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Mixing it (up) with some Blue Royals


samasry

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If anyone is interested and it is a big IF.  I would like to propose for the ink Gurus out there some fun idea: 

 

What can you mix with  Pelikan Royal Blue to make  the end mix become  an exciting and awesome ink?

 

The mix should hopefully use  at least 50%   Pelikan Royal Blue in the mix,  as it is most probably the cheaper ink in the mix (as you can get it by the  1000mL)

 

I came up with my own solution, out of necessity,   as I have this 1 litre  bottle, and I could not stand the sight of that ink on its own. 

 

I am sure my solution is  poor man's mix,  and can not rise to what the experts here can propose.   For me,  any improvement over the  original Royal Blue ink from Pelikan,  is a  worthy contribution.

 

If you have an idea, I would be interested to hear it.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

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I do not have this ink, but I've been there, with a 70ml bottle of Pilot Blue. (I have one of their Blue Black too and that one I love.). So, what would I do? First, in a small vial, put some of the royal blue, of course. Then add a few drops of purple or red & see where that gets you. A little black and blue black also adds interest, I find. Note how much of each additional color when you hit a combination you like, even if only temporarily. Write with it a bit, then mix on.

I tend to randomly add other colors, too, and the results have been surprising...

So, good luck, and let us know what you make that you like better.

a fountain pen is physics in action... Proud member of the SuperPinks

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4 hours ago, mhguda said:

I do not have this ink, but I've been there, with a 70ml bottle of Pilot Blue. (I have one of their Blue Black too and that one I love.). So, what would I do? First, in a small vial, put some of the royal blue, of course. Then add a few drops of purple or red & see where that gets you. A little black and blue black also adds interest, I find. Note how much of each additional color when you hit a combination you like, even if only temporarily. Write with it a bit, then mix on.

I tend to randomly add other colors, too, and the results have been surprising...

So, good luck, and let us know what you make that you like better.

 

Thank you @mhguda for the interesting ideas.  I should experiment with some of these ideas. Thanks

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most welcome. And I do mean for you to post what the mixing gets you, where you end up. Most of my mixtures that I still use started in this way, although sometimes I did set out to make a particular color. Both paths have been fun.

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11 hours ago, mhguda said:

most welcome. And I do mean for you to post what the mixing gets you, where you end up. Most of my mixtures that I still use started in this way, although sometimes I did set out to make a particular color. Both paths have been fun.

Probably I was not clear in my post.  As I have indicated, I have already developed what I consider an economical solution that seems to fit my needs in terms of color and behavior.   

 

What amazed me is how quick  and obvious that solution was.    I thought, if I,  a normal person, can do this in few minutes,  then  the ink gurus on FPN must have developed wonders.  Perhaps, using their advice, I can turn the 1 litre bottle that was destined to be thrown out into some amazing ink that can be used daily.

 

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OK, I'll bite.

What is your solution?

I thought you wanted input for some great mix, and I told you the way I think you could go about it... and asked you to let us know what you did...

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8 hours ago, mhguda said:

OK, I'll bite.

What is your solution?

I thought you wanted input for some great mix, and I told you the way I think you could go about it... and asked you to let us know what you did...

 

I was under the impression that I have thanked you very politely for your advice.

 

Let me try to explain  what I am not after:  I am not really after  showing off  anything, be it my solution or anything else;   it is the other way around.

 

I come from an  engineering background, and  as engineers we fall into  the trap of  quickly-found  "local minima" or or just-good solution all the time.

  We  are trained to question this  quickly found  and potentially mediocre solution,   and start looking for  better solutions.

The holy grail would be the "global minima", which does not apply in this case, as this is very subjective. 

You are 99% sure however, that there must be few  solutions, better than the one you quickly found.

 

It is very narrow question, which is improving the characteristics of Pelikan Royal Blue. It could be that someone solved this before and have an amazing solution they would like to share. That would be very  useful for me.

 

It could be that no one else cared about this, and I will need to live  with whatever less than optimal solution I came up with.  

 

 

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21 minutes ago, BayesianPrior said:

25:1 Pelikan Royal Blue to Pelikan Brilliant Black

Great, thank you for the advice @BayesianPrior, I appreciate it.

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I have seen this post and linking it here

 

 

This seems to be the superior solution that I have been looking for in this  thread.

 

I definitely like the idea of bringing something like Pelikan Royal Blue to anything close to Asa Gao.   

 

I knew this forum would be useful for something someday  :) 

 

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I've been playing around with Pelikan Royal blue for ages.

Royal blue is the ink I used at school in the late 60s and have used for quite long time thereafter at college and university.

Back then the idea of using a different ink never struck me, I just liked it and kept using it.

I own many more inks now, but in general I stick to blue inks, I'm not very fond of writing with other colours, with few exceptions for dark browns or purples, and hate writing in black.

An obvious mix with Royal blue is blue-black. You need to keep black to a limited quantity, 10:1 or 10:2 is already a good mix.

