Vintage Quink Royal Blue

[DerMann]

Finally jumped into vintage inks, here's a quick review of Quink Royal Blue. I really love this colour, but I have a hard time believing it was meant to be this way. Is it possible the blue dyes "wore out"?

 

Sorry for my unsightly handwriting :\

 

 

 

The colour seems about right, tweaked it in Photoshop before posting it. The paper is ivory coloured, not yellow or white. Pen is Waterman 52V.

Edited August 7, 2008 by DerMann

[bossy]

Looks very 'vintage' to me.

[stephenchin]

I just picked up a bottle of this and mine is this exact color. do any of you ink mavens out there know or can conjecture what this color originally looked like? have the pigments faded or changed over time? My vintage blue-black quink looks like this, but that I expected. for the "royal" blue to look like this... They couldn't possibly have sold this as blue originally, so the original color must have been different.

[johnboz]

I think that's probably pretty close to what the color was. I have quite a few bottles and some are very gray and washed out, but I have a few that have a nice "dusty" blue color which is what I think it's supposed to look like. It's not a very vivid blue at all.

[DerMann]

The more I use this ink, the more intrigued I am by it.

 

After loading my Snorkel, Touchdown, and my two Duofolds with it, there are some interesting properties it has.

 

I'm not completely certain how to describe it, but the ink flows very well, however, it is still very dry (i.e. doesn't like to go down in huge puddles on paper, quite the opposite actually). It is so dry, in fact, that I can use it in my Duofold Senior to write on cheap, 20LB copy paper with very little to no feathering. On the other hand, it flows so loosely that I often find puddles of it on the nib (not just the tip, the whole nib) of my Snorkel when I uncap it.

 

This really is a marvelous ink, and if anyone ever has a chance to buy a bottle or two, I would definitely suggest it - regardless of the colour.

 

As of now, I removed it from all of my pens except for my Duofold Senior. The Solv-X (phenol) seems to truly be a "magic ingredient," as it seems to have improved the flow and consistency of the Touchdown and Snorkel (Sentinel).

 

Regarding the colour, I still cannot believe that it could be marketed as Royal Blue if it was originally this colour. The permanent blue-black (also with Solv-X) seems to be more blue than this ink. Still curious if anyone has seen this ink in an actual blue colour.

[johnboz]

I've just been doing some testing and here's some samples that I made this weekend. The top sample is Quink Permanent Black, middle is Quink Permanent Blue-Black, bottom is Quink Permanent Royal Blue. All are vintage.

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/johnboz/sample.jpg

 

Some of my previous samples made with a Q-tip looked washed out. These were made with a dip pen and are very nice. It's a good, dark blue color.

[BillTheEditor]

Something happened to that ink! Quink Royal Blue "back in the day" was definitely blue. I remember because the first girl I ever had an interest in used Quink Royal Blue. That was seventh grade, long, long ago, but, like Proust's cookies, the memories remain.

[JimStrutton]

I have an old bottle of Quink Royal Blue and it is certainly a more vibrant blue to my eyes. Maybe it got contaminated? Somebody maybe had a pen filled with Black and filled it from the bottle without cleaning the pen first, either that or somebody tipped some old ink into the bottle?

[encremental]

My memories agree with those of Bill.

 

In the 50's & 60's Quink Royal Blue was one of those standard bright blues with a hint of purple, like Lamy blue. Every ink manufacturer had one, and I hopped between the Quink and Stephens 'Radiant Blue'. I can still smell them both, and would use Solv-X as a cologne, if only I could!

 

Whatever your ink is, something's happened to it...

 

John

[DerMann]

I don't doubt that something has happened to it, not in the least bit. What I am curious about is what has happened to it.

 

Is there a tendency in the dyes used by Parker to break down over time (I know that this happens to a certain PR purple, but I cannot remember which colour)? Could it be the fault of the phenol or some other chemical?

[Sailor Kenshin]

Wow---that really does look blue-black. Interesting review, thanks!

