Efnir: Waterman Mysterious Blue

August 1, 2020

I’ve noticed that WMB gives quite different results with different pens/nibs. Sometimes it’s rather boring, sometimes it’s extremely complex with all sorts of hues and wonderful shading. Same ink from same bottle.

Anyay, WMB was the first ink I used when I entered the hobby and it’s the one that goes into most of my vintage pens. A safe, reliable and affordable workhorse ink.

August 1, 2020

That site seems to be broken now.

New link: http://marcuslink.com/pens/ink/waterman.htm

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.

Just checked the ink log (on white 52gsm Tomoe River) from back in February, and this ink still looks just blue, both from my Penmanship and my Waterman Kultur, F. So my cartridges + those pens, at least, show no signs of teal.

August 2, 2020

So far, two days later, the writing with my new ink looks the same as it does with very fresh writing. Looking side-by-side on multiple paper types. Im using a broad cursive italic nib to produce a range of shading, from light to saturated and sheeting. No hint of teal anywhere. Even used cream paper. . If the ink color has changed with newer formulation without changing the name, I wonder if the ink properties have changed as well.

August 3, 2020

Well, I was getting vastly different results with different pens on different paper, and that was all ink coming out of the same (modern-ish) bottle. To the point where I had people in my local pen club going "What is this green ink?" "It's not -- it's Mysterious Blue...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

August 3, 2020

Well, I was getting vastly different results with different pens on different paper, and that was all ink coming out of the same (modern-ish) bottle. To the point where I had people in my local pen club going "What is this green ink?" "It's not -- it's Mysterious Blue...."
Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Yes, that’s what I expected, but my bottle is not doing that. I’ve probably used every type of paper in my home to get it to look teal, except toilet paper... Mine is consistently dark blue with a very slight green shift from neutral.

August 3, 2020

So far, two days later, the writing with my new ink looks the same as it does with very fresh writing. Looking side-by-side on multiple paper types. Im using a broad cursive italic nib to produce a range of shading, from light to saturated and sheeting. No hint of teal anywhere. Even used cream paper. . If the ink color has changed with newer formulation without changing the name, I wonder if the ink properties have changed as well.

Parker Quink Blue Black changed their formula when they changed the packaging and it no longer shifts to teal (unless someone is keeping an eye on ink shift for longer, say a year, but the old ink would shift within a day).

This is to me another confirmation (along with water tests and chromatography tests) that Waterman and Quink must be the same ink in different packaging...

Some still think they aren't the same, but the behaviours of their respective black and blue black seem identical.

March 2, 2022

Here's the line width measurement. The line is one of those used for dry time. Magnification is 100x. The grid is 100x100µm. The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each. The line width for this ink is roughly 255µm.