I've read a bunch of blue-black reviews, and am starting to suffer from input overload... I'm looking for dark navy blue, nearly black but with just enough blue to tell the difference. Not medium blue, not gray-blue, but dark navy blue. So far I have only tried two: Quink and Pilot cartridges. The Pilot is too light. I don't remember exactly what I didn't like about the Quink, but I dumped it down the kitchen sink.

This ink, whatever it may be, will be used in my Sonnets (italic nibs) and in some of my Pilot pens, in case that makes a difference. To give you an idea, on my computer, the RGB values are between 0-0-100 (hex 000064) and 0-0-91 (hex 00005B), but my laptop is old and the display is probably out of whack color-wise.

I'll keep looking, but if anyone can save me some time (and money) I would appreciate it.

As has been debated many a time on this forum, if you're looking for a really dark blue, you're probably not going to be happy with any blue-black, as they all have either a hint of grey or green tint due to dye properties.

Hi There,

I'm very pleased with Private Reserve Midnight Blues and the FPN Starry Starry Night.

My favourite blue-black is Noodlers Aircorps Blue-black, but that doesn't look like a blue-black it has a hint of green-black so that woulodn't be the color you're looking for I guess...

Nicolette

Thanks for the responses.

I suppose that it would be too much to assume that I could mix blue and black by slowly adding the blue to the black and testing each time?

You know, it's really a lot cheaper to order samples from James at Pear Tree Pens than it is to dump a whole bottle of ink down the drain!

Pure, dark blues: Levenger Cobalt (expensive, compared to other inks, and has feathering issues in various pen/paper combinations, plus it dries slowly); Private Reserve Midnight Blues (not the quick drying version! PRMB is in my opinion the best all-around compromise you are going to get).

Mixing blue and black inks will not give you what you want if what you want is an ink that shades from dark blue to black. You'll just get something that is a very dark blue. And you will still have the problem of any greenish cast in the black ink coming through at some point.

I get the same when I try to make a blue black.

Everything I have tried turns greenish and looks like some shade between tahitian pearl to legal lapis. And I haven't been too successful getting any of the mixes I have made to shade very well.

Melnicki suggested to me to start with a black/purple then add blue. I haven't tried this yet.

I have had occasional success making a nice blue-black (unfortunately I was just experimenting and didn't keep track of a formal recipe); I've found that it works better to start with a vibrant blue (Aurora, Visconti, or Florida blue, for example), then add black incrementally, rather than starting with black and adding blue. Also, I believe PR Tanzanite was an ingredient in one of my successful mixes. The best of my experiments actually resulted in my favorite blue-black of all, though, alas, I can't reproduce it.

As has been said already, Midnight Blues is the color you're looking for (again, not the quick-dry version).

It is easy to get carried away and start throwing stuff together randomly isn't it.

I agree, it doesn't take much black to overpower the color. Have you noticed any difference in the blacks you used for mixing. Seems like Hearts of darkness makes the mixes more green than say pelikan black.

I have mostly used Aurora Black in these mixes; very dark with good flow properties, so it's a black that I always have on hand.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. I was trying to use a BP black so it would have some water resistance but could never get the color to be what I wanted.

Would it be possible to start with a pre-made blue black ink, and simple add some more black to darken it?

Another vote for PR Midnight Blues.

If your mixes keep coming up slightly greenish, either add a little bit of purple or use a different brand of black.

FPN member Lloyd said he gets better behavior on paper and loses very little of the desired color when he mixes Levenger Cobalt with Namiki-Pilot Blue.

A lot is going to depend on how wet of writers your pens are. In wet writers, the blackest blues I use are Noodler's Blue-Black and the already-mentioned PR Midnight Blues.

Pilot's iroshizuku tsuki-yo is quite dark. Here's a pic I posted in another thread (it's the two scribbles on the left):

Upon further review, the title of this thread should have been "Navy Blue Ink Help".

I've been reading reviews here, and looking at color charts available elsewhere, and I don't see any b-b inks that I like the look of. I'm not looking for shading, but a solid, dark, navy blue.

Ironically, the Pendemonium color chart for Parker's B-B seems to look like what I'm looking for, but I don't remember it looking so blue in real life. (By the way, I dumped it down the drain a couple of years ago. If I still had it, I would give it another chance.)

On with the quest...

You really should give the FPN Van Gogh Starry Night Blue a try. I find it nearly indistinguishable from black in all but bright light, yet you can get some shading with the right nib (nearly being the operable term).

