I am not talking Noodler's "Bulletproof" or "Waterproof" qualities. Just a "whoops, I spilled my glass of water" or "the postman didn't close my mailbox completely and now my letter is damp" survival. I've learned that both Sailor and Waterman blue-black inks can survive. What about a Diamine color? Or other brands and colors (not iron-gall)?

I did a soak test on the three Diamine inks that I have --- Monaco Red, Prussian Blue, and Umber --- a while back.

The Monaco Red quickly lifted right off the paper, leaving only the faintest shadow behind (unfortunate, but happily, it does the same thing on my hands :).

The Umber lifted, leaving a blur. I wasn't able to read what I had wrote after a few seconds.

The Prussian Blue blurred, but there was a darker component to it that stayed put for a surprisingly long time. I wouldn't want to hand it to someone to read, but I could make it out well enough.

The soak test was done with some fairly standard photocopier paper, and the kitchen sink :).

--joey

The WM Blue-Black sure won't survive anything more than the most momentary "Whoops", that's for sure. It has other good qualities, but water resistance is not of them. Do not address envelopes with it! <_< Well, you could wax it.

If I remember MB blue-black will stand up to water prety well. As well I have found that the Noodler's Zhivago which is not touted as either waterproof or bulletproof will stand up to a complete immersion with only the green component being washed away.

K

Maybe MB Blue-Black. Dunno as I don't have it, but not WM Blue-Black.

Zhivago is rated as Excellent in both Water and Sun resistance, in spite of the fact that it is not rated, by Nathan, as Bulletproof, Eternal or Contract. That rating by Clark in his INK SAMPLER and confirmed in my own soak tests.

I did a soak test on Diamine Prussian Blue as well, I found that with a sample that had been written and left for a week it left behind a substantial amount of ink and was perfectly legible, just a bit faded. However, with a new sample, written and then left for 20 minutes, almost all of it washed away.

MB Blue-Black (in bottles, not cartridges), like its apparently identical twin Lamy B-B (in bottles and cartridges) is a mild iron gall.

Several (but not all) of the darker Noodler's not-advertised-waterproof colors actually contain the dye of Noodler's Black as the darkener, so the black dye stays after a water spill.

These Noodler's colors contain N's Black, that I know of for sure:

Blue-Black
Aircorp Blue-Black
Red-Black
(Standard) Brown
Walnut
Zhivago

Several other Noodler's colors probably contain it, too.

According to Bryan's water tests, which I'm sure you've already looked at, some dark Noodler's colors, such as Nightshade, do not contain the N's Black dye.

One or more of the dyes in Levenger Cocoa is very water-resistant. I've soak-tested that ink and gotten postal-legible results! Levenger Cocoa does require "better" paper.

Pilot/Namiki Blue-Black is not an iron gall (it's alkaline), it proved impressively water-resistant in my own soak test and Johnny Appleseed's all-day Seattle rain test, and I like how it looks. The swabbed sample in Greg Clark's Sampler matches the output from my Pilot Vanishing Point M. It's a very opaque, pastel, blue color with some gray and without any hint of green. The only blue-black that is bluer than P/N B-B in the Sampler is Diamine/Yard-O-Led B-B.