Non-Feathering Blue Ink?

[JonSzanto]

And I should have tried Pilot Namiki Blue a long time ago.

 

Indeed, you should have. It's possible you wouldn't have had to make this thread...

 

Anyway, I've been banging on inks for almost 10 years now and I've been through a couple hundred, in samples and bottles, and now have a pantheon of favorites based on color and qualities. I've come to realize that, while it might be hard to do, if I had to throw out all execpt one I'd be left with Pilot/Namiki Blue. In my experience there is not an issue with feathering or bleedthough, and besides being a lovely blue it includes waterproofness without even having to mention it.

 

So, that's that. You seem to be very particular and maybe your nib setups and the type of paper you use - or are forced to use - has more feathering potential than I am used to, and YMMV. That is just the way of the world, but I hope you'll be ordering samples of many of the inks mentioned in the thread, and I hope you'll consider P/N Blue.

 

I used Noodler's Black for a number of years, but my issue with it was that if a pen had a slight propensity to not seal perfectly, as the ink gradually evaporated it would get to where it simply wouldn't dry, and would smear or smudge days later. I had to start looking around, and now divide my time between two blacks: Aurora for regular use and Sailor Kiwa-Guro for permanence (my fave for postcards to people in rainy climes). Funny: many people, many inks, many different likes and dislikes.

[ink-syringe]

Pilot Blue or, even better Pilot Blue Black (which is really pretty much a blue actually)

I agree with this guy. Spot on.

[JonSzanto]

I agree with this guy. Spot on.

 

He does seem pretty smart. Do you think he would know if Pilot Blue and Namiki Blue are the same ink?

[lapis]

Well -- although this is of course no proof at all -- Pilot Blue-Black ( in a 70-ml bottle) and Namiki Blue-Black (in carts) are the same ink.

[ink-syringe]

 

He does seem pretty smart. Do you think he would know if Pilot Blue and Namiki Blue are the same ink?

 

They seem the same to me. They both have that funky but 100% innocuous red sheen that they leave on your ebonite feed when your pen is inked with it, both have a similarly bright blue medium saturated color, both have a similar water resistance. Not proof but does look likely they are the same. I currently only have the Pilot branded ink from Japan (70ml bottles) but have used Namiki in the past and pretty solidly convinced they are the same ink. I dig the blue too (have used it since the early 1990s) but I really dig the Blue Black, which is a gem. More of a darkish navy blue just at the lower edge of Blue Black but not teal and not black just a real dark blue that is not super high chroma and is a little wetter than the blue and is also, like the blue, a bit water resistant.

[NicolausPiscator]

 

I think we must be speaking different languages here. Blue is indeed a staple color, and I have tried many blue inks. Yes, there are a lot of really good and well-behaved blue inks out there, I agree. But that's not what I asked for. I asked for something that doesn't feather like Noodler's Black, which to me is the gold standard of not feathering on poor paper. Out of all those really good and well-behaved blue inks that I've sampled, I haven't found any to match that trait. (The closest so far has probably been Noodler's Texas Blue Bonnet, but I think it's possible to do better.) I was hoping that somebody else did, but the comments I've seen—not just here, but some other places too—lead me to believe that there's just not enough common experience, there's no consensus on this subject.

 

Which means… I'm gonna have to do some testing!

 

But this thread is not a waste. Certainly we've already come up with a list of candidates for me to investigate, and some I wouldn't have thought about. I didn't even know about Monteverde Horizon Blue, for example. And I should have tried Pilot Namiki Blue a long time ago.

 

Well, I really would try Noodler's x-feather. I tried it on several papers (of course on toilet paper and paper handkerchief, it behaved perfectly) and on complicated Japanese calendar paper where it performed a perfect job (and also Herbin Rouge hématite which is red).

[aardvarkbark]

I use Diamine Denim and don't get any feathering. You may consider that a blue-black though.

[Connly33]

Already a lot of good suggestions here.

 

My personal favorite to prevent feathering on cheap paper are the sailor nano pigmented inks. In particular Sailor Storia Night (blue)

As a bonus, it is a true blue, and is fairly permanent.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Connly33

[dcwaites]

Don't forget, when you recommend a non-feathering ink, you need to have tested it on poor quality paper. I have seen, not in this thread, but in others, that "ink [xyz] doesn't feather or bleed", but the writer has only tested it on Rhodia paper. That doesn't tell the reader anything.

