Diamine Imperial Blue

[Gobblecup]

Sandy,

 

Sorry if you covered this and I missed it... but did you find this ink had a purple shade when wet, then dried to a much more blue, (true to your scans) blue? :hmm1:

 

I did, but I am curious if this is unique to my bottle!

 

By the way, thank you for another thorough and informative review, they are very much appreciated.

Edited January 17, 2011 by Gobblecup

[Sandy1]

Sandy,

 

Sorry if you covered this and I missed it... but did you find this ink had a purple shade when wet, then dried to a much more blue, (true to your scans) blue? :hmm1:

 

I did, but I am curious if this is unique to my bottle!

 

By the way, thank you for another thorough and informative review, they are very much appreciated.

Hello,

 

You're welcome! I'm glad you appreciate the wee Review.

 

But I am not attuned to the change in appearance of an ink while it dries. This was made obvious when I did an IR of the Sailor LV rikyu-cha. Ink Link : I was going on about what I could see and scan and share after writing - totally ignoring the amazing transition of the ink on some papers whilst it dries. (These were mentioned in the follow-on Posts.)

 

But to your question: No, I did not notice the phenomenon which you describe. And looking-over the Written Samples again, no such artifacts were seen. (So that's twenty-six WSs with no such a thing.)

 

I reckon it is certainly possible: likely from a wet writer on a hard smooth surface paper, where the ink lies upon the paper as it is slowly absorbed. (Very long dry time.) Lighting angle's important too.

 

Of late there were a few reports of neat-o visual experiences with a few other inks: Sailor Jentle LV yama-dori, Noodler's Black Swan... Other inks, such as the PR Electric DC Blue, have a reputation as being capable of conjuring a glittering Red sheen. (Now how cool is that?)

 

Bye,

S1

[Chris]

Great review, thank you.

 

But, as with some others here, I am not a great fan of this ink. Indeed, it is the only Diamine ink of many that I don't really like at all. So, it sits unloved at the back of the ink cupboard along with assorted old Quinks, Waterman Florida Blue, some Pelikan blue-black and some Cross blue.

 

Chris

[Sandy1]

Great review, thank you.

 

But, as with some others here, I am not a great fan of this ink. Indeed, it is the only Diamine ink of many that I don't really like at all. So, it sits unloved at the back of the ink cupboard along with assorted old Quinks, Waterman Florida Blue, some Pelikan blue-black and some Cross blue.

 

Chris

Hi,

 

You're welcome!

 

I am glad that this ink is drawing diverse reactions. For some, it is a 'go-to', for me a 'Oh, I should try this again', and for you, it is a 'no-go'.

 

Though I am a bit surprised at some of the other inks which you have set aside.

 

Please let us know which (Blue) inks are most likely to be found in one of your writers. (I do hope there's at least one OOTT in there!)

 

Bye,

S1

[Gobblecup]

Sandy,

 

Sorry if you covered this and I missed it... but did you find this ink had a purple shade when wet, then dried to a much more blue, (true to your scans) blue? :hmm1:

 

I did, but I am curious if this is unique to my bottle!

 

By the way, thank you for another thorough and informative review, they are very much appreciated.

Hello,

 

You're welcome! I'm glad you appreciate the wee Review.

 

But I am not attuned to the change in appearance of an ink while it dries. This was made obvious when I did an IR of the Sailor LV rikyu-cha. Ink Link : I was going on about what I could see and scan and share after writing - totally ignoring the amazing transition of the ink on some papers whilst it dries. (These were mentioned in the follow-on Posts.)

 

But to your question: No, I did not notice the phenomenon which you describe. And looking-over the Written Samples again, no such artifacts were seen. (So that's twenty-six WSs with no such a thing.)

 

I reckon it is certainly possible: likely from a wet writer on a hard smooth surface paper, where the ink lies upon the paper as it is slowly absorbed. (Very long dry time.) Lighting angle's important too.

