I have been using fountain pens seriously for less than six months. For the bulk of those six months (while I saved and waited for Christmas) I used Pilot's Varsity disposable pens. Hey, they got me in the door. I grabbed the two I held onto this morning to compare who they wrote to my best writer as of yet, the Pelikan M250. Needless to say there was little comparison, the Varsities were better than any roller I had used and the M250 took that smoothness to a much higer level.

Anyhow, long story short, it occurred to me that the blue ink in the Varsity is my favorite blue as of yet, and I've since used Parker Quink, Aurora (nice, but not true blue), and Sheaffer Skrip. I like the Pilot's blue because not only is it a true, generic, middle-of-the-road, classic blue color but it is also quite opaque, not washed out or appearing thin like the Quink and Skrip. I have not used Waterman's Florida Blue, but I have seen it on paper and it seems a little lighter than what I am looking for.

I was wondering if Namiki's inks were at all related to the stuff that comes in these disposable Pilot's. I was also thinking of trying Private Reserve American Blue, it looks close on the computer. Other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hi Robert, I too like Namiki ink. It's been a while since I last used a Pilot Varsity, but the ink carts that come with most of Namiki/Pilot pens have a nice true blue colour (no hint of purple in it). If you're looking for a similiar colour, look for Priveat Reserve Lake Placid Blue. It's the closest to Namiki Blue I've found.

Cheers,
Apollo

Pilot sells a lot of colors with their parallel pens and you can buy those colors from distributors that carry the parallel pens. my experience with those inks has been that they are quite nicely saturated but not overly so and have good flow. The red is as true a red as Levenger Cardinal. So one of those blues is probably the same as that you got with the Varsity. I've only used a purple varsity which was a very nice color also.

Now... is any of this the same as the bottled Namiki ink? no idea. I would guess so but...

Thanks, I will try to locate some parallel ink if possible. I have been looking at more color samples as well as my own writing and I think my perfect blue would lie somewhere between the true blue of Waterman's Florida Blue and the violet-ish blue of Aurora. Dark without being too purple or black, though not so bright as to approach a pastel color. If I can make my scanner work I'll post some writing with the blue Varsity.

Aurora blue, I've found, has a few sides to it. When I use it in a fine point, it often does looks quite purplish. In broader nibbed pens, it looks very blue--pretty much indistinguishable from Waterman's Florida Blue (those are the two blues I use). It's a nice, "pure" blue when used in my Pelikan M200 medium point.

Levenger ink colors behave well, except for Cobalt Blue and Raven Black.

Stay away from Levenger Cobalt Blue. It feels luscious while writing and looks luscious on paper, but it is so saturated that it dry-smears a year later and is very difficult to clean completely out of a pen (I destroyed a $28 pen's section and feed trying to boil it in water in a microwave oven to clean LCB out of it; I learned that lesson :ph34r: ).

Levenger Black is easy to clean out of a pen but can also dry-smear.

I can't speak for the Pilot varsity pens but Private Reserve's American Blue is a true blue, in my humble opinion. When I think "blue," I think of PR AB.

The Blues I like are: American Eel Blue, Private Reserve American Blue, Lake Placid Blue, & Waterman Florida Blue.

Hi,
I have a Varsity or V-Pen too.I liked the color of the ink too.But Varsity's nibs are Japanese F and this affects looks of the ink.I think you need to try it on B or M nib.Maybe it show different shading charactericts on the broader nibs.

Yeah,American Blue and Lake Placid Blue looks very nice from what I have seen.I like FL Blue on the wet nibs,on the dry ones it looks a little washed out.

Take Care,
Emrecan

My Varsities were always marked medium, FWIW.

I got the scanner going. This is my everyday writing, fast and sloppy, but if I slow down it only gets worse.

Amen here. I had been trying to find a replacement for Penman Sapphire until this came along. I can't imagine there being anything better.