Smear-Free Blue Ink.

[glorfindel]

I'm trying to find nice smear-free blue ink.

By smear-free I don't mean the ink that doesn't smudge right after you write with it.

What I mean is that if your hands are wet and you touch something you've written a couple of days ago - it smears.

I've got several black inks that performa wonderfully, notably DeAtramentis Archive (black) and Platinum Black - no smearing whatsoever.

However, I've tried several water-resistant blue inks and the results are not as great.

I've tried a couple of IG inks, for example Salix. While it's true that it doesn't smear, the color is weird - it's pale, not vibrant. Very subdued.

I've also tried several Noodler's water-resistant inks: General of the Armies, Polar Blue and Upper Ganges Blue. They all have gotten that gray-ish paleness to them.

Same thing with Sailor Sei-Boku - it's very pale after it dries. It feels like blue ink can only be made water-resistant by making it pale?

I was very excited about KWZi IG Turquoise - I fell in love with the color. However, even though it says that it's an IG ink, it smears heavily. True, it's still very legible after you pour water on it, but it smears nevertheless. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like this ink is a mix of IG ink that is water-proof and some regular ink that makes it look great, but unfortunately smudges?)

 

It looks like maybe there's no such thing as smear-free blue ink with vibrant color?

 

I hope I'm wrong...

 

[dcwaites]

What sort of paper are you using? If you are writing on a relatively non-absorbent paper, like Tomoe River or NU: Elite, then what happens is that only a small part of the ink penetrates the paper. The rest sits on top, and can smear hours or days afterward.

[AndyYNWA]

If you put Sei-boku in a wet pen, it puts down a nice saturated line that also sheens on the right paper.

 

Post No. 1000!!!

Edited August 7, 2016 by AndyYNWA

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Hmmm...

 

My findings over the years are in harmony with Member dcwaites : paper is the primary factor in determining Smear/Dry Times, and that any ink remaining above the surface of the paper, (not bonded to /absorbed by the paper), might smear under adverse conditions.

 

Paper picks : Contrary to my usual suggestions, in this case I will suggest giving an ink jet paper a fair go. There may be risk exposure to line-width gain (spread) and low line quality (feathering / wooly line).

 

Pen picks : A lean slightly dry firm/rigid Western F nib, Manifold if possible. Such nibs are reluctant to spread their tines, and the width should be narrow enough that a bit of spread due to the inkjet paper might not be a show stopper.

 

Inky picks : An ink that canoodles with the paper.

> One might look to the cellulose reactive inks, but the trick is to ensure that all the ink is bonded to the paper, as any ink not bonded to the paper can come adrift. I haven't explored the C-R inks in much detail, but I suggest giving Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng and 54M a wee shufti. With the Noodler's ink, one can lower the dye-load by dilution so there's less C-R inky bits per unit volume, hence less of those are likely to remain unbonded.

> The nano particle inks. The particles become 'entangled' in the structure of the paper, so are reluctant to be lured away. As above, any surplus not fully engaged with the paper can go astray. One nice thing about the N-P inks is that they have excellent line quality, so may pair well enough with the inkjet paper. I am lead to believe that the DeAtramentis Document inks are N-P. Sailor and Platinum also offer N-P inks. Platinum Black is renowned for its resistance to over-working with wet media, such as watercolour.

 

Manner of writing : A light hand that does not leave a glistening wet line or a furrow.

 

Nuances :

> Consider treating the paper with pounce, such as Gum Sandarac or talc, prior to writing.

​> After writing and a bit of 'curing', say one hour, wipe the paper with a damp sponge to remove any ink not bonded to the paper.

 

Please let us know of your adventure.

 

Bye,

S1

[glorfindel]

What sort of paper are you using? If you are writing on a relatively non-absorbent paper, like Tomoe River or NU: Elite, then what happens is that only a small part of the ink penetrates the paper. The rest sits on top, and can smear hours or days afterward.

 

Up till now I've been mostly writing on Rhodia dotpad, Apica Premium (both white and ivory) and Quo Vadis Habana. However, I just got myself a notebook with Tomoe River paper which I'll start using after my Habana runs out. Oh yeah, almost forgot - the notebook that I really abuse is the Midori traveller's, which is the one I'd like to be water/smear resistant. The other ones I use mostly in-house and exposing them to the elements is not an issue.

 

Sandy1,

thanks a lot for the comprehensive answer.

I'll play around with the combinations I've got and will keep everyone posted. I now also want to get a sample of Kung Te Cheng after reading more about it.

I've re-read my original post and I think I was too harsh on Sei-boku. Out of all water-resistant inks that I've got this one is surprisingly vibrant. It still has that greyish/blackish shade that I see a lot in other water proof inks, but it's also got more true blue in it.

