Ink Review: Diamine Imperial Blue

[Beechwood]

Thanks for the nice reply, Julie! This is one of those inks which I love and hate. I do admire and cherish such imperial (royal) blues with their touch of purple. Even although it does write freely (while writing, har, har) it still exhibits the occasional ignition problems. No, I don't leave the caps of my pens off for a long time and the caps do fit on tightly etc.. Maybe it -- in its gold-coloured Diamine box with the blue WES label on top -- is one of the first specimens which was later refined.

 

The WES edition of this ink must be quite old now, from memory around 2008.

 

Have you noticed a big colour change when it is diluted, the ink becomes almost turquoise.

[sansenri]

Thank you very much for the nice review of an ink which looks sort of obvious in the Diamine line up, and so does not get too much attention.

I have been on the verge of buying this several times but have not yet.

I do love purple blue inks, I own most Sapphires that can be found around...but I don't like reddish purples too much, so I'm on the look out for bluish purples.

Thank you also Julie for adding some nice pictures.

This remains on my wish list for next occasion.

[lapis]

 

The WES edition of this ink must be quite old now, from memory around 2008.

 

Have you noticed a big colour change when it is diluted, the ink becomes almost turquoise.

 

A. You're right! I bought mine in 2009.

B. Such a big colour change is something I didn't discern. To check that out, I just made dilutions of WES Imperial Blue plus a few other common Diamine blues (and bad shots with my iPhone 5S... har, har). The previous upload of a shot of six 3-ml glass vials (containing 1:50 dilutions) seen here yesterday was too underwhelming. The shot below with plastic 6-7-ml ink-sample-vials (now containing 1:200 dilutions) isn't much better. The order from left to right is:

WES > Majestic > Oxford > Presidential > Royal > Sapphire

I know, I know, it's still hard to tell what colours these actually seem to indicate. Especially the second and third blues still look too dark... but it is those two which (if at all) have the biggest touch of turquoise. That doesn't seem to hold for the WES at all.

[MissCellany]

Aw jeez, this is gorgeous. *sigh* Better add it to the list...

[ibrahim]

On 4/25/2017 at 7:35 AM, Chrissy said:

Today I’m reviewing a sample of Diamine Imperial Blue

 

Diamine Imperial Blue was first produced in 2005 as a limited edition to mark the 25th Anniversary of the formation of the Writing Equipment Society. The first batch had a special 25th Anniversary silver label as well as the usual Diamine label. At the end of 2006 the ink went on general sale, but was still labelled "WES" for "Writing Equipment Society". It is now part of the Diamine standard ink range and is called Imperial Blue.

 

I found it a nicely flowing ink that was neither wet nor dry. It’s lubrication felt very slightly drier than some other inks I’ve reviewed recently, but it was still good enough while I was writing with both of the pens I used.

I didn’t see any spread or feathering on most of the papers I tried it with.

With broader nibs it looks considerably more saturated than it did with finer nibs.

It showed through on some of the papers I experimented with. See the pictures.

 

I found it behaved very well. I didn’t experience any clogging problems with it. Clean-up was slightly more difficult than some because it’s a blue-violet ink, but it still washed off hands with soap and water.

 

It was quite water resistant

 

 

• This isn't sold as a waterproof ink, but shows good water resistance.
• Bearing in mind the review form paper I use is thick with a quite shiny surface at 100gsm, and I used a M nib, this ink dried quickly after just 10-12 seconds.
• No smear after dry.
• It has good flow. I saw no skips or hard starts while I did swabs and dry time tests.
• 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.

 

I like the handwriting a lot. It brings to mind the days I used to correspond with British friends. British handwriting is not slanted but instead upright.