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Baystate Blue, These Days


Charles Skinner

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True one could administer in a cheap or low-end pen. But then, how much fun will it be using this ink if you don't care much for the pen and would rather be holding something different? *sigh*

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True one could administer in a cheap or low-end pen. But then, how much fun will it be using this ink if you don't care much for the pen and would rather be holding something different? *sigh*

 

 

I used it in some mid-level valued pens, it was a mistake in one of them, respecting the HIGH MAINTENANCE BSB requires is important.

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True one could administer in a cheap or low-end pen. But then, how much fun will it be using this ink if you don't care much for the pen and would rather be holding something different? *sigh*

 

I think that's the potential BSB buyer's dilemma. It is widely repeated that we should never leave home with a pen we're not willing to lose—to misplacement, theft, dropping, etc. Go ahead and clip that Visconti Homo Sapiens to your shirt pocket to go the grocery store; just understand the risk. And something similar, I think, applies to BSB. I've decided to keep BSB out of my better pens, but I like the ink enough to use it where I can.

I love the smell of fountain pen ink in the morning.

 

 

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I'm curious about this too. I've wanted to try this one, but I'm scared of it now, and Noodler's ink generally.

Don't mix baystate blue with other ink. Put it in a cheap pen and don't worry about the staining.

 

As for Noodler's in general what scares you?

 

My wife and I have several inks from different makers and very few issues. Good pen hygiene is important for some inks, but match the ink to the pen and you will be fine.

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Don't mix baystate blue with other ink. Put it in a cheap pen and don't worry about the staining.

 

As for Noodler's in general what scares you?

 

My wife and I have several inks from different makers and very few issues. Good pen hygiene is important for some inks, but match the ink to the pen and you will be fine.

 

 

Yes me too I have had good experience with several Noodler's ink.. easy maintenance, no staining good performance despite the nib creep. Montblanc Permanent Blue is what ended up staining one of my pens.

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The ink that stained my pens was Diamine Grape. Every other stain, I have managed to remove including a BSB stain that I thought would be permanent.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I use it in a medium Pilot Metropolitan and am thinking to buy a second Jinhao 159 to put it in. My first 159 writes so well with Sailor Jentle Blue that I don't want to mess things up by radically changing inks in it.

The prizes of life are never to be had without trouble - Horace
Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much - Pascal

You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

 Favorite shop:https://www.fountainpenhospital.com

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I use it in a Pilot Kakuno M nib and works amazingly perfect! I use a 60% ink 40% (aprox.) distilled water.

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My dedicated pen, JinHao 5000 gets gummy & clogged after 3 - 4 days of use, but I still use it once in a while.

"how do I know what I think until I write it down?"

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I am new to fountain pens and bought Noodler's Baystate blue. I was not aware of any issues with it

 

Are some you saying that it will permanently ruin pens?

 

What about Noodler's Heart of Darkness? I also bought it.

 

Any other inks I should be aware of, as far as being problematic?

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I love the colour, so I've dedicated two lower-grade pens to it, a Bexley Intrepid with a medium steel nib and a blue TWSBI Vac 70 with a broad nib. Both love the ink (especially the Vac) but since I've learned that BSB fades badly I've decided to use my bottle up for rough drafts, notes, shopping lists and letters to some people. On the one hand, it makes me feel sorry that I'm wasting this lovely ink but on the other hand my notes have never looked brighter and smarter. As for the staining, while cleaning the sink after a rather messy flush of the Vac, I've noticed that household cleaning products also clean steel nibs to perfection.

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I have adulterated my bottle of BSB with 2 drops of organic vegetable glycerin in a pre-emptive attempt to prevent clogging issues; I have also diluted it when it ran down to about 1/4 of the bottle being used up with distilled water back to a full bottle with no noticeable dilution of the color. It is after all a highly saturated ink. I have so far had no trouble and have run it through a Pilot Metropolitan and an Ahab fitted with a Goulet stub nib.

 

What I'd like to know, from the chemically trained folks here, is if adding glycerin will do anything to prevent or attenuate the apparently well-documented fading characteristics of the ink.

