Just received my first bottle of Noodler's Bay State Blue. I love the color but...

Tried it in two different pens that are not particularly wet writers and on a few different papers. The ink feathers and spreads like nothing I have ever seen on all of the papers from both pens. When I say feathers, I mean it looks like I am writing on a tissue or a paper towel kind of feather.

Did I get a bad bottle? What is or could have gone wrong? Should I return it and ask for a new bottle from the same vendor?

Help?

RB

I have two bottles of the stuff, from different sources. The ink in both behaves like yours - feathers more than any other ink I've used (the many other Noodlers inks I have don't feather at all); it even feathers somewhat on Rhodia and Clairefontaine. So even if I liked the colour as much as you do (and even if it didn't stain) I would still find it useless -- especially since the pens I prefer writing with are wetter than the pens I tested it with.

Simon

Thanks for the reply, I read some reviews and did not get the feeling that others have had the same insane feathering issue on relatively decent paper. If yours if feathering on Clairefontaine something is very very wrong.

Any other's have the same experience?

RB

Mine doesn't feather at all, but I am still underwhelmed.

It's a nice color, but nothing extraordinary. The blue is bright but seems somewhat purple to me.

Flow-wise, it skips on some strokes in my YOL, which no other ink does.

Of course, it seems bound to stain anything it touches, which is annoying.

Being a "different" Noodler's ink, I'm not in a hurry to mix it with anything.

On the plus side, it doesn't seem to have any nib creep.

It's nice but hardly worth the aggravation. The color isn't that much more spectacular than some Diamine blues.

This is really strange, the color that I have actually hurts your eyes it is so bright and the flow is so much that writing on normal/decent paper is like writing on a paper towel I can't imagine the bottle that I have skipping. Sounds like there is a huge differences in batches. Maybe we can trade bottles or I might have something that you would like better.

RB

I only use fine (or extra fine) nibs and had to try Baystate Blue in different ones until I found one that didn't feather. I settled on an Esterbrook 9550 and I like the way it behaves there. It does put down a wider line than other inks in the same size nib, but if it gets too fine you lose the benefit of that eye-burning cobalt. From this fine nib it is just wet enough to look very nice without feathering (on Rhodia paper, at least). On cheap Staples paper it is a little less well behaved, obviously, but this is the nib I have that it works best in. Now that I have that figured out I love this ink. If I hadn't run it through a dozen pens to find the right one I would have really missed out on what I think is a very attractive ink.

Thanks

I have tried it in both my Namiki VP fine and my Namikii Falcon fine (the finest FPs I own), both of these pens handle other ink with grace on the papers that I have tried. With the Bay State Blue both of these pens are feather on just about everything like crazy. I have even tried a an old EEF steel dip flex nib to no avail.

If I get a moment I will try to do another test and scan the results so that all can view the results that I am getting and comment on them.

RB

Here is a quick scan on a Levenger 3x5 card. Not the most fountain pen friendly paper but just wanted to show two different wet/med nibs with different inks vs. a fine/moderate nib with bay state blue.



RB

A few days ago when I first commented on this ink I suggested, rhetorically and not entirely seriously, that anyone who likes the colour but wants to avoid its flaws would be better off buying a blue Sharpie. At the time I was speculating, not having seen anything written with a blue Sharpie in some time. To make sure I wasn't being too mean, I just bought one and am relieved (if somewhat dismayed) to see that the two colours are as near identical as makes no difference. I wouldn't want to write with it, of course, but at least the Sharpie doesn't feather (and doesn't stain a yellow Lamy Safari quite as badly...).

Simon