When it comes to fountain pens, I have to work with a shoestring budget - especially as I just blew much of said budget on a NOS 45.

To the point now: which of the two inks is better overall? I was tempted to get the Waterman Blue-Black initially, as I'd read in a survey here that people prefer Waterman inks to Parker Quink 3:2, but I decided to hold off and ask here first.

Quink Blue-Black (presumably washable) goes for 130 Pesos, about $2.82, for 57 mL, while Waterman's version runs for 250 Pesos, or $5.43, for 50 mL. While Parker is the clear winner in the price department, logically, Waterman's offering should be superior in terms of quality. However, as I didn't have enough time to try either of the two inks properly, I don't really know the differences between the two. Does Waterman's have a deeper shade or blue-black? Is Quink more likely to spread or feather on cheap brown paper? And so on. I've only had experience with plain black Quink, so some advice and recommendations would be very much appreciated.

By the way, I'll be using the ink with a Parker 45 with an XF 14k nib, a Jotter with an F nib, and quite possibly a Phileas with either an F or M nib, if I can get one later on.

Quink is the only blue-black I've tried, and I don't like it. Although it intially looks blue-black, it dries to a green-black. Not at all the color I wanted or expected.

My Quink BB dries a paler blue on all paper I've tried recently .. see post scan Quink is 3rd down on the sheaffer

I can never find an ink that satisfies me for blue/black. So instead, I make my own. I buy some black ink, then I buy blue ink (Of the same brand), then I mix and stir and test it until I have a blue-black that I personally like. Usually, it's a shade of very dark purple/navy-blue.

Well, I have tried both and there seems to be no big difference between these two inks. They both perform well and have nearly the same color. I think, I would not be able to notice a difference on the paper, if I didn't know which ink is which.


What you mix might be a beautiful ink, but it is more a dark blue than blue-black. A real Blue-Black is an ink which is blue when it is wet and black after drying. However, today many Blue-Blacks don't dry to black anymore but to a color with shades of teal in it (e.g. Waterman's and Parker's blue-black inks).

I know what a true blue-black is supposed to do, but then, such an ink doesn't really exist these days, as far as I know. At least it's not made anymore.

Both are good and well behaving inks. You cannot go wrong with both. In Germany both inks have nearly the same price so it comes down to personal preference. I don't like both blueblack inks so I have a mix:

My Quink mix is 1:1 blue and blueblack. This works much better with Quink than with Waterman and shifts the ink from teal to a blueish blueblack.

My Waterman mix is adding some Havana brown to Florida blue until the blue gets darker. Works with black, too but the black mix tends to give a greyish blueblack whereas the Havana mix stays blue.

As far as I know you are right. However, there are some inks which at least are near to what blue-black inks should look like. For example, Pelikan's Blue-Black is blue when it is wet and gray with a bluish hue after drying. This blue hue seems to disappear after some months, at least the notes I have written about half a year ago are gray nearly without the blue hue they had when I wrote them. I think that a dark gray is nearer to black than the teal of Waterman Blue-Black or Parker Quink Blue-Black.

They're both much the same colour (which, as others have noted, is not blue-black at all but teal) and behave in much the same way (i.e., very well). I would buy whichever is cheaper.

Simon

From what I can gather here, I have two options for blue-blacks:

1: get the cheaper one as they're more or less the same, or
2: mix my own.

I unfortunately don't have an inkwell or any spare bottles for mixing, nor do I know how to mix inks right, so I'll just go with the first choice. Thanks for the advice!

It depends what you want - if you want a real blue-black, of the sort that pen companies used to make (including Parker and Waterman), i.e., a dark greyish blue/blueish grey, you can still buy something along those lines; Pelikan's and Sheaffer's are pretty close and shouldn't cost any more than the two you're considering, and both perform well.

Simon

Dear Zeroblade,

I have been brought up on Sheaffer bottle inks. I haven't had to look for bottle ink in over 40 years; but I have picked up my old fountain pens, old calligraphy and copperplate dip pens (which require a different ink) and soon a Spencerian nib pen(s); I do find your post educational.

I can't help but think, that the Sheaffer bottle ink of Blue-Black has changed their recipee. I recall my written works in blue-black; went from dark blue to black when it dried. If Coke has changed their recipee and other products; perhaps this is where the present quality of ink is so miserable compared to the vintage.

Good luck to you!

Respectfully,
Maria

Waterman's Blue Black dries into a teal that amazingly doesn't fade that much

Buy the cheaper one is what I'd suggest, though I'd suggest eventually buying something like Waterman for the more useful bottle. That will help get the most ink out of the bottle into the 45.

I find that I prefer the Quink, of the two under consideration. Its final colour is a little bluer than the Waterman, and it takes longer to get there. The Waterman bottle is rather good, though.

I have Waterman inks, not the Quink. Since both are decent inks and price is a factor, go cheaper. I have all 8 Waterman inks and enjoy mixing inks, but you can do something like that later when you have some spare "fun cash". Saving money now will get you to fun stuff faster.

Please note since you have a Parker 45, if you have old cartridges you can mix inks in the cartridge. You will need something like a syringe you might get at a vet office. Being very careful, a couple drops of one color in the cartridge, rinse the syringe and then a couple drops of another ink. I use my 45 all the time as the test mixing ink pen. It's a good writer, I can try a small mix of just a couple drops, so I'm not stuck with a color for a long time... and most important, to repeat, the 45 is such a nice writer.

Enjoy.

Blue-Black: Quink vs. Waterman, Which has better value-for-money?

For me, NEITHER! They both too green!! And too light. No real character!!!

Mike