A Good Ink Mix - Sailor Jentle Blue & Pelikan Royal Blue

[Maurizio]

I like blue and use blue in all my regular writing pens (I use black for other things like calligraphy & sketching). One of my favorite everyday carry pens is a Pilot Falcon Metal fine. I have found that amoung all the blue inks I have (Waterman, Private Reserve, Noodler's, Pelikan, even Pilot regular blue and an Iroshisuzku blue) Sailor Jentle Blue is the best flowing of all of these. I think the color however is rather bland and boring. When using any other blue ink except Sailor Jentle in my Falcon fine (yes even the Pilot inks), I've found that the pen skips sometimes; very frustrating. Not satisfied with leaving well enough alone, I recently tried a mix of Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue with Sailor Jentle Blue. I've found that adding approximately 1/4 volume of the Sailor Jentle Blue bottle of Royal Blue ink to the Sailor ink improves the color without noticeably changing the excellent flow properties of the Jentle ink.

 

I just thought I'd pass that on for any other would-be ink mixers to consider.

[Old_Inkyhand]

Could you post some pictures, please?

[Tas]

Could you post some pictures, please?

 

Yes please.

[lapis]

Me three.

[Maurizio]

Well friends, I don't have a bottle of unadulterated Jentle Blue ink left at the moment, just the mix. But I do have a pure swab in my personal ink book which is a small pad of watercolor paper. I will try to take some photos this evening but not promising because I've got something to do. But I'll try to post some photos in the next couple of days if not tonight.

[jmccarty3]

If I understand you correctly, your ratio of Pelikan Royal to Sailor Jentle Blue is 1:3?

[Maurizio]

yes, or roughly 3/4 Jentle Blue to 1/4 Royal Blue.

 

Some pics to follow this evening.

[Bookman]

I'm curious about whether the addition of Pelikan Royal Blue delays the onset of Sailor Jentle Blue's all-too-quick nib-dryout. In my pens, SJB leads to dry-start in about a minute.

[Maurizio]

OK, here are some photos. I hope the color difference shows. The color change is subtle but noticeable.

 

1st photo has Jentle on the left, the mixture on a cut square of paper on the right. Then for comparison, the next photo has the cut square with the mixture on the left, and Royal Blue on the right.

 

Bookman, I'm truly puzzled by your experience with SJB. In mine it's a very nicely flowing ink which doesn't cause "nib dry out" in any of my pens.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Maurizio

[Tas]

Thank you !.

[Old_Inkyhand]

Thanks a lot!

[Bookman]

… Bookman, I'm truly puzzled by your experience with SJB. In mine it's a very nicely flowing ink which doesn't cause "nib dry out" in any of my pens.

 

This is a source of bemusement to folks like you and source of a lot of rapid head-nodding to my fellow sufferers. And my pens are generally wet writers, by the way. I don't know why some people experience this and others don't. This divergence crops up in various threads periodically. It's still a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.