De Atramentis Steel Blue Written Review

[Mafia Geek]

Here's a scan of my written review of De Atramentis Steel Blue bottled ink. I was impressed with the ink, a pretty nice blue colour with good punch to it.

I found it feathered a little with my pen/paper combination but others might not notice it (on Rhodia it likely wouldn't feather).

 

I lost my water test for this one, but after washing under water for a bit it mostly washed out, but a little water on it won't render it unreadable.

 

 

[jandrese]

Nice review, thanks. I like the highlighter test.

[MyDarnSnakeLegs]

I've been using this in a Lamy Nexx, and it does feather a little, but it is a really good color. I've thought about adding a highlighter test to my reviews, but I feel like I would end up with lots of ink on my highlighter pretty quickly. How's your highlighter holding up?

[Mafia Geek]

It's doing pretty well, I just use a retractable Sharpie highlighter (one of the ones with Smear Guard). After highlighting text if you have a scrap piece of paper and scribble with the highlighter on that you can get most of the ink off the tip, just keep scribbling until it goes back to normal colour. I use the highlighter test because one of the criteria for me for an everyday ink is that a highlighter won't smudge it (only found about three inks so far that stand up to the test so highlighter to me is the ultimate test of an ink). The ones that have stood up are the old Lamy Blue-Black bottles (Iron-Gall ink), Rohrer & Klinger Salix (also Iron-Gall), and Noodler's Polar Blue. I by no means have tested all inks out there, but quite a few "waterproof" inks that a highlighter will smear (Noodler's Black will even smear with a highlighter).

[Saintpaulia]

Interestingly, Diamine also makes a "Steel Blue" altho' it is very different from De A.'s.

[English]

Have just started using Steel Blue in several pens - xf Lamy Alstar, fine italic Italix Captain's Commission, and Twsbi 580 with Pendleton Brown fine italic nib. Steel Blue works great in each of these pens on Staples Bagasse legal pad and Rhodia paper as well as plain old copier paper. I haven't had any issues with feathering. I love the color - each nib size brings out a slightly different hue in the ink. The Twsbi 580 with the special nib from Pendleton Brown is probably the best match for the Steel Blue - brings out great shading. Dry time seems fine, not super quick but definitely not long enough to be a bother. Steel Blue is a definite go-to ink in my rotation!