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Hello my fellow fountain pen lovers. I love rich, vivid, deeply saturated fountain pen inks, particularly those that shade. My favorite inks are Colorverse Supernova, that shades gorgeously from a rich blue to a lighter blue, and Diamine November Rain, which in my green-and-black Pelikan M600, shades (you guessed it) from green to black beautifully. For my Lamy 2000, which I just bought to be my daily-use pocket pen, I’m searching for a waterproof ink for a specific reason: so when I sign restaurant checks with it, there is no danger of the waiter losing his tip because his check slip got wet and the ink disappeared. But my dillemma is that I love saturated, vivid inks. With one exception, all the waterproof inks I’ve tried are cloudy and unsaturated and unsatisfying. I just bought a bottle of Sailor Seiboku. To me, this is a pale, cloudy ink, the opposite of the rich, saturated colors I love. And iron gall inks are generally dry writers, so that’s a nonstarter. Got to have a wet ink. The exception is Noodler’s Baltimore Canyon Blue, which is saturated and beautiful, and in my own tests is fully waterproof, but… when I write on restaurant checks with this ink, the pen simply stops writing and has to be primed. The ink seems to react to the thermal paper restaurants use and it clogs right up. Thanks in advance for your advice! GNL

Noodler's Baystate Blue needs no introduction. I am just a few months into the fountain pen hobby, but even I know that there is no other ink that polarizes the fountain pen community as much as the Baystate Blue (BSB). You either hate it or love it. I bought a bottle of this ink because much of my work happens near water tanks and I needed a waterproof ink for signing documents. But after I ordered the BSB on Amazon, I came to know about another water resistant ink that is made by a part time ink and pen making medical doctor named Sreekumar who lives just 3 hours away from my home. He owns Krishna Inks and Krishna Pens. His waterproof ink is beautifully named as Krishna Lyrebird Water Sapphire Blue. So I got a bottle of that too. I now use BSB in office and Krishna Ink at home for signing the documents. The comparison of both inks, including their resistance to water and bleach, follows. 1. Colour The picture compares Krishna Water Sapphire and Baystate Blue with common inks like Lamy Blue, Sheaffer Blue and Camlin Blue on TNPL 80 GSM Platinum Copier paper. Without question, Baystate Blue is the best colour (in my opinion). In fact the BSB actually jumps out of the paper and my amateur photography skill doesn't do justice to its vibrance. All other colours including Krishna Water Sapphire look dull and boring in comparison. 2. Writing Experience I used two identical Camlin Elegante fine nib fountain pens and Rhodia paper to test the writing experience. Baystate Blue is wetter and and gives more line width. Krishna Ink has less flow but is no less smooth. 3. Drying time I again used identical Camlin Elegante fine nibbed pens on Rhodia paper to determine the drying times. Average drying time for both inks is seen to be about 10 seconds on Rhodia. I repeated this test on TNPL 80 GSM copier paper and the drying time was about 8 seconds for both inks. 4. Water Resistance a) Drip Test I dropped nearly equal amounts of water on the handwritten samples and let the water remain for 30 minutes. Photograph shows the condition after 30 minutes. Both inks showed some top layer run off, but BSB is more water resistant to Krishna Water Sapphire. b) Dip Test I dipped swabs of 5 ink different inks on TNPL copier paper in plain tap water filled tumblers. Before dipping: The next picture is taken just a few minutes after dipping. Lamy, Sheaffer and Camlin inks are no longer in the race. 30 minutes later: Krishna Ink is somewhat water resistant and we can still read the text. Baystate Blue is also not waterproof but clearly more water resistant than the Krishna Ink. 5. Bleach Resistance This was the most interesting of all tests. I used the same ink swabs which had undergone the dip test and poured a few drops of 0.5% w/w Harpic bleaching solution over them. 5 minutes after the exposure to the bleach, Baystate Blue had already started dissolving but Krishna Ink was holding up: 1 hour after exposure: Within an hour, Baystate ink was almost gone and the text was no longer visible. Krishna Water Sapphire was still holding up and the text remained legible. 