Manuscript Fountain Pen Ink - Blue

[Tommy]

I found this ink at Hobby Lobby in the calligraphy section. I think it's made in the UK. It's only 1 oz. and sells for $5.99, but they have a 40% off coupon available online, so it comes out to $3.60/oz. I tried the blue, but I think they had black also.

 

I filled my Sheaffer flat top with it and used it at work today. It seems to behave a lot like Sheaffer Blue and Waterman Florida blue. Not overly saturated, and quick drying. A little lighter blue than the Waterman and Sheaffer, without as much of the purple tint. All in all, a nice light blue, at a reasonable cost, and available locally. I think I like it

 

Here's a sample I did with a dip pen and a q-tip.

 

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/731/manuscriptink006.jpg

By tom753 at 2012-05-29

 

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/422/manuscriptink010.jpg

By tom753 at 2012-05-29

[omegapd]

Thanks!

 

I've bought the Black before. It starts as a very good black color but fades a bit over time. I'm curious if the blue will, also.

[DanielCoffey]

They seem to do Black, Red, Blue and Sepia in bottles or international shorts.

[dragon899]

I thought I would add my thoughts on this ink as I just opened a bottle over the weekend and have been using it for a few days. The bottle I have looks different than the one pictured in this thread but I do believe they have changed their bottles at this point.

 

I mainly use inks from Noodlers and Diamine and feel this ink from Manuscript is quite different than what I am used to. The Manuscript blue seems to flow pretty well out of the pens and seems to behave similar to other inks that I have tried in relation to drying time, flow out of the pen etc so that's good... One thing I have noticed though is that when the ink initially hits the paper it is a very nice and rich blue color with a good amount of saturation, pigment and contrast. However the ink seems to have an interesting fading property where it gets progressively lighter on the paper over time.

 

Thankfully the fading property does seem to have a stopping point after a few hours. When the ink fully dries it tends to be more of a stone washed denim color, and to me tends to look a little washed out...like someone wiped half of the ink off the paper at some point leaving more of just the ink stain that was embedded in the fibers of the paper.

 

I think this ink could be very pleasing to some people, but I personally prefer very strong, saturated colors (like Baystate Blue) and don't think I would recommend this ink to anyone that likes really brilliant and bold ink colors...at least not the blue. I have the black and red also and will be testing those in time and will provide updates either on this thread or corresonding reviews for those specific colors if I can find them on the site...