Diamnine Blue Black

 

A good colour in terms of a nice dark Blue Black. There is just enough blue to the ink to give it the life that sometimes is needed, other than straight black.

t waterproof, so don't buy it if you are looking for a permanent ink that will resist water.

I have found this ink to work well in a variety of pens, and the dry time if good. As the sample above shows, the ink was dry by 5 seconds.

Diamine Twilight

 

I came across this colour, tried it and immediately it became an ink I was constantly using. I like the rich dark colour of the Blue Black ink. I also like thye 80 ml bottles that Diamine uses. Feels like I have a real good supply of ink. The performance of the ink is very good. Very good flowk, and I have been using in various lines of pens that include Delta, OMAS, Stipula and Waterman - no variance so this is my a fussy line of ink. The ink dries in just under 5 seconds so I typically do not have to worry about smearing.

Montblanc Midnight Blue

This ink came out in 2010 and although up to now not that many of the Montblanc inks get into my ink of note category, I have found myself using this ink a lot.

I find the ink writes on the paper in almost a mild black. When you look at the ink in the bottle you see the blue in the ink come out very clearly. But as it dries on the paper, black is more the tone.

Some of the characteristics of this ink result from it have iron gall content. It can be made from the tannic acid from oak galls - that is where it came from the 12th century, or more likely today from ferrous sulfate and gallo tannic acid.

Iron gall inks would go onto the paper with a paler colour and then darken as it dries. Originally to a purplish black. And, this ink is a little more permanent in terms of holding to the paper.

Articles will be quick to point out that iron gall ink is not suitable for fountain pens due to corrosion. Montblanc notes there is some iron gall content to this ink, so we are not talking about full strength, and that is why you will not see dramatic colour change from when the ink hits the paper to when it dries, but do be aware of that characteristic of the ink. So my take is that \his ink has a corrosive content, not with gold nibs, but with other metals parts. The amount of gall content in the ink is not known, but noted by Montblanc.

 

Noodler's Navy

This ink, although called blue, is really a dark blue-black. It is one of the more interesting Blue Black inks in terms of colour.

The ink has a rich tone, and the under tone shades black nicely come out as the ink dries.

The Noodler ink bottles are tall and narrow and that makes filing a pen with a large nib a little easier than stubby-shaped bottles.

Rich in tone, and this ink flows with no hesitation. It dries on the paper in a short order so I have not had problems with it smearing and leaving a sticky feel to the ink.

Waterman Blue Black

This is a staple. If I could only take one bottle of ink with me, this would be it. The colour is a lighter blue black than some of the other inks in this colour family.

The Bottle. The Waterman ink bottle is well designed. The slanted sides allows the bottle to safely lay on one of its sides allowing the nib of the pen to be fully submerged in the ink. This is no minor aspect. At the price of ink, getting access to all the ink in the bottle is important. If you use large size pens you are faced with a sizeable nib section to be submerged in ink for a good clean tight fill up.

Ink Performance. A good performing ink. This ink works well in every pen I have used. The colour tone is good, and it dries slightly lighter, with a little more blue tone as the ink dries.