I need a new ink, blue and/or blue-black, please.
Please don't suggest only any Noodlers or PRs; I don't hold anything against them, it's just that nobody here offers them directly.
I have a pen obstinately craving for more fluidity. (I'm not gonna tell you who.)

Got any recommendations? BTW: let's put Waterman's Florida up front as an all-round great blue.

Thanks.
Yours serenely,

Mike

J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir flows nicely and is a great colour.

Diamine Imperial Blue - flows well in every pen that I have tried it in and is a good rich blue, with some purple tones.

Left-field recommendation: Parker Blue/Black Quink with 2 drops of washing-up liquid added per bottle. This is my staple diet and it flows beautifully.

Honestly

I use Sailor Blue-Black and for me it flows well in my Sailor Professional Gear B nib

However I'm not an expert on blues....

You might want to try the Dupont ink--it is lovely imo and writes a smooth, wettish line in my Vista. I haven't tried it yet in a Pelikan.

Zoe

I know you said no Noodler's, but wait:

There is an ink made fro Swisher Pens called Noodler's Swishmix Tahitian Pearl. It is a beautiful blue-black, with a hint of a greenish tint. It is jaw-droppingly wet and can probably fix the driest writer known to humankind.

I will be back in Austria in November. If you want, I can buy it and then ship it to you from Vienna.

Sailor blue black flows quite well, but it stinks. (Has a strong odor.)

I find Diamine Blue to be a thin ink that bleeds through everything except the best of papers.

If you're really desperate, Diamine's Royal Blue (a fairly pleasant mid-blue with no purple content) might do the job. In a wet, vintage pen it makes an incontinent mess, flowing so fast as to feather badly on any paper you apply it to (it's even worse than Baystate Blue in that regard); in a dry, problem pen it might do the trick. Diamine's Blue-Black (it's not blue-black at all, but fairly dark teal) behaves similarly, but is rather more self-disciplined.

Simon

You can easily get them from missingpen.de. Rolf is great to deal with and the postage isn't much.

Have you already visited Rolf Thiel's webshop? I always mention him, because he is the only one in Germany (and possibly in the Euro-Zone?) to sell a vast international selection of inks (PR, Noodler's, Diamine, Sailor, Levenger etc.) and he's nice to deal with. His webshop itself is not optimized, but one can order via email any time. Shipping is free within Germany with orders above € 29 and he even doesn't wait for the bank transaction to arrive if he knows you already.

With that in mind, I'd say Private Reserve Midnight Blues.

My experiences with Diamine have always been fantastic, but my favourite blue at the moment (strangely enough) is Waterman Blue-Black. There is just something about the colour which draws me in... and a very lubed-up (it seems) ink too! Plus, it doesn't have the change in saturation like Quink BB has as you continue to write.

Give Waterman BB a go unless you are strongly against the stuff. ^_^

Waterman BB is more of a blue or teal, in my experience...not a true BB.

And yet he is looking for a blue or blue/black, so there shouldn't be an issue with it being not a true BB. Many people have referred to Waterman BB as being very green or teal-like... but I have none of that whatsoever. Quink BB goes teal very quickly in my experience, but Waterman has been a good kitten.

I guess the old YMMV applies yet again...

My favorites are Visconti Blue and Aurora Blue. Also nice are Diamine Sapphire Blue, Lamy Blue, and Pelikan Royal Blue.

"....washing up liquid..." What are you referring to?
Thanks

This is probably a British/American language barrier thingy. I'm not sure what Americans call "washing up liquid", but in Britain it is the stuff in squeezy bottles that you add to hot water to wash dishes (plates, cutlery etc) by hand. I think, though I'm not sure, that Americans call it detergent. I use it in ink, basically, for its wetting properties - it loosens the flow of other liquids. So far I have not found any downsides with regard to fading etc. The concentration I mentioned is particularly high (it was found by accident) and most people use just a single drop per bottle.

Hope this helps.

Yep, dish detergent.

"England and America are two countries separated by a common language." - George Bernard Shaw

is there a blue ink chart somewhere? a blues chart

Dish soap.

As far as wet, I put Pilot blue-black (from the BIG bottle that Ujuku sells) into a Binder cursive italic and was astounded at how wet it was. I don't get that in every pen but it was considerably wetter than anything else I've seen. I suspect it is the same blue-black Pilot has everywhere *except* in the Petit1 cartridges.

anything colorwise like the Baystate? I like baystate but I hear so much about staining that I am scared to put it into a nice pen

Lapis,

you should try de atramentis blues since your in Germany and missinpen is also in Germany.

Rob R

Rob, thanks. I'm not especially nationalistic but wouldn't mind saving shipping costs from England etc.
Do any websites have a "display" of the colours of all those inks? Missing pens doesn't, neither do Atramentis' or TWD's sites.

Thanks,
Mike

An aside...


I put it in an excellent writing pen, but an inexpensive pen and use that pen only for Baystate. I picked a Black Pilot 78G Medium. Love the Baystate, love the smoothness of the 78G and don't care if it stains anything. Would have picked any color of 78G, just happened to have an extra Black. The Baystate and Black pen together are quite attractive.

Back to the original question, if Noodlers could be in the mix, suggest looking at Air Corp Blue-Black. As with most BBs it has a green edge to the blue, but it's a nice dark ink. Also fond of the Noodlers BB and Navy. Use Waterman BB in my vintage pens, don't care for the color of Sheaffer BB, too light, too grey.

Look to the review section for other comments about specific inks when you narrow down the field.

Does Michael Richter's website show the colors you want to see?

Another brand of well-behaved fountain pen ink is Rohrer & Klingner from Leipzig. The company also makes pigmented drawing inks, so make sure you're looking at the fountain pen inks. Color samples are visible at The Inked Nib, which also shows samples of Pelikan, Visconti, Noodler's, and Private Reserve.