Birmingham – Grandview Avenue Midnight Horizon

[crahptacular]

Hey guys! I’ve been out for a while (sickness, travel, work, wrist injury… a lot of things back to back), but I’m hoping to get back into regularly doing these reviews . I guess on the bright side, being less involved in the community for a few months has curbed my irresponsible spending habits... temporarily… Anyway, sorry for the long hiatus! I'm determined to finish these samples this year!

 

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors when I bought the sample pack) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

Midnight Horizon is a dusty blue-black that I would put on the grey side. Unlike some other darker blues/blue-blacks I have, there is little to no green in the hue. I think the closest ink I have is Kobe Kano-Cho Midnight, but Midnight Horizon is much less intense, more of a muted color. Unfortunately, my blue-black collection is minuscule, so my comparisons aren’t great. In any case, it’s a nice, if somewhat conservative, easily legible writing color that is light enough to not look black, especially with drier nibs (my Lamy broad nib is on the dry side, for reference). There is some shading, but not very much. When washed with water, there is no separation of dyes, so you get a very consistent range of tones. It’s a middle-of-the-road ink in terms of performance—moderate flow, some water resistance, some shading, minor sheen—and quite conservative in appearance, but I think it’s a pleasant color both for writing and sketching.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate

Shading: Low

Sheen: Slight silver sheen when pooled; not visible in writing

Water Resistance: Low-Moderate

 

 

The following sample was done with a Delike New Moon (Extra Fine) and a Lamy LX (Broad) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Kuretake Menso brush (Small). Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: The doodle came out a little too blue (the lighter portions especially are greyer in reality), but the big smear and the comparisons all came out decently.

 

Scan:

 

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Sailor Sei-boku, Sailior Kobe #51 Kano-Cho Midnight, Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo, Kyo No Oto Aonibi, L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Oconto

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Yoko Ogawa’s The Diving Pool

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[DrDebG]

Welcome Back! I am sorry to hear of your misfortunes. Your review is fantastic! Thank you for your hard efforts. While I am not thrilled with this color, I may have to give this line of inks a try.

[Tas]

Missed you.

Glad you're on the mend and putting ink on paper (so beautifully) for us all to see

Loving this colour. Very Mont Blanc Midnight Blue and that's praise indeed from me.

[mhguda]

Glad you're back & on the mend; welcome back!

I bought a number of their 30ml bottles of blue recently, and am preparing to go through them. So far I have only diptested them, and was pleasantly surprised by most. This one was actually slightly disappointing, but now that I've seen what you did with it, I'm going to give it another try.

so, thanks for the inspiration! and keep up the good work.

[lapis]

Good to hear you're back but more importantly I hope you're feeling better. Use your wrist to write more and more and that should get you feeling even better.

As to this ink, I love it. Your art ought to warm up those not already into blue blacks. A bb is always good (IMO) but that touch of gray and touch of purple make it perfect!

[Intensity]

Wonderful to see you and your reviews back! Always a pleasure seeing your artwork.

[Jan2016]

Great review!!!

[namrehsnoom]

Welcome back! And thanks for another great review.

Love the colour - a blue-black-grey. I’m almost drooling

Now I really need to find out where I can get these inks.

[jmccarty3]

So glad to have you back, and we all hope you continue to recover quickly! This was a terrific review of yet another great looking Birmingham ink.

[crahptacular]

Thanks for all the well wishes . I've gotta do a bunch of these to practice writing and painting with my wrist brace on.

[ENewton]

Please be careful.

[rudyhou]

the grey tone to this blue-black ink. oh, nice doodle, by the way.

Edited May 22, 2018 by rudyhou

[tropicalwitch]

Very nice review! I was so pleased with this ink in person, after so many blue-blacks that lean too far into teal territory.

[taimdala]

I'm glad I found this review before purchasing this ink. On Birmingham's website, it appears much lighter, brighter, and blue-r. Instead of the dark greyed blue here, it has the vivid hue of cobalt blue glass from a cathedral window.

[Intensity]

I'm glad I found this review before purchasing this ink. On Birmingham's website, it appears much lighter, brighter, and blue-r. Instead of the dark greyed blue here, it has the vivid hue of cobalt blue glass from a cathedral window.

 

Yes, I was fooled too when I got my bottle last year. Actually thought I had ordered the wrong color. I do like the actual ink though. It bears similarity to the old IG formula of Montblanc's Midnight Blue.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Intensity