EFNIR: Sailor Blue Black

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Sailor Blue Black

This is review #177 in my series.  Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: Cleaning was easy with plain water, but took a little longer than usual. In testing, dry time was under 10 seconds. This ink was in the pen longer than usual (I had a cold) and perhaps there was some evaporation in the pen that resulted in thicker ink and longer dry times?  Forgot to mention in the review that there is some sheen, on TR and Rhodia, but it's easy to miss because of how dark the ink is.

The images seem to give the right idea of the color.  The zoom seems a little purple, but that might be because of the red sheen in the dark areas.

The line width measurement is one of the lines 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 305µm. (For the curious, with 177 inks measured, the average line width is 289µm.)

The smear under the microscope was yawnville.

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

Zoomed in photo:

Absorbent Paper Closeup (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper):

Line width measured via microscope at 100x:

Images also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap.

Previous Review: Van Dieman's Ink Sweetheart Cherry.

Want to influence the inky sequence?  Take the "next ink" poll.

Need to catch up on The Adventures of Quin and Makhabesh?  Find the whole story here.

Hope you enjoy.  Comments appreciated!

[InesF]

@LizEF, thank you for the new ink review - and for saving Quin and Makhabesh!

(ah, I guessed right, the flying horse is Pegasus) 😊

(I swear, I guessed the name, nothing did I know ;))

 

One more of these intense Teal/Blue-Black inks I started to love so much, since you introduced R&K Verdigris. While I have now 4 useable Blue-Black inks in my collection, at least having 2 or 3 with widely different surface tension can guarantee to always find a fitting ink for a certain pen. My first Sailor inks are in shipment to me - I'm looking forward!

 

Again, the microscopy image reveals some left-over dots in the line, suggesting high surface tension of the ink. The close-ups on both bad paper types would suggest low surface tension. That's interesting!

 

Thank you for never becoming tired of writing new ink reviews! 👍

[LizEF]

1 minute ago, InesF said:

@LizEF, thank you for the new ink review - and for saving Quin and Makhabesh!

(ah, I guessed right, the flying horse is Pegasus) 😊

You're very welcome!  (What else would a flying horse be called!? Though I suspect the original Pegasus was a he, and this one is a she.)

 

2 minutes ago, InesF said:

(I swear, I guessed, nothing did I know ;))

Glad to know you haven't hacked my review-recording-camera...

 

3 minutes ago, InesF said:

One more of these intense Teal/Blue-Black inks I started to love so much, since you introduced R&K Verdigris. While I have now 4 useable Blue-Black inks in my collection, at least having 2 or 3 with widely different surface tension can guarantee to always find a fitting ink for a certain pen. My first Sailor inks are in shipment to me - I'm looking forward!

You can never have too many blue blacks.   I think you'll love the Sailor inks - they've got serious experts designing their inks.

 

5 minutes ago, InesF said:

Again, the microscopy image reveals some left-over dots in the line, suggesting high surface tension of the ink. The close-ups on both bad paper types would suggest low surface tension. That's interesting!

I often wonder how much the specific area of the paper impacts performance - it's not like paper is exactly uniform, especially cheap paper...  Seems like some inks just luck out and get an especially feather-prone spot.  It would take more time and repetitions than I'm willing to do before we could draw any more confident conclusions.  (And a lab analyst, cuz I wouldn't want to sit and repeat the test over and over. )

 

9 minutes ago, InesF said:

Thank you for never becoming tired of writing new ink reviews! 👍

The discussions keep me going!

[yazeh]

Great and fun review as usual, @LizEF 

Why would the first Pegasus be male? Hopefully the Pegasus' canon doesn't follow the Abrahamic model  Oy vey

I loved the quote, pale ink, vs memory... but what about if that pale ink was put down by a faulty memory? 😛

Yawnville, that's for the annals 🥱

 

 

[LizEF]

7 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Great and fun review as usual, @LizEF 

Thanks!

 

7 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Why would the first Pegasus be male? Hopefully the Pegasus' canon doesn't follow the Abrahamic model  Oy vey

Ask the Greeks (or the fount of all knowledge  ).  Pretty sure they invented him.

