Efnir: Waterman Mysterious Blue

[dhanks]

Love Waterman inks, but I just want the old names back.

 

So do I. Nothing wrong with "Florida Blue" and "South Sea Blue" and "Blue Black." Good names, all.

 

Rumpole

Edited April 7, 2020 by dhanks

[Olya]

Nothing wrong with the "new" current names, either.

I like the names.

Don't quite understand why so many are still so hung up over the name change all these years later?

[LizEF]

Nothing wrong with the "new" current names, either.

I like the names.

Don't quite understand why so many are still so hung up over the name change all these years later?

I've only ever known them under the current names (took my quite a while to learn the old ones so I'd know what people were talking about). I have no idea what Audacious Red was, but I rather like the "audacious". I also like the "mysterious" - seems appropriate given all the different reports.

[jean]

 

Apparently Parker changed the formula of its blue-black ink in the past couple years and it's now a nice dark blue without any teal or green. I've often read comments that Waterman and Parker inks are the same or at least made by the same manufacturer. If that is the case, then maybe the Waterman Mysterious Blue changed along with Parker blue-black. That's a possible explanation for the disappearance of the dreaded teal.

 

Rumpole

 

 

Hello,

 

The color of the Parker BB varies depending on the type of paper. Parker blue-black, same ink on two different papers, four years later. Paper kept in a binder.

 

On some papers, it remained blue for at least 10 -12 months. Then it turned teal-green. I'm not convinced that Parker's so-called new blue-black will stay blue on some papers. With a new inkwell from 4 years ago, I had the same impression that this ink would remain blue, but several months later, it changed color.

[Olya]

I've only ever known them under the current names (took my quite a while to learn the old ones so I'd know what people were talking about). I have no idea what Audacious Red was, but I rather like the "audacious". I also like the "mysterious" - seems appropriate given all the different reports.

I, too, only ever knew the inks under the current names, but had to learn the old ones, as people kept mentioning them.. Though that was easy years ago when the ink market wasn't so full!

The name "mysterious" seems indeed fitting!

 

I like your reviews

[LizEF]

I like your reviews

Thank you!

[dhanks]

Nothing wrong with the "new" current names, either.

I like the names.

Don't quite understand why so many are still so hung up over the name change all these years later?

 

You would have had to be there.

 

Rumpole

[Olya]

 

You would have had to be there.

 

Rumpole

I guess!

[OMASsimo]

Thanks for the nice review, which confirms what I noticed. Waterman Mysterious Blue had been one of my favourite inks for years till apparently they changed the formula sometime in the past couple of years. Contrary to some others here, the colour change was a major asset for me because the colour of the fresh ink didn't do much to me. But the next day, the colour miraculously had changed into that wonderful play of shades between blue and teal hues. It really seemed to be mysterious. Now the mystery is gone and what remains is a lot more boring in my opinion. I'm extremely sad about this because, despite the hundreds or even thousands of inks we now have at our disposal in times of global markets and the internet, I haven't been able to find anything coming even close to the original WMB ink. Please don't get me wrong, the new version still is an excellent ink almost like all Waterman inks, but it simply lost it's outstanding and fairly unique quality. And one particular strength of most Waterman inks is their shading, which, of course, is not much of a point when writing with an extra fine nib.

[LizEF]

Thanks for the nice review, ...

 

...shading, which, of course, is not much of a point when writing with an extra fine nib.

You're very welcome.

 

There are inks which shade beautifully, even in this fine a nib - I just haven't gotten to them yet. Still, some of the ones I've done do shade on the right paper.

[OMASsimo]

I'm very fond of shading and would be very interested in which ones you found to shade well even with an EF nib. I didn't mean to imply that there's absolutely no shading with EF nibs, by the way. But my experience is that it becomes a lot more visible with broader nibs. And it always depends a lot on the paper (another universe to discuss )

[LizEF]

I'm very fond of shading and would be very interested in which ones you found to shade well even with an EF nib. I didn't mean to imply that there's absolutely no shading with EF nibs, by the way. But my experience is that it becomes a lot more visible with broader nibs. And it always depends a lot on the paper (another universe to discuss )

Shading is more visible in broader nibs only because our eyes can see it better. In my experience, if the ink shades, it will shade in an EF nib (or perhaps, the right EF nib) on the right paper. But our eyes are simply not as good at picking out finer lines, no matter how good one's eyes may be.

