Water Resistant Blue Ink?

[Kuhataparunks]

I love the colors of the Iroshizuku blues, but far too many times I've gotten just a single drop on the paper and it is ruined.

 

I love Pilot Blue's water resistance, but it is too dull of a blue color...!

 

Are there ANY other water resistant blues out there? I can judge the colors for myself, but I want more viable options. Anything I can find on here gives specific criteria the ink must meet, limiting selection, but all I'm asking for is water resistant blue.

 

By water resistant I mean either

A.) a single drop of liquid won't vanish the ink on the page

B.) the i k can survive a single wet cotton swab(see photo)!

 

Dry time was around 30 minutes... Plenty of time for the ink to settle.

I swabbed a clean wet cotton once over the pilot blue ink once and nothing happened.

New clean, wet cotton swab over Asa-Gao and got those ghastly results.

With a new wet cotton I swabbed over the Pilot Blue 4 more times until it budged, which is slightly visible in the photo.

 

Any suggestions or other options? Thanks guys!!

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Thanks for showing the results from Pilot 'basic' Blue and asa-gao - now we know you've set the bar quite high, which is great.

 

For an ink to be nigh-on waterproof and be able to resist a wet swab, (similar to the use of a highlighter), all of the ink must be absorbed by / bonded to the paper; and there must be no ink that is just bonded to other inky bits. Even with some members of Noodler's family of cellulose-reactive 'bulletproof' inks, if there is too much ink on the paper, some of the ink may still come adrift. Use of a dry pen, a more absorbent paper, a non-coated paper and/or dilution of the ink with water can improve things.

 

IIRC Noodler's Baystate Blue is highly water resistant. Also their Polar Blue, but the ink in my bottle has performance issues, so was sent into Mixing Corral limbo.

 

Perhaps slightly diluted Sailor sei-boku.

 

I haven't run field trials of the document inks from DeAtramentis nor the MB permanent Blue, so I suggest taking a shufti at the respective Ink Reviews.

(As DeAtramentis offers document inks of various hues, plus a purpose-built thinner, it seems likely you could conjure a recipe which satisfies both functional requirements and your impeccable good taste.)

 

I will be interested to read other Member's suggestions.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited November 18, 2014 by Sandy1

[Davis19942003]

Go for Sailor Sei-Boku blue black pigmented ink. It even shows nice shading

[doggonecarl]

Noodler's Liberity Elysium, a Goulet Pens exclusive. Nice pop, and great water resistance.

 

Montblanc Royal Blue. A great blue. Far from being dull, and while it doesn't have great water resistance, it is noticably better than a lot of the standard blues from Lamy, Pelikan, Sheaffer, and Waterman. Won't wash away.

 

Sailor Jentle Blue. Great water resistance, but you probably won't find it saturated enough.

[inkstainedruth]

IIRC Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue is pretty water resistant. Too bad that the color is sort of blah -- and one of the most chalky inks I've ever seen. Noodler's Legal Lapis is supposed to be good too, but I haven't tried it.

There's also R&K Salix, which is an iron gall ink -- it stays bluer than most of the IG blue blacks, and has some nice shading.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

 

I haven't run field trials of the document inks from DeAtramentis nor the MB permanent Blue, so I suggest taking a shufti at the respective Ink Reviews.

(As DeAtramentis offers document inks of various hues, plus a purpose-built thinner, it seems likely you could conjure a recipe which satisfies both functional requirements and your impeccable good taste.)

 

 

 

The two document inks I have tried were spectacular...even better, just adding them to another ink improved the original ink tremendously. So for example, I added Doc Ink Magenta (or maybe it was Cyan) to a totally washable set of inks... see the purple. After 3 minutes under running water, I let it dry. The purple is in great shape. (The images will be posted up later this afternoon.)

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_2057.jpghttp://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_2057w.jpghttp://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_2057wb.jpg

[amberleadavis]

Here are a few others...

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_1855w.jpg

[amberleadavis]

Also, you can add Noodler's Blue Ghost to almost any ink you like and it will improve the water resistance (and fade resistance) hugely.

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_1896w.jpg

 

Compare this to the J Herbin which is clearly NOT water resistant.

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_1873w.jpg

[amberleadavis]

The KWZIs (if you can get them) have a line of water proof inks. This one I painted over top of the ink with a wet brush with blue ink water.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_1630.jpghttp://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_1520w.jpg

 

The second one was sprayed with purple ink water.

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_1369w.jpg

[FLZapped]

IIRC Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue is pretty water resistant. Too bad that the color is sort of blah -- and one of the most chalky inks I've ever seen. Noodler's Legal Lapis is supposed to be good too, but I haven't tried it.

There's also R&K Salix, which is an iron gall ink -- it stays bluer than most of the IG blue blacks, and has some nice shading.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Legal Lapis is bulletproof, but it is not blue.

[cellmatrix]

Go for Sailor Sei-Boku blue black pigmented ink. It even shows nice shading

+1 and nice sheen too!

[RobbW]

Noodler's Massachusetts 54th

Noodler's Legal Blue

Noodler's Blue Steel

Sailor SeiBoku

[welch]

Mix Pilot's Iroshizuku Asa-gao, the world's most beautiful ink, with Pilot Blue.

 

An alternative: got to EBay and buy an old bottle of Parker Quink. Look for the art-deco bottle with a plastic cap. I've found that the metal-capped art-deco bottles go bad. Then mix an equal amount of something current: Private Reserve American Blue, PR DC Supershow Blue, for instance. Old permanent Quink was stubborn enough that our parents (your grand-parents??) insisted we use washable ink. The old stuff -- roughly 1950 -- never washed out.

 

That's the risk, also. An ink that binds to cloth, paper, and wood can made a mess if you tip the bottle.

 

Need something even more durable? You are guarding against something more serious than a drop or two. Honestly: I used fountain pens through second or third year of college, and then only because I was hitch-hiking around the US. BIC "crystal" was cheap and survived most slips. Protect your writing -- folder, binder, back-pack, under a coat -- and you won't lose anything. I went back to fountain pens while working as a system designer / project manager / computer whatever and never lost a thing. It becomes habit: keyboard in the center, coffee on the left, notebook on the right. Yes, I know people who have ruined laptop computers by spilling water into the keyboard, but that's unusual.

[goodpens]

+1 for Noodler's Liberty Elysium from Goulet.

[inkyfingr]

Platinum Pigment Blue has phenomenal water resistance and is a pleasant lighter blue color. The writing sample is from my recent review - the paper on the right was submerged in water and didn't lose any color.

[janeblundellart]

The De Atramentis Document Blue (a rich warm blue) and Document Turquoise (which is a nice strong cool cyan) are fast drying and waterproof. The can also be intermixed with eachother or with document black or magenta to increase the colour range in a spectacular fashion! I'll try to find a recipe section to post some examples...

[yogalarva]

I'm gonna put in a plug for Pilot Blue-Black. Less blah than the plain blue, and highly water resistant (check out a recent review I did here).

[Tasmith]

Montblanc Permanent Blue is bullet proof. It's my go to ink for writing checks and addressing envelopes.