Two Saturdays ago, I picked up my Nakaya Piccolo Writer from John Mottishaw (who had ground a broad nib into a CI) and immediately filled it with Baystate Blue. A gentleman standing next to me warned that he had read of staining issues. I tend not to worry about such things, and sloughed off the advice. I should have listened.

The good news?

The color was wonderful. Saturated. Flowed well -- so well that I had John adjust the nib to be a little less free-flowing. Did I mention the intensity? No smearing. It was wonderful. I spent the day looking at pens, writing on a Levenger's legal pad that I had brought with me, and grinning like a happy idiot. Life was good! A new favorite pen for a milestone birthday. A new favorite ink. Life was damn good!

The bad news?

By Monday, that is two days afyter first filling the pen with ink, I began to have skipping problems. As the week progressed, the skipping occurred more often, and the flow became less generous. A strong shake or three seemed to fix the issue, so I chalked it up to "converter issues".

I read everything on this site about converter issues and also Baystate Blue issues. Still, I was convinced it was a "feed issue" -- perhaps just something in need of a little adjustment -- and after sending John Mottishaw an email describing my experiences, that was his sense, too. Finally, as I began not to love my beautiful Nakaya because it was proving to be so unreliable a writer, I sent it to John for a look-see.

John called me several days later with his analysis: the Baystate Blue had completely clogged the feed. It had stained the converter (no biggie there) as well as the feed (I do not care), but it had left all kinds of particulate matter in the feed and thse had hardened and clogged everything in a really profound manner. John had had one hell of a time getting the pen cleaned out, even after it sat in his ultrasonic tank over the weekend.

I have my newly cleaned Nakaya back now. It writes wonderfully again. No skipping whatsoever. I look at the pages I wrote with the Baystate Blue, and man oh man, they were gorgeous! My old favorite, Visconti, doesn't hold a candle color-wise, but sadly, I will never use the Baystate Blue again.

Maybe the Nakaya just reacted badly in a way other pens would not. Maybe it was something else that interacted with the Baystate Blue in this horrible fashion. I do not know, but I wanted to share my experience here. I am not generally an alarmist, and it seemed unlikely to me that an ink could be so problematic, but my experience has led me to the unavoidable conclusion that Baystate Blue has significant issues.

FWIW and all that.

Adam Rodman

Thanks for the info. Although I don't have the same pen as you, I was strongly thinking about getting a bottle of this ink despite the previous warnings. Shame, 'cause I like Noodler's. It will not stop me from buying the other inks, but I now realize this one is out. Thanks again, and I'm glad you got your FP working back!

I'm not a big fan of bulletproof inks, but I do use Legal Lapis to write checks. Guess I'll keep using it.

Purchase once but test thrice, before you risk a pen that's nice. So far in the three pens I am using to test all is well.

$4 Cross Solo XF + BSB =

Seems to me the ideal is to offer BSB in 4.5 eyedropper bottles with one of the free pens.

I guess this review is the straw that broke the camels back for me. I had it in my Sailor Professional Gear, and was kind of struggling with the bleed and feathering. Now I am not using it at all, and just finished cleaning it out of the Sailor. Too bad because I love the color! But I don't want to risk a $200 pen, which for me is a lot of money

Thank you for the posting. I do like BB and have it in my Cross Apogee.
I am going to flush it and use a cheaper pen with this ink.

Well, it's not the money, $200's a lot for anyone. Principle maybe. I like the color too but don't want to risk it. It caused a lot of tongue wag in the community here and caused most retailers to panic and post disclaimers about ink and not replacing pens if they got stained. Heck, I've never once hesitated dipping into any ink until now with this. This is a fantastic color, I hope it might get reformulated.

This seems to be a happy solution, best of both worlds. I'd be in on this too.

I just checked -- I've had no clogging or any skipping issues in my MB Cool Blue Starwalker. It's had Baystate Blue in it for a week now.

Ditto for my MB Noblesse Oblige.

-Jake

Anyone has BSB and wants to get rid of it I'll take it.

I'd even pay a reasonable price for it...

I haven't had any of my über wet writers clog with it. And I *love* the color so much that I have two more bottles on the way.

I'm having a clogging issue with a vanishing point. Any commonalities to the feed material used in a Nakaya?

