Blue Black ink seems to be the favorite in the current ink poll. (At least as of this writing.) So which is your favorite Blue Black ink and why?

Jim Couch
Tacoma, Wa

Although I prefer darker blue inks, my favorite blue-black is Sailor Jentle Blue-Black. I like the color, flow, and drying time. An added benefit is it can survive a short soak and still be legible. My second choice is Waterman Blue-Black for the same reasons.

I have been trying a few blue-black inks, and my impressions are:

* Waterman Blue-Black: not blue-black at all; greenish ligh blue
* Omas (old style) Blue-Black: nice shade, flow issues
* Sheaffer Blue-Black (old American bottle): too light for me, grayish
* Montblack: dark and a bit dry.
* Noodler's Blue-Black: dark, perfect real blue-black, lots of variation, perfect in any kind of nib (fine or music, firehose or dry as a bone). Many inks in a single bottle. 9

Just my experiece!

Enjoy this lovely color!

Alejandro

Blue-Blacks that I have are Noodlers Blue-Black, Waterman Blue-Black, and Noodlers/Swishers Tahitian Pearl.

Waterman Blue-Black
The color is quite light and, to many, not a true Blue-Black. Flow and lubrication are top notch, as is drying time. Waterfastness is next to nonexistent. This is a great ink for breaking in a pen or troubleshooting or just plain trouble-free ink.

Noodlers Blue-Black
A true blue-black that has good lubrication. Drying time is slower than the other two. Not sure about the waterfastness, but would expect it to be fair.

Noodlers/Swishers Tahitian Pearl
This is one of the Noodlers permanent grades that has been mixed for Swishers to be fast drying. It is. Color is darker than Noodlers Blue-Black, but still can see the blue, although less so in fine nibs. Drying time is great, as is waterfastness. This is my favorite out of the three.

Just bought some Quink blue-black. Dunno about the black part. Looks like a really deep blue to me.....could that be the black doing that? I suppose. I have yet to get out my 10x headset and give it a really close look.

-Bruce

I have two batches of Quink Blue/Black, one about 40 years old and some of the new stuff.

The new is really a dark blue with some shading, whereas the old stuff is a really dark blue/black. like the sky on a moonless night

Jim

Swishmix/Noodler's Tahitian Pearl Blue-Black is my fav. for the same reasons Southpaw described. I now use more of it than any of my other inks. I also do a bit of drawing and the Tahitian Pearl holds up pretty good to a wash.

My water test showed two dyes in N's B-B, a very washable blue and the cellulose-reactive, waterproof black that stays firmly behind!

I have Noodler's B-B and Namiki/Pilot B-B.

N's B-B is darkened with the N's Black dye, which when diluted is brownish, so combining it with blue makes a slightly greenish B-B. I still love N's B-B ! My water test of it left an impressively legible result, too.

I also like Pilot/Namiki B-B. It's a very opaque, pastel blue with some gray, it's the second-bluest B-B in Greg Clark's Sampler, it doesn't have any hint of green, and his swabbed sample in my copy matches the output from my Pilot Vanishing Point M written right next to it. It's bluer than some blues in the book! It's also extremely water-resistant and therefore envelope-address-worthy. I think the Pilot/Namiki marketing folks, by selling this color only in their proprietary cartridges, are missing the opportunity to compete more in the water-resistant market niche. They already have an excellent bottle.

N's B-B is much better-behaved in "bad" paper than P/N B-B.

My only experience with Blue-Black inks is the homemade mixture I have of Waterman Black and Waterman Florida Blue. It looks pretty good and I haven't had any flow problems yet. I have no idea of the actual ratios of black and blue inks, but I think that it's about 1:1.

TMann

An accurate description! And it’s exactly what I like about it!

I haven’t tried out as many inks as some of my FPN colleagues, but apart from Sheaffer I have used Montblanc, Waterman, Parker, Pelikan.
Of these brands, Sheaffer Skrip has the best flow and requires the least pen servicing; also, it makes nice shading (being watery!), and is not as blueish as the competitors mentioned.

I fear, this shows everybody must make his/her own experiences...

I like Private Reserve's Midnight Blues. Flows very well, and is very dark, yet highly saturated deep ... well, blue black. I used to load my office-carry pen, a Namiki VP with it, but recently started loading that with PR American Blue because Midnight Blues didn't show off its color very well on the yellow pads we use. I'm going to stop using yellow pads and change to white, and when that happens will probably go back to Midnight Blues for office carry.

At home though, it's Midnight Blues. It's the color of my deep and distant thoughts.

Doug

Noodler's Blue/Black. It has a classic look and it has a permanent, black, component to it. If what I write with it gets wet at least it'll still be readable.

I see others naming also Swisher's Swishmix Tahitian Pearl, but I consider that a black/blue ink as opposed to the classic blue/black. I do like Tahitian Pearl though.

The black part is Noodler's Black, the "bulletproof" ink. I've tested the Noodler's Blue/Black and that black component stays there quite permanently against any amount of water and a whole lot more.

I've been getting rid of the very washable blue inks I've accumulated and I've been mixing blue/black inks with them. I find that a 4:1 mixture of Waterman's Florida Blue and Noodler's Black from a wet writer makes a quite nice blue/black, although it's really bluer than the classic tones, which tend towards greenish to my eye.

I have been using Levenger "Cobalt Blue" -- which is a blue black, and am happy with it. It is free flowing in a number of my pens (Pel 200's B, Pel 800 M, Reform M).