I'm looking for a dark blue and have really liked other Private Reserve colors. They have a wide selection of blues: American, Electric, Sonic, etc. and the Black Magic looked to be the darkest. Can anyone verify this? --online scans never seem to be reliable

It has red overtones, giving it a violet color. I mix it with Midnight Blues, about 60/40 Midnight/Black Magic.

Yup, it's the darkest (it's also got the most red in it, though I wouldn't go as far as to call it violet). The possible exception might be the new Ebony Blue, though I understand that one is decidedly on the green side.

The Midnight Blues by PR was my favorite dark blue until I tried the Calamo deep blue by Stipula. Very dark, free of non-blue overtones.
Alternatives:
If your priority is true blueness, you might want to try Visconti's or Delta's...and of course the discontinued Penman.
If your priority is darkness and usabilty at work, you might want to try Caran d'Ache. IMO. solid but dull.

Midnight Blues, in my experience, is the darkest -- and most certainly free of any other colors save for blue.

I have both Midnight Blues and Black Magic Blue, and find the Black Magic to be quite purple. Midnight Blues, on the other hand, is a dark blue, fairly free of purple or green tones, and is probably what you're looking for. Both flow rather fast for me, and lay down a dark line from all but the stingiest of nibs.

If Midnight Blues flows too quickly for you, I've gotten nice results from Pelikan Blue-Black. It's grayer, but looks quite nice from a wetter pen. I'd like to try some Quink Blue-Black, based on scans here, but haven't found it locally, and keep forgetting to add it to a web order.

Thanks! I think I'll go ahead and order the Black Magic Blues and then maybe look at getting some Midnight Blues later, I don't mind a little violet tone to my writing

To me, it's purple. Very, very dark though. You can blue it up with bluer inks though.

I would also suggest you consider their DC Electric Blue; probably not quite as dark as Midnight or Black Magic (all three are very dark via a wet nib, however), but it's a distinctive pure blue which manages to be vibrant (I don't want to say "bright" because that might be misleading) in a way that the other two aren't. There's never any doubt you're looking at a pure blue ink (at the moment it's probably my favorite blue ink). But all three are marvelous inks....

Simon

I agree with simonrob, or almost: DC Supershow Blue is very similar to the Electric Blue, but folks seem to have fewer problems with it.

I really like the American Blue, but it isn't really dark. it's basically the same shade of blue as the DC Supershow, but a little diluted; diluting DC Supershow Blue with water or a less saturated blue (Skrip Blue) makes it look pretty much the same. Two inks for one bottle, sorta.

Both, Black Magic Blues and Midnight blues are very dark blues. As others have pointed out, Black Magic Blues is a bit purplish, but still blue. Usually you don't notice it is purplish unless you use it next to another color, such as Midnight blues, and then the purple comes out at you. Both are my favorite dark blues. I first bought Caran D'ache's blue/black and ended up disposing of it. It was a horribly dull gray without any hint of blue in it. You will not be disappointed with any of the above PR inks. Let us know what you think after you try it. Gigi