Ink Review: Diamine Majestic Blue

When I haven't any blue I use red.

- Pablo Picasso

Imagine Picasso running out of blue while painting the Old Guitarist. Or the La Vie. I wonder how his masterpieces would have turned out had he ran out of blue. Interesting, isn't it? But could it be Picasso who inspired the chemists at Diamine to put together blue and red in one ink color they called Majestic Blue? I wonder.

Being a huge fan of blue inks, I have read (and tried) a lot about them and came about Diamine's Majestic Blue long before Phil Davies sent me the box of sample inks for review. I've been curious about Majestic Blue for long and filled a number of pens with it as soon as I received the samples. Since then, I've been a huge, huge fan of this ink!

Diamine Majestic Blue is a deep, dark, saturated blue that is almost blue-black, but it has a reddish undertone that simply amazes me. Before the J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary ink, I have not seen an ink with an undertone such as this one. While wet, Majestic Blue appears to be a deep blue-black -- almost black -- but dries off a beautiful and unique dark blue.

Diamine Majestic Blue reminds me of the blue skirts I wore to school when as a precocious 6 year-old attending Mrs. Avanzado's Grade 1 class, I proudly read stories and poems from books, and wrote and drew on the blackboard using a dusty chalk. My favorite story then was "Henny Penny". Incidentally, the Henny Penny book had laminated dark blue covers like Majestic Blue. Oh, the memories of those days!

Below is a written review of Diamine Majestic Blue. Like the Woodland Green review, I wrote on Kokuyo paper using two pens: a Platignum calligraphy pen (from fellow FPN-P member Eilu) with medium italic nib (blue pen on the left), and a white Parker Jotter with a Pentangeli stub nib.

Diamine released Majestic Blue in late 2009. It is a moderately saturated ink like other Diamine inks, but  flows well on most of the pens I used for this review, especially on the Platignum calligraphy pen. Shading can be seen in the strokes made by the Platignum pen, probably because of its broad calligraphy nib, and the reddish undertone against the blue shade is visible at the beginning or end of a stroke written using my Parker Jotter with a stub nib.

And here's Diamine Majestic Blue up close. Note that it behaves differently when dry on different paper types. 

On Kokuyo paper, written with the Platignum calligraphy pen. Lovely shading, though not as obvious as I would have wanted it to be.

Again, on Kokuyo paper with the Parker Jotter with stub nib. Note that the comma has a different (reddish) tone.

  

This is on Eagle notebook paper. The letters l and u both have the red undertones.

Here's Majestic Blue on Saizen notebook. No red undertones on this one.

On Scribe squared notebook. There is minor feathering, but no bleed. Again, no red undertones.

Lastly, this is on Venzi notebook paper. Look at the letter l. See the red?

I don't have much blue inks to compare Diamine Majestic Blue to, but here it is with Noodlers' Bad Belted Kingfisher and Midnight Blue. It appears more of a dark blue than being a blue-black beside the Noodlers' inks.

Like Woodland Green, Majestic Blue takes a longer period of time to dry, mostly because of its saturation. But still, it dries a beautiful deep blue, so it's worth waiting for a page to dry.

Founded in London, Diamine has been manufacturing inks since 1864. Diamine is one of the largest producers of a large range of fountain pen inks as well as the famous Registrar's Ink for permanent records. Diamine fountain pen inks are available from the Diamine site or from the Writing Desk in the UK. In the US, they are available from the Goulet Pen Company or the Pear Tree Pen Company. (I have no affiliation with any of these companies.)

(The glass boots used in this review are shooters (a type of shotglass) from the UK, gifts from a Lovely friend. I had fun trying to find stuff that will go into my review -- in this case, the English ink is complemented by English shooters and English pens. LOL. The paper and blue cloth are both Asians, though.)

Pen Review: Schneider iD Fountain Pen

I love Schneider pens. I have a huuuge stash of Schneider gel pens, fineliners, and rollerballs hoarded collected before I shifted to fountain pens. When I got my first Base pen, a black pen with smooth, wet medium nib, I was hooked. I found their simplicity charming and elegant. Through time, I have acquired more Schneider pens, mostly fountain pens: the colorful Zippis, the minimalist Base pens, and a Creativ calligraphy set. And last year, a new Schneider fountain pen caught my attention. I first saw the Schneider iD fountain pen at Cultpens, while ogling at the other Base models.

After reading about Schneider iD, I wanted one, being a Schneider fanatic and pen addict. But like so many pen and paper products, the pen isn't available in the Philippines. *Sigh.* So I did the expected, and months later, I received news that Schneider has kindly sent me an iD fountain pen to review. Hurray!

And here's my first fountain pen review: the Schneider iD fountain pen.

The Schneider iD came in two boxes, an outer box and an inner box. The outer box is made from black, thick, board paper. I like the simplicity of this box.