Stephen

Put it in a little stylecraft ringtop with a sweet flexi nib i got for $8 from an antique dealer. NIce color --- only issue is when the pen has sat for 3 or 4 days without use it needs a quick dip in my water glass ( always on my desk, no I don't drink from it!!) to get it going again. Doesn't skip at all once it's going!!

My suggestion -- find, buy a cheapie vintage user and this is the ink for it.

I've tried it in four pens, and it's now clogged all four. I haven't dared use it in any of my "better" pens.l I'll just keep trying the less expensive pens until I come up with one that likes it.

I have BSB in my modern Waterman Patrician. When I laid the pen aside and didn't write with it for a couple of days, it had some trouble with hard starting. I wiped the nib with a moist lint free cloth and unscrewed the converter to the point where a drop of ink emerged from the nib and then screwed it back in. That seems to have solved the problem. It wrote without problems again.

I love the color. If it gets reformulated, I'll (hopefully) be amongst the first 50 in line to get it. In the meantime, if these are the steps I have to take to use it, I'm prepared to do it. I had read about the staining etc. issues before getting the ink, and did think about it before putting it in the Patrician, so if it ends up ruining my pen then I have no one to blame but myself.

I keep reading about these disastrous experiences with this ink and I am surprised why people keep thinking it could be anything but the ink.
There seems to be something terribly wrong with this ink. Is the beautiful color worth all the expenses for restoring the pen and all the trouble and speculation. No, it's NOT your Nakaya and it's not something else that interacted with this ink, it's just the ink proper. If I had to pay for declogging my feed, I'd be terribly mad at this ink and I would contact the maker and ask him to pay for the repairs. This ink seems to be suitable for disposable cheapo fountain pens at the most. I am sorry that this has happened to you.

two cross solos with BSB in them for one week. Both working fine. No problems so far. I agree I would not put it in an expensive pen, even if it does not clog. But so far it is flowing nicely with no issues. j

Had the Baystate Blue loaded into a Lamy Al-Star Ocean Blue with a fine nib for over a week with no issues. Starts right up even after having sat for a day or two. The ink colour is almost a perfect match to the colour of the pen.

Rick.

I received a bottle this weekend. I filled my Stipula 22 which has never had a problem with any ink. The skipping began right away. I will try another pen but I have over 30 bottles of ink and have not had these problems before. Nathan.

It's a matter of priorities. Some people would rather have a vibrant and bold blue and deal with possible problems.

That I don't doubt. But why are people always assuming when there are problems that it must be the pen when the very same pen works fine with 10 other inks?

Oh I agree. Fountain pens and ink are interdependent -- one will not work without the other. In my little world, I prefer to be able to use as many pens with a bottle of ink and not limit my choice of pens. As I said, it's a matter of priorities.

Edit: One must be tired when one misspells "pen" twice. Yikes...

I had some similar experience with my pens too. They are all dry now and don't want to write. And despite the fact that the color looks nice, there was some feathering problem that I did not have with other Noodler's Inks.

Can it be an issue with how the ink reacts to the type of feed material? What is the feed of a vanishing point made of anyway?

Stephen

My Pelikan Future with Baystate Blue is also having flow problems after a few days in the pen, and after ca. 24 hours since it was last used. (Although I've had the same issue with other ink/pen combinations--I don't find it to be an especially troubling problem.) This might also be a (cheap) pen problem--I think I've only used this pen with with Pelikan Brilliant Black before BSB, so I don't have a great sense of how it behaves with different kinds of ink. I used StephY's converter-bubble-massage trick and it snapped right back into action. I think I'm also willing to put up with this sort of thing to be able to use this ink a few times per week. Is Baystate Blue heroin for fountain pens? Not good for them--but it feels (and looks) so good one keeps plunging the needle . . . er, converter?

As for the idea of pairing BSB with the Noodler's eyedropper pens: I bought a bunch of eyedropper Preppy Pens the other day and was filling them with some inks I wanted to be able to use in the office as well as at home, and I thought about filling one with BSB, but then I started worrying about the thing leaking all over the place if the seal on the pen broke or wasn't seated properly. I've had surprisingly few leaky ink episodes with fountain pens (in more years than I'd care to admit to), but one of the worst has been with a Preppy that I probably just didn't seal properly. If one of the disadvantages of putting BSB in a higher quality pen is that it might cause staining on the pen or gum up the feed a bit, one of the advantages might be that in such a pen it will be less likely to end up on a suit, shirt, or carpeting.