I have used Visconti black without issues, but you can use Pelikan or Quink.

The mix you refer to is my Royal mix, Royal blue, Diamine Sargasso sea 4:1. as mentioned in the other post it's a rather interesting mix, despite it does not quite reach the objective of making an exact copy of Asa Gao, but perhaps interestingly it's really cheap (due to the limited amount of Sargasso that goes in it, and possibility to buy the Diamine 30 ml bottle), maintains the very well behaved characteristics of Royal blue, and is clearly more vivid.

 

A similar mix can also be achieved by using Edelstein Tanzanite (a very dark grey-blue), in proportion 5:1. The resulting colour is a sort of navy blue. You are still using a high % of Royal blue, which makes this ink cheap, although you need to buy a full bottle of Tanzanite, which is more expensive.

 

here is an idea of the result. This mix is also very safe.

 

Admittedly, as I do have quite a stock of Royal blue, these ink mixes help me use it up...

 

large.1344611426_IMG_4147-3RoyalNavyBlue.jpg.b2d43d225f516bfad11afd8ad1f6ee95.jpg

 

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41 minutes ago, sansenri said:

I've been playing around with Pelikan Royal blue for ages.

Royal blue is the ink I used at school in the late 60s and have used for quite long time thereafter at college and university.

Back then the idea of using a different ink never struck me, I just liked it and kept using it.

I own many more inks now, but in general I stick to blue inks, I'm not very fond of writing with other colours, with few exceptions for dark browns or purples, and hate writing in black.

An obvious mix with Royal blue is blue-black. You need to keep black to a limited quantity, 10:1 or 10:2 is already a good mix.

I have used Visconti black without issues, but you can use Pelikan or Quink.

The mix you refer to is my Royal mix, Royal blue, Diamine Sargasso sea 4:1. as mentioned in the other post it's a rather interesting mix, despite it does not quite reach the objective of making an exact copy of Asa Gao, but perhaps interestingly it's really cheap (due to the limited amount of Sargasso that goes in it, and possibility to buy the Diamine 30 ml bottle), maintains the very well behaved characteristics of Royal blue, and is clearly more vivid.

 

A similar mix can also be achieved by using Edelstein Tanzanite (a very dark grey-blue), in proportion 5:1. The resulting colour is a sort of navy blue. You are still using a high % of Royal blue, which makes this ink cheap, although you need to buy a full bottle of Tanzanite, which is more expensive.

 

here is an idea of the result. This mix is also very safe.

 

Admittedly, as I do have quite a stock of Royal blue, these ink mixes help me use it up...

 

large.1344611426_IMG_4147-3RoyalNavyBlue.jpg.b2d43d225f516bfad11afd8ad1f6ee95.jpg

 

 

These are all very  useful ideas.  The one I am acting on immediately is the  Diamine Saragossa sea, I am going to order this ink and go from there.

 

I did not want to restrict the thread   at the start and indicate that I have preference for a mix that end up with some blue color, but it is in fact what I am hoping to achieve. I do not want to go the blue black route,  as I already have several  Pilot blue black bottles sitting there unused as well.

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Then give it a try. Remember also that if the result does not quite satisfy you, you can always slightly alter the proportions and see what happens.

I would recommend you make a smaller size test first (using a metered syringe) so you can test the result and see if you like it, then if you do you can make a larger batch.

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1 hour ago, sansenri said:

Then give it a try. Remember also that if the result does not quite satisfy you, you can always slightly alter the proportions and see what happens.

I would recommend you make a smaller size test first (using a metered syringe) so you can test the result and see if you like it, then if you do you can make a larger batch.

Great.  Will do.  Thank you very much for your help and advice today.

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21 hours ago, samasry said:

 

These are all very  useful ideas.  The one I am acting on immediately is the  Diamine Saragossa sea, I am going to order this ink and go from there.

 

I did not want to restrict the thread   at the start and indicate that I have preference for a mix that end up with some blue color, but it is in fact what I am hoping to achieve. I do not want to go the blue black route,  as I already have several  Pilot blue black bottles sitting there unused as well.

 

PS, clearly if you do not want to go the blue-black route, the direction to take is mix royal blue with another blue.

Your test with Sapphire was probably not satisfactory because Royal blue and Sapphire are too similar to each other

 

I was already planning since a while to make a few tests with

Royal blue + Diamine Majestic

 

Royal Blue + Diamine Asa

 

these two inks have tones which lean the first one slightly on teal, so this could reduce the purplish hue in Royal blue, the second one has an evident turquoise component so mixing it with Royal blue should yield something similar to Horizon or Blue Velvet

 

I just made a quick test with the second mix, 4 parts Royal blue and 1 part Asa.

The result is interesting, although when writing the turquoise component is less evident, while the swab is quite a bit lighter than Horizon. I like it though, although nothing striking, could still be a Royal blue based keeper mix...  :)

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48 minutes ago, sansenri said:

 

PS, clearly if you do not want to go the blue-black route, the direction to take is mix royal blue with another blue.

