Suggestions For Deep, Vibrant Blue Ink

[Perdendosi]

 

 

crescent2, my experience with a (gifted, perhaps concentrated) bottle of Cobalt Blue was less than happy. It was slow to dry, prone to feathering, and smudgy. This was before I'd learned that dilution often reduces or even resolves these issues.

 

Perdendosi, you'd be surprised at how many blues are not very lightfast. Fortunately, there is an excellent, if only partial, resource: Amberlea Davis' Summer Sun Fade Results.

 

As for BSB, yes, it's amazing in ways unmatched by any other blue. Two which I find problematic enough not to use it are:

• If mixed with non-Baystate inks, very nasty precipitates may form. As a result, extreme hygeine is called for when switching a pen to or from BSB.
• It is one of the worst inks around for fading in sunlight. Fade resistance is one of the primary considerations for my Six Essential Inks.

 

 

Thanks for the info on BSB. I haven't noticed any precipitates (yet) on my Pilot Metro since I changed to the BSB (would I see them on the outside of the nib or feed, or would these only be internal?), perhaps I cleaned it out just enough. And this will be an office writer for me, so maybe fading won't be such a problem. But thanks so much for the info!

[Sailor Kenshin]

On the subject of BSB: I'd dedicate one pen to that ink only. So it might as well be your Met! Also, I just saw a note that I had made with BSB many moons ago. The color has morphed into a sort of blue-black. This was in a Chinese notebook that is filled with pages one grade above paper towel, though.

[crescent2]

I am thoroughly enjoying all the replies in this thread, thanks all!

 

So far, I like the results I've gotten using the Cobalt Blue. The dry time has not been excessive even on Clairfontaine. I haven't noticed any feathering, either, although I haven't looked under magnification. I've written on various qualities of paper. I wrote with the Demi (about three standard yellow pad pages) until the ink was running out, and then I flushed the pen out. This ink wasn't too hard to flush clear. It's still going (partial fill) in the Platinum 3776. I anticipated that it would have a purple tinge, so I can't really find anything to complain about with it.

 

American Blue is lovely, and was one of the inks I considered, but I decided to try the DC SSB instead. Still waiting for those samples to arrive in the mail.

 

I've read too much, I suppose, to want to try BSB! And perhaps there's such a thing as too vibrant; the BSB looks almost neon or garish to me. I'm going to avoid it--too many well-behaved alternatives.

[tonybelding]

I've read too much, I suppose, to want to try BSB! And perhaps there's such a thing as too vibrant; the BSB looks almost neon or garish to me. I'm going to avoid it--too many well-behaved alternatives.

 

 

BSB, the legendary ink. . . I suppose everybody who gets into ink must give it a spin sometime, or at least try a sample vial.

 

I've given it a couple of tries myself. I had to conclude that the color is indeed harsh upon my eyes, and the hue too purple-tinted (which doesn't entirely show up in scans). It's also smelly. It acts almost like glue on rubber pistons or plungers. It fades in the sun. It sometimes seems to "scorch" the back side of a sheet of paper a sort of brown color over a period of time (weeks or longer) after the words are written.

 

It formed a stubborn (but ultimately removable) film on the inside of my TWSBI:

 

http://zobeid.zapto.org/image/pens/bsb_haze.jpeg

 

And of course it looks absolutely unlike any other ink, which is why people keep trying it -- and some love it.

[crescent2]

All good reasons for me to stay away! LOL How did you clean your TWSBI?? I love mine and would not be happy to find it stained.

 

My ink samples arrived yesterday afternoon! I've now tried them all.

 

Shaking the vials and looking through them in daylight as the ink slid down the sides, the DC SSB seemed to have a teal tint to it. The Visconti B and the Diamine B Velvet looked about identical to my untrained eye in the sample vials. All three were pretty colors.

 

The writing samples all looked good, too, and I would be happy with any of the three. The Diamine BV and DC SSB seemed to glide onto the paper a little better than the Visconti, using my vintage Parker 51 Demi, which has a bit of a scratchy nib. The DC SSB might look a touch more vivid than the other two, but not a huge difference. All look definitely deep vibrant blue. The writing sample of the DC didn't look teal-ish, but today was cloudy and gray, so in sunlight they might all show more differences.

 

The partial fill of Cobalt Blue has not yet run out in my Platinum 3776, so I've not tried the new samples in it so far. But I will! The Cobalt Blue is a great ink for it, though.

 

I think I've about beaten this topic to death. Thanks a million to all who responded!

[tonybelding]

All good reasons for me to stay away! LOL How did you clean your TWSBI?? I love mine and would not be happy to find it stained.

 

 

 

Q-tips and household bleach did the trick. BSB is waterproof, but it's not a "security" ink, and bleach cleans it up pretty well.

