Diamine Steel Blue ink is a turquoise blue ink from Diamine ink Company based in the UK. Diamine Inks, first made in 1864, offer a wide variety of inks, colors, and options such as the very popular Diamine shimmering inks. Diamine inks are known for simple bottles with tons of colors. Their inks have great flow and are inexpensive.
Diamine Steel Blue ink is a nice blue green turquoise color ink. It is definitely not blue enough to be a true turquoise, like Lamy Turquoise, but is more of a light teal ink. The color is similar to Kobe #48 Marche Blue ink and a little lighter than Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine ink.
Continuing reading for a chance to win the bottle of Diamine Steel Blue ink we used for this review.
Diamine Steel Blue Ink Review
During our review we found the following traits when testing Diamine Steel Blue ink that you may find useful:
Testing Factors
For this review of Diamine Steel Blue ink we used a glass dip pen manufactured by French Company, J. Herbin on Rhodia dot pad paper. The glass dip pen is equivalent to a fine tip fountain pen nib.
Bottle Sizes
Diamine Steel Blue ink comes in a large regular sized 80 ml. glass bottle as well as a smaller sample size plastic 30ml bottle. The distinctive glass 80ml bottle allows for the user to obtain those last few drops of ink. Another great option though is Diamine’s “sample” sized bottle option, which is a smaller 30 ml. clear plastic bottle. This smaller bottle allows the consumer to purchase a less expensive bottle of ink so they may try it without committing to a larger bottle. The smaller bottles are very popular and are able to travel quite well due to being made of plastic.
Cost
Diamine ink is a great value for this historic UK imported ink. The large 80 ml. glass bottle retails for $15.00, which is well in line with most large capacity economy inks of this size. The smaller 30 ml. plastic bottle retails for only $7.00 per bottle.
Dry Time
We found a quick dry time of approximately 5 seconds while testing Diamine Steel Blue ink. This makes Diamine Steel Blue ink viable as an everyday all purpose ink.
Bleed Through
During our review of Diamine Steel Blue ink we found absolutely no bleeding on Rhodia dot pad paper. Even during the cotton swab test, we found no bleeding through on Rhodia paper.
Feathering
During normal use, we found no feathering with Diamine Steel Blue ink. During the water test we did see some feathering, but only at the wettest part of the water test.
Water Test
During our water test, where we run a wet cotton swab over a dried ink sample of Diamine Steel Blue ink, it created some feathering and significant color smearing. However, although they were smeared with color, the lines for the most part remained very clear and distinct. Our tests confirmed that Diamine Steel Blue ink is not a waterproof fountain pen ink.
Shading
Diamine Steel Blue ink will produce some nice shading with a light and dark shade mix while using this fantastic teal/blue-green color.
Conclusion about the Diamine Steel Blue Ink
Diamine Steel Blue ink is a nice unique blue color. It has great characteristics such as quick drying with no bleeding or feathering and is fairly inexpensive. The color of the ink is dark enough to use at home or office, but is unique enough to use for letter, note and journal taking for those that love unique coloring. Diamine Ink company produces many unique colors and have been a dependable staple in the ink community for more than 150 years. Happy writing.
Enter to Win
Enter to win the actual bottle of Diamine Steel Blue ink that we used in this ink review:
