Hi. My first experiences with bottled fountain pen ink were probably Skrip Deluxe Blue (probably purchased in the late 1960s). I've been looking for some scans to compare Deluxe and Royal blue, as I more often see NOS Royal Blue for sale. Does anyone know where I could see a comparison? (It seems neither of these inks have been reviewed on the FPN.)

Also, can anyone comment on the smell of these inks -- do they smell alike? I'm trying to recapture a nostalgic moment here.

-Andrew

Thought I'd try a bump, as some folks are discussing the smell of inks.

I totally agree with wimg ("Smelly FPN Tulipe Noire" topic) that odor should be a factor in an ink review. I would call it "bouquet". Although it seems that, with the exception of perfumed inks, the days of inks so smelly you get a whiff when you uncap the pen are gone. This is one thing about vintage pens which caught me off-guard. Some of them have very heady residues.

So, does anyone know if the bouquet of vintage Sheaffer Deluxe Blue is similar to Sheaffer Royal Blue? How about colour?

Probably phenol. Great perservative, but rather toxic and otherwise nasty (although it's the active ingredient in Chlorasteptic losenges). You won't find it in any modern ink, it's banned for those uses.

Peter

All the vintage Skrip inks smell similar to me. It must be that magical R-35, which is phenolic, but which phenol I cannot ID by smell alone.

Deluxe Blue and Washable Blue are both labeled #42, so I assume they are the same. They look the same to me. I've attached a link to a photo that I took a while ago. I wish it looked better. I tried scanning and that looked even worse. If you can suggest a better way to get better colors, please give me advice.

Thanks,

Len

Thanks Len and Peter for your information. I suppose the smell could be phenolic, although it's not predominantly the smell of phenol-as-in-hyroxybenzene. I was actually surprised to just this moment find an old bottle. I don't know what vintage it is -- it's a black plastic bottle which unfortunately has no label or markings of any kind, except for a curious short arc of groove on the bottom, and sundry teethmarks on the cap. It appears to contain Royal Blue after all, which is a relief since Len's sample of washable blue is much greener than I remembered. On the other hand, I'm sure the blue Skrip I used wasn't permanent. Maybe there is a Deluxe Blue Skrip which is distinct from the Royal and the Washable?...

Relative to Len's photo, this stuff appears more like the Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue than any of the others. I don't know what to suggest for better colour -- a scanner ought to do quite well, except with the violet end of the spectrum. (J. Herbin Violette Pensee looks about like Waterman's Florida Blue to me when scanned.) Your camera with strong daylight but not direct solar glare should also give nice colour. Maybe you should start a post about this problem, so someone with answers can help?

Wow! This stuff smells super good to me.... Cool! I can't believe I still have this stuff with me, after 123456789... yeesh 14 moves (in 7 years). I have a sniff, and it reminds me of something, I can't quite place it, and then I realise, it reminds me of filling my fountain pen way back when I used to use this ink. What better reminiscence could I hope for? Maybe also the smell of the drawer of my Dad's old writing desk.

Please take a look at my revised photo. I changed it to a scan that accurately shows the colors as they appear on the paper. When you said that the Washable Blue looked green I knew I had to change the photo, because in real life this has no green in it.

Len

I think you'll need to attach it again to a fresh post, as our prior posts are too old to be edited. The scan above still looks the same to me. I'm not confident that "green content" was right to describe what sets the Skrip Washable Blue #42 apart from the others, but it is definitely the most torquoise. I expect the pen and paper make as much difference as the scanner here. Although I believe I have Skrip Royal Blue, here's what my camera thinks it looks like. This is just varying the angle of the camera, the exposure, and whether or not to flash. (Scanner died last week unfortunately.) The larger excerpt is for the settings which seem closest to what my eye sees, except the lighting's a bit dim so it seems more blue-black that it "really is".
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