Firstly – sorry for being a bit slack with posts. The weather (and hence lighting) has been a bit awful making it a bit difficult to take good photos.

De Atramentis is a German ink brand with inks that are handmade by Dr Franz-Josef Jansen. De Atramentis doesn’t seem to get that much attention in the fountain pen community – maybe its that they are a little more expensive than their Diamine or Noodler counterparts or their colour range is not as extensive? My view is that they have always performed quite well and rank up there with Iroshizuku and Sailor – particularly when it comes to getting a more stubborn pen going!

De Atramentis Steel Blue is a green-toned blue that is a bit darker than your norm in this colour range. This is an incredibly work appropriate colour due to the darkness but also adds a bit of interest and personality to your standard working blue.

I first came across this ink in the Well Appointed Desk’s Ink Drop review (Ink Drop by Goulet Pens has now been discontinued so that shows you how long ago that was!). The theme at the time was “best shading inks” and Steel Blue was one of the inclusions. In the TWSBI 1.1 mm stub nib you can certainly see some shading, which is quite nice considering the saturation of this ink.

Green-toned blues is a particular colour interest of mine and as you can see in the subset of inks swabbed, I have a few in this range. Despite this, Steel Blue is still quite unique in my collection – I find the others that I have to be more green toned than Steel Blue. Iroshizuku Tsuki Yo is probably the closest, but it is duskier than Steel Blue, which is more bright and vibrant.

At USD$12.95 a bottle it is considerably more expensive than its Diamine and Noodlers counterparts – particularly since De Atramentis only offers 35 mL compared to 80 mL from Diamine and Noodlers (often at the same price). However, I would question whether the average fountain pen aficionado *needs* all 80 mL? If you’re only going to have one bottle in your life, well then you could perhaps afford to pay more (because you’re not hoarding like the rest of us crazy people) and if you’re hoarding – well then you’re unlikely to ever go through the whole bottle right?

Anyway – if price is not a concern – give De Atramentis a try.