Hi, all.
People on this board have mentioned how they like Sheaffer Blue. I have also looked at The Writing Desk. It shows a nice blue.

However, my Sheaffer Blue goes on as a steely blue-grey, and quickly fades to a grey-green.

Click to view attachment

The top green lines were laid down 1/2 an hour before the bottom blue lines.
There is noticeable fading within 2 minutes.

Have I just got a bad bottle? It's new Slovenian ink.

Thanks, David

David, I am disappointed on your behalf.

I haven't seen (in my possession or anyone else's) or used any Skrip Blue from Slovenia that looks the color in the photo from David (dcwaites), but now (although I didn't, don't and won't wish this on anyone) someone has replicated what happened in my copy of the 2006 edition of Clark's Sampler book. When I received that book, the Skrip Blue sample in it was already the color in the photograph that David posted. One quirky thing about the sample in Clark is that the Pelikan Super-Pirat eradicated a swipe through it just like normal.

David, does your Skrip Blue look blue in the bottle?

Possible explanations, including combinations of them:

* an unfortunate event or series of events in production or packaging
* a chemical or biological change during shipment, perhaps made possible by a previous, unfortunate event
* a chemical or biological change in the pen (in the cotton swab in Clark's case)
* a chemical reaction with the paper (but more about that in a moment)

When I wrote with my Skrip Blue from several different pens on the same page in Clark (around that funky green sample with the eradicator swipe through it), my words and marks remained blue. They are still blue now, more than a year later. Therefore, I doubt that the change to green is caused by anything in the paper. This paper did make the words and marks fainter than some other paper has, but they are still blue.

David, it sounds like it's time for some customer service. If the bottle came from a bricks & mortar shop, and you replace your bottle with another bottle of Skrip Blue, make sure the shop lets you test the replacement ink before you leave the store!

Thank you for confirming that I have a bad bottle. It seems that mine might not be the only one around, though.

Yes, it looks quite normal in the bottle.

The pen I used for the lines was a clean dip pen with a broad nib, but it does the same with any pen I use. The broad swipes are from a cotton swab.

It does the same on all papers. For accuracy, the one I have shown was done on acid-free cartridge paper.

I will certainly be insisting on trying the next bottle of Skrip Blue I buy.

Thanks for your comments.

My first and only bottle of Slovenian Skrip blue was like this. :-(

Looks like the bad batch they sold once!

I got a few of those bottles some time ago when they brought out the new colors. Because they didn't pit any names on the bottle I thought it's their new turquoise :-)

Now I've seen other bottles of Sheaffer Blue which are just "normal" as expected.

The sample in Clark's booklets looks like it's the same bad batch.

Cheers

Michael

Thanks, it seems that bottles of that batch are still showing up.

I have also noticed that my Sheaffer Skrip Blue-Black suffers from a similar condition, but not nearly as badly.

Regards,
David

I just bought a bottle of this ugly, nasty, disgusting ink.
Would have been fair, if Sheaffer would have recalled the bad charge.
I am not amused...
Not a very good advertising for the brand...bad quality?
Thanks for the topic!
Anna

Are you sure you didn't get a bottle of blue-black? The sample looks like the murky blue black that Sheaffer is making now. The bottles are "color coded" and the blue black looks similar to blue. Just a thought . . .

Dave

I have both. I don't like the Blue-Black either. It also has a greenish tinge, but not as distinct as the Blue. It dries to a grey-green-blue-black colour.

Thanks for the warning!