Ladies and gentlemen,

Since university started up again, I have been doing a high level of writing. As a result, I've been using up ink at an alarming rate. Already, my bottle of Quink Black is down to about 1/3 full.

Rather than try and waste my time with tipping and tilting this bottle to get the required depth to fill some of my larger pens, I decided to start using a new bottle of ink, and leave the old Quink Black one to feed my smaller pens.

So the question is, which ink?

I prefer nice darkish, purply/navy-blue inks when I'm not using jet-black. I have in my possession one bottle each of Waterman and Parker blue/black. I'd like to know from the people here, which one they consider the darker of the two.

If you like dark purpleish navy blue, neither will do. Waterman will fade to a teal green too, haven't tried the Parker version. I suggest Private Reserve Midnight Blues, DARK navy blue

Yeah, I'm beginning to realise that!

I'm not sure if I can get Private Reserve here in Australia, but I'll give it a shot.

In the meantime, I'm making the best of a bad situation by adding the remains of my Quink black to the Quink & Waterman b/bs to darken them up a bit.

What do you have access to?
Binder's blend of Waterman Purple and Florida Blue leads to something like PR Tanzanite

Shangas,

I'm a really big fan of Parker Quink Blue Black right now, I'm using it a lot! Can you order from the Levenger catalog? Their Cobalt Blue is a wonderful deep purply blue. Private Reserve Midnight Blue and their Tanzinite are great dark blues. But don't go for the Tanzinite if you don't like nib creep!

There are two good pen stores in Melbourne. The Melbourne Pen Depot and Pen City. Both have good selection of pens and ink. I like the Parker Quink Blue/Black in writing with medium and broader points.

I've been to all the major pen-stores in Melbourne at least once, trying to find a nice dark blue. I thought Waterman and/or Parker would fit the bill, but I'm not sure. It may have something to do with the pens I use (nib-type), or I may just need a better ink.

I have all the three inks you mention. Quink black and blue/back And Waterman BB. Quink BB is a bit darker then Waterman BB but still dries very light. It looks more saturated than the Waterman ink. I like it.

I have put a rather large dose of Quink black into my Waterman BB. You'll lose even more of the blue but you'll get a nice old fashioned BB for it in return, but very green.

The problem that I have is that all the blues I try dry very light. Be it blue, or blue-black. I try and remedy the problem by adding black ink. If anybody's got any other suggestions on inks or methods of darkening, let me know.

I don't like the Parker Quink Blue-Black because on many papers it fades to an ugly green/grey colour in a few weeks.

The Parker Permanent Blue is a good, rich blue, and seems to be fairly stable.

I read somewhere that you could mix Quink Black with Quink Permanent Blue to get a good Blue-Black, and that would seem to be a stable ink.

Alternatively, Noodler's Ottoman Azure is a nice dark blue, with a hint of black.

The Pen Shop in Sydney carries Private Reserve inks. They might be able to send some down to you.

My test showed that Parker BB & Waterman BB look virtually the same, colourwise.

That was the conclusion that I reached, although my impressions first-off were that Waterman BB was darker. Apparently not.

I've since added black ink to both bottles in an attempt to create a darker, purply blue.

Purplish blue inks are Aurora blue and Diamine WES Imperial blue. Both are on the darker side (darker than Quink or Waterman) and very well behaving like Waterman Florida blue. I have not tried to mix Waterman Florida blue with purple but I will try as soon as my Waterman purple will arrive ....






Waterman and Quink blueblack are very light and fade to greygreen. I have mixed both 1:1 with the blue ink of the same brand. Quink lost it's greygreen to a very high degree, Waterman did not so well.

A nice old fashioned BB might be Diamine blueblack or Rohrer & Klingner verdisgris. Both with a green hue.
Sailor blueblack is also more oldfashioned and Sailor blue is a dark blue closer to blueblack.
Nice dark trueblue is Visconti blue.
If you have a pen with a real wet nib, try Pelikan blueblack. But if the inkflow is dry, is looks like some dull grey ink.

Sorry, don't know about the availability of those inks in Australia ....

Mont Blanc's blue-black might be just what you're looking for. It's almost black, barely blue at all, and Mont Blanc inks are pretty common.

I've been using it for the past few weeks and so far haven't noticed any fading, but I might not have had the stuff long enough.

It's an irongall ink, as is Lamy blue-black in the bottle. I think the consensus around here is that's fine used with gold nibs and with frequent cleaning.

I like Parker Quink Blue-black, but I wish it would retain its colour better. I can tolerate the fading (I don't get a pale grey-green, but I do get a greener version of the fresh colour) but I really wish it didn't shift at all.

If I were to buy a washable blue-black right now, I'd choose Sailor blue-black. It's beautiful, dark, and doesn't fade. In fact I'm now asking myself why I didn't add it onto my last ink order

The only problem is his lack of access

I know for a fact that I can get:

Sheaffer Skrip,
Waterman's.
Parker Quink.
Montblanc.
And I think Visconti, as well. Not sure about the others.

I've dumped a whole heap of black into the Quink b/b and it's a nice purple now.

Could you post a writing sample? I never really got fond of Quink black, but I might dig it out of the cupboard if it mixes well with blue-black.