EFNIR: Diamine Bilberry

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Diamine Bilberry

This is review #282 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This is a middle-of-the-road purple, not leaning red, not blurple, not pastel, not muted (greyed). Almost all my other purples either lean red or are blurple.  Meanwhile, this one is a sheen machine. That sheen makes it look darker than the ink itself actually is. I think it has pretty heavy sheen, but as you might guess from the swatch card comparisons, it's nothing compared to Purple Rain.

Dry time: not all the hash marks between 4 and 16 smeared.  I went with 17 as nothing longer than that smeared, but you could get much faster dry times, depending on your paper and pen.

The microscope slide had nothing new, so it's not included.  The ink dries very fast on the nib for me - this is not unusual for high-sheening inks as they tend to have a very high dye concentration (less water).  Cleaning was easy with plain water, but you'll need extra flushes - it's quite concentrated.

Zoomed in photo (Fairly close to the color. Might be too blue and muted.)

Screenshot (This is too dark and desaturated.)

Scan of Completed Review (This might be the best color reproduction.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (These are not far off from the color I see.)

Line width (The "I" in "Ink:". Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 278µm. With 282 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.) (You can see a little sheen. Surprised by how narrow the line is. I thought it seemed wider - not sure how that works.)

Previous Review: Papier Plume Sazerac.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

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View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[yazeh]

Ah, I got my Tuesday fix but so many questions and so few answers 🤪 Is the high Wizard (or With-ard) the same as the original one?

No wise cracks from Makhabesh and no innocent truths from Essri. Must be all that sheen hiding the secrets 🙂

And niw for the ink. I had heard this ink is a stainer. So I was surprised that the cleaning was so easy.

Thanks @LizEF for bringing so much excitement to our Tuesdays 🙏🙏🙏

[Mercian]

Pretty colour! 🙂

But no shading 🙁

And dries-out on the nib? 😟

 

Am I also right to assume that its capacity for water-resistance is roughly the same as that of the Wicked Witch of the West?

[LizEF]

32 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Ah, I got my Tuesday fix but so many questions and so few answers 🤪 Is the high Wizard (or With-ard) the same as the original one?

No wise cracks from Makhabesh and no innocent truths from Essri. Must be all that sheen hiding the secrets 🙂

Yeah, we may be short on answers for a while...

 

33 minutes ago, yazeh said:

And niw for the ink. I had heard this ink is a stainer. So I was surprised that the cleaning was so easy.

Perhaps it depends on the material - my re-used Pilot cartridges (soft plastic) stain more easily than the rest of the pen, as do those parts of the converter and section which get abraded by the friction of installing the converter.

 

35 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Thanks @LizEF for bringing so much excitement to our Tuesdays 🙏🙏🙏

  You're very welcome!

[LizEF]

10 minutes ago, Mercian said:

Pretty colour! 🙂

But no shading 🙁

And dries-out on the nib? 😟

Good summary.

 

10 minutes ago, Mercian said:

Am I also right to assume that its capacity for water-resistance is roughly the same as that of the Wicked Witch of the West?

Probably, but I didn't test.  I only do water testing on inks that claim to be resistant or sometimes where it's commonly known to have some degree of resistance.  Given that this just needed water to clean - no flush, no swabs - I'd guess it probably doesn't have water resistance even on paper.

[Mercian]

10 minutes ago, LizEF said:

I only do water testing on inks that claim to be resistant or sometimes where it's commonly known to have some degree of resistance. 

Here ⬆️ be wisdom 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Mysterious groans still abound!  Maybe that is Vika's way of rolling her eyes at the acquisitive assistant.

 

I'm not a poiple ink person, but I may have a sample vial of this Bilberry stuff.  Or maybe it's another Diamine Poiple.  And I don't have any comparison inks, except I once had the Varsity and Thornton.

 

But, as always, @LizEF, thanks for the lovely review and story, and giving us all something to look forward to on Tuesdays.

PS: 16 too big.  14 too small.  Oh for a 15.

[LizEF]

13 minutes ago, Mercian said:

Here ⬆️ be wisdom 

Or laziness. Sometimes they look the same.

[LizEF]

12 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Mysterious groans still abound!  Maybe that is Vika's way of rolling her eyes at the acquisitive assistant.

