Diamine 150th Anniversary Ink (40 mL)- 1864 Blue Black

An ink’s colour is relative to the ones close to it. Next to Sailor Blue-Black, R&K Verdigris, RO Midnight Sapphire and Blue Night, 1864 is bluer; next to RO Blue-Black, Kobe #7 Kaikyo Blue, it’s greener. On its own, it looks like a blue-black on the grey-green side.

I was keen on seeing the purple undertone and prominent red sheen people were describing 1864 to be, which remain elusive to me. I always intend on getting a second sample to see if it’s different than the first one I received, but keep forgetting. I also want to get a sample of the regular Diamine Blue-Black to pit it against 1864, but I forget to do that too—maybe because I already have lovely red-leaning blue-blacks!

My sample is between Sailor Blue-Black and Aurora Blue-Black. This ink behaved flawlessly in all my pens and on most of my papers. In heavily saturated areas where the ink pools or with wet writers, the ink almost looks black; in drier writers, the ink has a teal tinge to it. This dark blue-black offered little to no shading, and no sheen (I really had to squint and look at it under a loupe to notice the tiniest amount of red sheen at the puddle’s edge).

On cheaper papers, the ink feathers and bleeds through; on better but thinner papers, there is some ghosting. The ink feels thin under my nibs. It didn’t play nice with my dry 1911S 21 kt H-M, and it had a high flow out of my 1911L 21 kt H-B: I was unable to have distinct a-e-o letters (maybe lack of surface tension ?).

A provisional 4-star.