2 hours after exposure: Part of the text written with Krishna Ink was visible even after 2 hours! Krishna Ink thus won the bleach resistance test. 6. Price (in India) Baystate Blue: INR 4888/- (US$ 66.75) on Amazon for 133 ml (4.5 oz) bottle, after a 75% discount. But you get a beautiful Noodler's Charlie pen for free with the ink. Krishna Water Sapphire: Rs 250/- (US$ 3.41) for 30 ml bottle. The math is left to you. 7. Staining Potential Noodler's Baystate Blue is notorious for staining various surfaces. But I have found it to be a non-issue so far. Bleach can easily remove it. Just be careful not to spill it over something that can't be bleached - like the currency notes, fine leather, costly carpets etc. Krishna Ink stains can be removed with water (and soap, if required) if you notice them immediately. But once the ink dries, those stains can be stubborn due to the water and bleach resistance. Be careful while handling either ink. The Verdict I like both the inks. Both Baystate Blue and Krishna Lyrebird Water Sapphire have character. I use both the inks regularly. So which one to buy? The choice is yours.

Hello again De Atramentis Document Ink - The new colours Back in 2014 I reviewed the first De Atramentis Document inks. Back then they were the first Non Iron Gall Document inks on the Market. I used them for my work and extensively tested them back then https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/266158-de-atramentis-document-ink-dark-blue/ Since then more Manufacturers produced ink this way (Maybe with the exception of Diamine who already, just like D-A had an Registrars Ink in their assortment) De Atramentis quickly widened their range of Document inks with Brown Green and more importantly Cyan Magenta Yellow black https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/275148-de-atramentis-document-cmyk-inks-mixing-experiment/ With the CMYK collection all colours can be mixed, which makes them popular among Painters like Liz Steel https://www.lizsteel.com/de-atramentis-document-inks/ But I will come back to that later. For lazy people like me, or clumsy people like me fortunately the range of ready mixed inks has been extended now to a total number of 17 inks. Bombproof! To be qualified as a document ink the ink must meet certain standards. The standard in Europe is ISO 12757-2. This means that the ink must be lightfast and may not be influenced by any outer influences. This way the ink written text cannot be deleted/altered without leaving traces This makes the ink suitable to be use din the registry and legal documents Please see the tests below to get an impression of the resilience of these Document ink The ink is extremely lightfast. This is tested and certified with the Woll-Skala, wool scale in English. This may sound peculiar but it isn’t that strange on second glance. In history quite often, the same pigments used for Dyeing wool where used for inks as well. The Woll-Skala reaches from 1 not lightfast over 5 extremely lightfast to 8 extremely lightfast. The ink “of course” is WS 8. There are other resilient inks like inks based on iron gall or soot. The problem is that iron gall inks are very aggressive to both paper and nib. (the paper of old Dutch documents from the golden age are often eaten away partially by the ink) Both iron gall and soot inks may also clog the feed of your fountain pen. The De Atramentis inks are, made with nano-particles pigments which, in contrary to (some) Iron Gal are safe for use in fountain pens, a thing which is also confirmed by legendary fountain pen expert Richard binder I again have tested the “indestructibility” of this ink here again. Inks that meet the standards for document standards (for i.e. the Registry) must be light fast waterproof resistant against acid and other chemicals. Als it is important that written text cannot be corrected/removed without leaving visible traces. Take De Atramentis for a dive Bad Breath test. What Vampires are allergic to, De Atramentis masters wiht grace ( I thought about testing it with methane gas, but I thought may be I should spare you the proces it is not a pretty view ) Drown me in CHLORINE I will be Fine Don´t try this at home kids (at least not when mummie is looking ) It even doesn´t give a sh.t about acid The 2018 De Atramentis Document Ink collection Well that was a lengthy introduction let´s see