 

I have a cheap chinese diary that I use for this type of testing. All of the permanent blue inks I have - Koh-i-noor Document Blue, Platinum Pigment Blue, Pilot Blue and Blue-Black - bleed and/or feather on that paper. Only Sheaffer Skrip Blue and Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue don't feather/bleed, and then only with a dryish, fine nibbed pen.

 

I mentioned Monteverde Horizon Blue earlier, even though it doesn't pass the test above, but because it works nicely on pretty well all other papers, again with a dryish, fine nibbed pen.

 

The only one of the Noodler's Bulletproof inks that doesn't feather/bleed, is the OP's Noodler's Black. There is no other ink, of any colour, that has the complete set of features and behaviours of NB, that I know of.

[tonybelding]

Don't forget, when you recommend a non-feathering ink, you need to have tested it on poor quality paper. I have seen, not in this thread, but in others, that "ink [xyz] doesn't feather or bleed", but the writer has only tested it on Rhodia paper. That doesn't tell the reader anything.

 

I have a cheap chinese diary that I use for this type of testing. All of the permanent blue inks I have - Koh-i-noor Document Blue, Platinum Pigment Blue, Pilot Blue and Blue-Black - bleed and/or feather on that paper. Only Sheaffer Skrip Blue and Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue don't feather/bleed, and then only with a dryish, fine nibbed pen.

 

I mentioned Monteverde Horizon Blue earlier, even though it doesn't pass the test above, but because it works nicely on pretty well all other papers, again with a dryish, fine nibbed pen.

 

The only one of the Noodler's Bulletproof inks that doesn't feather/bleed, is the OP's Noodler's Black. There is no other ink, of any colour, that has the complete set of features and behaviours of NB, that I know of.

 

Yes. You need some crummy paper for testing—although, not the very worst paper, because there is some out there so bad that it's just hopeless even with Noodler's Black. A Moleskine notebook might be a good choice, since Noodler's Black does write cleanly in them, but most other inks have some difficulty. I also have a composition book with some Brazilian paper that is high quality but quite thin, so bleeding is more of a concern than feathering.

 

Also, for testing purposes one can use a wetter pen.

[Mulrich]

I do all my new pen testing with waterman Serenity blue on a cheap Staples DPS notepad. I looked through my notes from a few dozen pens with various nibs and didnt notice any feathering. DPS isnt an amazing paper but its not the worst out there. I stand by my prior recommendation but your results may vary.

[NicolausPiscator]

 

Yes. You need some crummy paper for testing—although, not the very worst paper, because there is some out there so bad that it's just hopeless even with Noodler's Black. A Moleskine notebook might be a good choice, since Noodler's Black does write cleanly in them, but most other inks have some difficulty. I also have a composition book with some Brazilian paper that is high quality but quite thin, so bleeding is more of a concern than feathering.

 

Also, for testing purposes one can use a wetter pen.

 

 

Moleskine notebooks improved but I am not very convinced of their paper. I prefer Midori which is ink proof - except for e. g. Noodler's Apache Sunset.

[JonSzanto]

Don't forget, when you recommend a non-feathering ink, you need to have tested it on poor quality paper. I have seen, not in this thread, but in others, that "ink [xyz] doesn't feather or bleed", but the writer has only tested it on Rhodia paper. That doesn't tell the reader anything.

 

Yeah, but at some point we're just doing the best we can. Unless the question is posted with specific paper usage we are *all* just comparing to what we use. I made my recommendation based on using the ink from Tomoe River all the way down to generic copy paper. That seems enough of a range to include the ink(s) in an order of samples, so that the person requesting can actually try it on their papers and conditions. We can't read minds.

 

I once had someone looking for a really quick-drying non-feathering ink and they kept insisting that things weren't working out they way they wanted. Turns out they were doing the NYT crossword puzzle. Yeah, right.

[MightyEighth]

I think this is a great topic. As the OP has pointed out, there have been a number of suggestions, but I’d love to see some photos to go along with them.

[sansenri]

I have an unbranded block of post-it like paper that is ok on the side intended for writing notes but feathers horribly on the opposite side...

I use that for testing...