 

I make mention of shading in the "Subjective Analysis". I don't show it in the videos, but my "inked up" log is on Tomoe River, and I'm using 24lb HP Premium Laserjet Paper to print the text I write in the review, and then write my notes about ink behavior (the Subjective Analysis portion). Here's a summary of ink's I've reviewed thus far (not all have published):

• Emperor New - no shading at all
• Waterman Audacious Red - none visible
• Waterman Inspired Blue - very subtle (not easy to see); sheen on Tomoe River
• Waterman Harmonious Green - very subtle (not easy to see)
• Waterman Mysterious Blue - easier to see, but only after the ink has darkened a little from evaporation
• De Atramentis Steel Blue - shades slightly better than Mysterious Blue on Rhodia, shades beautifully on Tomoe River; sheen on Tomoe River

SPOILER ALERT!

• De Atramentis Pigeon Blue - nice shading, easy to see (publishing today)
• Sailor Yama Dori - nice shading, a little harder to see because it's rather dark; if you work at angling the paper to the light, you can see sheen
• Diamine Eau de Nil - nice shading, easy to see
• Herbin Bleu des Profondeurs - nice shading, but can be hard to see on some paper as the ink is quite dark; wants to sheen, but never quite makes it
• Robert Oster Caffe Crema - nice shading, easy to see (starting with this video, and based on feedback on one of the videos, I've adjusted the camera so it's closer to the page, in hopes viewers can read the text more easily)
• Rohrer & Klingner Salix - nice shading, easy to see (currently inked, not recorded yet)

Of course, the camera may not pick up the shading - or you may have to view the video at 1080p on a larger monitor to see it...

[LizEF]

I was frustrated that my screen captures (and even the video sometimes) don't show the color accurately, so I decided to see if my USB microscope could do a better job of picking up the color, and it does. So from now on, I'll be including a zoomed in photo of the text so folks can see a more accurate representation of the color:

[Misfit]

Great review LizEF.

 

I liked the old Waterman names as well. They were more evocative. Havana Brown, South Sea Blue, Florida Blue. The relatively new names remind me of aromatherapy names. Florida Blue should have been Inspired Blue for that ink has been a standard of putting in an iffy pen. If it did not work with Florida Blue, pen needs help.

[LizEF]

Great review LizEF.

 

I liked the old Waterman names as well. They were more evocative. Havana Brown, South Sea Blue, Florida Blue. The relatively new names remind me of aromatherapy names. Florida Blue should have been Inspired Blue for that ink has been a standard of putting in an iffy pen. If it did not work with Florida Blue, pen needs help.

 

Thanks!

 

..."aromatherapy"...

 

[langere]

Do the Waterman inks just have new names or did they change the formulas as well, getting rid of the old ink colors? In other words, is there an equivalence table one can look up and see what was called something originally and what it's called now?

 

Erick

[LizEF]

Do the Waterman inks just have new names or did they change the formulas as well, getting rid of the old ink colors? In other words, is there an equivalence table one can look up and see what was called something originally and what it's called now?

 

Erick

As far as I know, only the names changed, but there is some speculation in this thread that Mystery Blue changed formulation as well - but this is the only ink about which I've heard even a hint of change.

 

There's probably a thread on here with all the Waterman names, old and new, but looking at the colors (since there are so few of them), it should be fairly obvious which are which.

[Misfit]

I found a blog where the person had both, and compared them.

 

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink/waterman.html

 

The blog is Glenn’s Pens. Wow, the name change was in 2012!

[langere]

Thanks, Misfit!

 

Erick

[Intensity]

I found a blog where the person had both, and compared them.

 

http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink/waterman.html

 

The blog is Glenn’s Pens. Wow, the name change was in 2012!

 

That site seems to be broken now.

 

I bought a new bottle of Mysterious Blue, and my box is stamped with 08/17, so presumably the ink was decanted and sealed in 2017. Not sure if that was pre- or post- possible reformulation. All I know is that my previous fill of Mysterious Blue from last year's Commonwealth Pen Show nibmeister's work table was definitely more tealy. Not strongly, but noticeably so. I have a lot of writing on different paper made with that fill, and now I'm comparing my current bottle to it. What surprised me was that the blue was too "clean" on white Tomoe River and other paper I've tried it on so far. I don't use any bright white paper, all at best pale ivory, which usually enhances green tones. I made sure to use the same pen on the same paper too. I remember using the ink from the pen show and noting that teal note in writing. Now when I write with the new ink, I just see dark blue.

 

I did read some feedback that the ink changes color to more teal a day or a few days after writing, so I will wait longer to see if it's true for mine. At the moment I feel a bit disappointed, as that first fill of that ink last year was gorgeous.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Intensity