 

Of late there were a few reports of neat-o visual experiences with a few other inks: Sailor Jentle LV yama-dori, Noodler's Black Swan... Other inks, such as the PR Electric DC Blue, have a reputation as being capable of conjuring a glittering Red sheen. (Now how cool is that?)

 

Bye,

S1

 

I guess it can be easy to miss the quick purple tint to the ink when wet, but it makes this ink even better for me! I have come to love it due to its extremely good behavior (for me, so far, at least) and nice blue shade.

 

I am a sucker for Diamine though, and I tend to love any shade I get!

 

I am also expecting a bottle of Montblanc Royal Blue in the mail very soon, and I hope it lives up to the rather favorable review you gave it!

[Chris]

Great review, thank you.

 

But, as with some others here, I am not a great fan of this ink. Indeed, it is the only Diamine ink of many that I don't really like at all. So, it sits unloved at the back of the ink cupboard along with assorted old Quinks, Waterman Florida Blue, some Pelikan blue-black and some Cross blue.

 

Chris

Hi,

 

You're welcome!

 

I am glad that this ink is drawing diverse reactions. For some, it is a 'go-to', for me a 'Oh, I should try this again', and for you, it is a 'no-go'.

 

Though I am a bit surprised at some of the other inks which you have set aside.

 

Please let us know which (Blue) inks are most likely to be found in one of your writers. (I do hope there's at least one OOTT in there!)

 

Bye,

S1

 

 

Hi Sandy1,

 

I know my no-go inks are other people's favourites but Quink, though I love the smell of the old stuff, seems to suffer more from skipping than any other ink though I have only used the Washable Blue (too pale), the Blue-Black (boring and fades to nothing over time) and Permanent Royal Blue (skips like a frog). Waterman Florida Blue is similarly weak in colour to my eye and also fades so quickly, even in a closed book, that I won't use it again. Pelikan Blue-Black was simply to grey - no blue - and Cross (=Pelikan) Blue was OK but unexciting. Oh, and Mont Blanc blue was also nothing special.

 

So, for blues, I love Visconti Blue, Penman Sapphire, Diamine Majestic and Prussian Blues; for blue-black it is Mont Blanc BB and Midnight Blue and also Diamine Registrar's ink though it has some issues.

 

I have mixed up a few too. The best was Aurora Blue (too purple for me) plus 20% Pelikan Black - lovely smooth ink, dark blue and much less purple, but I didn't like it enough to buy another bottle and mix it up again.

 

Currently I have a large bottle consisting of roughly equal amounts of:

 

Pelikan blue-black

Cross blue

Montblanc blue

a splosh of Penman Sapphire to give it life

a dribble of Lamy blue to empty the lovely Lamy bottle

some remaining Pelikan black to tone it down a bit

 

And it works! A sort of dark blue-black colour with some body and reasonable flow, smooth, that I use to try out pens or as a 'I don't know what ink to put in this pen today so this'll do as it is only for the office and scribbling notes that will be thrown out' ink .

 

I know not to add any other colours to this or it will end up gungy brown.

 

Cheers,

Chris

[beak]

Chris:

I matched the blue-black in some 1950s letters very well with a simple 50 / 50 ish mix of Quink black and Quink blue - used them just because they were there and weren't likely to be used for much else. Just right in colour. And my mix was beautifully free-flowing with never a hint of skip from vintage pens. Our mileage varies, I guess. Do we think this mix may be unstable, and fade?

[lovemy51]

thx for the review, sandy. i just got mine today and it looks nothing like yours. mine is more (a lot more) purply. i'm wondering if i have the wrong ink labled imperial blue.

[Sandy1]

thx for the review, sandy. i just got mine today and it looks nothing like yours. mine is more (a lot more) purply. i'm wondering if i have the wrong ink labled imperial blue.

Hi,

 

Oh Oh!!