 

one of the reasons why people buy iron gall inks is that one characteristics seems to be resistance to feathering...

Most of my blue inks (including Waterman Florida and Pelikan royal blue), feather badly on my pad, the one ink that does not seem to feather is KWZ IG Blue #5, which is also quite a nice blue ink, although it does tend to get slightly darker when dry.

This might be a direction to try, if your pen is not highly precious (I am always careful with IG and use it only on modern pens, possibly without an ink window, and a gold nib, despite modern IG are very mild inks nowadays)

[bone215]

I agree with dcwaites, Sheaffer Skrip blue has been my surprise ink of 2017.

So far, it writes well in any pen and writes on just about any paper.

I rate SS blue #1 in regards to hassle free experience.

Tie for second is Pilot Blue, Lamy Blue, and Monteverde Blue (the old one).

I use many different inexpensive papers and the performance of these blue inks pass the test.

I should add I use F and M nib pens, I tend to shy away from pens that lay down LOTS of ink.

 

I can't comment of Noodler's Blue but the Noodler's American Eel blue is also a wonderful performing ink with no b.s. characteristics.

 

Good luck in your search.

[Chrissy]

I've just reviewed Diamine Majestic Blue and was really surprised how it seems to be the only ink I've used that didn't feather in my Field Notes book. Shows through, but didn't feather.

[amberleadavis]

 

Noodler's Blue is a great, classic, mainstay ink. I love it. However, it's never been anything special in terms of feathering or bleeding, and nowhere near as good as Noodler's Black in that regard. The writing characteristics are very different.

 

I thought you were a big fan of Blue Bonnet?

[tonybelding]

 

I thought you were a big fan of Blue Bonnet?

 

Sure, Texas Blue Bonnet is my all-time favorite blue ink. But as I noted before, this thread is not about favorite blue inks. It's about blue ink that doesn't feather and bleed. So, I spent some time testing with various notebooks and every blue ink that I currently have in my cabinet. I also used my Bexley 56 fitted with a fine Bock Titan, which is a sensitive nib that produces a lot of variation in ink flow (and a lot of shading with the right ink and paper). So here are my ratings:

 

Poor:

• Noodler's Luxury Blue
• Noodler's Baystate Blue

Fair:

• Diamine Asa Blue
• Noodler's Liberty's Elysium
• De Atramentis Steel Blue
• Super 5 Atlantic

Good:

• Waterman Mysterious Blue
• Herbin Bleu Nuit
• Iroshizuku Kon-Peki
• Noodler's Texas Blue Bonnet

Exceptional:

• Organics Studio "Oops"

 

So, unfortunately, the only blue ink I have here that can stand right up with Noodler's Black in this category is a pigmented waterproof ink that was only produced once and may never be seen again.

 

INCIDENTALLY, I picked up a "DG office Standard Writing Tablet" and a little cutesy spiral notebook (with a kitty and goldfish bowl on the cover!) from Dollar General, and they both proved completely unsuited for this test, since the paper turned out to be super-high-quality and makes every ink lovely—better than Rhodia! I have no explanation. I also grabbed a plastic-cover composition book at the same time, and its paper was so-so. It really is the luck of the draw.

Edited January 18, 2018 by tonybelding

[Maccabeus]

Thanks for the update, Tony. It certainly gives me some avenues for exploration as well.

 

I'm kind of surprised that nobody has recommended IG. Yes, you said that you're looking for a blue and not a blue-black, but R&K Salix is a very pretty cornflower blue, and in my (admittedly limited) experience, you can't do much better for non-feathering, non-bleeding ink than Iron Gall. I taught English Literature for years, and I take lots and lots of notes in my Bible. The pens that I use have either F nibs or a Nemosyne .6mm stub. ESSRI, R&K Salix, and R&K Scabiosa (more purple than blue) all perform admirably on both the porous, pulpy mass-market books from school and the onionskin-fine Bible paper.

I love Noodler's 54th Massachusetts. I really do. I love the color, I love the archival qualities, and I even love the smell of it. Unfortunately, it bleeds on low-grade paper like a stuck pig. I've thought about trying to mix it with Noodler's Black or X-Feather to see if I could mitigate the bleed-through, but haven't yet. If anyone else has, I'd be very interested in hearing their results.