on saleDiamine Midnight Hour - Ink Sample

Excellent in a Pilot medium. Too wet for a Kaweco bold. Lovely shade.

I got a sample of this as part of a very nice set of gifts, all purchased for me through Goulet! As you'd expect with Diamine, this is a well behaved ink: good dry time (especially for a sheening ink), minimal feathering (even on bad paper), etc. Other reviewers say that the sheen is minimal to none. On most of the paper, Midnight Hour does appear just as blue-black. However, you can get real sheen out of it on higher-end paper with a broad nib. I'm including two pictures of Midnight Hour on fountain pen friendly paper with a 1.1 stub. Apologies for my handwriting. Apologies also for out of focus bits on the pictures: it was hard to get the right angle to capture the sheen. The sheen is generally NOT as visible as this picture makes it look. I uploaded an extreme angle because that was where the camera would best capture it. Midnight Hour would be an interesting ink for workplace use if you wanted something a bit different, but since most workplaces don't afford us fountain-pen friendly paper, you hit up against a contradiction: the best quality of Midnight Hour is that it is appropriate in formal settings, but in most of those settings you won't get the paper you need to appreciate its best qualities and it won't look different at all. If you want a sheening ink more visible on a wider variety of paper, you might check out Diamine's Polar Glow. Polar Glow is also primarily a darker blue, but it sheens (read and copper) much more readily; sadly, that easy sheen also makes Polar Glos less appropriate for more formal uses. Midnight Hour might be a nice compromise if you wanted something that is normal looking when you are at work but livens up the page when you are writing in your own journal on paper that you choose for yourself.

Normal blue black

This is a good, high-quality ink, I shall buy it again.

I selected this ink just to try something new. I'd like to add another blue to my collection. The name midnight hour certainly describes the color. It looks to my like a nice Navy blue. Nicely saturated but no discernable shading. It flows well and dries moderately fast. I'd recommend you try it.