Waterman Florida Blue

[PinarelloOnly]

My wife recently ran out of her beloved Omas blue ink and so I ordered up Aurora

blue and Waterman Florida blue to try out.

 

I can tell you that she went for the Florida Blue right away over the Aurora blue when

I showed her the difference while dip testing the two inks with my Recife.

 

The Waterman Florida blue color is very pretty and lube and flow properties are

excellent with my Talentum, Vanishing Point both <f> & <m> , my Van Gogh Maxi

<m> and her Midi <f>.

 

The color dries a lot brighter than when it is first laid down. After about a minute you

can watch it brighten up. I think it’s a perfect ink for med. nib pens to show off it’s

nice color and yet stay pretty much uniform when dry. Works well on both

heavy/expensive bond and cheap laser jet papers. With broad tip pens I can see how

a little bit of thinning can make it seem like it’s a light watery ink but not really in a

bad way. If I were using a broad nib or bigger and wanted to get close to the same

pretty color of Florida blue I would go with Omas blue which would lay a thicker line

without being thicker ink. This is where my short review comes in. I am using two

different nib pens to show the color difference you get with the same ink. A med Van

Gogh and a Extra Fine Talentum.

 

Also, a review of the Aurora blue is coming. I can already say that in my engineering

office for signing documents, Aurora blue is a more of a professional blue unless the

Florida Blue is used with an extra fine nib.

 

Scott.

 

http://fototime.com/%7BA300A3BB-98AA-41CC-868F-83A027806AA0%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B481D72B5-B9A2-4815-95A8-1C4EA7A3D73E%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B8C674918-0861-4291-B3EF-B33CB4CBBEFC%7D/picture.JPG

 

http://fototime.com/%7B1DF1B59A-3337-4D0A-867F-220C22C89D5D%7D/picture.JPG

[Ana]

Nice bike! I ride a Fuji roadie myself.

 

I really like the Waterman Florida Blue too! I just put a cartridge in my cheapo plastic pen from Borders, and it's great! A true ocean blue.

 

Ride on, with a tailwind both ways.

 

Ana

[PinarelloOnly]

Nice bike!    I ride a Fuji roadie myself.

Thanks Ana.

 

Scott.

Edited August 9, 2006 by PinarelloOnly

[southpaw]

Nice review. WM FB is a regular staple ink for many of us. Nice color, inexpensive, super reliable, good lube, fast drying, etc. . . .

[Dudley]

Nice pictures and review! btw, what kind of paper is that? did you print it out on your own? if so what did you use(paper, program etc)??

[PinarelloOnly]

Thanks Southpaw.

 

 

 

Nice pictures and review! btw, what kind of paper is that? did you print it out on your own? if so what did you use(paper, program etc)??

 

Dudley thanks,

 

And from what I can tell you, it's company letter head from where I work

which seems to be a high quality 20-30lb bond that is silky smooth. It's almost like the

same paper used for your bank checks. You can actually see the ink sitting on top of it

while writing because it's not as porous as ink jet/laser jet printer paper.

 

BTW, after I posted my review of this ink I noticed I got somewhat darker results of blue

and that I have seen the thinning results that some on here have talked about which I

have accustomed to the fact; if you use Waterman Florida with regular printer paper, that

can produce much lighter results. So I am willing to bet the French made this ink to use

with high quality paper to get the maximum results of this wonderful ink.

 

Scott.

Edited August 10, 2006 by PinarelloOnly

[hatherton_wood]

Well I just had to try another comparison between Florida Blue and Blue Quink (French bottle) and once again I could not see any difference. Both are much nicer colour than the washable blue which makes me wonder why everywhere you see the washable blue and not the blue. Whether or not its the same as Blue Quink though Florida Blue is a really nice ink and a nice colour. Blue Quink is so similar I've been building a stock of this too.

 

John

[Goodwhiskers]

An excellent review, Scott!

Also in my experience with medium blue inks, the same ink produces different hues and shades depending on the paper and the wetness of the pen.

 

WM Florida Blue is one of the sulfate-sulfite eradicable (Pelikan Super-Pirat, etc.) blue inks, which is a good thing because this property lets us write and touch up handwritten intermediate drafts, test answers and letters (especially in languages we aren't accustomed to writing in very often :ph34r: ) in ink rather than in pencil. Aurora Blue is another eradicable blue, as are all of these blue inks.

