It seems that lots of people have been having problems with Baystate Blue, so I thought I'd start a thread that people can reference before they put Baystate Blue in their pen(s). Here goes:

<b>Safe:</b>
<u>Sheaffer Javelin Argent Silver</u>: filled completely and wrote until the pen went dry

<b>Results Coming Soon:</b>
<u>Kaweco Sport</u>

<b>Unsafe:</b>
<u>Lamy Safari, Yellow</u>: Stains yellow plastic
<u>Lamy Vista/Safari/AL-Star</u>: Feed becomes brittle and cracks, causing the nib to pop off (works for some, not for others)
<u>Pelikan M200</u>: "Stains" inner barrel and ink view window; difficult to remove

That's all I have for now...

Pelikan M620 - works great

Not proven. I've been using it with an Al-Star and Safari with no problems.

My Lamy 2000 works quite nicely with BSB.

Can we broaden "works" to include how it reacts with paper? Specifically, the pen/paper combinations which avoid feathering? The only pen I've filled with Baystate Blue is a (yellow!) Lamy with a medium nib, hardly the wettest writer around but not dry, either, and it feathers on every type of paper I've tried it on, ranging from cheap legal pads through Clairefontaine and Rhodia (it feathers least on these, but it's still noticeable). Presumably dry, fine (or finer) nibs are best?

Simon

Safe: Montblanc Starwalker (Cool Blue)

Sure. BSB (in my Javelin) feathers on everything I've tried, as well... In a Lamy Vista with an EF nib, which is now broken, there was a tiny bit of feathering on Norcal college-ruled filler paper; I'd assume there wouldn't be any feathering on better paper. In general, I've noticed that BSB leaves a wider line and bleeds more than some other inks.

Edit: Added Lamy Vista comment.

I'm wondering if anyone else is having problems w/ their Lamy Studio. I have a 1.1mm stub, and it is skipping more than I care for, filled w/ BSB. I didn't seem to have as many skipping issues w/ PR Black Magic Blue.

When I got skipping, I did a flush, and so far, that seems to work well. I'm nearing the end of cartridge 2 in the Montblanc.

Works fine in my F Pelikano.

It worked perfectly in my Aurora Talentum ... until I rinsed the ink out and refilled the pen with Herbin Poussière de Lune. The latter has always been fine in the Aurora, but it suddenly started to write drily and then to skip. A few more thorough rinses, though, and the pen was back to normal, so my guess is that a slight BSB residue was reacting badly with the Herbin. No long-term damage that I can see, in other words.

Neil

Lamy 2000 - Great!
Lamy Al-Star 1.1 nib - No problems.
Bexley Simplicity - Very Poor (seems to have restricted flow and almost comes out as if the colour has been leached out of it).
Waterman Carene - For the love of God just don't! Badly stains the section (yes even a black section) and leaks (tried in both a medium and a stub).
Namiki Falcon - OK but I am concerned about long term use.
Pilot VP (Binder Italifine and Stub nibs) - No problems.
Stipula Vedo 1.1 Italic - Poor flow and stains ink window.

As for paper, it feathers but not on high quality stuff...

There are others which I'll report at a later stage, I am being attacked by a rogue spreadsheet from work at the moment.

I refilled a Pilot Varsity, and a Pilot V ball disposable roller ball with Baystate Blue and they are both working great.

I uploaded a writing sample and the pens here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/superbleu/Foun...675321343354514

It seems to work well enough in a Parker Reflex.

BSB works great in my Cross Solo. I even left it sitting there for a week without use and it started right up. Then I left it for another week and it took a stroke or two to get started and then it was fine.

Obviously this ink does stain a little more heavily and require a llittle extra care, so use it wisely or avoid it.

BSB is working very well in my VP Decimo. If left too long without use (couple days) it needs a little coxing to get it going, buy only a couple of strokes and off she goes.

Have the BS Grape in another of my VP's and it is working very well there also.

BSB feathers with my Hero 329.

I've had the same results on Norcal paper, but would add that the nib size didn't seem to stop the feathering.
The finest nibs I have are the Hero 329 (new, old) and Hero 616. The 329 nib feathered just the way the larger medium nibs did.

I did notice too that BSB flows very well, not quite as severely as Supershow Blue, but almost.

Baystate is working very well in a Waterman Harley-Davidson pen that is clearly based on the Phileas. It also works wonderfully in the Platinum Preppy eyedropper pens.

The most recent pen I filled with the ink is a Hero 616. It's a great combination.

BSB works exceptionally well in my Black Pilot 78G Med nib. Flow is similar to other Pilot 78Gs loaded with Noodlers Glacier Blue, Waterman Red, Waterman green/Blue mix, and Noodlers Napalm.

I use Baystate Blue exclusively in a '49 Parker 51 Demi. I have experienced no problems with it so far. I went a month without flushing it and other than it takes a bit longer to flush i haven't experienced any problems with the use on=f the ink in this particular pen. I have also used it in my Waterman Phileas with no apparent ill effects.

PMS

What color is the demi? No staining at all?

I've had four of my older Sheaffer NoNonsense nib sections crack after using BSB for more than three days in them - rendering them worthless. I've switched to different pens and report that the problem seems to just be with the plastic used in the NoNonsense sections.

That will be happening in about the next 10 minutes somewhere in Wiltshire...