[rockydoggy]

A late add to this thread:

I finally tried a bottle of this vintage ink (the label says "Permanent Royal Blue") that I bought some time ago. I noticed the same apparent color shift--it's definitely blue-black (on the light side) and certainly not blue. However, I was really struck when I did a water test. I soaked this ink on business-card stock for about 20 minutes and there was no apparent ink loss; about half of the Parker Quink black that I tested on the same card floated away. I next did a similar test with this ink and Mont Blanc blue-black on plain graph paper--as expected, the MB BB didn't budge; however, if there was any loss with the Quink Royal Blue, I didn't notice it.

[Sandy1]

Hello,

 

Pardon me for being late to the party - as usual. But I didn't have a thing to wear ...

 

I had a similar 'colour shift' with a vintage American production Sheaffer Skrip Blue, which was the Subject of a hand-written review here.

 

Bye,

Sandy1

[rockydoggy]

A followup to an earlier post:

This morning I noticed a bottle of this ink stored with other of my less-used inks and I filled my Parker 21 with it.

Not only does it have great flow but I'd forgotten how water-resistant it is.

You'd almost think that it might contain some iron gall; but there's no discernible color-darkening on the page.

It's as if it were iron-gall ink that had already shifted to dark blue-black in the bottle . . . .

(As others have noted, it is definitely not "royal blue," at least in its current state.)

Curious.

[Parker Quink Turquoise]

Have a bottle of Canadian made and marked Super Quink "Washable Royal Blue" from the 1960's with Solv-x and it is the same colour as the first post here.However ,I have an other bottle of Canadian made and marked Super Quink "Washable Blue" with Solv-x, from I believe the 1980's ,in a black plastic bottle.That ink is a very bright blue.

 

One has to wonder, if there is a difference between the earlier Washable Royal Blue and the later Washable Blue ,or if the black plastic bottle kept the later made ink from being in contact with light?

[gyasko]

The 1940s Quink Washable Blue with Solv-X was originally your standard royal blue, just like contemporary Pelkan or Waterman:

 

https://imgur.com/fpngallery/gmt9M

[BecauseItIs]

The 1940s Quink Washable Blue with Solv-X was originally your standard royal blue, just like contemporary Pelkan or Waterman:

 

https://imgur.com/fpngallery/gmt9M

Love the packaging.

[Parker Quink Turquoise]

The 1940s Quink Washable Blue with Solv-X was originally your standard royal blue, just like contemporary Pelkan or Waterman:

 

https://imgur.com/fpngallery/gmt9M

That Washable Blue matches the Canadian bottle of Washable Blue I have from the 1980's.It would appear that Washable Royal Blue ,is a different colour than Washable Blue.

[gyasko]

That Washable Blue matches the Canadian bottle of Washable Blue I have from the 1980's.It would appear that Washable Royal Blue ,is a different colour than Washable Blue.

I dont think so. The color of the ink in the picture i posted is royal blue. It looks very much like Pelikan 4001.

 

The ink in the original post just lost its color. I say that because many bottles of that same 1940s washable blue will look like the color in the first post. It depends on storage conditions, seals, and exposure to light. In my experience, its rather difficult to find it still vibrant.

[Parker Quink Turquoise]

I dont think so. The color of the ink in the picture i posted is royal blue. It looks very much like Pelikan 4001.

 

The ink in the original post just lost its color. I say that because many bottles of that same 1940s washable blue will look like the color in the first post. It depends on storage conditions, seals, and exposure to light. In my experience, its rather difficult to find it still vibrant.

The picture of the bottle you posted says Washable Blue,not Washable Royal Blue.The bottle of 1980 ink I have that matches that, is also marked Washable Blue.The bottle I have that matches the first post, is marked Washable Royal Blue.You could very well be right about the exposure to light making a difference though.

 

It would be nice to see a scan of vintage solv-x "Washable Royal Blue" ,that was known to have been kept out of exposure to light,to see what it looks like,compared to just vintage solv-x "Washable Blue" .