Diamine Majestic Blue

[all my hues]

As always, posted on my blog.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/evergoddess/majesticblue.jpg

 

This really is a beautiful color. Remember, like I noted earlier, that Red n Black notebooks tend to take longer to dry than most other notebooks. Not that this ink dries fast, either way. It doesn't. Just saying. At least it doesn't gunk up your feed...

 

 

 

[MiniMaupassant]

Love the review... This is definitely on my list. I've been looking for a navy for ages.

[Ondina]

This is a great color and ink. As you mention not the fastest drying ones, but is not bad either. Very accurate color scan. Thank you por posting.

[HenryLouis]

Could be just my eyes but this ink dosen't look as dark as it really is. It is a rather good ink, though. I only have a 30mL bottle and I'm waiting for the Canadian distributor to finally get some majestic blue in stock.

[Pengrump]

Could be just my eyes but this ink dosen't look as dark as it really is. It is a rather good ink, though. I only have a 30mL bottle and I'm waiting for the Canadian distributor to finally get some majestic blue in stock.

 

 

Yes, it's darker in reality that it's coming up on my monitor in this review as well. It's a really dark ink but one of the best I own (and I own over 200 bottles of ink)!

[HenryLouis]

Could be just my eyes but this ink dosen't look as dark as it really is. It is a rather good ink, though. I only have a 30mL bottle and I'm waiting for the Canadian distributor to finally get some majestic blue in stock.

 

 

Yes, it's darker in reality that it's coming up on my monitor in this review as well. It's a really dark ink but one of the best I own (and I own over 200 bottles of ink)!

 

Yes, I know! The way it shades is wonderful. From a cobalt blue to a blue which is just a hue from being black... ah, I love this ink

[Doug Add]

I need to get some of this.

[all my hues]

Could be just my eyes but this ink dosen't look as dark as it really is. It is a rather good ink, though. I only have a 30mL bottle and I'm waiting for the Canadian distributor to finally get some majestic blue in stock.

 

 

Yes, it's darker in reality that it's coming up on my monitor in this review as well. It's a really dark ink but one of the best I own (and I own over 200 bottles of ink)!

 

Really? It looks pretty accurate on my screen. Aw well.

[Ondina]

Really? It looks pretty accurate on my screen. Aw well.

 

The sample I've got look the same than your scan. The drawings reflect very well the very dark blue shading on the overall navy. Takes ages to clean off a pen, though.

[WendyNC]

I've been using this ink with a medium cursive italic nib on the Staples bagasse paper and am having a blast with it. On that paper, for me, it dries to a color which can be anything from medium purple to deep, dark blue depending on the light and the angle at which I've viewing it. I love inks that look quite conventional at first glance but actually "do stuff."

 

Edited to add that, on the bagasse with the pen I'm using, I'm not having any problems with feathering or bleedthrough. As always, YMMV.

Edited July 10, 2009 by WendyNC

[CraigR]

Nice ink and a great review. I am going to try a bottle. Thanks! /Craig

[GeeTee]

Love the review, love the ink. The colour of your scan seems accurate. One of my favorite Diamine inks.

[Bartimaeus]

Thanks for your review!

 

I've been using Diamine Majestic Blue in a Hero 100, a Bamboo (fine) and a Falcon (fine) in the last days.

I like the dark blue generally. I don't get a lot of shading (which is fine for me, I like the colour to be always the same).

It is a rather wet ink, which is okay for the Hero, but a bit too much in the Falcon for my taste. It works very well for the Bamboo, which was a bit dry with other inks. Also the very dark colour helps bringing out the thin lines of the Bamboo.

 

It dries a bit more slowly than other inks, but not so slow that it would be a problem for me.

 

The biggest problem I encountered was drying out. The Hero, which is prone to drying out anyway won't start in the morning when I have used and capped it in the evening, and the Bamboo (alas) dries out very quickly even when I screw it very quickly after using. Too bad! Maybe it's because I only take notes and don't write page after page.

 

So for me, Majestic Blue is a nice colour, only I have yet to find the ideal pen for it!

Edited July 29, 2009 by Bartimaeus

[tknechtel]

Majestic Blue is a very beautiful color - my favorite of all the blues. But my caveat is that is is very hard to clean out of pens. I can flush and flush and FLUSH, and it still leaves a residue. I think the compromise I'll strike is only using it in one particular pen.

