Jump to content

Platinum Blue Black, Sailor Blue, and Sailor Seiboku are *really* close in color. Can you tell which is which? :-)

arcfide

By arcfide
in Ink Comparisons

 Share

Recommended Posts

arcfide Collectors Item

arcfide

Posted
Posted

So, I finally picked up a bottle of Sailor Blue because I'm like that, and I also have Platinum Blue Black and Seiboku to compare against. While I was playing around with the swatches, it was clear how the inks were different. They exhibited different sheening behaviors, different dry times, different penetration in the paper, and so forth. However, the colors were remarkably close. Seiboku shows as giving a little more shade/tone variety in the swatch. 

 

During actual writing, I was amazed and fascinated by just how closely these three inks mimic each other. I wrote with the Sailor Blue side by side to the Sailor Seiboku using the same pen, and I literally couldn't tell the difference on paper just from color. You had to notice that the Sailor Blue had a little less shading, but that was about it. Distinguishing the colors could be done, but only with very, very close attention. This was with a Broad nib. I was able to notice significant differences in behavior. The Seiboku ink dries slower, shades more, and penetrates/bleeds less. I suspect that the Seiboku would also feather less on paper where that mattered. 

 

Fascinated by this, I couldn't stop there. I brought out my flex dip pen and wrote out some words using all three inks. On paper without a scanner, you'd be hard pressed to tell which was which if you didn't watch them being written. 

 

img20210205_01353441.thumb.jpg.7975bf584e7bbacc4681042631b8c49e.jpg

 

Here are the three colors above. I'm not going to tell you which one is which. I want you to guess and see if you can get it right. 🙂 I will tell you that I wrote the Blue Black and scanned it very quickly after writing with it in order to maximize the color difference. Otherwise, with a day or so of fading and setting, I suspect strongly that the Platinum would be even closer in hue to the others. 

 

I tried with a few different papers and noted that they all demonstrated this remarkable color similarity. They are all clearly different inks, but wow do they come close to one another in color. 

 

Can you tell which is which? 🙂 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 10
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • silverlifter

    4

  • A Smug Dill

    3

  • arcfide

    2

  • MoriartyR

    1

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Posted Images

hari317 Museum Piece

hari317

Posted
Posted

Sailor Blue

Sailor Seiboku

Platinum Blue Black is my guess.

 

In my bottles the Blue Black is very different to the Sailor Blue. But YMMV

In case you wish to write to me, pls use ONLY email by clicking here. I do not check PMs. Thank you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
silverlifter Vintage

silverlifter

Posted
Posted

I'm not familiar with Sailor Blue, but I think the middle line is Seiboku and the top line is PBB.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
A Smug Dill Museum Piece

A Smug Dill

Posted
Posted

The bottom one should be Platinum Blue-Black, because it simply won't shade that lightly.

 

I don't have Sailor Blue, but I'm guessing the middle one is Sailor Seiboku.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MoriartyR Rare

MoriartyR

Posted
Posted

The middle line has a green tinge compared to the others so it must be Seiboku. I think I can see some hints of reddish sheen in the bottom line so I would guess it’s Sailor Blue, if I’m not imagining that. So the Platinum is top.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
arcfide Collectors Item

arcfide

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hahah, alright, I'll relieve your suspense now. 🙂

 

The top is Sailor Blue, middle is Seiboku, and the bottom Platinum Blue Black. 

 

The actual behavior on the page I think depends a lot on the particular pen and paper combinations, but in my testing they are much closer in color than one might initially believe from a lot of the reviews. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
A Smug Dill Museum Piece

A Smug Dill

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, arcfide said:

The top is Sailor Blue, middle is Seiboku, and the bottom Platinum Blue Black. 

 

Glad to be right, heehee! It goes to show the value of having used (in my case, two of) the inks first hand to understand their nuances and differences, which is something one cannot expect to pick up just by reading standalone ink reviews or even looking at someone else's quick ink comparisons alone.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
silverlifter Vintage

silverlifter

Posted
Posted

ASD wins! :)

 

PBB for me is always closer to Salix, in that it is quite a pale, chalky blue when it first goes down, that's why I assumed it had to be the top ink, the bottom one is just to vibrant (I thought).

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
A Smug Dill Museum Piece

A Smug Dill

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, silverlifter said:

ASD wins!

 

@hari317, too, who got in with an entry while I was still typing mine. :)

 

On 2/6/2021 at 7:22 AM, MoriartyR said:

I think I can see some hints of reddish sheen in the bottom line so I would guess it’s Sailor Blue, if I’m not imagining that.

 

Platinum Blue-Black, among the iron-gall inks I've tried, is the one that sheens most prominently, and I'd say even more than Sailor Seiboku (which of course not iron-gall but a pigment ink).

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
silverlifter Vintage

silverlifter

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

@hari317, too, who got in with an entry while I was still typing mine. :)

 

My bad! Sorry hari 😛

 

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33583
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26771
    5. jar
      jar
      26105

  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      Links to web pages or articles about Chinese typesetting, signwriting, etc.

      By Shanghai Knife Dude · Posted

      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By A Smug Dill · Posted

      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By adamselene · Posted

      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By A Smug Dill · Posted

      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      Skeleton of a primer for a budding hobbyist

      By adamselene · Posted

      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o

  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More

  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...