I have used it and left it for some time in a Sheaffer Fashion fp with a broad nib. Works great, no problems!

That is amazing -- and scary. I've been dismissing these reports as unlucky coincidence, but four incidents are too many to ignore. Wow.

BSB in a 616 and it's working very nicely for now...

Noodlers Blue works great with my medium nibbed Pelikan M605 and two Parker 51's and one broad nibbed 75. You do have to be dillegent with your flushing procedures but that's it. I am happy with the results.

Regarding feed that cracked after having BSB in the pen:


So what the heck do you think caused this? Is it possible there was some reaction between the plastic and the ink that made it heat up? what the heck could cause plastic the crack when there is no real pressure on it? There really is not much pressure on a feed is here? Well, maybe the part that fits tightly into the section???

Maybe take half of one of those feeds and stick it in a jar with BSB and see if it cracks again.

weird.

I'm using my dip pens when I'm writing with BSB

You had inked those pens with something other than BSB at some point, right?

If so, I wonder if the cracking issue has something to do with both the type of plastic and some reaction with the small particles of other ink left over (even after the pens washed clear in water).

It seems to me that the best policy for BSB and like inks is to buy a new pen for use with the ink and make that your BSB pen.

Cartier Diablo, a pen that wrote wonderfully with any other ink, choked. Had a hard time starting and skipped all over the place.

Sheaffer Targa had a problem at first and after a week of use writes flawlessly.

Parker 21 works without a flaw. Perfect but I've only tried it a day.

I'm trying it in one of my Parker 51's in a few days if the 21 behaves.

-Mario

That's what my approach was, and it seems to be working well.

Tried BSB in my two Danitrio's for about a week each.

No clogging or flow problems, but with an F nib on a Mikado, the flow was too much for me, especially since on all the cheap paper we have here at work, it really feathers a lot. I tend to write a bit small, so for me: high ink flow + feathering = not good writing

It does look like I got a bit of staining on the back of the nib section, but I didn't try soaking it to see if it would go away. Just did a quick rinse with water for a few minutes, before loading up another ink in it.

I also managed to get a bit of ink in our stainless steel sink, but softscrub easily got rid of it.

The seller of a pen I recently bought tried it out with BSB. The ink stained the ebonite feed, particularly the collector fins. I don't know whether the ink affected the porosity of the material. The pen didn't write very well for a while, but it now writes fine.

22 hours later and it's still working.

Mind you, that plague of locusts looks ominous...

The Demi is Teal Blue, which probably helps hide any staining. It is also a fine pint.
PMS

Sheaffer Imperial IV NOS pen with medium nib. Works great with BSB.

-Mario

Wow..ballsy

I think I'm just gonna run this stuff through the preppy

Lamy Al-Star with 1.1 Italic.

Lush!

I have to withdraw this now.

The cap to the 616 has a metal jewel that screws into the top part of the cap, which is made of plastic. I can't say it was the BSB, but that plastic part cracked and fell out of the pen today. It had BSB ink on it.

I have two uninked 616s, but I'm not sure I'm going to sacrifice another one in the name of seeing if this really was BSB or some defect in the cap. Instead, I think I'll probably buy a 329 and ink it up with BSB. The 329 doesn't seem to have any plastic in the cap I can see.

50 plus hours, 616 still functional.

Plague of locusts dispelled with trusty cricket bat and rolled-up copies of National Geographic dating from 1954.

Have lost feeling in left leg and can hear wolves...

Has anyone had any luck at making baystate blue not bleed or even bleed less?

I love the colour and love the water resistance, but it bleeds really badly, the main issue I have is that it makes the opposite side of a paper unusable, and its really wasting good paper if I can only write on one side.
I have noodler's black which doesn't bleed much, but I don't wish to change the amazing colour so much by mixing it with black.

FYI I am using it in a Pilot Decimo Fine Nib.

I have minimal bleed-through in my Franklin Planner which is were I use my Parker '51 Demi exclusively. No more bleed through than any other FP/ink combo I use there.
PMS

Platinum Preppy converted to ED use with Tryphon's silicone lubricant (1 for BSB, 1 for Baystate Cape Cod Cranberry, and one for Baystate Concord Grape).

I'm using it in an old safety pen with an extra-fine nib, and find that it feathers even on high-quality papers like Clairefontaine and Crane's. Also, when I extrude the nib, it comes out coated solid blue. It looks like this ink is going to cause as much controversy as Penman Sapphire.

Pilot Prera F nib, in cobalt blue... been a month and working fine.

Pen:
I'll second that BSB doesn't work in a Sheaffer No Nonsense medium (with the colored translucent body plastic pen). It worked well on day one. I left it overnight, but when I picked it up the next day (well within 24 hours), the black plastic grip looked greasy and worse, smelled like it was burning. I emptied the pen and left it to soak, so I hope it's not ruined.

Paper:
Works well on Moleskine NB paper. No bleedthrough, no feathering, and gorgeous color blue that jumps off the page. Written with the above M-nib Sheaffer No Nonsense pen.

I've been scared to try it in any other pen!

I put Black Magic Blue in my Studio and had no skipping problems, but did have a fair amount of nib creep. Shame, because it's my new favorite ink (NFI?).
ASR

My red Parker 21 still writes great with BSB, but the hood is stained and I can't get it clean.

-Mario