The inner box is made of transparent plastic with the Schneider logo on top, and the iD logo in the lower part of the box, near the bottom. Love the white artwork there. :)

A plastic pen holder keeps the iD in place inside the second box. A small brochure about the Schneider iD line of products is also included. The cover says "iD full of ideas". I like that. :)

The Schneider iD is a big pen, alright. It is huge, but not heavy. It is just right for my grip. It measures 5.75 inches when capped, and 5.25 inches uncapped. The cap does not allow posting the pen, which is just fine for me, because I rarely post my pens. It may be a problem for people who are used to posting their pens.

Here is the pen again, disassembled. On top is the cap, next line have section and barrel, bottom are feed and nib.

Did I say this pen is huge? I didn't? But it is! Look at that cap. It is huuuuuge! With a huuuuuge, oversized, wide shiny chrome clip and huuuuuge top cap.

This ring is on the top of the clip, near the top cap, and I assume this is meant for lanyards.

The Schneider logo is imprinted on the rubber material on the pen's cap. I am not so happy with this feature because the rubber is a monster lint and dirt magnet.

The iD logo is printed on the barrel, next to the wide metal ring. Because I got the chrome pen, the logo is imprinted in gray. The green and purple pens have matching logo color imprints.

Do you see the cartridge inside the barrel? The iD has a transluscent gray barrel, black plastic end cap, and the distinctive wide metal chrome ring. This photo gave me an idea about what I can do next with this pen. Read on, the surprise is at the end. :)

Like the cap, this pen's section comes with black, soft rubber that is ergonomically-designed to fit snugly to the pen user's fingers. This feature is excellent because it will help the user write comfortably even at longer periods of time.

Here is the Schneider iD's nib, which comes with a new feature: a breather hole. The breather hole is important as it promotes the exchange of air and ink in the pen's reservoir. The nibs of my Base pens do not have this feature, though.

The Schneider iD has a German (European) medium nib, which is bolder than other medium nibs. The day I got this pen, I was itching to ink it right away using the cartridge that came with it. But I waited until I got home because I wanted to use my current favorite ink: Diamine Majestic Blue. And the pen (and ink) did not disappoint. The iD wrote as soon as I inked it. The nib is softer than I thought it would be, writes smoothly, and Diamine Majestic Blue flows well on paper. (See photo of writing sample on Kokuyo paper below.)

The underside of the feed and nib shows the enormous iridium on the tip.

Schneider logo on the nib.

M is for medium. This is imprinted on the nib's left ear.

Feed and nib up close.

I have generously mentioned the Schneider Base pen in this post. I feel that I must write about it as well. But for now, I am happy to present the two pens here for comparison. Below are photos of the Schneider iD and Base nibs side by side, front and underside. Note that the Base nib does not have a breather hole and the ears (as I want to call them now - if there is a real name for these, kindly let me know) as seen on the right photo showing the feed's underside. The Base pen's feed's underside also appears to be flatter than that of the iD's.

I wrote my handwritten pen review on Kokuyo paper. The iD wrote so well on this paper, but also on a variety of papers as well, such as my Venzi journal and Rhodia Reverse notebook. If you read what I wrote below, you will know that I named this pen Kay. :)

For the large image, click here.

The Schneider iD fountain pen takes standard short or long international cartridges. In fact, my pen came with one short international cartridge. A converter may also be used, but it will have to be bought separately from independent pen sellers. Schneider surprisingly, does not make their own converters.

And here is the surprise. :)

The transluscent barrel of the Schneider iD gave me the idea that I could turn this c/c pen to an eyedropper (ED). I noticed, too, the long threaded part of the section where it joins the barrel. To test it, I filled both barrel and cap with water and observed it for a couple of hours, carefully watching it for leaks. And... no leaks! I then applied some silicone oil  to the section threads and my Schneider iD fountain pen is an instant ED-filled pen! Hurray!

Below are photos of the Schneider iD filled with J. Herbin Orange Indien.

For this writing test, I chose my Rhodia pad to match the orange ink. ;) The Orange Indien is a suggestion of my good friend and fellow blogger Tom Overfield.

For the large image, click here.

CultPens currently describes the Schneider iD products as weird and wonderful. I understand that not all fountain pen enthusiasts will like the form, but I am sure that many will agree with me that this pen's performance is more than excellent. It won't win 1st Prize in the 2009 ISPA and Innovation Award for nothing, right? I love it and I will definitely get another pen or two when it becomes available locally. In the Philippines, Schneider pens are available at all Office Warehouse branches.

The Schneider iD fountain pen in this review is from Germany, courtesy of Schneider. It is part of the series that include two more pens: a ballpoint and a rotary pencil. All three pens are available in green, purple, and black, which is my pen's color. Right now, it is filled with Orange Indien and writes like a dream. :)