This may not apply to the original problem, but I had issues with Baystate in my Pelikan 605, it dried up after about two days of use. In my case, the problem seems to have been that I was too hasty to get the ink into my pen and didn't get out all of the Manhattan Blue that was in it. After two days of soaking and rinsing in water/amonia I couldn't get any blue to come out so I went ahead and filled it with the Baystate, which has been running perfectly ever since, although the ink window on the pen now matches the body a bit more than it used to, which doesn't bother me.

Oooh, that's a good tip. In my case, I put the BSB in a new converter (after flushing it first), so there wasn't that problem.

Because the very same ink works with some number of other pens?

Pen and ink are both variables.

More than a week now into my pelikan m600. Working fine. I cleaned it well after the previous ink, platinum blue-black. I love this ink. The first fp ink with a nice brilliant blue-violet!.

I would be interested if someone else was able to use it successfully in a vanishing point for a week or two.

Stephen

I've been using BSB in my Blue Carbonesque w/Binder Cursive Italic nib. The ink behaves the same as any other ink in it...after a few days of not writing with it, it's dry. Dip it in water and once it starts it keeps writing. Also, so far, Pelikan 200 italic stub and Sheaffer Legacy have given no problems with it. I wonder if the ink is more sensitive to environmental phenomenon...humidity, temp, etc?

I wouldn't put it in my Namiki VP - not after waht it did to my Heros.

Still, may try it again with some other wet cheap friends of mine. The color is just too good to give it up.

I've gone slow with the BSB I purchased at A Pen Lover's Paradise in Virginia Beach, VA. So far so good. The owner warned me about potential staining so I started off with the ink in two pens I like to write with but would not bemoan for too long if ruined. The Pelikano Jr (nice blue color almost matches the ink) is working fine! The ink has been in there for over a week and I have used it on various types of paper with no issues. I left the PK sitting around for about 48 hours picked it up and it started writing on the first stroke! So far so good!!

I also loaded a Parker 15 (some people call it a Jotter) but had some interesting effects to say the least. The Parker also worked great but I didn't want to risk staining it so I fully flushed the BSB out and then loaded Noodlers Red into it. The pen wrote red for a day but turned a deep, dark black on day two I don't know if the BSB and the Red reacted to each other or if there was residue from previous ink in the sac but I was quite surprised to say the least. On a positive note the Parker continues to write nice and smooth.

I did try the BSB for a short time in a Platinum 3776 with a XF, 14k nib but quickly flushed it because of staining.

So for the time being I have the BSB in the Pelikan Jr using a Pelikan converter and all is well. Definitely not going to put it in my Cedar Blue 51 Vac.

Put BSB in a Sheaffer NoNonsense I had lying around. I used a squeeze converter. That was last night. Today it's still writing wetly without clogging or skipping. I'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sorry but this is a common experience with Noodlers ink!!

Which inks have you found it to be a common experience with? I've tried over a dozen and I've never had a feed almost completely blocked.

Hi guys,

I'm with Stephen on this. I use Zhivago, Eternal Black, Aircorp BB, RB and Lux Blue in A WM Hemisphere, a Safari and a Logo. None of these combinations has caused me a moment's bother with regard to clogging of feeds. (However, they take no prisoners if I use sub-standard paper, and bleed and feather copiously!

Geoff V

This ink is alkaline and I've read it is not for mixing. Maybe that pen was not clean from the previous ink and the mix precipitated in the feed. I've had no such problems with the noodlers before. The Britannia blue waves was dry and unusable unless diluted with water or other ink, but it did not clogged my feeds.

"Common"? Among other Noodler's users? Or among your pens? I use a lot of Noodler's and have never had an issue.

I was wondering that very same thing. I'm not a chemist, so I am clueless. I love the color though, so I'm thinking "dip pen"!

Been using BSB in a Black ! Pilot 78G Medium nib for two weeks. Don't use everyday, starts up every time. The pen was new so no other ink left in. Should have, but didn't, rinsed the pen/filler sac to get out any factory gunk. Only thing noticed, on some upstrokes the ink flows thinly, almost skipping. Since this is a new pen I don't know if this pen is shy on flow, something to do with the flow of the ink or my lack of proper new pen cleaning. Have several 78Gs and there is little variation on ink flow, most being perfect. My best pen, ink flow, being a 78G Med, with Swisher (Noodlers) Glacier Blue. Feelings like I'm writing with a perfect "51". BSB just a hair less, that first upstroke thing. First down stroke no problem.