12 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I'm not a poiple ink person, but I may have a sample vial of this Bilberry stuff.  Or maybe it's another Diamine Poiple.  And I don't have any comparison inks, except I once had the Varsity and Thornton.

Purples are sort of growing on me, but I don't seem to have strong feelings about them like I do about some other colors.

 

13 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

But, as always, @LizEF, thanks for the lovely review and story, and giving us all something to look forward to on Tuesdays.

You're very welcome!

 

14 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

PS: 16 too big.  14 too small.  Oh for a 15.

[Lithium466]

Ah the lovely Diamine Bilberry! It was love at first write. Nice narrow lines, smooth (enough) writing, sheen, nice colour (to me), it was perfect!

And then I paused to roll my eyes during a meeting. And the pen hard started. So, in total denial, I blamed the pen, a Platinum 3776 that isn't too good with that. But no, it kept hardstarting. All flustered, my hand became ever so slightly sweaty, and suddenly my writing was all smeared...and the Diamine Bilberry back in the ink cabinet, on the shelf of shame.

(It's nice to dilute/improve some boring blue inks though).

 

Thank you for the review of an ink that once broke my heart  

[InesF]

Thank you, @LizEF, for reviewing this purple ink, for the story part and for sharing line-microscopy and ink set time secrets with us!  

 

This purple ink is fully to my taste - I guess, that's why I have already 10 (or so) inks in the deep, dark purple category.  

And yes, I was surprised too, seeing sheen in the cellulose fibre structure. 👍

 

Looking forward to learn more about the High Wizard (and about what made him say "never mind", when people play with things not belonging to them). If I would be High Wizard ... hm ... oh ... OK, I also would have other priorities.   

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

Ah the lovely Diamine Bilberry! It was love at first write. Nice narrow lines, smooth (enough) writing, sheen, nice colour (to me), it was perfect!

And then I paused to roll my eyes during a meeting. And the pen hard started. So, in total denial, I blamed the pen, a Platinum 3776 that isn't too good with that. But no, it kept hardstarting. All flustered, my hand became ever so slightly sweaty, and suddenly my writing was all smeared...and the Diamine Bilberry back in the ink cabinet, on the shelf of shame.

(It's nice to dilute/improve some boring blue inks though).

 

1 hour ago, Lithium466 said:

Thank you for the review of an ink that once broke my heart  

Happy to do it.  Fabulous story - even if it wasn't a fabulous experience for you.

[LizEF]

52 minutes ago, InesF said:

Thank you, @LizEF, for reviewing this purple ink, for the story part and for sharing line-microscopy and ink set time secrets with us!  

You're most welcome!

 

54 minutes ago, InesF said:

This purple ink is fully to my taste - I guess, that's why I have already 10 (or so) inks in the deep, dark purple category.  

And yes, I was surprised too, seeing sheen in the cellulose fibre structure. 👍

Always cool to see sheen in the line width image.  Sometimes that's the only place I see it...

 

55 minutes ago, InesF said:

Looking forward to learn more about the High Wizard (and about what made him say "never mind", when people play with things not belonging to them). If I would be High Wizard ... hm ... oh ... OK, I also would have other priorities.   

[Lithium466]

Today Diamine Bilberry got another chance to shine...and it did beautifully, in a Parker 45, with which drying out and hard starting are mostly gone 😁

I am going through a Parker 45 phase and it's behaving very differently than my usual Japanese F/EF pens with some inks (like basic royal blues).

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

Today Diamine Bilberry got another chance to shine...and it did beautifully, in a Parker 45, with which drying out and hard starting are mostly gone 😁

I am going through a Parker 45 phase and it's behaving very differently than my usual Japanese F/EF pens with some inks (like basic royal blues).

The hooded nib probably helps, but I'd have to guess (knowing nothing of the Parker 45) that perhaps it flows wetter.

[Lithium466]

13 hours ago, LizEF said:

The hooded nib probably helps, but I'd have to guess (knowing nothing of the Parker 45) that perhaps it flows wetter.

