Can You Recommend A Blue Ink?

[Quentin]

 

Diamine Denim ....

This is one of my favorite blue-blacks.

[friedrichwild]

i think diamine asa blue is a great and inexpensive option. i really like it!

[chromantic]

I got nuthin' - my blues go from blue-black to dark blue (Yonaga, van Gogh), then straight to bright blues (Stipula Light Blue, Skrip Turquoise, etc). I was thinking, along with herrjeager, of maybe Monteverde Sapphire, but while it's intensely blue it's still on the darker side, especially in a fine. Would seem to meet your other criteria, though, wet, saturated and somewhat fast drying, at least on copy.

[Arkanabar]

The "T" in Eco-T is for triangular. Now I don't like triangular sections such as on the Lamy Vista, but if you do, it might suit you better.

My blue of choice is either of Noodler's Blue or Blue Eel. It is very very cyan, with little or no hint of purple or green. I write on cheap copy paper, and it dries quite quickly for me.

If you don't like typical royal blues (Pelikan 4001, Quink Washable, etc) you are unlikely to like Pilot/ Namiki blue, which is rather washed-out to my mind. Pilot Blue-Black might do for you, though.

 

Finally, the Index of Ink Reviews is your friend. So too is the Blue Swab thread.

[tonybelding]

Haven't bought the Twsbi yet, was planning to order it with the dip pen and the samples to save shipping costs.

 

My honest advice on TWSBI is to get something else, anything else. TWSBIs fracture, and they break, and they spontaneously come apart even if you try to baby them. Yes, TWSBI will send you free replacement parts. Yes, a TWSBI is inexpensive enough that you could afford to buy two and have a spare when one inevitably breaks. However. . . There are so many other brands where you just don't have to put up with that. There's no reason to accept it, IMHO.

[Eclipse157]

I used Pelikan 4001 royal blue and Aurora Blue for a long long while (before becoming obsessed with inks) and, in retrospect, I find them both to be excellent products, especially the Pelikan if you consider the price. I've had no fading problem with both of them, and some of the pages are 10 or more years old (they've been inside binders or notebooks, so no light exposure). However they lean a slight bit purple, and that's not your thing I understand. Among my new acquisitions I could recommend for you to try:

• Diamine Blue Velvet
• Diamine Majestic Blue
• Diamine Oxford Blue
• Organics Studio Nitrogen (after dilution: beneath the sheen there's a gorgeous, vibrant electric blue)
• Diamine Sargasso Sea

Here's a pic of these inks taken with my phone, paper is HP Colorchoice 100gsm. Don't mind the occasional Italian word :P

 

[lukeformosa]

Thank you all for the suggestions (and thanks for the pics, eclipse157)

 

Also, Anna from the writing desk responded last week. I've posted an excerpt (with permission) from her reply below - in case it helps anyone else who wants a blue with the same characteristics as I do

 

[...] I would recommend that you look Diamine inks as they are good free

flowing inks with great colour intensity and there are a number of blues
to choose from in their range. Aurora Blue is also a popular blue with
good colour intensity. Private Reserve are very saturated but I fear
that they may be a little slow drying for you but it might be worth
trying a sample.

I have picked out the following inks that are blue without too much
purple and that don't fall into the turquoise category:

Diamine Royal Blue

Diamine Florida Blue

Diamine Mediterranean Blue (possibly a little on the turquoise side)

Diamine 150th Anniversary Blue Velvet

Aurora Blue

Lamy Blue - (dryer ink)

Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue

Pilot Asa Gao


Blue inks don't generally stain pens, red is the worst ink colour for
that so you should be fine with any blue ink. [...]

 

I'm going to draw up a spreadsheet with images and specs from the internet and settle on which samples to order.

 

Edit - finished the backbone of the spreadsheet. In this forum thread and Anna's reply alone, we've mentioned 34 different inks! Gotta cut that down to maybe 10 samples .

Edited May 13, 2019 by lukeformosa

[lukeformosa]

So, update time. A big thanks to all those who contributed. I've spent the last week looking at ink samples from image searches and I've finally placed an order with the following inks.

• Diamine 150th Anni Blue Velvet
• Diamine Asa Blue
• Diamine Shimmer Blue Pearl (blue/silver)
• Diamine Shimmer Cobalt Jazz (blue/gold)
• Herbin Black (the only black on the list - wanted to test a fast-drying very dark black)
• Herbin Sapphire Blue
• Parker Quink Blue (control)
• Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao
• Private Reserve American Blue FD
• Private Reserve DC Super Show Blu
• Visconti Blue
• Waterman Florida Blue (control)

 

Eventually I will put up a comparison of all of them on the comparison sub-forum .

