Ink Review: Diamine Midnight

[Chrissy]

I have decided to review some of my inks. These aren't necessarily in any particular order.

I wanted to review Twilight and Midnight consecutively to see their differences or similarities.

This one is Diamine Midnight. I would call it a dark blue ink. It leans more towards the blue-red portion of the colour spectrum than Twilight and Prussian Blue. It's quite similar to Tchaikovsky although it seems to contain slightly less red, and is lighter than Regency Blue

It's a well behaved, saturated ink with not much shading. I found it flowed smoothly across the page, and had no problems with lubrication in the Pilot Custom 74 M nib pen I used.

This ink exhibits showthrough and a little bleedthrough on my thick paper, so I tried it on Rhodia dot pad paper. Showthrough and bleedthrough are both noticeable.

• The water test on the review form shows this isn't a waterproof ink.
• Bearing in mind the paper I use is very smooth, and the nib used at that time was a M, this ink took 16-18 secs to dry.
• It flows through the pen well and lubricates the nib well. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and comparisons with other inks.
• It is currently available in 80ml glass bottles, 30ml plastic refill bottles or cartridges.
• Diamine sell it directly to end-users on their web-site.
• It's a reasonable price

 

 

[alexander_k]

Good review; it's one of the best inks I've ever used and you clearly explain why.

[Frank C]

Thanks for the review. I have a bottle of this somewhere. It is really dark blue.

[delano]

Thank you for the review. I really, really like this ink now. I didn't in the beginning, but it has grown on me.

[mudman]

Thanks for sharing, that is a great color. I've only tried two inks from diamine so far and love them both. This one is next on my list.

[ink-syringe]

It's one of the best inks I've ever used

Yep. Me too. This ink has allowed me to keep and use pens that I would've otherwise sold. It's absolutely fantastic for those dry stingy pens. It has good lubrication is actually a really nice dark blue color. It's a great substitute if you need a more formal ink but really dislike blue black.

[PaperDarts]

Thanks, nice review. Diamine Midnight is one ink that I thought was sort of ordinary, until the day I realized that I had four pens inked with it - as an earlier poster said, it grew on me.

[luvpens]

I like the colour of this one, but need my mind putting at rest by users of it.

I tried Diamine jet black (cartridges) a while back and ended up binning them. I've never used such a poor ink for giving dry starts. If the pen was uncapped for more than 30 secs I had hard starts. Even capped, it was just hopeless. I generally use MB midnight blue and my pens will still start after weeks on non use, whether I use bottled or cartridges.

 

Any feedback would be great, thanks.

[PaperDarts]

I find Diamine Midnight to be a good starter in the pens filled with it, even if the pen sits unused for a time. Right now I have this ink in a Lamy Al-Star, a Pelikan M205, an Online .8 italic, and a vintage Sheaffer. No problems with any of them. All of my nibs are F or EF except for the .8 italic.

[ink-syringe]

I just bought another bottle of this today. Yes a re-up. One of the few inks I can't imagine being with out. Good for work, good for play. Super free flowing. Makes 2 of my dry pens juicy writers. Nice super dark blue but not a charcoal blue black but a real genuine dark wet slick saturated blue. One of the few inks I really always have in use in something. I wish I could get the 80ml. bottle of it, for some reason my local store only carries the 30ml so I am on my 3rd or 4th of that. Very useful and helpful ink to have on hand.

[View from the Loft]

I like the colour of this one, but need my mind putting at rest by users of it.

I tried Diamine jet black (cartridges) a while back and ended up binning them. I've never used such a poor ink for giving dry starts. If the pen was uncapped for more than 30 secs I had hard starts. Even capped, it was just hopeless. I generally use MB midnight blue and my pens will still start after weeks on non use, whether I use bottled or cartridges.

 

Any feedback would be great, thanks.

Midnight, in my opinion, is an ink on the wetter end of the scale (even for Diamine). I always have a pen inked with this, and it is the ink that persuaded me that it is possible to use a colour other than black. I've never had any starting problems with this, and in my experience, if a pen is balky with this and the paper is known to be good, I'd be looking at the pen being the problem.

 

I'm not a fan of Diamine Jet Black - I prefer the Onyx, which is for some reason only available in bottles. Onyx, in my experience, is a wetter ink than the Jet Black. I also rate Aurora Black highly and Pelikan Edelstein Onyx as nice, reliable blacks.

[View from the Loft]

Good review of one of my staple inks.

[luvpens]

Many thanks for the replies - appreciated.

 

I now have a bottle and a pack of cartridges on order..............

[luvpens]

Arrived today.

Just inked up my Hero 1000 which is a fine nib dryish writer and had an instant improvement.

Early days, but this could become a favourite quite quickly.

 

Thanks again for the input.

[Jared]

Thank you so much for your review. I wondered how this ink compared to Montblanc JFK, and your review answered my question.

[chromantic]

<comment deleted>

 

Sorry, I saw Midnight but my brain read Twilight.

Edited May 6, 2017 by chromantic

[888007888]

Nice ink but I still prefer MB JFK. I find JFK to have more personality and shades wonderfully

[eli68]

Thanks for your review, pretty much confirms my opinion of this staple ink.

[Chrissy]

Thank you for your replies and you're welcome. I seem to have missed returning to this thread. Apologies.