De Atramentis Velvet Black-Copper: Ink Review
Hello ink enthusiasts! This fountain pen ink review is for De Atramentis Pearlescent Velvet Black-Copper, which had a ton of shimmer in it and was a pretty interesting ink. Read on to learn why!
Ink Review:
Supplies Used:
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LAMY AL-star with medium steel nib (also EF and B nib)
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Rhodia No. 16 dotpad, 80g white paper
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Tomoé River white paper
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Moleskine notebook
Smear Test (Dry Time):
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About 35 seconds– The ink still smeared a tiny bit at 30 seconds, so it should be dry by around 35 seconds.
Drip Test (Water Resistance):
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Medium – I was actually quite surprised at how water resistant this ink was. It barely smeared and the line left behind after the water droplets was still very dark and visible- even the shimmer stayed put!
Saturation:
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High – There was no difference between the swabs. It actually looks like one continuous line! The shimmer is very concentrated in this ink, so that adds to the saturation.
Ease of Cleaning:
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Low – This ink was pretty difficult to clean out of my pen. I had to take a toothbrush to my feed to get all of the shimmer particles out and it took a number of flushes to get it completely cleaned out.
Shading:
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Low – The ink had a consistent color and I didn't see any shading.
Flow:
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Medium – The flow was decently wet, but it wasn't gushing or anything like that. The shimmer did seem to clog my nib a bit and I has to floss my tines at one point with brass sheets to keep the ink flowing.
Packaging and Aesthetics:
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The De Atramentis bottles are a classic shape and pretty easy to fill from. The shimmer tends to settle rather quickly, so you'll want to be sure to shake the bottle really well before filling.
Summary:
This ink is named "Black-Copper," but the ink was more so a dark grey, not a black. It was still a nice color though! It was interesting because, with the amount of shimmer the ink has, at a lot of points it just looked like a copper ink- the black/grey didn't come through at all. Other times you could see the black color though, so it depended on the paper and the amount of ink put down. Overall, I thought it was lovely!
You can find a 45ml bottle of De Atramentis Pearlescent Velvet Black-Copper here at Goulet Pens, or a 2ml sample is also available.