 

I have now also started my own informal experiment by writing in a journal which will stay closed on my bookshelf and have dated the entry. I'll check it from time to time to see for myself how the ink will fade under my real-world conditions which are just writing in a notebook and keeping that notebook on the shelf as opposed to intentionally exposing the ink to sunlight etc.

The prizes of life are never to be had without trouble - Horace
Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much - Pascal

You are never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

 Favorite shop:https://www.fountainpenhospital.com

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The ink that stained my pens was Diamine Grape. Every other stain, I have managed to remove including a BSB stain that I thought would be permanent.

 

After all you've done for my enjoyment of FPN, I'm very sorry to read you had this happen to you.

 

:(

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I am new to fountain pens and bought Noodler's Baystate blue. I was not aware of any issues with it

 

Are some you saying that it will permanently ruin pens?

 

What about Noodler's Heart of Darkness? I also bought it.

 

Any other inks I should be aware of, as far as being problematic?

 

Good maintenance has been enough for me through the decades, BSB is the only one that stained, and even that would probably come out if I wanted to apply myself to it (nah...)

 

Parker Penman had a reputation of drying up, it's no longer in free flow, only around for crazies on FPN for $50 a bottle or what we've squirreled away since the 80s.

 

Heart of Darkness doesn't have issues.

 

Plains of Abraham, or whatever that was called, wasn't much fun for the original batches.

 

Again, keep it decently maintained and flush out BSB if you are done with it, and you should be fine.

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Good maintenance has been enough for me through the decades, BSB is the only one that stained, and even that would probably come out if I wanted to apply myself to it (nah...)

 

Parker Penman had a reputation of drying up, it's no longer in free flow, only around for crazies on FPN for $50 a bottle or what we've squirreled away since the 80s.

 

Heart of Darkness doesn't have issues.

 

Plains of Abraham, or whatever that was called, wasn't much fun for the original batches.

 

Again, keep it decently maintained and flush out BSB if you are done with it, and you should be fine.

Thanks for the info.

 

From almost every member here advising to flush my pens a lot, I am sure it's a good practice, no matter what ink I use. What I started doing was flushing my pen every time the ink needs refilled. I am hopeful, that will be good enough to avoid issues.

 

With BSB, I think I will simply keep it in my Noodler's Charlie pens, as I like the color well enough, and I won't worry if they get stained or ruined for whatever reason.

 

I'm glad this forum is a group of extremely helpful people, as I feel I have a LOT to learn. :)

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Plains of Abraham, or whatever that was called, wasn't much fun for the original batches.

 

Hmmm. I actually like Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham (I had to go to Toronto for a conference last year and made a special trip into downtown -- fighting Friday night rush hour traffic all the way from Hamilton in the process, after getting stuck in a construction zone on this side of the border trying to get up onto the Peace Bridge -- just to go to Wonder Pens). It's a really interesting color. But it does seem to be on the dry side, so I have to be careful about what pens it goes into.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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My BSB is in two Preppy pens, one with a nib and one with a felt tip, and I really love the colour. Still, I don't use it too often, because a full page of it looks somewhat aggressive. (The same is true for Dragon's Napalm.)

Iris

My avatar is a painting by Ilya Mashkov (1881-1944): Self-Portrait; 1911, which I photographed in the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

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Aggressive -- but Iris, how kind of you! -- and I thought that I was always being aggressive when I said that BSB was hurting my eyes when forced to look at that stuff. Like a exhibitionist type of neon lighting...

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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Well, the dose makes the poison, as we learned from Paracelsus.

Edited by Strombomboli

Iris

My avatar is a painting by Ilya Mashkov (1881-1944): Self-Portrait; 1911, which I photographed in the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

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For me the best pen for bsb is the Platinum plaisir, with the click and seal system.

It is cheap, it has 3 nib sizes, is a metal pen, not so cheap-looking like the preppy (same nib and feed).

I have always one inked with bsb at office, and also after 2 weeks of no use, is ready for writing at any time.

For me is the ideal combination bsb/pen after few years of search.

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