 

Might I suggest that you take a quick look at some of the Comparisons in the hope that you also have one of those inks to do your own side-by-side :: face-to-face :: back-to-back :: top-to-bottom :: bottom's up comparison?

• Comparison - Pilot asa-gao :: Diamine Imperial Blue
  https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/179325-comparison-pilot-asa-gao-diamine-imperial-blue/page__gopid__1803812#entry1803812
• Comparison - Sheaffer Skrip Blue :: Diamine Imperial Blue
  https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/180309-comparison-sheaffer-skrip-blue-diamine-imperial-blue/page__gopid__1814112#entry1814112
• Comparison - Pelikan Royal Blue :: Diamine Imperial Blue
  https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/181500-comparison-pelikan-royal-blue-diamine-imperial-blue/

Just between friends, (everyone else, please divert your gaze, OK), I wonder if you might have a Majestic Blue. :hmm1:

 

The DIB I have was received in August (with the ASA Blue & Twilight Blue) so it is of reasonably current production.

 

Bye,

S1

[lovemy51]

hey, sandy. i had seen those comparisons before. thx for posting them again. mine is sooooooo diferent!!! almost looks like violet, but more towards blue.

 

beautiful color, but not what i expected. for $3 a bottle i can order another one and tell Niklas (nordic pens) to check it for me before sending it... well, that's when he gets some more, he's out of that one ink now.

 

regards,

[lovemy51]

... a closer look and comparison shows that i got Diamine Violet with the wrong label. which is fine, since i was gonna order a second bottle... i still yet to find out how the IB looks in person.

[Sandy1]

... a closer look and comparison shows that i got Diamine Violet with the wrong label. which is fine, since i was gonna order a second bottle... i still yet to find out how the IB looks in person.

Ouch!

 

Well, I was stung by a mislabeled / defective bottle of Everflo™ ink; and only well after my usual brief IR was posted did it become apparent that what was on the label was not what was in the bottle. A nasty WOMBAT: waste of money brains and time.

 

I sure hope both instances were 'only' a mislabeled bottle, not a bad batch - which could be rather wide-spread. (Like the greyed-out Cd'A Bleu Nuit some time ago.)

 

Bye,

S1

[Chris]

Chris:

I matched the blue-black in some 1950s letters very well with a simple 50 / 50 ish mix of Quink black and Quink blue - used them just because they were there and weren't likely to be used for much else. Just right in colour. And my mix was beautifully free-flowing with never a hint of skip from vintage pens. Our mileage varies, I guess. Do we think this mix may be unstable, and fade?

 

I know people worry about mixtures being unstable but I have had my mixture of different colours and brands for perhaps two years and it still looks and works perfectly fine. I'm gradully getting through it. I should think that mixing within a brand like Quink should produce no issues and I would just use it up without any worry. I imagine it was not unknown in days of yore before the 'throwaway society' existed for people to pour what was left of one bottle into the new one to save wasting anything, and they might not have been too careful about matching the colour; so you would get black and blue and blue-black mixed up.

 

Chris

 

 

edit to add: I think Quink black is resistant to fade from what I remember so even if the blue part disappears with time, something will remain.

Edited January 19, 2011 by Chris

[Sandy1]

COMPARISONS - COMPARISONS - COMPARISONS

 

Pilot asa-gao: http://www.fountainp...12#entry1803812

Visconti Blue: http://www.fountainp...23#entry1805023

 

Montblanc Royal Blue: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/181946-comparison-montblanc-royal-blue-diamine-imperial-blue/page__gopid__1832351#entry1832351

[Sandy1]

COMPARISONS - COMPARISONS - COMPARISONS

 

Pilot asa-gao: http://www.fountainp...12#entry1803812

Visconti Blue: http://www.fountainp...23#entry1805023

 

Montblanc Royal Blue: http://www.fountainp...51#entry1832351

Herbin Eclat de Saphir: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/182198-comparison-herbin-eclat-de-saphir-diamine-imperial-blue/

[Surfbits]

Sandy,

As always, Thank you for the wonderful work you do for all of us with these ink reviews. A quick question, as you're getting through all the Blues, what one ink stood out as the wettest, or maybe best lubricating Blue of the batch?