the inks now. I have made both photos and scans of the ink tests. Photos were made outside in non direct light White Balance was determined by using a grey card (Lightroom correction were solely made in enhancing lighting) Photos are on the left side, scans on the right side of the picture (I found it pretty hard to process the photos in Lightroom because of the high contrasts between Black and White and Ink colours maybe TAS can help me here? Written samples using a medium nib fountain pen Q-Tipp samples Ink Vomitus Samples Written samples using an italic 1.9 nib De Atramentis Document Ink White Colour Mixing and CMYK Mixing I already mentioned that the De Atramentis Document inks are popular among artists who use them for painting and sketching. In contrary to Monitors that emit light in a Mixture of Red Yellow and Blue (RGB) Ink on paper reflect the incoming light in different colours. The Colours used here Cyan, Magenta Yellow and Black (Key). That means that all colour are basically a mixture of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow using Black to darkening or deepening the colours https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/272906-de-atramentis-thinning-agent-for-document-inks/ De Atramentis document thinning agent vs De Atramentis document ink white I experimented with both the with ink and the thinning agent. For me it was hard to do effective testing though to differentiate the two, so maybe I should ask Jane Blundell to do a better Job The left sheet is the one I used in my recent tests the right of earlier tests in 2014 https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/272906-de-atramentis-thinning-agent-for-document-inks/ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/301933-pastelize-your-life-permanently-de-atramentis-document-ink-white/ Jane Blundell´s mixes of De Atramentis document inks Back in 2014 Australian watercolour artist Jane Blundell already experimented with mixing De Atramentis Document inks on her Blog using the CMYK inks and the other De Atramentis document inks then available https://janeblundellart.blogspot.com/2014/11/mixing-document-inks.html 2014 Jane Blundell Mixes She updated these tests most regularly the latest I discovered can be found here https://janeblundellart.blogspot.com/ Jane Blundell's 2018 Mixes So maybe check her website to enjoy some beautiful works of art and to be inspired by her colour mixes Availability La Couronne Du Comte I guess Dennis and Rik would even travel to the moon to get it for you (just pay them a million or 2 ) Well it is safe to say that they do almost everything to satisfy their customers http://www.lacouronneducomte Bankers have Rothshield Ink lovers have the Goulet Pen Company. Rachel and Brian carry the ALMOST largest assortment of ink on earth an it's near surroundings http://www.gouletpens.com (almost Dear Amberlea Davis carries the largest assoritment in the universe but is not a seller Larry Post of Australia is a Great Supplier of Stationary and Artist Equipments. They carry a lot of De Atramentis Inks http://www.larrypost.com.au/ The same applies to Singapore based Arters of the utterly friendly Yitpeng and Weetek Ong http://arters.com.sg Well folks hope you enjoy Regards Peter

Coming soon exclusively to Pensive Pens in Australia and Anderson Pens in the US. Four new Barrister waterproof ink colours: Barrister Blue/Black :: Barrister Brown :: Barrister Red :: Barrister Purple. Blackstone Barrister inks are well behaved, saturated, waterproof, permanent fountain pen inks made in Australia by Blackstone Ink. Barrister inks are 100% waterproof and are unaffected by complete immersion in water. They are fade resistant and highly resistive to bleach, alcohol and mild acids. Barrister inks are nano pigment inks made with sub-micron sized pigment particles instead of the usual soluble dyes. These nano particles are so small that they can easily pass through fountain pen feeds and are treated with a special soluble polymer to overcome their natural attraction to each other. Blackstone fountain pen ink is packaged in reusable Polypropylene bottles. Polypropylene is one of the toughest plastics in existence and these bottles are practically indestructible. These bottle can be re-purposed as ink carry or storage bottles and Polypropylene is completely recyclable. Barrister waterproof inks are available in black, blue-black, blue, red, purple and brown