Very happy with ink performance and color.

This morning the BSB ink had dried in the feed of my NoNonsense, and the pen wouldn't write. A quick trip to the faucet and a few seconds of rinsing and the pen started up again. The plus is that it took exactly three strokes before the color was back to its full splendor. Most inks take a page of writing before the wateriness is gone. Makes me think the dyes in this ink must be extraordinarily concentrated--even compared to the other twenty-seven Noodler's inks I have.

Last night I was at a reading for Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational and writing very quickly with my Mont Blanc Noblesse Oblige, and I noticed that when I press harder the ink seems to flow better, but the lines are not as smooth.

In addition, before I went I tried dipping the tip of the pen in water, and all I got was pale, watery writing for a while. How deeply is one supposed to dip?

-Jake

Well, I just got my bottle today and have inked up my Pelikan M200 with a stub nib that I ground for it. I prefer wetter writing nibs, and feel that Noodlers in general are geared towards this. Love the color, the pen started up immediately and so far so good.

I did ensure that the pen was spotless before loading the new ink, even to the extent of ultrasonically cleaning the nib for a few minutes to ensure all other ink was gone.

I will see if it gives me problems going forward, but honestly being a tinkerer/repairer the issues mentioned above really don't make me want to give up on the ink. I can adjust the nib for flow issues so that isn't going to bother me at all. It the pen stains, well so be it. That is why it is not currently in my Omas 360 Magnum or my OS Vacumatic. If it is a hard starter, then I will dip the nib to get it going, but I don't forsee that being an issue with it in this pen.

BTW, the feed in a Namiki Vanishing point is plastic. I find that my VP dries out alot if not used at least weekly, and as I currently am enjoying other pens it might be a while before I get the BSB in my VP.

Cheers,
Sean

I've had BSB in a blue Sheaffer Valor (fine nib) and a black crosshatch Pilot Elite (Japanese fine nib) for nearly three weeks now with no problems. The pens start right up even if left untouched for a few days. YMMV

I cleaned out thoroughly, and then cautiously inked a F Pilot II with BSB yesterday. This nib is super dry and a little scratchy so after enjoying the colour for a day I decided to try a teensy nib smooth & floss (my second on this particular pen. The colour was gorgeous in a super fine line, but with a little more flow and width it is wonderful. Too early to predict whether the pen will choke or anything, but WOW, that is SOME BLUE!

Complete and utter chicken that I am, I had more or less given up on this ink until I happened to think about dip pens. I mentioned the BSB controversy to my daughter (who loves FPs, loves BSB, but is keeping it out of her cherished pens) and she reminded me that I have a half-dozen Hero 100s ( Parker 51 ripoffs) still in blister packs. I had forgotten about them. So I inked one with BSB and tried it. It writes beautifully in the Hero. Some bleeding, but works well. I put the pen aside and opened it again this morning. There was ink everywhere. So while I am not certain if it's the cheap pen, the tendency for Noodlers ink in general to creep, or BSB in particular, I packed it in. I tried to clean the ink out of the pen, but with the hooded nib it was just about impossible.

I am heading out to an art supply store this weekend - I'll see what they have in the way of dip pens.

On the other hand, I was VERY impressed by the ability of the Hero to write very well and smoothly! I have 5 more - I'll have to try a different ink!

Ok, I have been inked up with this for over 24 hours now, and I still love it. If it continues to perform as it has it will be my go to ink for all my pens soon.

I was really surprised at how vivid it is, and how well it is flowing in my Pelikan. It actually seems smoother than other inks in the same pen, I cannot describe that well, but that is how it feels to me. I think that this ink really benefits from a fast flowing pen as I have tried it in an Italic that one of my clients has and it did not perform the same. It skipped slightly and was a bit hard to start. That same pen works perfectly with Quink or PR American Blue, so I don't think the issue is the saturation level of the ink.

Anyone in or around Toronto should hurry in to Sleuth and Statesman to pick up a bottle. They only had 20 come in and I got one of them. I may be reserving another bottle soon though, if this ink keeps performing as it has.

Cheers,
Sean