte entspricht der ISO 127757-2. (complies with ISO-12757-2 document standard) Caution this is a Permanent ink. Do regularly clean your Fountain Pen. I have written an article on Permanent ink in Fountain Pens down here is the link https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/266035-on-permanent-ink-permanency-and-safety/ . Please take notice and you will have years of fun from both your Fountain Pens and your inks Cleaning is easy though. Down her ist he converter I used in this review. I only flushed it with a minimum of water 2 or 3 times (filled it up and emptied it) Well that’s easy isn’t it? The “First“ Issue. In 2007 he was the first to bring a Fountain Pen save Document ink, based on nano technology, on the market Dr Janssen is a talented and very friendly Ink enthusiast. He did not only did intensive research on Ink history and ancient ink recipes. He also does a lot of research before bringing an De Atramentis ink to the market with the ISO 12757-2 standard. In 2007 he was the first to bring a Fountain Pen save Document ink on the market. It used nano technology were the pigments are grinded in microscopic little particles. That’s what I guess, a gret Cook does not give away his recipes why should Dr Jansen do so . Montblanc had a permanent ink on the market those days which was made with Iron Gall as far as I know. Iron Gall is the Mass Murderer of Fountain Pens. Please read the article on permanent inks. As with any product of excellence competition is keen on copying or bringing there own version. I.e. Apple vs Samsung. I do not want to suggest anything here explicitly. But De Atramentis brought their nano technology ink to the market in 2007. Montblanc also from Germany did it in 2010. I guess it takes less effort if an example is there .. Don’t get me wrong here I don’t like ink bashing at all. Montblanc is a nice company which makes excellent Fountain pens. The text above is how I see it. But you are free to make your own opinion of course. Well and I must say that the bottles for their permanent inks are of sheer beauty. But personally I prefer originals… Back to the De Atramentis inks. I already mentioned it writes superbly. It is definitely permanent. There is a disadvantage to normal inks though. The bleed through gets quite strong, when you use broader nibs on thin paper. This is not a failure but it is meant to do so. The ink has to drench the paper I order to prevent forgery. This way the texts cannot be manipulated without leaving traces. There is a simple way to counter this. Use heavier paper >= 100 grams. On thinner paper use a fine nib and the bleed through is minimized and very acceptable. In the review of DA Document Blue severeal question raised about the availability in the USA. One member thought that some of the contents are forbidden in the USA.Another member could not find them in the USA and was worried about the shipping coasts from Europe. Two questions two answer. The ink contents are not forbidden in the USA. Dr Jansen exported a lot of Document inks to the USA. Dr Jansen also told me that Goulet is a very nice client of his. He suggested to give Goulet notice so that they can order them for you along with their other DA orders. This way you save on shipping I love this ink for several reasons as I do love the other DA document inks. It is safe for fountain pens it performs very well. It dries extremely fast… Hint.... left hand writers. One disadvantage: It does’nt shade. But I love the colour Hope you enjoyed the review and that it was usuable for you.If you have any questions or remarks please post I will test the DA Document inks Magenta and Turqouise inks soon. I can’t wait for the green version. But I will review that as soon as it is on the market. Kindest Regards Peter Vlutters dokumenten-Tinte DUNKELBLAU. Sie ist für alle Füllfederhalter geeignet. (suitable for all FP’s) Technische Daten der Tinte: - Lichtechtheit: 8 (Light fastness) - ph-Wert: 7,5 (PH value) - Oberflächenspannung: 60 mN/m (surface tension) - Viskosität: 1,2 mPas (viscosity) - Feuchtigkeitsbeständigkeit: ja/yes (moist-/waterproof) - Temperaturbeständigkeit: ja/yes (heat proof) - Farbe: Dunkelblau (Colour Dark Blue) - Inhalt: 35 ml (bottle contents) - Die Dokumententinte entspricht der ISO 127757-2. (complies with ISO-12757-2 document standard)

Pendemonium announced in last night's Midnight Madness newsletter that they have 57 bottles of the discontinued Pelikan 4001 Blue Black ink for sale. $15./bottle for first bottle, $13./bottle for 2 or more bottles. If you recall, this iron gall ink was suddenly taken off the market in the States when US banned iron gall ink production for "health" reasons. It's an excellent blue black ink and rarely comes on the market. I hope all members who want some will be able to get a bottle. Available from Sam and Frank at Pendemonium.com Mary

Is it mean to say that something is utter (bleep)? I don't think so. Okay, okay. To be fair, the new version isn't that bad, as long as you're not looking for water resistance. But it doesn't have any ferric component, nor does it have the old ink's (surprisingly unique) deep crimson sheen. The new color leans distinctly towards periwinkle. Before the pictures let me just say, if you're wanting to try and find the old ink out on the market before supply dries up, ask the seller for the product number. The old, iron gall ink's number is 105194. The new ((bleep)) ink's number is 109204. The sticker on the bottom of the new ink's bottle also says "non perma". In the bottle, the new ink looks unmistakably purple. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/802/20n7.jpg http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/823/luzy.jpg And let it be known that I didn't want the new version. I ordered what was listed (by its product number) as the old ink, but I ended up receiving the new ink. I would return it, but the seller is in Germany. It wasn't too expensive, so I I guess its just a big sample now. So, let's hear it. Whatcha think?