 

TWSBIs are semi-disposable pens anyhow, IMHO.

[crescent2]

I think my 580 cost around $50, which isn't close to disposable to me. I cherish the thing and am fascinated with its stub nib. I won't even throw away my little Varsity!

 

I'm glad the bleach did the trick; I was wondering about that!

[inkstainedruth]

 

 

Uhh... At the beginning of this thread we were looking for a "deep, vibrant blue ink". You realize Sheaffer Skrip Blue is basically the exact oppose of deep and vibrant, right? It's one of those old-fashioned, weak-and-watery, pen-maker inks that used to turn people away from even wanting to use fountain pens.

 

Actually it isn't. It may not be as *dark* a color as the OP is looking for -- but it's not exactly a shy, retiring color either. What I have is a vibrant medium blue (okay, maybe not as vibrant as vintage Skrip Peacock, but then very little is...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

 

 

Uhh... At the beginning of this thread we were looking for a "deep, vibrant blue ink". You realize Sheaffer Skrip Blue is basically the exact oppose of deep and vibrant, right? It's one of those old-fashioned, weak-and-watery, pen-maker inks that used to turn people away from even wanting to use fountain pens.

 

Actually it isn't. It may not be as *dark* a color as the OP is looking for -- but it's not exactly a shy, retiring color either. What I have is a vibrant medium blue (okay, maybe not as vibrant as vintage Skrip Peacock, but then very little is...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[tonybelding]

Err... It's possible that the blue Sheaffer Skrip may have been reformulated since the last time I tried it. It's been A While.

[dcwaites]

Err... It's possible that the blue Sheaffer Skrip may have been reformulated since the last time I tried it. It's been A While.

It might also depend on the pen. It is quite a dry ink, and in a dry pen, like a Smiggle FP, it gives a nice sky-blue line. However, in my stubbed Jinhao X-750, it is a deep, intense blue.

[AlanO]

I've read too much, I suppose, to want to try BSB! And perhaps there's such a thing as too vibrant; the BSB looks almost neon or garish to me. I'm going to avoid it--too many well-behaved alternatives.

 

Aw, come on, you know you *have* to try it some day, don't you?

 

I know it has drawbacks - it is apparently not too resistant to light (which doesn't bother me as I rarely write anything that needs to last more than a few weeks), it does tend to stain a bit (when I wash out others I get ink briefly around the sink, but when I wash out BSB just about everything within range seems to turn blue), and it has a tendency to feather (I use it diluted 80:20 which solves that and doesn't reduce the colour as it's a very saturated ink).

 

But the colour is so gorgeous it's worth the effort. And for me it's worth a dedicated pen too - a Noddler's Ahab in Lapis Inferno.

 

Just think - do you really want to have to tell your grandchildren some day that you never tried a historic ink when you had the chance because you were too much of a wimp?

 

Alan

[inkstainedruth]

I'll try to get a scan of Skrip Blue up tomorrow. This is the current formulation AFAIK -- I bought the bottle just a couple of months ago at most, from a local retailer, and at the moment it's in the Snorkel Valiant that I think has a M nib on it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Arkanabar]

The way to tell is whether you have one of the current Slovenian cone-shaped bottles, or one of the old, side-well American bottles.

[inkstainedruth]

The way to tell is whether you have one of the current Slovenian cone-shaped bottles, or one of the old, side-well American bottles.

 

It's one of the Slovenian ones.

I do have a few bottles of the old Skrip bottles -- ! rather like the brown that came from the red box era.

I was just digging through my ink journal entries to see which other vintage Skrip I had used: the Permanent Royal Blue (yellow box era -- this might be the stuff that advertised Snorkels on one of the top flaps) seemed a bit watered down/faded (although that might be either a factor of the paper in the Piccadilly sketch book, which does weird things to ink colors sometimes or that it had been reconstituted); it did seem a bit bluer and less washy blue grey in a Touchdown with an M1 nib than in the Snorkel Valiant which I think may also have a medium nib on it. But the modern (Slovenian) Blue Black in what may be the same pen also looks somewhat washy (and in fact looks closer to the vintage Permanent Royal Blue than the modern Skrip Blue does -- that's definitely blue, and a lot more vibrant; both of the modern Skrip inks seem to be somewhat water resistant, but so does the vintage stuff -- once it dries, that is.... And the Piccadilly paper is relatively absorbent....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Abner C. Kemp]

Noodler's Baystate Blue (although I would highly caution using it as this stuff causes some serious issues -- there are countless threads -- just beware)

 

Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

Sailor Jentle Souten

Private Reserve American Blue

 

Parker Penman Sapphire (yeah, it's impossible to find) but there are some mixes you might enjoy looking up.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Abner C. Kemp