Blue Waterproof Ink Help/review

[PBobbert]

I keep coming back to this topic, it feels like I have read every post on here before giving up at least three times now.

 

Im not a super avid fountain pen collector, I only have one, a cross spire that I use for everything. I have only tried 3 different inks: Pelikan blue black, J Herbin eclat de saphir, and Calli blue 011. I used each one for roughly a year or two in my pen, and each ink has their problems. The Pelikan was not waterproof and I prefer true blue to blue black. The J Herbin was extremely sensitive to light and faded very fast and had some feathering issues on common paper. Because I cannot control what paper I write on most of the time it is important to me that my fountain pen works at least as well as a standard ball point. Nothing is quite as frustrating as being handed a form to fill out, only to find that the ink feathers so badly that you cannot write at all.

 

The Calli blue is another story. Its waterproof, writes well enough on almost every paper with reasonable success (never had to switch to a different pen), the worst thing it write on is actually an envelope. And it’s also the perfect color blue for me. However it is a pigmented ink, it says so right on the bottle. The ink has dries very fast, 15 seconds or so. If when writing I pause to think the ink will start to dry and when I begin to write again the first few characters will not dry an will remain shiny. I believe this is due to a higher concentration of pigment as the water evaporates off the nib. The solution is that I have to wipe the nib on a piece of scratch paper or preferably tissue. But I forget to do this sometimes and its very irritating.

 

Secondly, if left along or a long enough time this ink will coagulate and the performance will worsen -- I clean the pen thoroughly with warm water roughly once every 4 months to restore the flow rate. But I have read the horror stories about using pigmented inks and have looked for a dye ink that matches my needs (waterproof, no feathering, no bleed through, dries fast, and is blue) and works on pretty much all paper. Every time I try to look I cant seem to find what I need, I get lost among the hundreds of different inks an then give up and go back to using my Calli.

 

I don’t write as much as I used to in school, and with less ink flowing on a regular basis the problems I mentioned get a little bit worse. There has to be an ink that just works, does anyone have an ink they can recommend?

 

Thanks,

Bob

 

[dcwaites]

Pilot Blue-Black

Koh-i-noor Document Blue

 

Both are relatively cheap and both are well-behaved and waterproof once dry.

 

Noodler's Bad Blue Heron or Bad Belted Kingfisher. - both Warden's Fraud-Resistant inks, more saturated than the above inks, so will need a little more care.

 

Any of the Iron-Gall inks, but most dry to a dark colour tending towards black.

Someone will recommend Mont Blanc Permanent Blue, but it is very expensive.

[Tas]

Pilot Blue-Black

Koh-i-noor Document Blue

 

Both are relatively cheap and both are well-behaved and waterproof once dry.

 

Noodler's Bad Blue Heron or Bad Belted Kingfisher. - both Warden's Fraud-Resistant inks, more saturated than the above inks, so will need a little more care.

 

Any of the Iron-Gall inks, but most dry to a dark colour tending towards black.

Someone will recommend Mont Blanc Permanent Blue, but it is very expensive.

 

+1 on Pilot Blue Black and can be found cheaply on ebay in large bottles if you fall for it's charms.

 

If you really want something that doesn't budge, at all, look up Noodler's Blue Upon The Plains of Abraham.

[Abner C. Kemp]

Another vote Pilot Blue-Black. It is more of a blue than a blue-black and is extremely water resistant. Nice flow and available for a reasonable price.

 

I've heard extremely good things about Montblanc Permanent Blue. It isn't cheap but everything I've read seems to suggest it is a nice moderate blue with some impressive shading, good flow, and excellent permanence.

[Sandy1]

 

Hi,

 

I might as well add Pilot Blue to the list of usual suspects.

 

Kindly note that Blue-Blue waterproof FP inks are thin on the ground.

 

As such, please consider inks that have a fair degree of water resistance:

> After a soak or splatter all is legible, can be easily read and/or have light staining from re-deposit of soluble dye.

> Can be use as-is for work papers and [company] internal use;

> If there is need for recovery, adjustments to a scanner/copier may drop-out the stain from ink that came adrift then rebonded to the paper as it dried.

 

A more practical / real-world assessment of risk exposure would allow inclusion of inks such as Noodler's Goulet Pens Liberty's Elysium, Montblanc Royal Blue, etc. Also, as those inks are based on simple aniline dyes, pen maintenance overhead would not increase to the levels required by most cellulose-reactive / nano particle inks.

