I received my bottle of Noodler's Baystate Blue from Swisher today, and I've been playing with it for a couple of hours now.

Great barking cheese, it's intense! I'm not even sure "eye-searing" does it justice. Paint-peeling? Shadow-burning? Thermonuclear electric? My wife was so dazzled by it she jokingly wondered if it was toxic. Certainly the scans and photos posted here on FPN *cannot* accurately display just what a *profoundly intense* blue it is on paper.

Up to now my primary ink of choice has been PR Lake Placid Blue - a deep, saturated blue without any of the purples or greens that tone so many of the blues on the market - and I've tried a great many of them. However, together on the same paper sheets, Baystate Blue makes Lake Placid Blue look like a dark, flat blue-black with green undertones.

I've now tried Baystate Blue on six different papers with six different pens. The papers are:

1. Apica
2. Clairefontaine Triomphe
3. Black n' Red
4. Rhodia
5. HP Premium Choice 32# LaserJet
6. Levenger 3x5 note cards

The pens are:

1. Conklin New Nozac broad crisp italic
2. Sheaffer NoNonsense broad italic
3. Sheaffer NoNonsense extra fine italic
4. Pelikan M805 double broad italic
5. Bexley Tea Time stub italic
6. Noodler's eye-dropper fine ball

My nibs are all wet writers - wet to the point of dripping. Without fail, Baystate Blue feathered on all the papers with the nibs running as wet as I normally use them - even on the Clairefontaine Triomphe, something I have never seen before. However, once I dried the feeds so the nibs would not be so wet, the lines behaved much better and the feathering was controlled. My drier nibs *love* Baystate Blue; where they previously would sometimes skip, Baystate feeds better and they lay down really nice clean lines. Bleeding was very minimal with my wet nibs, but did exist to a certain extent on all sheets. The worst sheets for feathering and bleeding were the Black n' Red and Apica; the best were the Rhodia and HP.

Staining is a problem on skin - I can't get it off, even with straight bleach or Lava bar soap and a scrub brush. In that aspect it reminds me of Omas Blue, the worst staining ink I've ever used. On white plastic sink material, bleach takes Baystate off in seconds. So far none of my pens have stained and cleaning them has been a non-event. Baystate is truly waterproof and accepts highlighting without severely streaking like other inks.

I normally use a new color for a couple weeks to get a true sense of how I like it - so I'll check back in after I've done my normal testing and provide an update. So far, I really like what I see. And if that remains true, I'll be cleaning out the entire stock at Swisher.

The ink comes off in a couple of days. Today was the third day for me and now it's gone.

Has anyone tried Baystate Blue in a Lamy 2000? I want to makes sure it won't stain the section.

Great barking cheese? LMAO. Can I borrow that?

Rick.

I am not usually an eye-searing ink kinda guy, preferring watercolor-like inks... But this one has me barking for cheese

I should get my bottle today

I'm curious about the Lamy 2000 clear window being stained also!

Anyone have a Lamy 2000 they want to use as a guinea pig

I've got one I'm planning to test with - I just couldn't do it last evening.

Yup; I borrowed it myself from another forum years ago...

Just got my Baystate from Swisher's. Undoubtedly it is BRIGHT!!
I decided to try it in my Black section/Gold cap Eversharp Skyline figuring I'd avoid the staining problems. The fine point wrote very well. But after sitting up about 15 minutes I had to shake it to start it. So it dries up in the old type feed pretty fast....the feed tines run longitudially rather than horizontally.

On another note...the gloss black section took on a stained bluish cast......so I used some alcohol on a rag and it came right off. As I cleaned the pen in a ceramic white mug, it stained the mug....but came out with alcohol.

I washed the Skyline out and will try it something else. Maybe the Silver metal Parker 75.

I was going to toss the ink, but the color is too vibrant!! I'll just have to find the right pen.

I even ordered a blue Lamy Safari so the stain should match!

I sacrificed my Lamy 2000 to Baystate Blue and it did not stain the ink window. Could be that I lubricate teh barrel with silicone grease though!

Anyone esle try it in their 2k's?

Any scans of this ink?

Here's my review.

Stephen

Here is my scan compared to 3 other blue inks...

Dang, I'm liking this ink more and more. I've been waiting around for any word or progress on the FPN blue, but I'm very close to saying the heck with it and picking up some Baystate Blue instead.

Holy moly. I ordered some blue samples, including this one from Pear Tree. I really need a blue. Have to see how I like it.

I just got mine from ebay. I loaded my blue demo m600 and tried it. I like it a lot!. Finally a vibrant blue AND waterproof. It is as described in previous reviews, but in some papers it has a light purple tone. Nevertheless it is a dark blue that does not look lifeless when dry, as most blue fp inks do. I do not see it fluorescent, but if you compare it with the luxury blue or the Quink, I guess this one is bright!. I think I finally found my default blue!. I also like the platinum blue-black, and I'll use it for celluloids and clear, stain-prone pens.

