EFNIR: Diamine Steel Blue

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Diamine Steel Blue

This is review #240 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: This was a sample gifted to me by a generous FPNer.  The ink goes down with a bluer lean (but not blue) and dries more green.  It's a bright, cheerful color, good for summer.  But it's nothing like blued steel.  Cleaning was quick and easy with plain water.

Zoomed in photo (Very close.  Possibly a little too blue, hard to be sure.)

Screenshot (A bit too green. A little too dark.)

Scan of Completed Review (Definitely too green.)

Absorbent Paper Close-up (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper) (Both are very close to the color I see.)

Line width (One of the lines used for dry time. Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 317µm. With 240 inks measured, the average line width is 296µm.)

Microscope image (100x. Taken with cell phone camera to get color. Background is green. Feathers are light blue.)

Previous Review: Diamine Raw Sienna.

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

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View a list of my inks, complete with review results in a google sheet.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh? Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[Sailor Kenshin]

@LizEF, I love the globe!  

 

This is an ink I had once.  Don't recall its properties,  but it was a sample, and I didn't replace it, having a couple of other inks that were close in color.

 

Steel Blue or Blue Steel, this isn't at all steely.  And out of the Blue comes a Grey Man who robs the world of color.  👀 What next?  Can't wait to find out.

 

Thanks for your continuing Tuesday InkTacular reviews and stories!

 

 

[LizEF]

6 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

@LizEF, I love the globe!  

Does look kinda cool, huh?

 

6 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

This is an ink I had once.  Don't recall its properties,  but it was a sample, and I didn't replace it, having a couple of other inks that were close in color.

Really, the color is the only thing compelling about this ink - if you like it, and have a smooth enough nib, then go for it, otherwise, probably no reason to buy it.

 

7 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Steel Blue or Blue Steel, this isn't at all steely.

Yeah, none of them are.  (Maybe they're all shades you could get (but no one ever does) when bluing steel...)

 

7 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

And out of the Blue comes a Grey Man who robs the world of color.  👀 What next?  Can't wait to find out.

 

Thanks for your continuing Tuesday InkTacular reviews and stories!

You're most welcome!

[yazeh]

Another fabulous review with excellent sound track @LizEF 

It's delightful colour, especially as it shows Quin and Mak's home world  We can even see Quin's bridge

 

I love the quotes, it's so witty and brilliant!

Thank you for making our Tuesday, brighter and bluer, in this case 🙏

[Karmachanic]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

The ink goes down with a bluer lean (but not blue) and dries more green.

 

Kinda like the mysterious Blue Suede

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Another fabulous review with excellent sound track @LizEF 

  Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

It's delightful colour, especially as it shows Quin and Mak's home world  We can even see Quin's bridge

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

I love the quotes, it's so witty and brilliant!

  (And I cleverly left the "l" out of "could" and didn't catch it until you prompted me to take a second look...  Clearly due to signal lose between the CPU and digital pen controllers...)

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Thank you for making our Tuesday, brighter and bluer, in this case 🙏

You are most welcome!

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

Kinda like the mysterious Blue Suede

Oh, yes.  Never seen that in person, but from online pictures, yeah, kinda similar.

[Paul-in-SF]

I have a 30 ml bottle of this, I never think to reach for it because I have too many of these greeny-blue or bluey-green inks, I guess, and they seem to have lost their magic for me. Also, for some reason this one feels a bit cold to me. Well, if I persist in not buying any more ink, I suppose I will perforce use it again one day. 

[LizEF]

12 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Well, if I persist in not buying any more ink, I suppose I will perforce use it again one day. 

  What crazy talk is this?  "Buy no more ink" - unthinkable!

[Paul-in-SF]

Joking aside, I am trying to plan ahead to minimize wasted ink at my unfortunate demise. I hope I am planning well ahead, but one never knows. Most of my pens would be (will be?) relatively easy to dispose of to recoup at least a modest percentage of the original outlay. Not so much with partially used ink bottles, I believe. I fear they would end up in landfill, or poured down the drain and the containers recycled. Not a pleasant thought. 

 

Unless you'd like them? 

[LizEF]

9 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

at my unfortunate demise.

Heaven forbid!

 

Wise to pre-plan, though.

 

9 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Unless you'd like them? 

  Thank you.  I'm always game for samples of things I've never tried.  A better idea, I think, would be to pre-plan a newbie PIF - newbies always need to try more ink - even if they don't know it!