review: de atramentis pigeon blue

Listen, I'm running out of ways to start off these blog posts. So here you go.

De Atramentis distributed inks under the Architekt name for a while—I don't know if they're still doing that. Although "De Atramentis" doesn't appear anywhere on the bottle, they're made in Germany inks and the very unique bottle is exactly the same. Pigeon Blue is also a color that is produced in the normal De Atramentis line.

Regardless, De Atramentis inks are made in Germany. I'm pretty sure there's one guy making all of these inks, which is actually wild. There are a lot of inks. The bottles are shaped like spools, and you get 35 ml of ink, which I was really surprised about. It's a heavy bottle and it seems so chunky, but it contains less ink than a bottle of, say Robert Oster.

Pigeon Blue, as you might imagine, is supposed to be the color of a pigeon. I always thought pigeons were more gray than blue, but of course there are pigeons with feathers that are of slightly different color. I don't actually see pigeons all that often (seagulls and turkeys are the Trash Bird that roam my streets). Regardless, Pigeon Blue is a light turquoise color.

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The ink has a surprising amount of water resistance, though quite a bit will fade when in contact with water.

Pigeon Blue also had nice dry times. It was nearly dry at fifteen seconds, and completely dry by thirty seconds.

There isn't much shading in the finer nib, and it comes out a bit more in the broader nib.

On Tomoe River paper, there's a bit of shading but not that much.

I tried to find some colors that are similar to Pigeon Blue. Organics Studio Barkley's Blue Teal is fairly similar, though it isn't quite as bright. Diamine Teal and Pilot Iroshizuku Syo-ro are both darker and more green. Diamine Marine is much more blue. I have no idea what ink I swatched in place of Noodler's Air-Corp Blue-Black, but rest assured that it is nothing like Pigeon Blue anyway.

I've had this ink in a number of pens, since I've had it for a very long time (you can tell because the store I bought it from, xFountainPens, changed their name to the Birmingham Pen Company and no longer carry this particular imprint!). My most recent fill was my Pelikan M205 Aquamarine. Not quite a match, but a good pairing nonetheless. I had no problems with flow.

I like the color of this ink a lot, and I'm glad I got a full bottle of it! I don't think I'll be able to pick up a second bottle any time soon, but I sure hope I do eventually.

Where to buy

I purchased this ink with my own funds.

• The Goulet Pen Company: bottle / sample
• Vanness: bottle + sample

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This post was updated on 5/10/20 to match my current review methodology.