Reviews by Penrarian: Ink Review: Private Reserve Electric DC Blue

Pen: Kaweco Ice Sport Medium, Pilot Parallel 3.8mm
Paper: Rhodia #18 Grid Lines, Georgia Pacific 75g, Hammermill 90g

A friend of mine gave me a bottle of Private Reserve Electric DC Blue to try. This ink totally surprised me. At first I didn't enjoy the dark blue of this ink, even though on nice paper you get that red sheen, but as I used the ink more it started to grow on me and now I totally love it!

The main issue I had with Electric DC Blue was that it did not work well on cheap paper. It's not usable in my Two Rivers Field Notes (not seen) as it bleeds and feathers badly. On the Georgia Pacific paper I also had feather and bleed through. It worked well with the Hammermill paper. I got some feathering but still got a good amount bleed through. You won't see the red sheen with either of these papers. Rhodia came out on top... again! The red sheen just makes this ink stunning. I did have some weird dry times with this ink, but I think it was an environmental or user error. I found the dry time to be somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds. I would try to avoid spilling any fluids on this ink as it won't last long if the paper gets wet. The Staples Sustainable Earth paper is not shown. I am currently out of the Staples paper and am deciding if I want to get more, find a substitute for it, or remove it all together from my ink testing.

Overall, Private Reserve Electric DC Blue is a super fun ink! I look forward to using it in letter writing and journaling. It is even work appropriate which makes it even better.

Further thoughts:

Flow: I had zero flow problems.
Saturation: A nice dark blue.
Shading: Some shading with Rhodia paper. You also get a nice sheen with Rhodia paper.
Dry Time: Not great! Somewhere in the 10-20 second range.
Show-through and Feathering: Some show-through and feathering with the 75g and 90g papers.