Last night I purchased Private Reserve Midnight Blues Fast Dry. In reality I was at my favorite store to buy paper, but since they were out of what I needed, I thought, why not buy some ink? Can you really have too much ink? Probably, but I've not reached that threshold yet.

I live in an extremely dry environment, so dry time is not a major factor for me but I had taken a real fancy to this shade and the regular version of this ink was sold out, so the fast dry version went home with me.

Midnight Blues is smooth to write with and it does truly dry quick. Very important points if you live where it's hot and humid. The bummer about this feature is that if you stop to think for more than a moment this ink will not write right away. Not surprising, but there you go.

After I made the scan I ran the writing sample under water. I was actually surprised at how water resistant it is. The letters did feather, but the writing was still readable. Once it drys again I will add that scan so ya'll can judge for yourselves. For just everyday jotting I would find this level of water resistance quite acceptable.

What do I not like about this ink? It feathers. The paper I used for the scan was Rhodia (what I was shopping for, BTW). It also feathered on my Clairfontaine. I've used Diamine, Noodlers and Waterman on these papers and not noticed significant feathering. I thought it was interesting that it would, as it drys so fast. I've seen the regular version of this ink and not noticed feathering, so perhaps it's whatever chemical PR uses to make this ink dry fast that causes the spread. I don't know.

The other thing this ink does that will make some of ya'll crazy is the nib creep. It's significant. I use Noodlers all the time and folks are always remarking at how much nib creep that inks does. I can't say that Noodlers nib creep bothers me, but this PR ink covers the entire nib at times. So, if nib creep bugs you do not buy this ink. It will send you right round the bend!

Would I buy this particular version of this ink again? Probably not. Still, I don't see myself dumping this ink down the sink either. I've loaded it into my workhorse pen (the Pel 215) and will put some miles on it this week. so if I have any more points to add as time goes by I'll post them here.

scans are being fussy. I'll add them again in a mo...

ok, computers and I are not getting along right now. I'm going for a cuppa and will return to get ya'll those scans.

Quick drying and feather resistance seem to be opposing qualities in an ink.

Stephen

I gave this ink over to my partner in pen crime, Skip. We'll see how he does with it. I have faith in him! Well, that and he has a bottle of Noodlers Xfeather, so maybe that will tame this naughty ink.
I'll report back after I see him again in Feb.

I purchased a bottle at the Michigan Pen Show last fall. The color is nice, but the feathering is so pronounced with every pen and paper combo I tried that I am surprised PR even tried to market it. I thought it might just be my bottle, but I have heard similar comments from a lot of people. It's too bad, I have always been a big fan of PR inks. I bought the black and green versions of their fast dry inks at the same time, but I haven't tried them yet. Maybe I'll put some scans up later.

Larry

I got a bottle of private avocado green for free when I bought my vintage Jade duofold, it is indeed a fast drying ink but I prefer this than an ink that dries too slowly.

Here's a better image...

Thought I would share my recent experience with the PR Midnight Blues Fast Dry... the color was absolutely wonderful, but it made every pen that I tried it in bleed like a severed jugular, and write like a Sharpie marker. In the end, it was completely unusable.

I may try the "non-fast-dry" variety just to see if it feeds properly. I really do like the color.

Cheers,
A.J.

Yes, it doesn't actually dry in the sense all the water goes away, it just rapidly penetrates the surface of the paper so the wet bit is below the surface. This is, as I understand it, why the fast dry inks are so picky with the paper they use. It might be a good idea to try this ink on the specific papers that Swisher recommends for their fast dry inks.

Guess I'll stick with original formula

A.J.

I had exactly the same problem with the "non-fast-dry" version. Returned it.


John

Hi John -

I had better luck with the "regular" version of PR Midnight Blues. It works very well in both my Lamy Safari (F) and Lamy AL-Star (M).

A.J.

I got the Fast Dry by mistake.

It's a great color. It feathers. It is fussy about paper. No shading. It blobs out of the pen.

Interesting bottle, similar to the new Pilot "perfume" bottles.

I had exactly the same experience with this ink. Every well-behaved pen I own just poured this ink out onto the paper in a puddle. I had to dispose of it. Great colour though!

I have the Midnight Black version of their fast dry inks and I have the smae issue. The only way I have been able to use it is in a dryer writing fine nib pen. In those circumstances it seems to work out well. The ink was a gift and so I'll stick it out, but I would not recommend purchasing it. I'll probably get around to doing a review on it soon.

Just bought the fast drying Midnight Blues yesterday along with a fast drying Sherwood Green. Love both colors, but have to agree with everyone here, the blue just GUSHES out of pens. I've got a fine tip Cross that's a bit of a wet writer and the ink has turned a fine nib into a medium/broad.

However, I put some in my Waterman Expert (medium nib), and it's relatively well behaved. Still creeps to an extreme degree.

All in all, I'm going to use this ink, but given the finickiness of it, I'll not be buying it again.

The Sherwood Green on the other hand, is delightful and well behaved.

I just purchased the PR Midnight Blues FD ink at my favorite pen store.... was hopeful it would be useful for quick notes and checkwriting... apparently not.

First, the feathering is horrible--more than that, using an EF Nib, it writes in my Moleskine with the same width and less definition than a sharpie marker!

It seems to only feather slightly on Levenger index cards--not sure if I want to dump it or hope that I can find a pen/paper combination that works.

I've found that those Levenger index cards feather on lots of inks. At the least the universe of inks that I typically can use is cut in half with these cards.

Stephen

I got this Fast dry in in Sherwood Green. I can't get it to work in my driest of pens without being way too wet. Is the ink too thin or something?

PR Midnight Blue Fast Dry is a totally stupid & unusable ink in a FP, I am likely to use it with a brush and not replace the bottle.

But the colour is something that I want and wonder if anyone has suggestions for a replacement that is close and not PR.