I'm still trying to figure that out. The flow is strange, it was almost a gusher with Pelikan 4001 royal blue (shock! It was a last ink try before getting rid of the bottle), but then struggled with Sailor black, did ok with Pilot blue and is now quite wet with Bilberry. 
It's kind of a pain to clean, and I'm guessing was designed with standard inks like Quink blue in mind, so maybe the double ink collector + feed designs are made to accommodate high surface tension inks? This is above my ink pay grade...and sorry for the off topic 🫣

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, Lithium466 said:

I'm still trying to figure that out. The flow is strange, it was almost a gusher with Pelikan 4001 royal blue (shock! It was a last ink try before getting rid of the bottle), but then struggled with Sailor black, did ok with Pilot blue and is now quite wet with Bilberry. 
It's kind of a pain to clean, and I'm guessing was designed with standard inks like Quink blue in mind, so maybe the double ink collector + feed designs are made to accommodate high surface tension inks? This is above my ink pay grade...and sorry for the off topic 🫣

Sounds on-topic to me!   And a bit fascinating.  Clearly we need some scientists to shed some light on this mystery.  Maybe by the time we make contact with Vulcans we'll understand fountain pens.

[Lithium466]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

Sounds on-topic to me!   And a bit fascinating.  Clearly we need some scientists to shed some light on this mystery.  Maybe by the time we make contact with Vulcans we'll understand fountain pens.

😂

[InesF]

16 hours ago, LizEF said:

Clearly we need some scientists to shed some light on this mystery.

Is this a call to arms?  All right!  

 

On 6/2/2024 at 8:43 PM, Lithium466 said:

Today Diamine Bilberry got another chance to shine...and it did beautifully, in a Parker 45, with which drying out and hard starting are mostly gone 😁

Unfortunately, I do not know the Parker 45 model from my own experience. I gave up with Parker pens after loosing my excellent vintage 51 and having bad (and worse) experiences with Parker pens I bought past 1997.

All I can tell for sure is, that the effects of writing with a pen that tends to dry out is not so easy to see when saturated inks are used. If the tine slit is wide enough, such inks can concentrate to a certain level and stay wet (liquid) for unexpected long time. However - and that may had happened with your Platinum pen - if the tine slit is comparably narrow, the drying on the nib does not suck enough ink to replace the lost volume, maybe it increases its contact surface tension (due to precipitates) and lead to hard starts that last until the concentrated and precipitated ink is washed out - which needs some time and some line length and some hard pressure to get the ink flowing at all.

Be aware, this is a hypothesis of what we (me too) experience from some ink and nib combinations.

 

16 hours ago, LizEF said:

Maybe by the time we make contact with Vulcans we'll understand fountain pens.

You gave me so much hope! 

[Lithium466]

3 hours ago, InesF said:

Unfortunately, I do not know the Parker 45 model from my own experience. I gave up with Parker pens after loosing my excellent vintage 51 and having bad (and worse) experiences with Parker pens I bought past 1997.

All I can tell for sure is, that the effects of writing with a pen that tends to dry out is not so easy to see when saturated inks are used. If the tine slit is wide enough, such inks can concentrate to a certain level and stay wet (liquid) for unexpected long time. However - and that may had happened with your Platinum pen - if the tine slit is comparably narrow, the drying on the nib does not suck enough ink to replace the lost volume, maybe it increases its contact surface tension (due to precipitates) and lead to hard starts that last until the concentrated and precipitated ink is washed out - which needs some time and some line length and some hard pressure to get the ink flowing at all.

Be aware, this is a hypothesis of what we (me too) experience from some ink and nib combinations.

That is definitely possible, after examining several of my pens that have a higher drying out tendency than others! Well at least that's one of the factors at play...I guess the same applies to the space between the nib and the feed.

But then what role is the breather hole playing there? On the 3776, it's widely exposed, while on the 45, it's hidden under the mini hood. Increasing the precipitation potential between nib and feed?

 

For a "cheap" pen, the 45 is nice. I was made to buy one  and then went a little crazy with a few others. Its plastics feel cheap, the nibs are nice, and there is nothing better than 45 minutes of desperate flushing, then several days of soaking, a few ultrasonic rounds, to still find some ink leaching out, right? (I might be exaggerating a bit, some of the used pens I got were very crusty)