Birmingham – Uss Requin Navy Blue

[crahptacular]

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors when I bought the sample pack, but I think they’re at 40+ and counting) 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.

 

USS Requin Navy Blue is, as the name suggests, a navy blue ink with notes of purple and grey. At its darkest, as with wet pens, it is a solemn dark blue, but not so dark that it would be mistaken for black. In less generous applications, such as the fine nib I used, which is a dry writer, the ink shows quite a bit of shading, and you can see more of the ink’s subtleties in the lighter shades. As with many other Birmingham inks, it has a somewhat grey, dusty tone, and the hue is not intensely saturated, such that even as a dark ink, it gives a subdued, conservative impression. It reminded me of Kyo-Iro Soft Snow of Ohara and Kyo no Oto Aonibi. In terms of hue, it’s somewhere between the two, with Soft Snow having more purple and Aonibi having less. All three are darker colors with a dusty appearance. I’m a fan of both Soft Snow and Aonibi, so Navy Blue is right up that alley. That being said, both of the Kyoto inks show some haloing, which I enjoy a lot, whereas Navy Blue hasn’t shown any in the configurations I’ve used. The ink felt slightly more generous in terms of flow than the average Birmingham ink, and felt quite comfortable to write with even in a dry fine nib. The ink had two distinct components when mixed with water: a dark blue base and a pinkish color that tended to separate a little bit. I liked the writing appearance of the ink in my broad nib, where the color lived up to the name of “Navy Blue,” with moderate shading to give it some added interest. In the dry fine nib, it looked watery and faded, only occasionally shading to its proper dark color. I would guess that in most pens, this wouldn’t be a problem, but for those who prefer drier/finer nibs, make sure to look at the writing samples for a better idea of what you can expect to see. I thought the shading in the fine nib still made it a fun color on TR, but pretty underwhelming in the more absorptive papers (in the FC writing sample, you can see the fine nib is almost completely flat).

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate-High

Shading: Moderate

Sheen: None

Water Resistance: Moderate

 

 

The following sample was done with a PenBBS 308 (Fine) and a FC 31 (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 scan came out decently for the featured color; the majority of the doodle and writing are okay. The big smear is too bright/saturated, and most of the comparisons are off, but still usable. I couldn’t pick up on the more subtle aspects of the ink (the lighter tones and purple undertones in the doodle all but disappeared, for example), but the overall impression is accurate.

 

Scan:

 

 

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

Kyo-Iro Soft Snow of Ohara, Noodler’s Kung Te-Cheng, Diamine Bilberry, Diamine Imperial Blue, Kyo no Oto Aonibi

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Midori MD:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[Erik Dalton]

Interesting ink. Dark navy is one of my favorites. I thought I had found my ink for life with Montblanc JFK Navy Blue. Turns out it fades and looses its vibrancy rather quickly. These days I’m back to De Atramentis Atlantic Blue and Indigo.

Have you tested this stuff out for permanency?

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review (and the awesome drawing of the ink's namesake, which my husband and keep telling ourselves "We should go tour that sometime...." (During a major fireworks show downtown a few years ago, and some of my in-laws were in town, we ended up sitting on the pier right next to the Requin's bow, and had great views of everything but the stuff cascading off the West End Bridge; we had originally planned to watch from the bridge itself, not realizing it would be blocked off.)

I'll admit though that I found this ink to be a little cloggy, which was a disappointment (of course I tried it at a time when things were not going overly well to begin with -- at Christmas, when I got to spend Christmas Day on the road and the next day holed up in a hotel room because I didn't want to give my in-laws the really nasty virus I had). I've liked some of the other Birmingham inks a whole lot (and really need to get myself a full bottle of Truss Blue at some point...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[crahptacular]

Interesting ink. Dark navy is one of my favorites. I thought I had found my ink for life with Montblanc JFK Navy Blue. Turns out it fades and looses its vibrancy rather quickly. These days I’m back to De Atramentis Atlantic Blue and Indigo.

Have you tested this stuff out for permanency?

No, the ink sample usually lasts me one or two weeks of usage, after which I write up my thoughts. I keep all of my writing samples from previous reviews, so in time I will be able to come back and see how well it held up (providing I remember to...). That being said, they're all in closed notebooks kept in dark areas so they won't tell me anything about how they stand up to sunlight or anything like that. But feel free to send me a message in the future and I'll take a look at any of my previous reviews for you.

 

 

Thanks for the review (and the awesome drawing of the ink's namesake, which my husband and keep telling ourselves "We should go tour that sometime...." (During a major fireworks show downtown a few years ago, and some of my in-laws were in town, we ended up sitting on the pier right next to the Requin's bow, and had great views of everything but the stuff cascading off the West End Bridge; we had originally planned to watch from the bridge itself, not realizing it would be blocked off.)

I'll admit though that I found this ink to be a little cloggy, which was a disappointment (of course I tried it at a time when things were not going overly well to begin with -- at Christmas, when I got to spend Christmas Day on the road and the next day holed up in a hotel room because I didn't want to give my in-laws the really nasty virus I had). I've liked some of the other Birmingham inks a whole lot (and really need to get myself a full bottle of Truss Blue at some point...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Interesting, I had no issues with clogging in my limited experience. Then again, I use all my review inks in consistent environments and the pens never sit for more than a day or two without use, so my usage patterns probably don't test well for things like that. Also, I love your anecdotes about these inks (or rather, their namesakes). I think if there were an ink line devoted to my city, I'd feel compelled to buy each and every one that evoked a personal memory.

[Tas]

:)
Thank you !

[visvamitra]

Stunning presentation.

[pgcauk]

Navy was my mother's color, but I have never really got on with it - until I threw a sample of this one into my ink-basket (to qualify for free postage!).

I was all set on Justice Blue (my Kung Te Cheung?) and Celestial Blue (my Sherlock Holmes?) as my 60ml Birmingham Blues (To which I have added George Ferris Jr. and the truly wonderful, if less identifiably blue, Rachel Carson), but I will surely return for more of this Navy at some point. It's the pink and purple elements, which are quite evident while the ink is wet, that I find so fascinating, even if these resolve to a traditional Navy as the ink dries.

Thanks for another great review! You hooked me in to Birmingham Inks and I am very happy that you did!

[amberleadavis]

Another great review!

[pgcauk]

I used this to write some condolence cards recently in both a medium stub and a 6mm Pilot Parallel, and found this ink to fit the purpose well. Waterfront Dusk was just too purple and felt egotistical, but this has just enough violet behind the blue to appear both solemn and dignified.

I am still trying to figure out when to use "Allegheny Courthouse Justice Blue", which is similar but a few shades lighter, and when to use the Navy. I had thought the latter was for sketching (there is a lovely pink in the wash which my scanner, unfortunately, won't pick up at all) and the former for writing, but now I'm thinking the Navy works well for formal correspondence.