Thoughts On These Two Color Schemes

[mhguda]

Glad you found your perfect blue. Be careful with the ratio of water - remember that once in a pen, some water may evaporate and your ink will become a little more saturated. It does not happen very quickly though.

Our experiences and expectations may also differ because of the fact that my pens are mostly eyedropper-filled Indian pens, mostly ebonite but some acrylics also. Plus I'm in a small tropical island - high relative humidity. On the other hand, I've been using Tomoe River paper almost exclusively - certainly for comparing inks.

[KKay]

My favorite paper is Tomoe River for journals. I also like Clairefontaine and Rhodia. Also love Triomphe, and Black N Red is pretty good. I live in a humid place for a good segment of the year. The summers here are pretty brutal. I have decided after using the ink in the Collier, that the water ratio is fine as is. That is if I do not touch the recipe. When I wrote with the Collier on Tomoe River paper, it was close to perfect, and exceeded my expectations. Thanks for your tips. I have never tried mixing ink before. Maybe the ink needs more water. I thought it was too much because of the first pen I put it in, which had a wet stub nib in it. I have never added water to any ink before, this is something new to me.

 

The Clairefontaine paper with Quo Vadis journal showed some sheen. But most other paper did not show any sheen. The place the ink does exactly what I want is Tomoe River. That is the result of the ink in the western fine nib.

[mhguda]

My favorite paper too is Tomoe River - not only for journals, I like their loose sheets too. In journals or composition books, I don't always know what the paper is, but usually, when they take FP ink well, I'm happy and will use the book.

A fellow FPN member sent me some composition books and journals from India last year, and they were surprisingly good - and very inexpensive! so those, too, I keep an eye open for. The only downside is they are not really bright white, and I do like that. In fact it is the only downside to T.R., in my book.

 

I have been mixing inks since before I was on FPN - a result of sometimes not being able to find what I wanted and then trying to mix it from what I was able to find. I was lucky to fnd the thread on mixtures that don't work before accidentally making one!

And now, of course, there are so many great contributions on here, and I often use those as a starting place, like in this case. In fact I am thinking about a slight variation on your mix, to see if I can get the darker side to come out a little more in the color. It will mean adding diluted Midnight. DIluted because as it is, the ink already flows very wet - as you say probably because of the Midnight - so if I increase the Midnight I should try to tone it down a little, hence the addition of water at the same time. Have you got any Midnight left?

[KKay]

If you like bright white...Triomphe is good. Not as good as Tomoe River of course...

I have a Rhodia Webnotebook, Quo Vadis, and Clairefontaine Clothbound. I also have a nice Rhodia pad. I have tried most of the popular journals and papers, but not all of them. I also have Apica Premium. Each serves their purpose. I like loose sheets of Tomoe River for letters. But I rarely use them. I bought some loose sheets a while back, in the large format...A4 I think it was. I need to have them cut in half. They are way too big for me to write on comfortably.

 

I don't have a drop of Midnight, nor Majestic Blue left. They were only sample bottles. I do have an almost full bottle of Sargasso Sea though. So any future tweaking will have to wait, for some time I'm afraid. I am rather pleased with my first attempt. I never dreamed I'd be mixing an ink. As far as Midnight, it is a nice wet ink for me, and has good shading. I like my blue to be a little on the cool side. Midnight will help staining issues. But it will also darken the ink, no doubt. Adding water would help, if you needed more flow. But I used this mixture in my western fine, and it needs no more flow. It is nice and wet in the Collier F nib pen.

[mhguda]

Kay, I think adding water will reduce the flow - it dilutes the surfactant, thus making the ink less wet.

[KKay]

OH. I thought it diluted it more, making it easier to flow. Well, maybe I need to increase the water then, just a tad. For the western fine nib, it is perfect flow really. Maybe I should add a drop of Dawn. I dunno, but I don't want to mess this large sample up, it is all I have.

[mhguda]

If you're happy with how it is I wouldn't mess with it. Maybe only a sample of it, if you have enough to split off a little bit. And easy on the Dawn!

[KKay]

Yes, the Dawn would be the end of a wooden toothpick or matchstick, not even a full drop. I won't be playing with that any time soon. This will be a future test, when I am able to get the other two blues. Maybe I will get a 30ml bottle of Midnight, and 30 ml of Majestic Blue, to play around with...

one of these days. I would also consider sampling Asa Blue too.

[VivienR]

Asa Blue is really nice. I'm not a big Blue consumer, but its definitely those few, which I reach to fill. Interestingly Florida Blue isn't a big favorite for many, still I like that one too. Just rarely use them...

[KKay]

Well if you like it that much Viv...I must get a sample of it before too much time goes by. Thanks for commenting on that.

[VivienR]

Well if you like it that much Viv...I must get a sample of it before too much time goes by. Thanks for commenting on that.

 

Welcome, hope you will like it, based that we share some favorite inks.

[KKay]

Yes indeed. You have good taste in inks.

[KKay]

I cleaned out the pen today with the blue mixture. I was very impressed. I used this ink after Sargasso Sea was used in that pen. I think it was faintly stained from the Sargasso Sea alone. If so, then the blue mixture did not stain the converter at all. I left the ink in the pen for quite a few days, to see about the stain factor. The blue mixture cleaned much more easily than Majestic Blue alone, and significantly more than Sargasso Sea alone. Midnight is a cinch to clean by itself. The next time I use this ink mixture, I think I will put a new converter in the pen, to decide for sure about staining a little, or no stain at all. Regardless, it had all of the qualities I liked. On Tomoe River paper it had sheen that was very nice, but not extreme. I have decided I will leave the original recipe as is.

[mhguda]

Thanks for the update. I have added a little Diamine jet black to your original mixture, and a little more water. I call it Kay's darker blue. It's really a very nice ink - good flow, dark enough for my tastes, and not too much sheen - it actually stays blue. Thanks again for this mixture!

[KKay]

Mhguda, thank you for your thoughts on this! I wondered how you liked it. You added black huh? If I wanted to darken it, I think I would just add more Midnight. That is just me though. Did you have any stain issues? My converter is only the faintest tint that you could possibly see. If you don't look close, you'd think it was entirely clear. I think I will call it KKay's Perfect Blue. For a good all around blue ink, it is perfect for me. The others of course are beautiful on their own. But when you mix them, it takes the best qualities of each, and makes it better. (in my opinion)

Edited May 30, 2016 by KKay

[mhguda]

Kay - I've only used it in eyedropper-filled solid ebonite pens, so staining, if it occurred, would not be an issue. Just so long as it washes clean out of the pen. That I haven't tried yet, but I am not too worried... I noticed there is a liquid you can add to dishwashers in the rinse cycle, that is great for getting ink off your hands, off empty vials or bottles, off converters... you name it. I even add it to inks that I find too dry - in extreme moderation, because it really makes the ink flow!!

Some red components of some inks have stained some converters, but the only stain I can't get out of a demonstrator is red from a purple ink in my Jaipur. Pity but other than aesthetically less than pleasing, it does not affect the pen, so I just fill it with whatever... currently it has Noodler's American blue eel in it, in hopes the eel component removes the stain. So far, no signs of that...

[KKay]

What is that liquid called?

[mhguda]

It's a Dutch product: spoelglans. You add it to a load of your dishwasher for the rinse cycle. When I have a dirty pen to soak, I add a little to the soaking water.

[KKay]

Never heard of that before. Thank you for telling me.