 

__ Edit to add: For the times I really do need a waterproof ink for a bit of writing, (envelopes, etc.), I switch to a dip pen, so avoid the maintenance overhead of robust FP inks; and if using acrylic inks I can blend my own colours.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited November 12, 2015 by Sandy1

[Algester]

if you wanta muted blue Storia Night will be for you though there are other more alternatives really

 

but you also heard about nightmare stories about pigmented inks well I still would really suggest about not using it on more hard to clean pens like MBs, pelikans, Omas?, or you know the stuff that needs tools just to disassemble the nib for cleaning

Edited November 12, 2015 by Algester

[OCArt]

Sandy1,

You said "Kindly note that Blue-Blue waterproof FP inks are thin on the ground." Can you explain what you mean by "thin on the ground?"

Thanks!

[dcwaites]

Sandy1,

You said "Kindly note that Blue-Blue waterproof FP inks are thin on the ground." Can you explain what you mean by "thin on the ground?"

Thanks!

 

There are very few waterproof true blue inks.

Noodler's Swishmix Aquamarine was one of them, but with the closing down of Swisher's, is no longer available.

The Koh-i-noor Document Blue and Mont Blanc Permanent Blue mentioned above are two more.

Noodler's Elysium Blue is, to my mind, water-resistant rather than water-proof because water shifts some of the ink.

Platinum Pigment Blue is properly water-proof.

Pilot Blue (sibling of Blue-Black) is also quite water-resistant.

 

 

The vast bulk of the rest are Blue-Blacks to some degree, rather than true Blue.

[Sandy1]

Thanks to you dcwaites for responding on my behalf

Edited November 12, 2015 by Sandy1

[amberleadavis]

Noodler's Polar Blue and Private Reserve Invincible Blue are both blues that are waterproof. They are a little chalky and not my favorite kinds of overthetop saturated colors. HOWEVER, I use Polar blue in several of my blue mixes and I'm quite happy. Also, Polar Blue is a good cleaning ink and doesn't gunk up the works. It's a wet ink, though and it tends to feather.

 

Noodler's Liberty Ellysium is water resistant and it's bright.

[perfaddict]

Montblanc Permanent Blue is a blue blue, and very well behaved on cheap/low-density paper.

[dcwaites]

Thanks to you dcwaites for responding on my behalf

 

They were just the inks I had on my desk. I have been looking for an ink that is Blue, Waterproof and works on office quality stationery.

I have come to the conclusion that you can have any two of the three.

Although I must have another go with Pilot Blue in a dryish, fine nibbed pen.

[Notgatherox]

Might I suggest Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue? That's my new favourite at the moment and that is more water resistant (waterproof?) than Noodler's Liberty Elysium (my all time favourite). Upper Ganges Blue is a chalky blue.

 

 

~Epic

[Chumango]

I am surprised your Pelikan Blue-black was not waterproof. It has iron gall content, and my experience with it is that it is quite waterproof. It does require a higher quality paper than other I-G inks, however, and it dries to a grey/blue/black.

 

Try some Rohrer & Klingner Salix. It is also I-G, quite waterproof, and it dries much more blue than other I-G inks I have tried.

[Coop]

I've been on a quest for a water (and highlighter) proof blue ink recently. Many people recommended De Atramentis document ink, but the blue was sold out, so I took home a bottle of Montblanc Permanent blue. So far I'm pretty happy with it, although it's a bit dryer than my usual preference.

 

[carlos.q]

Some water resistant blues I have used and can recommend are: Pilot Blue, Pilot Blue-Black, R&K Salix and Liberty's Elysium.

Lately I have been using MB Permanent Blue which is very nice.

[MathurinKerbouchard]

Here is another vote for Pilot Blue-Black.

[PBobbert]

Hi everyone thanks for the suggestions, I didnt think this board would be so active or I would have checked back sooner!

 

Might I suggest Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue?

 

Epic how does Upper Ganges Blue perform on regular printer paper and sticky notes? Im mostly interested in feathering.

 

I think I am going to have to try and get my hands on some of these and test them out myself, Its realy hard to tell with online reviews because people always seem to use the highest quality paper! Of cource the ink I really want to try is the only one I cant get, the Noodlers Aquamarine Blue -- it looks perfect.

 

 

I've been on a quest for a water (and highlighter) proof blue ink recently. Many people recommended De Atramentis document ink, but the blue was sold out, so I took home a bottle of Montblanc Permanent blue. So far I'm pretty happy with it, although it's a bit dryer than my usual preference.

 

Does the Mont Blanc look purple to you? Its hard for me to tell on my computer screen.

[max dog]

I see no purple in mb perm blue. Would call it BIC blue. Ideal business blue.

[Notgatherox]

No feathering of any sort on copier paper and sticky notes that I've tried.

 

 

~Epic