Thanks again.

[Sandy1]

Sandy,

As always, Thank you for the wonderful work you do for all of us with these ink reviews. A quick question, as you're getting through all the Blues, what one ink stood out as the wettest, or maybe best lubricating Blue of the batch?

Thanks again.

Hi,

 

You're welcome!

 

Thank-you for asking the question I was hoping to avoid.

But the cat's out of the bag, and there is enough room to swing a cat, so ...

 

I am disinclined to rate the inks, especially on the basis of things which cannot be demonstrated / shown online; and for which there is no widely accepted metrics or ways to derive metrics. The only physical performance property for which I am comfortable using numbers is the Wet Test; and that is because the meaning of each number is defined. (Discussions to enhance the 4S Scale are ongoing at time of writing.)

 

From the start, it was not my intention to generate metrics or ratings or rankings, so I reckon that trying to derive those from things that cannot be depicted online would be flaky. IntroDoc

In my world, wetness and lubrication are different properties. So even if there were an acceptable way to derive metrics for each of those properties, your question could not be answered by me during the course of the OOTT series.

 

And we have paper and pens... (Not so simple, yes?) So we have six pens of different properties used to generate samples on four 'core' papers of different properties. Hmm. So even if we had a way to assign numbers to levels of wetness and lubrication, those would need to be derived from each writer on each paper. And how would those numbers be weighted / combined to be relevant? :blink:

 

So I think that my answer to your question is 'Pass'.

 

From a personal standpoint as a writer, if an ink can deliver the desired written result, then I deeply discount aspects such as lubrication and wetness. So long as that ink doesn't ignite whilst writing, I'll give it a twirl. I do not discount the writing experience in the least, its just that some are more enjoyable than others.

 

So, quick question; short answer; long explanation.

 

Bye,

S1

[DetlevCM]

Yikes....

 

How long did that review take you? - That's really a very thorough review.

 

Diamine Imperial Blue... I think I have some at home... now I hope I'm not mixing things up, but hasn't Imperial Blue got a very purplish tone to it?

More at least than it would seem from your samples... ?

[Sandy1]

Yikes....

 

How long did that review take you? - That's really a very thorough review.

 

Diamine Imperial Blue... I think I have some at home... now I hope I'm not mixing things up, but hasn't Imperial Blue got a very purplish tone to it?

More at least than it would seem from your samples... ?

Hi,

 

The Reviews do not take so much time. I sample my inks, so the Written Samples are going to be done regardless - not just for the Review. Though they are formatted to be more useful to more people; and to support subsequent comparisons. And people wanting to see written samples from pens - with no interest in the ink!

 

It does take time to gather my thoughts to write about the intangible properties of an ink. Certainly amongst the Blue inks, there's soooo much hair-splitting between inks. Once a basic colour is chosen and performance profile requirements are satisfied, it comes down to The Look - which is totally subjective, but I do try to be honest / transparent. One can certainly select an ink by ignoring anything but the ink-on-paper samples and the performance profile notes.

 

I really cannot comment on the ink which you have.

• Post #30 Link above and subsequent, idicated that some mis-labelled ink entered the market, so please be aware of that possibility.
• I do not have the hubris to claim that my scans are perfect, but there seems to be a consensus that they are accurate and fit-for-purpose. And by using an array of pens and papers, the range of an ink's appearance is demonstrated to some small extent.
• Accurate depiction of the samples is a shared responsibility: I capture accurate scans, and provide a means to access tools for the viewer to meet their bit of that responsibility. All else is up to the viewer.
  

Bye,

S1

[Sandy1]

Comparison to Private Reserve American Blue : My link