Your test with Sapphire was probably not satisfactory because Royal blue and Sapphire are too similar to each other

 

The mix that I have done with Monteverde Sapphire have accomplished one thing I have always wanted, which is making the Pelikan Royal blue appear more saturated, and a bit darker blue

 

The MV Sapphire is probably my favourite ink in terms of color, as it is dark saturated  blue,  yet still will never be confused with   blue-black

 

This review captures the essence of the color in as close to what you get on paper as possible.

 

https://mountainofink.com/blog/monteverde-sapphire

 

 

 I was not hat unhappy with the mix,  as the mix has changed  Pelikan Royal Blue from dull, unsaturated color,  to something that is solid blue color. 

 

I was  interested in your mix as a superior solution, since Asa-Gao was my Grail ink when I started this FPN journey;  I just could not use it  regularly due to cost.

 

Any mix that can get even close to Asa Gao would be a great mix as far as I am concerned. On top of that, it would be an interesting variation from just the normal blue  (what I call Lamy blue)

 

 

48 minutes ago, sansenri said:

I was already planning since a while to make a few tests with

Royal blue + Diamine Majestic

 

Royal Blue + Diamine Asa

 

these two inks have tones which lean the first one slightly on teal, so this could reduce the purplish hue in Royal blue, the second one has an evident turquoise component so mixing it with Royal blue should yield something similar to Horizon or Blue Velvet

 

I just made a quick test with the second mix, 4 parts Royal blue and 1 part Asa.

The result is interesting, although when writing the turquoise component is less evident, while the swab is quite a bit lighter than Horizon. I like it though, although nothing striking, could still be a Royal blue based keeper mix...  :)

 

It would be great if you can publish some photos of your different mixes,  specially with written sample.  You can even dedicate a thread or a series  for your Royal Blue mixes. I am sure many people will be interested to see them and learn from your experience.  I for one,  plan to duplicate few of these, however due to some time limits these days, I have to wait a bit before I can do serious experiments.

 

I appreciate your  time and   the generous  sharing of your  experience with all of us.  

 

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I will take some better pictures and include some writing samples when I have a bit more time (let's see over the week end) as I did the test this late afternoon and it was already dark...

I know that swabs and writing can look quite different, in fact I'm looking at the royal blue + Asa mix and the swab looks light and the writing with an F nib looks darker...

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8 minutes ago, sansenri said:

I will take some better pictures and include some writing samples when I have a bit more time (let's see over the week end) as I did the test this late afternoon and it was already dark...

I know that swabs and writing can look quite different, in fact I'm looking at the royal blue + Asa mix and the swab looks light and the writing with an F nib looks darker...

 

Please take your time and only if you feel this  is not a chore nor  a waste of your time. There is no rush, I for one, have been looking for this for at least two years :) 

I do agree though as you can see from the mountain of ink reviews,  that the swab tells only partial story of what you would see when you write with the pen.  Definitely as you said, many inks and mixes would behave differently depending on the  nib's width  as well. 

 

So, no worries about the time at all ,  we can wait for weeks  when it is good stuff :) 

Thanks for your efforts and time

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  • 6 months later...

my plans to check this ink mix in more detail went astray...

 

I have just remixed it today and taken a picture of a writing sample, however with the current light (high colour temperature) it is almost impossible to get the right colours showing with my camera in natural daylight, so showing the current result would be totally useless. I will try in better lighting, or possibly a scan, but my scanner is old and I'm not sure that it can pick up the colours correctly.

 

As far as the colour is concerned, it seems that the contribution of Asa to the mix is quite strong. Despite there is only one part of Asa to 4 parts of Royal blue (so 20% of the mix), the purplish tint of Royal blue disappears completely. The colour seems to be in between the two original inks, and the greenish/cyan/turquoise hue of Asa almost disappears too (almost, there is some faint trace in there!).

In terms of behaviour, particularly wetness/dryness, to me the mix seems similar to Royal blue, perhaps just slightly more wet (Asa is a very wet ink), while the mix tends to behave better than Asa which has a slight tendency to feather on bad paper.

The result is not exactly a medium true blue, but almost, it's very well behaved and perfectly liquid, with no lumps/precipitates.

It is also evident that the mix is slightly less saturated than the two original colours (but that is an unavoidable consequence of mixing) but still extremely usable and not at all washed out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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with the sun shining through the window I at last managed to take a decent picture, although digital cameras are not as good as the naked eye at picking up colour nuances...

 

Royal blue does show slightly more purple than the mix, Asa does show slightly more greenish/cyan than the mix.
The mix is very slightly less saturated than the other two, but in writing you don't really notice such difference.

large.771667180_P1200724-3royalasamix.jpg.b8749e43e2d4a3dabe37e42e47fb5b93.jpg

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