Maybe the paper makes a difference too. For instance, when I go to my favourite (read 'only') pen shop the 'Graf von Faber Castell' paper put out for trying pens gives lovely saturated colours. Try the same ink at home on bog-standard file paper and inks can look weak or colour-casted (esp blue-black with the green or grey tinge that is well-known). Another factor in the better appearance in the shop is that the pen has been dipped, so it resembles a wet writer.

In summary, wet writers with good paper seem to go a long way to dispelling disappointment. Good luck!

Thomas

After spending the last few hours saving the sample photos to a folder on my laptop and comparing them side by side, it's come down to a choice between the PR Midnight Blues and the PR American Blue. Assuming, of course, that I haven't missed one.

And they're off! The American Blue (a bit bluer) is ahead by about half a length and gaining steadily.

I think I need a break now...

You might look at PR DCSS Blue too. Just a bit darker than American Blue, but still VERY blue.
Midnight Blues is more muted, with some black in it.

If you want something similar to American Blue, but a bit brighter, try Lake Placid Blue.

Rob sorry to add fuel to the fire.

DC Electric supershow blue is even darker than the regular supershow blue.

Sounds like the darkness meter goes like this

PR mindnight blue
PR DC supershow blue electric
PR DC supershow
PR American blue
PR Lake placid blue

Looks like a great set of blues to order from James
Since you can only get 4 inks with the sampler I'd pick only 1 between American blue and DCSS, those look very similar to my eye.

American Blue won't look like navy blue unless you use it in a pen with a wet nib. Try PR's Electric Blue - a dark blue that's bluer than Midnight Blues (which has a hint of green about it).

(If you want to try mixing, you can add black to blue in very small increments - it takes very little black to make a significant difference. But the result tends to look a bit drab, I think. Better to use a dark reddish brown instead of black - adding Waterman's Havana to Waterman's Blue (or even Waterman's Blue-Black) results (counter-intuitively, perhaps) in a warmer dark blue.)

Simon

My Parkers are pretty wet. The Pilots are a bit on the dry side.

I use a Clairefontaine pocket journal for scribbling, and I have a package of Southworth 100% cotton resumé paper for more formal occasions. (I use the Southworth mostly for reenacting, with a dip pen.)

I am going to order some samples - all I can do now is to try them out, n'est-ce pas?

PR inks don't dry really quickly, and tend to smear especially on Clairefontaine paper.
Maybe you can mix them with the glacier blue you just got?

Mix them with acetone, nitrous oxide and Baystate Blue. Go ahead, I dare ya...

Yet another vote for PR Midnight blue. I finally managed to get some, albeit in cartridge form, so I hope that's the same as bottled.

The other one not yet mentioned is Sailor blue-black. I got two cartridges with my Sapporo, and it's also a very true dark navy blue, and dries just a bit faster than Midnight Blue. I suspect the PR will be easier to get ahold of, though.

I ordered some samples from Pear Tree; they arrived this morning. They included

PR American Blue
PR DC Supershow Blue
PR Electric Blue
Noodler's Navy

Due to some unexplained brainlock, I neglected to try PR Midnight Blues. I now wish that I had.

I dipped one of my un-inked Sonnets with an italic nib, rinsing and drying it after each line. Used a plain white pad. Lovely paper, about 5 1/2" x 8", but I could not tell you who made it, or even where I got it.

American Blue and Supershow: cannot tell the difference between them. Nice color; not quite dark enough.
Electric Blue: The apparent winner, at least so far.
Noodler's Navy: I'm wondering if I got a wrong sample - there was nothing "navy" about it. It's very greenish, and looks more like a dark turquoise. Very "antique-y" looking, but not at all what I was looking for.

Perhaps I'll just get Midnight Blues and Electric Blue and leave it at that.

Your sample sounds right. Noodler's Navy isn't navy. The name refers to the branch of the military, not the shade of blue. At least, that's how I read the Pendemonium website, which describes it as "a replica of a 1930s Navy ink made for a local drug chain by the Old Colony Ink Co. of Massachusetts - a deep/darker blue with faint turquoise tingeing." If you mix it with equal parts of Noodler's La Couleur Royale, you get a true navy blue.

Erk! So much to learn, so little time.

I ordered one PR Electric Blue and one PR Midnight Blues. (They also had one called Black Magic Blue, which looked interesting. Maybe next time.)

Thanks to all.

Next I will have to find out who makes the "blackest" black...