Noodler's Midnight Blue

[Ruminator]

I loaded up my trusty Esterbrook J Transitional with the 9668 nib with a portion of the sample of Noodler's Midnight Blue a few days ago and have been writing with it. Attached is my handwritten review (please excuse my penmanship, or lack thereof), which I would like to accompany with a few comments.

 

NMB is nearly black. It has blue in it, as is evident from the water test (a wet-finger rub). However, when run in my Estie, the ink is nearly black under my normal lighting. In addition, it takes forever to dry. I gave up on the HP Premium Laser paper after three minutes. Of course, this is partly a function of the wet 9668 nib. Even with the relatively wet nib, this is a slow-drying ink on my papers.

 

There is some nib creep with this ink. It doesn't really bother me, but if that's one of your peeves, then this is not a good ink for you.

 

It is not waterproof, as evidenced by my wet-finger rub, but I suspect there is some Noodler's Black in the mix and would expect a legible line to be left after the remaining dye washed away.

 

With that, I'll leave you to my review. I will continue to search for the blue-black that works for me. This one isn't quite there. However, I am about convinced to order a bottle of PR Midnight Blues. I've been running the remainder of that sample in a Parker 51 with a wet medium and that's a great color. Enjoy...

[saskia_madding]

Wow. That is the closest-to-black-but-still-blue ink I've ever seen! This would be great to suggest for the many people who post threads in the Inky Thoughts topics titled something like "darkest blue-black ink, for use at work".

 

Thanks for the review!

[P.A.R.]

Perhaps my favorite blue - mine isn't quite so off black as yours, a very pleasant true dark blue (about like the dark blue borders and buttons on this page.) Not bulletproof (which I don't really have a use for) but a very pleasant ink to use. It can also be diluted 1:1 with water and still have almost all of its intensity and a little more shading (and distilled water is cheap, almost cutting the price of the ink in half.) I'm going to pick up a gallon of distilled water (~$1.20) after school today. A great ink and good review

Edited February 14, 2012 by P.A.R.

[Ruminator]

This would be great to suggest for the many people who post threads in the Inky Thoughts topics titled something like "darkest blue-black ink, for use at work".Thanks for the review!

 

You're welcome and I think you are correct. It is very dark but still blue. In the light from my desk lamp, it's almost impossible to tell it is blue. It looks black. But in good light, it's definitely blue.

 

Perhaps my favorite blue - mine isn't quite so off black as yours, a very pleasant true dark blue (about like the dark blue borders and buttons on this page.) Not bulletproof (which I don't really have a use for) but a very pleasant ink to use.

 

Thanks to you, also. I don't really mind if the ink is not bulletproof -- water resistance would be good enough. I just don't want my words to wash off the page if there is some catastrophe.

 

My biggest issue with this ink is drying time on the papers I use. If I was working on relatively poor quality paper (think copy paper sold in bulk packs), then I think it would be fine. So would Noodler's Blue-Black (a color reminiscent of Quick Blue-Black, which I like but is not at all water resistant), which I think I reviewed in my search for the perfect blue-black ink. But on my good HP and Clairefontain papers, I'm waiting... waiting... waiting...

 

I might also mention I am using a quite-wet Estie 9668 medium nib. That could account for some of the darkness. Anyway, great color and thanks for the feedback.

 

-=d

[kp288908]

nice review. thank you!

[The Good Captain]

Have you considered the Diamine Midnight and Denim inks? I've never tried any water tests but they are aptly-named colours that might suit your purposes.

[Feanaaro]

Did anyone experience darkening of this ink over time? I don't mean over time on the paper, I mean in the pen and/or bottle. Mine started started as a very dark blue when I got it a year ago or so, but now, especially after it has stayed in a pen for some days, it comes out nearly black, with the blue really visible only upon smearing it when still wet. It also seems to have become wetter (and it was already wet to begin with), if that's even possible.

Any (inky) thoughts?

[Erik Dalton]

I'm in the same place that you are, looking for my perfect dark blue/blue black ink.

I tried the Noodlers inks as well,but they take a long time to dry and seem to take extra effort to clean. No matter the care I take, I end up with smear marks all over the page. I really need an ink that's idiot proof..lol..

I too am not concerned with bulletproof, but don't want to loose all that is written with a spilt cup of water.

The problem I have with diamine j.herbin, waterman and others, is that they disappear when hit with water.

Edlestein Tanzanite is water resistant and very dark so it's an option, but expensive. Sailor inks perform well, but don't play well with other inks so you have to be careful changing inks. It's best to keep pens dedicated to them alone.

Plain old pilot blue black is very water resistant dries quickly, is not as saturated as I like and feathers on lower grade papers. But, I keep going back to it for lack of options.

 

Recently I've been trying DeAtramentis inks. They are very color saturated and have a reasonable dry time. Gueseppi Verdi is similar to Noodlers midnight and pretty wet. Other DA inks I've tried and like very much are Denim Blue and Atlantic Blue. DeAtramentis inks seem to very water resistant, but yet easy to clean up. Still working with these, but so far I like them. My favorite color is the denim blue, but it's more slow flowing than the other two. It was sluggish and didn't do well in other pens. I have it in a Pelikan m800 now with a very juicy medium nib and its perfect in this pen.

I was glad to see you're post and thourough review. It's good to know there are others out there on the same quest.

[Ruminator]

I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote this review. I wrote several more but apparently my quota for images is full so I was unable to upload more handwritten reviews. Oh well...

 

Nonetheless, I'll add another ink to the mix that I started using last summer. It's Noodler's Aircorps Blue-Black. I do not know if this will be my forever blue-black ink, but I find that it works well in a Pilot Vanishing Point with a medium nib I bought (also last summer).

 

I do not remember whether I wrote a review of this ink. Hmmm...

[Ruminator]

Have you considered the Diamine Midnight and Denim inks? I've never tried any water tests but they are aptly-named colours that might suit your purposes.

 

Cap'n... sorry for such a late reply. I must have tripped and fallen off the edge of the Earth...

 

Nope, I had not considered either of those. I might have to order a sample next time I make a buy from the Goulets (favorite pen people).

 

I have a bottle of Noodler's Luxury Blue that is between the Diamine Midnight and Denim, I think. It's a dusky kind of gray-blue that reminds me of faded denim. I've been working my way through that little bottle, but as time goes on I think I like it less than I originally thought I would. Yeah, it's quite water resistant, but with a wet nib I think it will ghost/bleed, even on good paper (but probably not the HP Laser). But that color just isn't working for me.

 

I'm tempted to get a sample of Elysium Blue from the Goulets and give that a try. It might be too blue for a blue-black, but I think I'd like it better as a blue ink and the Aircorp Blue-Black is working for me as a blue-black (at least for this month).

 

Thanks!

[wastelanded]

Have you considered the Diamine Midnight and Denim inks? I've never tried any water tests but they are aptly-named colours that might suit your purposes.

Diamine Midnight is my favourite dark blue: it's like writing with velvet. The red highlights in a wide nib are a lovely bonus.

[Erik Dalton]

So there is a quota of images you can include in our posts? Just how does that work?

[Ruminator]

Diamine Midnight is my favourite dark blue: it's like writing with velvet. The red highlights in a wide nib are a lovely bonus.

 

 

It's a lovely color and one that I will likely add to my stable.

 

So there is a quota of images you can include in our posts? Just how does that work?

 

I'm not sure and never researched it. I have a vague recollection of seeing something (which is a reason some host images offsite), but don't recall the particulars.