[Bookman]

Majestic Blue is a very beautiful color - my favorite of all the blues. But my caveat is that is is very hard to clean out of pens. I can flush and flush and FLUSH, and it still leaves a residue. I think the compromise I'll strike is only using it in one particular pen.

 

Is this a common problem with Diamine Majestic Blue? Is thorough nib-cleaning impossible with this ink or only damn near impossible? You see, this was going to be the last blue I would ever buy (he said to himself, not believing it). My Pilot Knight desperately needs a blue that will come out the nib rich and dark and stay that way. Every blue I've tried, including Aurora, is too light with this pen. Noodler's Midnight Blue, for example, is a nice shaded Navy with my Phileas M, but with my Knight it's a rather hideous muddy teal. From the scans I've seen, Diamine Majestic Blue seems to be the blue this pen is looking for.

[HenryLouis]

Majestic Blue is a very beautiful color - my favorite of all the blues. But my caveat is that is is very hard to clean out of pens. I can flush and flush and FLUSH, and it still leaves a residue. I think the compromise I'll strike is only using it in one particular pen.

 

Is this a common problem with Diamine Majestic Blue? Is thorough nib-cleaning impossible with this ink or only damn near impossible? You see, this was going to be the last blue I would ever buy (he said to himself, not believing it). My Pilot Knight desperately needs a blue that will come out the nib rich and dark and stay that way. Every blue I've tried, including Aurora, is too light with this pen. Noodler's Midnight Blue, for example, is a nice shaded Navy with my Phileas M, but with my Knight it's a rather hideous muddy teal. From the scans I've seen, Diamine Majestic Blue seems to be the blue this pen is looking for.

 

I find it takes a while to flush, but not more so than a lot of saturated inks.

[Bookman]

Majestic Blue is a very beautiful color - my favorite of all the blues. But my caveat is that is is very hard to clean out of pens. I can flush and flush and FLUSH, and it still leaves a residue. I think the compromise I'll strike is only using it in one particular pen.

 

Is this a common problem with Diamine Majestic Blue? Is thorough nib-cleaning impossible with this ink or only damn near impossible? You see, this was going to be the last blue I would ever buy (he said to himself, not believing it). My Pilot Knight desperately needs a blue that will come out the nib rich and dark and stay that way. Every blue I've tried, including Aurora, is too light with this pen. Noodler's Midnight Blue, for example, is a nice shaded Navy with my Phileas M, but with my Knight it's a rather hideous muddy teal. From the scans I've seen, Diamine Majestic Blue seems to be the blue this pen is looking for.

 

I find it takes a while to flush, but not more so than a lot of saturated inks.

 

Thanks. That's reassuring. FYI: Art Brown's website has temporarily removed Majestic Blue from its Diamine ink page. I talked to someone there who said it was temporarily out-of-stock and would be off the website until the next shipment arrived from the UK. She didn't know when that would happen.

[Pengrump]

I don't find Majestic Blue all that hard to clean out of pens. It just takes patience. In my experience it is much easier to clean out than BSB is or Penman Sapphire was when I still had it.

[HenryLouis]

I don't find Majestic Blue all that hard to clean out of pens. It just takes patience. In my experience it is much easier to clean out than BSB is or Penman Sapphire was when I still had it.

 

Yeah but those are considered high maintenance inks, but Diamine is considered to be a very safe brand..

[FaustianSlip]

Well, I just got a bottle of this courtesy of Caligula, and it really is a striking ink. I've literally only put it into a pen (just a basic Pelikano Jr. for now) about five minutes ago, and while it definitely is a saturated ink that bleeds through in, say, a Moleskine, it handled quite well on Staples bagasse and even better on some Clairfontaine. I'll probably use it with the bagasse, the Clairfontaine and try it on some Rhodia; it actually bled worse in my Moleskine than Noodler's Bay State Blue (which bleeds through a bit, but not at all to the point of being unusable- I have BSB inked in a pen with a much finer nib, though, so I'm sure that's part of it). I still like the Majestic very much, though, and I'll definitely use it. I'm toying with the idea of putting it in my fine nibbed Safari and seeing how it behaves- I was using Kiowa Pecan in that, but I'm sort of in the mood for a change.

 

I also got a bottle of J. Herbin's Violette Pensée, which I absolutely love. Very pretty ink, that.