Lamy Blue Black

I went through a long Blue Black phase and looking back, I think it was my aim to collect every blue black ink ever made in existence. I’m glad that phase ended (I’m now into purples and multichromatics) but Blue blacks remain one of my favourite colours to use, especially in a professional environment.

Lamy Blue Black was one of the inks I picked up during this phase. It is a cost effective and reliable ink that’s readily available and while I’ve yet finished an entire bottle of ink, these were important factors to me back during that phase.

One handy thing about Lamy inks, which many have touched on, is their blotting paper addition to the bottle. It makes it easy to refill at your desk without having to prepare anything else in advance. The newer Lamy releases (the gemstone series) no longer have this feature and to be honest, I’ve not really utilised this in the older Lamy inks I own – mostly because I decant my inks into a sample vial and fill from there.

Originally Lamy Blue Black was an iron gall ink, but the formula was reformulated to a non-iron gall edition in the last 10 years. I believe the edition I have here is non-iron gall so its safe to use in any pen.

In terms of the performance, it performs well on cheaper paper, so it’s a good option for professional environments. However, the ink is quite flat and dull. There is a bit of shading, but no sheen, shimmer or multichromatic qualities that is more common nowadays. Overall, this is a good staple ink, but nothing that really excites me in any way. In terms of colour, I prefer the Kaweco Midnight Blue, Iroshizuku Shin Kai or Pilot Blue Black. The Iroshizuku and Pilot both perform better (lubrication wise) and the Pilot can be had very cost effectively if you bulk buy it in 350ml bottles.