Still can't get over KWZi Turquoise - I really, really liked the color and thought I've solved the puzzle until I did water smear test on it...

[Erik Dalton]

It sounds like you're going to have to compromise a little on your requirements.

The only ink that will do what you want is Pilot Blue Black. Won't smear, is waterproof. The down side is that it is less saturated than DeAtramentis. With a wet medium to broad nib you can get a pretty decent result.

DeAtramentis document blue is also an excellent option.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

You're welcome!

 

Some more thoughts:

 

> Consider papers that are not wood cellulose. Papers made from cotton rag, and sugarcane (bigasse) should be readily available.

 

> Be aware that the C-R and N-P inks are fairly high maintenance. In my Ink Review of N54M I prattled on at length about the maintenance overhead of such persistent inks. I'd pair them with an open nib c/c fill pen with a short simple collector. The Esterbrook pens are an exception: though lever fillers, the nib+feed assembly is easily removed for clean-up - proceed as if one were cleaning-up an eyedropper. (Fair warning: Esties may become addictive / objects of desire.)

 

> The Sailor Storia series of N-P inks can be intermingled, so conjuring a recipe that meets your desired colour just might be within range. I haven't explored those at all, but I encourage you to read-up on them.

 

> Oh, sei-boku can withstand dilution down to 10% concentration, so should you find it too dark that is a likely work-around. Though I wouldn't mix a large batch, due to possible destabilization of the suspension medium.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited August 8, 2016 by Sandy1

[alaskazimm]

The only inks that I can think of that meet your requirements are Noodler's inks. Bearing in mind Sandy's thoughts on highly saturated inks, I herewith make my recommendation: Baystate Blue.

 

I've only recently gotten a sample of Baystate Blue to go along with a Platinum Preppy. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it and have found it pretty well behaved and a pleasant writer - aside from the staining tendency for which the Preppy is the sacrificial pen. But if you want a vibrant blue, I haven't found one more eye searing.

 

One other which I haven't tried is Liberty's Elysium, the Goulet exclusive from Noodler's. From the reviews I've read it's got most of the vibrancy and is not so maintenance intensive.

[sciumbasci]

How about the Private Reserve Inks? I've read te black smudges even after dry, but never a complaint for their blues

[glorfindel]

Here're some results from my un-scientific water smear tests.

 

Description of the test:

 

I let the written pages sit for 24 hours.

Then I used a clean q-tip dipped in water to smear over the grid portion of the written text with a single strike-through motion.

The ink choices were the inks I had currently inked up plus I inked up Salix, Sei-Boku and Platinum since I was interested in seeing the results for those.

 

 

 

 

Some observations.

 

As expected, the copier paper smears the least, although the smearing is still very visible for saturated inks like Steel Blue, Oku-yama, Clown Tears and Blue Eel. On Rhodia and TomoeRiver, all non IG inks smeared. The KWZ IG Turquoise smeared too. However, it's visible that the IG part of the ink stayed intact (I'm not sure, but my hypothesis is that it's a mix of regular plus IG ink). My two favorite blues (Steel Blue and Blue Eel) smeared to oblivion on non-copier papers.

What was surprising was the behavior of Platinum Black. For some reason I thought it was very water resistant. However, it too smeared heavily on non-copier paper. However, there was almost no detectable smear on the copier paper. Platinum's behavior was the most varied between the tests.

Another surprise was Lie de The - for an ink that is not advertised as water-resistant it performed very impressively on Copier and Rhodia. What was interesting was that Steel Blue and Blue Eel behaved better on TomoeRiver than on Rhodia, while the opposite was the case for Lie de The.

 

Overall I'm very impressed by Sei-Boku; it's pretty vibrant and it performs as good as Salix.

 

Note: the upper half of Sei-Boku that appears lighter is due to shading - I used a down stroke for the grid lines.

[Erik Dalton]

Thank you, nice job. De Atramentis Steel Blue is my everyday ink. I love it, but didn't realize the smear factor.

[glorfindel]

Yup, steel blue is my favorite blue and I guess my favorite ink overall. However, I won't be using it for my field notes ;-)

 

I'll still use it for my everyday writing that is not subject to the elements.

[aderoy]

If you have already tried Platinum Carbon Black and found that it worked for you, try the Platinum Carbon Blue. Have good results so far with many different pens and paper combos.

 

Found the water resistance of the Carbon Blue to be only slightly lower than the Carbon Black. The Blue is not a 'royal or purple' shade.

 

Have not used in a very dry writing pen.

[Noihvo]

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Look at Texas Bluebonnet and Blue Steel exclusives from Dromgooles. These are Noodlers inks.