Edited May 18, 2019 by lukeformosa

[welch]

 

My honest advice on TWSBI is to get something else, anything else. TWSBIs fracture, and they break, and they spontaneously come apart even if you try to baby them. Yes, TWSBI will send you free replacement parts. Yes, a TWSBI is inexpensive enough that you could afford to buy two and have a spare when one inevitably breaks. However. . . There are so many other brands where you just don't have to put up with that. There's no reason to accept it, IMHO.

 

I agree with Tony, having had a TWSBI. It cracked. Enough people on FPN have mentioned "my TWSBI cracked / shattered / broke" that it should be considered normal. These things break. When I bought mine, they were about $50. That was back when TWSBI's were first being offered in the US, but you can buy a pair of Parker 45's for that price, and the 45 was a terrific pen...good enough that Parker made them from 1960 until about 2007 or '08.

[lukeformosa]

As promised, I've written a line with all the samples using the same dip pen and uploaded the results here for comparison: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/346848-heres-my-comparison-of-some-saturated-blue-inks/?p=4214457

[Sailor Kenshin]

 

I agree with Tony, having had a TWSBI. It cracked. Enough people on FPN have mentioned "my TWSBI cracked / shattered / broke" that it should be considered normal. These things break. When I bought mine, they were about $50. That was back when TWSBI's were first being offered in the US, but you can buy a pair of Parker 45's for that price, and the 45 was a terrific pen...good enough that Parker made them from 1960 until about 2007 or '08.

 

 

Wing Sung 3008. Piston filler. 'Bout $3 on fleabay, wait for two months, maybe never get the pen. $15 for a 4-pack of different colors on Amazon, but you get them the next day.

 

They work amazingly well.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Sailor Kenshin

[arellano81366]

I have a bunch of blue inks. One of my favorites are on your list and some are missing. Diamine Blue Tudor is good. There are so many! Do you prefer some very vivid or more subtle?

[lukeformosa]

I have a bunch of blue inks. One of my favorites are on your list and some are missing. Diamine Blue Tudor is good. There are so many! Do you prefer some very vivid or more subtle?

 

I like them vivid. Of the samples I got so far, my least favourite was the Herbin blue (too gray and dilute), and my most favourite was the Private Reserve (DC supershow blue, and possibly American blue - can't tell the difference between them yet). I did love the Herbin Black though, it's a really nice dark smooth black.

 

I'm also confused about the Pilot Asa-Gao. It's three times the cost of any other ink, but seems quite dilute and unremarkable - am I missing something?

[Eclipse157]

I'm also confused about the Pilot Asa-Gao. It's three times the cost of any other ink, but seems quite dilute and unremarkable - am I missing something?

 

It's "premium". Like Pelikan Edelstein vs Pelikan 4001, you pay the bottle, the packaging, and the fanciness. If you don't like the ink, however, you are just getting robbed of your money. I have 3 Edelsteins (topaz, tanzanite and smoky quartz), I think they're all good inks, maybe very good inks. I like the colors and their behavior, but would I buy them again? Only tanzanite. I personally love the color of asa-gao, and I also love the color of Herbin eclat de saphir, but I'm not going to get any of them because Diamine sapphire fills that nice at a fraction of the price.

[lukeformosa]

 

It's "premium". Like Pelikan Edelstein vs Pelikan 4001, you pay the bottle, the packaging, and the fanciness. If you don't like the ink, however, you are just getting robbed of your money. I have 3 Edelsteins (topaz, tanzanite and smoky quartz), I think they're all good inks, maybe very good inks. I like the colors and their behavior, but would I buy them again? Only tanzanite. I personally love the color of asa-gao, and I also love the color of Herbin eclat de saphir, but I'm not going to get any of them because Diamine sapphire fills that nice at a fraction of the price.

 

Maybe that's what I'm missing, I only got samples, so I didn't have the fancy bottle, just a plastic screw-cap bottle with 2.5ml in it . I've also only tested it with dip-pens so I can't really comment on the smoothness and lubricity of it in a fountain pen.

[CoolBreeze]

Kon peki - it meets your requirements and is my favorite blue to date.

[welch]

Asa-Gao writes like a luxury ink, and I remember it as the first of that sort. It writes well in any pen. Smooth. You can feel the nib float on top of the ink. It dries quickly enough -- never builds little pools of ink that are partly liquid the next day. A blue that leans purple, although not as purplish as Parker Permanent Blue.

 

Fountain pens like it, and will think you for letting them drink it.

 

A TSWB will not, unfortunately, because a TWSB will crack quickly.

 

The Parker 45 seems to sell for 15 - 25 GBP at buy-it-now. Sale price, after bidding, can slide all around...I once accidentally bought an ordinary 45 for $4.99, a start-off bid I made and then forgot. No one else bid. A 45 Flighter should sell for more than 25 GBP, but EBay is strange.