 

9 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I loved the quote, pale ink, vs memory... but what about if that pale ink was put down by a faulty memory? 😛

Yeah, that's a good one - though I wish I'd saved it for the ink now in my pen - I worry it may be too pale to see in the video. In my Rhodiarama, it looks like the paper is just a little darker where the writing is - I actually kind of like it, but I think it's the palest ink I've used yet.

 

10 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Yawnville, that's for the annals 🥱

[yazeh]

8 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Ask the Greeks (or the fount of all knowledge  ).  Pretty sure they invented him.

Thanks for the link. I discovered many other winged horses. 

Anyway in this case, its your world (i.e. Quin and Makhabesh's), so it can be any winged horsey, any gender  

8 minutes ago, LizEF said:

 

Yeah, that's a good one - though I wish I'd saved it for the ink now in my pen - I worry it may be too pale to see in the video. In my Rhodiarama, it looks like the paper is just a little darker where the writing is - I actually kind of like it, but I think it's the palest ink I've used yet.

Use the quote again.... it'll be fun and relevant 

 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Anyway in this case, its your world (i.e. Quin and Makhabesh's), so it can be any winged horsey, any gender  

The joy of fantasy writing.

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

Use the quote again.... it'll be fun and relevant 

  Maybe I will!

[mizgeorge]

Thank you @LizEF

 

Smashing review of one of my favourite blue blacks (and I love blue black inks). This is one I can't imagine being without. 

 

I have to admit, my favourite winged horse is Fledge (formerly Strawberry) from the Magician's Nephew. 

[LizEF]

47 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Thank you @LizEF

You're most welcome.

 

47 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Smashing review of one of my favourite blue blacks (and I love blue black inks). This is one I can't imagine being without. 

Thanks!

 

48 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

I have to admit, my favourite winged horse is Fledge (formerly Strawberry) from the Magician's Nephew. 

Oh my.  Apparently it's been too long since I read that.  The whole series is sitting on my shelf - I may have to do a binge!

[PithyProlix]

Thanks for the review!

 

I think I previously wrote that if I became a monk and could only have one ink, Hero 232 was the ink I would take to a remote forest monastery on a mountain. But, really, it is this one. I had no interest in it until it came along with one of the first vintage Sailor pens I purchased, in a cartridge. Before I first tried it I figured it was another boring blue black, like Pilot's for instance (Sorry, Pilot blue black fans!), and that I would clean out the cartridge and fill it with some other ink. But what a nice surprise it was! 

[LizEF]

21 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Thanks for the review!

You're very welcome!

 

22 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

I think I previously wrote that if I became a monk and could only have one ink, Hero 232 was the ink I would take to a remote forest monastery on a mountain. But, really, it is this one. I had no interest in it until it came along with one of the first vintage Sailor pens I purchased, in a cartridge. Before I first tried it I figured it was another boring blue black, like Pilot's for instance (Sorry, Pilot blue black fans!), and that I would clean out the cartridge and fill it with some other ink. But what a nice surprise it was! 

It's great when that happens.  (And yeah, Pilot Blue Black is kinda yawn-inducing for me - behaves well, but there are so many more interesting shades of blue-black.)  Hero 232 is a pretty good choice, though.  Meanwhile, I'm just happy I don't have to pick one ink - I'd suffer through smuggling them all into the monastery and then beating off all the other jealous monks...

[Sailor Kenshin]

Yet another ink I have (bought a bottle not long ago, the new square shape).  Though I haven't used it that much, it is as you say!

 

Thanks again for the review and story.  Yay.  Talking flying horsie.  

[LizEF]

17 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks again for the review and story.

You're most welcome!

 

17 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Yay.  Talking flying horsie.

[aurore]

A wonderful review, as always. I love it in drier nibs, there it produces a muted blue colour. In wetter nibs it's just black (dark grey), not so great.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, aurore said:

A wonderful review, as always. I love it in drier nibs, there it produces a muted blue colour. In wetter nibs it's just black (dark grey), not so great.

Thank you!  I never guessed when I got started with FPs that one ink could look so different depending on the pen, but your comment demonstrates that perfectly. Thanks for sharing your experience.