I recently a acquired some South Seas Blue which is my first foray into what I'll loosely describe as more whimsical colors (i.e. not black, blue or emerald green) and what a lovely shade it is. Like all Watermans it flows smoothly. I loaded it into a broad nibbed 21 and it has some very nice shading characteristics and a nice vibrant color that is distinctive without being over the top.

Thanks (or curses! to the online pen community for hooking me on inks as a much less expensive way to make old standby's feel new again! I've gone in the past 6 months from 1 bottle of Florida Blue to now 6 inks in my drawer (Noodler's black, PR American Blue, PR Midnight Blues, Waterman Green, the aforementioned Florida Blue and now Waterman South Seas Blue)!

I know have to add "inkaholic" to my "penaholic" addictions! :doh:

6 colors is nothing compared to what some of us here have. Ha ha!

I know the feeling. I had two bottle of Florida Blue. Sold them. Now I have two bottles of PR DC Super Show and some Diamine Tropical Blue. Thought it was going to be the whimsical ink, but no, I load it into my Visconti Van Gogh with my italic nib and that is my go-to combination

Sam

I only have 6 bottles of ink my desk drawer as well. Of course then there are the 5 packages of cartridges in the top desk drawer, the 3 bottles on the nightstand, the 5 bottles at work, the 'only God knows how many' ink samples all over the place and...

It's a sickness I tell you!

Jim

So I see you have not tried Noodler's Navajo Blue...

If you are into blues, you cannot miss Noodlers' Blue. It is simply amazing.

Then there are the browns, the violets, the purples, the ............................

Alejandro

I saw a sample of Noodler's Navarjo Turquoise and it looks AMAZING! Is it much different from South Seas Blue or Sheaffer Turquoise?

Where did you see that sample?

As I recall, Navajo turquoise is even brighter than south seas blue.

Stephen

why, from a letter I received from you. It really is a lovely color. I saw that Noodlers has a Narvajo Turquoise and a regular Turquoise. I opened up the regular turquoise bottle and it looks more green.

And I was surprised not all their labels is an ugly catfish. Sadly, the one bottle of Noodlers I have has a picture of an ugly catfish.

Thanks, HesNot, for adding a review !
I just moved this topic thread to "Ink Reviews."

I like turquoise-range inks, too. I have a competitor's, but I like the WM Turquoise I've received in snails. Turquoise ink helps me relax.

More reviews of ink are good, including second reviews! Different, carefully-composed opinions help people make decisions more easily.

Ugly? How about yummy !

I hadn't heard of "noodling" until a year or so before hearing of Noodler's Ink (all the waterways near my hometown are too deep and swift for noodling anyhow), but when I was a kid it was fun to put freshwater clams on a hook, cast the line into a few special places I knew, bring up the catfish, take the hooks out without getting stung most times (ouch!), put the fish out of their misery, clean and skin them, get Mom to cook them, and eat them 9 .

Yes, I cook now, and sometimes people even enjoy what I cook for them.

Even though I'm not related to Deagol, Smeagol, Merry and Frodo (the Brandybucks were mostly Stoor, and I think Frodo's mother's side was Brandybuck), I feel a cultural affinity to Stoor hobbits.

Noodler's "catfish" labels bring up happy memories.

Back to the topic, sort of *cough,* *cough,* :
Waterman makes one of the best bottle shapes. Maybe the labels could be more interesting.

Given the quality of the reviews here with scanned samples, etc... I felt, well, a little timid about putting my thoughts in the official reviews section.

Particularly an off the cuff, barely mini review. I feel compelled to add some additional thoughts for those interested in some of the additional qualities of SS Blue. And perhaps I'll get a scan up as well...

I've now used it on a variety of papers, again through my 21 which is a fairly wet writer. Similar to Florida Blue - due to the flow characteristics - SS Blue prefers average to better than average paper. We use Office Depot value pads at work which are not high quality - although they do tend to feather less than a lot of other papers - they work best with Noodler's black and fine to medium nibs. SS Blue exhibits a little bit of feathering, not overwhelming, when a wet line is applied. It remains to be seen how SS Blue performs on the same paper with a finer/dryer writer. I may ink up my Estie J with this after I seal the nib/section threads and I'll add to this then. Our copier paper is even worse and basically any nib over fine and most inks other than Noodler's black tend to spread to one nib size up with some feathering. SS Blue is no exception. I also keep a cheap Mead composition book for journaling (a fairly recent endeavor). This paper is about as cheap as it gets and SS Blue in a wet writer is simply a bad combination. But most inks bleed and feather on this paper (Quink black, American Blue, Midnight Blues, etc....)

I've tried it a bit on HP inkjet paper and it really works well on that paper. Despite a very broad and wet line it adheres nicely and the shading I refer to above is most evident. Given the vibrant nature of PR and other saturated inks I was surprised at how vibrant SS Blue is, when it and the other Waterman inks are at least by reputation from what I know supposed to be a little more washed out. However, I don't find any of the three Waterman colors I own to be washed out at all so perhaps I'm incorrectly lumping it in with Skrip and Quink.

On a more philosophical note, this and I suppose others in the same general category, are quite soothing colors. One reason I wanted to use it in my journal (I've told myself that I have to fill one of these cheap journals to demonstrate my dedication to keeping a journal before I will spring for better paper...) is the pleasant frame of mind using what, to me at least, is a non "business" ink color. I plan on trying it in a few different pens in the next week or two and will provide updates as I experience it through some different pens.

Mini reviews are valid and welcome! HesNot, your mini review did show some thoughtful preparation, and it's worth sticking by.

Since you've chose to add some comments, we're grateful. I especially appreciate your catering to some FPNners' obsession about performance on bad paper .

I suppose mini-reviews could be called "writing impressions" or "first impressions," the way the automotive press uses the terms "driving impressions" and "first impressions."

I would also be interested to know how the Noodlers ordinary Turquoise and Navajo Turquoise compare to South Sea Blue. Thing is, I like turquoise, but often find it a bit too pale. South Sea Blue and PR Naples Blue are the darkest I've found (and quite similar, I think). Any comparisons to other turquoises - Noodlers, Herbin, Pelikan, etc. - would be welcome.

can anyone post a pic of what the color looks like

It's a wonderful turq