Anyone knows if it is available in Europe?

I just got my bottle of Baystate from Pear Tree Pens today and put it in my Pelikan M400. WOW! I am used to chalky, dull blues from Noodlers - even Luxury Blue and stuff like Aquamarine. This blue just leaps off the page, it's so intense. To my eyes it has some violet in it, so that's probably why. Still, it's a VERY attractive color and it's fun to write with! I never thought I'd say that about a pedestrian color like blue, but this one is beautiful.

I tried the Baystate Blue yesterday in a Pelikan 200 medium point and just couldn't control it on the page (Clairfontaine, Rhodia, Moleskine, Ampad, HP 32# papers). It feathered and bled through each sheet. But the color is incredible and if my usage could better tolerate the flow characteristics of the ink, I'd buy it by the gallon! Just an incredible color. Have you experienced any of the characteristics I've mentioned?

In any case, I'm glad to hear some positive reviews of this ink, given the negative reviews posted earlier this year. I just wish it had been more workable at my desk...

Enjoy!

Not so far. I'll play with it a bit more tomorrow, but no feathering that I've seen on HP copy paper. I'll try it in my lab journals, which have disappointingly cheap paper in them - for an 8-1/2x11 cheap hardbound at $40 each that is supposed to be a legal document (we do patentable work pretty often), I expected better!

OK, I tried it in four pens on some of our cheap graph paper. Results varied, but all showed some feathering.

Pelikan M150 with fine nib. This is probably the driest writer I have on me, and it writes about like a Sailor fine. If there is feathering (and there seems like there might be under 3X magnification, but not to the naked eye) it's very minor. No bleed through on the junk paper.

Sailor Professional Gear with fine nib. This pen writes slightly wetter than the above Pel, and lays down about the same size line. Very little feathering. About the same as the Pel 150. Slight bleed through.

Pelikan M200 with a Richard Binder .7mm cursive italic, adjusted for fairly heavy ink flow. The nib feathers enough that the strokes look slightly fuzzy on the cheapo paper.

Pelikan M400 with fine nib. Oddly, this nib writes more like a medium and puts down a very wet line. It feathers about like the 200 did, and tends to bleed through. Not quite as much as the Binderized nib does though.

I also tried it in my lab journal. The paper is *better*, but not good Feathering was much reduced, but still slightly evident on the wetter nibs. There is a very small amount of bleed-through on the ending of some strokes with the Binder and M400 nibs.

I have some very good paper at home and I'll try it there. But I suspect the ink will be well behaved on it. It's really not unusably bad on either of the very cheap papers I've tried so far. And the color is remarkable.

Just to illiustrate how bad this paper is, I have a Sheaffer Admiral with a fine nib loaded with J Herbin Bleu Pervenche. This is very well behaved ink - moderately saturated and the nib does not flood the paper, although it does put down a good line. It feathers to some extent on both papers, and even bleeds a little on the end strokes on the graph paper. Ugh, this paper is pure junk, suitable only for pencils and cheap ball point.

One last update - I went to our Office Max and got some Red and Black notebooks. The paper is better than the junk books we have, but still not the best. Anyway, feathering is pretty much unnoticable with any of the pens I tried above. No surprise - those papers were basically very hard toilet paper. There is still a little bleed through with the wettest nibs - the Binderized italic and the M400. But overall it behaves quite well on good paper.

I have some Rhodia stuff coming, and a Clairfontaine tablet at home, plus a really sweet pad from Lamy. I'll have to try those too!

hard toilet paper? what do you mean? Is the R and B paper inferior in some way or overly processed in some way?

I am not offended by this characterization but honestly curious about your reaction to the R and B. Thanks, jc

Either I typed it poorly or you misunderstand me. The R&B paper was IMMENSELY better than the first papers I tried (in the post immediately before my last). THOSE papers are what I am characterizing as hard toilet paper. The R&B I would call "pretty good". Not the best, but the best you are likely to get from one of the big chain office supplies stores.

Yes, I'm having the same feathering and bleeding issues with my wet and wide italic nibs - though when I use a much drier and narrower nib those problems recede.

It's been interesting reading everyone's experiences with this ink. After spending a day or two with it at the office, I'm having some pretty routine feathering issues with most of my paper including my Clairefontaine notebooks. I'm using a wet-writing Osmia with an OB nib so it puts down lots of ink. I really like the color but the feathering is annoying and may kill it for me.

It is a lovely ink, but only for dark pens with dry narrow nibs...Nothing is perfect I guess...

I didn't know this color was so popular on FPN already. I went to the store today just browsing and saw that Diamine had a bunch of new colors out, including a ton of blues, so I tried those. Then I saw a sample of Baystate Blue and it was so eyecatching. It was the dream blue I've been looking for ever since I took an interest in fountain pens So I brought it. I can't wait to test it out on pens tonight.

I know what color it reminds me of now. Sharpie Blue. It's beautiful!