[Anne-Sophie]

As a french native, I have used florida blue since I was 11. It is erasable and in my essay time that property was a blessing.

 

 

I have used in on Rhodia and Clairefontaine papers and it left a rich clear and wet blue line. After 15 years the color on Triomphe stationnery is still as rich and vibrant as the day it was written on.

 

I now use it in Ampad recycled paper and the result is very nice almost as good as Rhodia but the writing show thru from one side of the page to the other.

I also use printer paper as my stationnery paper,

 

I also use very cheap stratch paper ($1 for 5 pads) for quick notes written with fountain pen ink rollerballs. The ink does feather a bit in that case. But waterman florida blue is the best flowing ink I have ever used and consequently does not clog the "feed" of the ink roller.

 

I have used short, long cartridges and bottled inks of Florida Blue, always with the best of results.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Anne-Sophie

[Gran]

Thanks very much for comparing how Florida blue looks with different nibs. Very helpful!

[King of the Road]

Thanks for a well done review.

I don't have many blues because I keep coming back to FB. The only other blue I use frequently is Waterman SSB. They behave well in every pen I have, and on every paper I use. Can't knock that.

 

KoR

[Bayes]

An excellent review, Scott!

Also in my experience with medium blue inks, the same ink produces different hues and shades depending on the paper and the wetness of the pen.

 

WM Florida Blue is one of the sulfate-sulfite eradicable (Pelikan Super-Pirat, etc.) blue inks, which is a good thing because this property lets us write and touch up handwritten intermediate drafts, test answers and letters (especially in languages we aren't accustomed to writing in very often :ph34r: ) in ink rather than in pencil. Aurora Blue is another eradicable blue, as are all of these blue inks.

 

When you and Anne-Sophie say it's eraseable, do you mean with a rubber eraser like on the end of a pencil?

[Ondina]

When you and Anne-Sophie say it's erasable, do you mean with a rubber eraser like on the end of a pencil?

 

I'm not Anne-Sophie, but erasable means that they can be wiped off using a pirate ink eradicator such as Pelikan ones.

 

For more info see pinned list of eradicable inks here, or read this eradicator topic.

[Pen2009]

After reading many positive comments on Waterman's Florida Blue, I decided to place an order for it today. For blue, I've been using Aurora Blue. For the next clean up, I will try out Waterman Florida Blue.

[Phormio]

My first ink was a Sheaffer Skrip blue, which I hated, but being in Australia in a regional centre, ink was difficult to come by. Then I found Glenn Marcus' web page http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ (no affiliation) where he rates WM FB as an ink of choice and a staple which changes the way some pens write (for the better).

 

Based on this I tried WMFB (before I even knew about this place) and viola! it was marvellous. Whilst I don't have any pens inked in WM FB atm as I am trying new inks (the FPN noodlers inks and, arriving today, iroshizuku inks.... ) it is the only ink I keep two bottles of, and I treat the ink as my staple to compare other inks by. My pens glide with this ink in it and I love the colour - most inoffensive.

 

WM FB I think is THE ink that all other blues should be measured by!! (big call, I know, but I think it is that good).

 

P

 

[voop]

It is a great ink, the problem (for me) is that it, as Anne-Sophie says, is erasable. That makes it unpractical for quite the lot of what I need to write by hand.

 

It's a darn shame that J.Herbin doesn't make their Encre Authentique in a nice blue and suitable for FPs.

[Pen2009]

For some reason, my Pelikan 215 F tends to skip here and there with Waterman Florida Blue (even though my Pelikan 400 BR with an M nib does not exhibit this skipping habit). So, I decided to switch back to Aurora Blue for the 215 (which I used to use with the 215 before switching over to Waterman Florida Blue) because the both were a perfect match.

[Doug Add]

It is the ink I use to test every pen I acquire. The flow properties are such that if a pen balks with this ink I almost always know there is a nib or feed issue. I also use it in several ink mixes. I go through quite a bit of this ink, second only to Aurora Blue.

[johnr55]

I grew up 40+ years ago writing with Skrip blue. Florida Blue has been a staple for me for years; it just does its job without fanfare and works in every pen I own. I still use more Aurora and Pelikan black, but at least one pen stays inked with this. Its reasonable price is an additional blessing.

[Gran]

Thanks very much for your review. It's helpful to see how Florida Blue looks with different nib sizes.