Nice, very nice !!!

Flows nicely, I like it more than PR Tanzanite, dries quickly.

Yes. A beautiful ink. A very generous eBay seller gave me some (more than half a bottle) recently, as a bonus.

Yes, I like Diamine Sapphire. It and Herbin Eclat de Saphir are my two favorite blues, with Visconti Blue close behind.

Best, Ann

I've been using Diamine Sapphire almost exclusively for the past year - it supplanted Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue as my favorite blue ink. Lately, however, I've discovered how much I like Omas Blue, and my Sapphire has seen a little less use.

I wonder if it's jealous?

James

One of my favorite blues was Parker Penman Saphire Blue: Very well saturated and medium deep blue. I had some cartridges years ago, now gone

Try it if you get a hold of them.

I don't much like Diamine's Sapphire at all--or any of Diamine's blues except Mediterranean.

Diamine Sapphire is always my first choice of ink. Great intense color and none of the drying problems that I had with brands like Noodler's, Private Reserve etc...

I like Diamine Sapphire and use it quite a lot, not quite as 'rich' as Penman Sapphire, but at least you can still buy it.

Andy

Interesting. I like Diamine Sapphire, but after discovering Lake Placid Blue, I've been using that as my primary blue ink. Which of Noodler's bulletproof or eternal inks come closest to Lake Placid Blue?

Jon

I actually got a bottle of Diamine Sapphire Blue for my mum and a bottle of their Royal Blue for myself. When they arrived my mum decided she preferred the Royal Blue and so we swapped. I was perfectly happy with that, I think the Sapphire is a very nice blue.

Here is a sample of Diamine Sapphire and a few other blues on whitelines paper.

Click to view attachment

Sorry 'bout the crappy handwriting!

MikeW

Diamine is very nicely flowing. The Sapphire is a nice color but it is not relevant to the Penman Sapphire. This is less concentrated and has strong purple undertones. Sample of Diamine Sapphire.

<img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/azavalia/w32.jpg">

I always hate when people show off their handwriting, especially after you have shown yours to the world.

I wish I had your handwriting antoniosz.

BTW, is that written fast or slooow?

I have seen a video of Antonios writing in this general sort of style. It is not exactly slow, but appears to be a style that requires a calm and deliberate method, rather than a quick flick of the wrist.

I've got Diamine Sapphire Blue and Royal Blue (and several others) and really like both.

Still have 10 bottles of Parker Penman Sapphire stashed. So the other day when I was trying to decide on my first bottle of Diamine I opted instead for the Mediterranean Blue. What a great color!! It has wonderful shading, dries quickly and is a nice gap between Caribbean Blue and Sapphire!

It would be interesting to see a side by side comparison scan of Diamine Sapphire, Waterman Florida Blue, and Aurora Blue -- the three blues that are most frequently labeled as being "purplish".

It the crazy French paper! that's the trick! It sucks the ink into the proper form!

Some of this writing is incredible around here... this Diamine Sapphire looks very nice to my eye.. I like dark and purplish..

Dave

I would have to disagree with anyone who says that Diamine Sapphire is purplish. I don't even see a hint of purple in that ink. Just pure blue. There is, however, a purple tint to Aurora Blue and Waterman Florida Blue.

Ok.... we now have competing theories. As good scientists, we need to do experiments and gather data to determine which theory is correct. Anyone got a scanner.... and some Diamine Sapphire?

I'm basing my theory on a snail mail that Elaine sent me 8-9 months ago in which she wrote out samples of various Diamine blue inks: Royal Blue, Sapphire, Presidential Blue, Prussian Blue, Blue Black, and one or two others. The Royal Blue seemed to me to be a light-to-medium blue with no purple at all, whereas the Sapphire seemed very purplish to me. Let me also say that the Presidential Blue, Prussian Blue, and Blue Black all seemed to me to have greenish elements. Unfortunately, I can't find the snail mail, so I'm going by memory.

Sapphire blue is blue. No purple in it. Was looking for it in cartridges for that reason. There is a scan of these colors here. I have seen it. Now need to find it again.

For what it's worth, I perceive Diamine Sapphire Blue as having indigo-to-purple elements in it. From the super-needlepoint that I'm using, it reminds me slightly of Tanzanite, but much richer and more blue; with a swash from a q-tip, it's an intensely rich dark blue, with much less purple to it.

I just bought a bottle at the NY/NJ Pen Show, to go with the dark blue Filcao Libra that I bought, and I think the combination is well-nigh perfect. I'm not generally a blue ink user, but this has moved into my regular rotation, because it's an excellent color.

I see some violet in sapphire blue too; I found it to be between blue and indigo, but closer to indigo. In the wikipedia article for indigo,
I see no violet in Diamine royal blue, a touch in PR Lake Placid blue, a fair bit in Diamine sapphire blue, and lots in Diamine WES imperial blue and Aurora blue.

Stephen

This is exactly what I see (except for PR - don't have this ink). Imperial is darker than sapphire and therefore seems to have more purple, but only slightly.

Here's a photo (not a scan) of Diamine Sapphire Blue taken back in April 2007.

Click to view attachment

For me, when it's wet on the page, this ink looks positively violet. When it dries, most of that goes away, leaving what I would say is blue with a slight hint of violet.

Maybe there's some variation between batches at the factory - that could explain our lack of agreement.

Yep. Diamine Sapphire Blue does exhibit this behavior. WES Imperial Blue looks even more purple when it hits the page, but once it dries, it's primarily blue.

Does it fade a lot?

The colour stays strong when it dries.
(Or do you mean fading over years? I don't know about that.)

Royal, IMHO is a brighter, more "sky" blue version of Sapphire

Thanks for your answer. I meant over a longer time, say some years. Does anyone know about this?