Looking for Waterman South Sea Blue

[txoko]

Perhaps this is the place to ask.  I have learned that Waterman South Sea Blue ink was discontinued in recent years.  Is this still available anywhere?  Or, how would I go about looking for it?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[LizEF]

Unless the formula's changed, it's just called Inspired Blue now, and is in current production.  If the formula changed, then I have no idea other than perhaps eBay.

[PithyProlix]

It was also called Blue Obsession at some point. It's confusing - I think the name went fron South Seas Blue to Inspired Blue to Blue Obsession. And now it appears to be back to Inspired Blue again. (?) 

[WalterC]

txoko, most US dealers have it available as Inspired Blue (Amazon, vanness, Anderson, jetpens). For some unknown reason, Goulet does not carry Waterman inks. I have a bottle, but don't like it, but I do love W. serenity blue (old, real name was Florida blue).

[txoko]

Thank you all, but I have both and I can assure you that Inspired Blue is emphatically not South Sea Blue.  I should probably check again before saying this, but memory seems to whisper that Inspired Blue is rather closer to Van Dieman's Land Freycinet Aquamarine.

It isn't that important as Waterman cannot take away the wonder I experienced after discovering fountain pens in my grandfather's attic as a 6 year old in the mid-1950s and then a few months later as a 7 year old discovering the glory of Waterman South Sea Blue.  Which fit nicely with my drawing on most of my homework papers old sailing ships and sailboats and dreaming of sailing to the South Seas.  Plus I still have half a bottle but would love to replenish it.

Just perused an older post here on turquoise inks, and while I have several of them, there are a myriad available that I don't have.  So I suppose turquoise is hale and hearty even without the venerable South Sea Blue.

[ErrantSmudge]

1 hour ago, WalterC said:

For some unknown reason, Goulet does not carry Waterman inks.

 

Goulet doesn't carry Waterman at all, so it's not just the ink.  At one time they carried the "old guard" brands like Waterman, Parker, Cross, and Sheaffer but they dropped them at some point, along with their inks.

 

I also thought that Inspired Blue was just renamed South Seas Blue.

[arcfide]

4 hours ago, txoko said:

Thank you all, but I have both and I can assure you that Inspired Blue is emphatically not South Sea Blue.  I should probably check again before saying this, but memory seems to whisper that Inspired Blue is rather closer to Van Dieman's Land Freycinet Aquamarine.

It isn't that important as Waterman cannot take away the wonder I experienced after discovering fountain pens in my grandfather's attic as a 6 year old in the mid-1950s and then a few months later as a 7 year old discovering the glory of Waterman South Sea Blue.  Which fit nicely with my drawing on most of my homework papers old sailing ships and sailboats and dreaming of sailing to the South Seas.  Plus I still have half a bottle but would love to replenish it.

Just perused an older post here on turquoise inks, and while I have several of them, there are a myriad available that I don't have.  So I suppose turquoise is hale and hearty even without the venerable South Sea Blue.

 

Most people would say that they are the same ink. How old is your bottle? Do you have a bottle that is *very* old? That might make a difference. 

[txoko]

Glad you asked that, arcfide.  It occurred to me (as usual) *after* I put my foot in my mouth to wonder if the age of the ink would make a difference.  The Inspired Blue is fairly new, less than a year old, and the bottle is still full.  My half bottle of South Sea Blue is on the order of a dozen years old and I wonder if age, or even a combination of age and exposure (since the bottle hasn't been full for quite a long time) would make a difference.  I do recall reading last year opinions that the inks are the same and that the inks are not the same.  That's why I bought the new name in spite of my pique:  just to find out.  And I found out.  But what I found out may only apply to my two bottles and maybe they really only did change the name.  Knowing next to nothing about inks and how they age should make one perhaps ask more questions than splatter the internet with additional ignorance.  I think I will limit my grumbling to the name change.................

[bunnspecial]

8 hours ago, txoko said:

Glad you asked that, arcfide.  It occurred to me (as usual) *after* I put my foot in my mouth to wonder if the age of the ink would make a difference.  The Inspired Blue is fairly new, less than a year old, and the bottle is still full.  My half bottle of South Sea Blue is on the order of a dozen years old and I wonder if age, or even a combination of age and exposure (since the bottle hasn't been full for quite a long time) would make a difference.  I do recall reading last year opinions that the inks are the same and that the inks are not the same.  That's why I bought the new name in spite of my pique:  just to find out.  And I found out.  But what I found out may only apply to my two bottles and maybe they really only did change the name.  Knowing next to nothing about inks and how they age should make one perhaps ask more questions than splatter the internet with additional ignorance.  I think I will limit my grumbling to the name change.................

 

12 years ago IIRC was right around the time that Waterman renamed all of their inks.

 

My bottle of South Seas Blue is nearly full as I didn't appreciate turquoise inks when I first bought it, and kind of forgot about it until more recently when I started using inks in that general pallette more.

 

I keep meaning to pick up a bottle of Inispired Blue, so maybe I'll head over to Amazon and do just that. I would have bought my bottle of South Seas around the same time you did.

[dragondazd]

9 hours ago, txoko said:

Glad you asked that, arcfide.  It occurred to me (as usual) *after* I put my foot in my mouth to wonder if the age of the ink would make a difference.  The Inspired Blue is fairly new, less than a year old, and the bottle is still full.  My half bottle of South Sea Blue is on the order of a dozen years old and I wonder if age, or even a combination of age and exposure (since the bottle hasn't been full for quite a long time) would make a difference.  I do recall reading last year opinions that the inks are the same and that the inks are not the same.  That's why I bought the new name in spite of my pique:  just to find out.  And I found out.  But what I found out may only apply to my two bottles and maybe they really only did change the name.  Knowing next to nothing about inks and how they age should make one perhaps ask more questions than splatter the internet with additional ignorance.  I think I will limit my grumbling to the name change.................

How about some writing samples?  if you like your aged color, maybe we can find a better match 

[bunnspecial]

I haven't pulled cards in a while, so here's my chance to do it even though as I mentioned I don't have a bottle of Inspired Blue.

 

To my eye, of these, Edelstein Topaz and Montblanc Egyptian Blue are probably the closest.

[NumberSix]

20 hours ago, txoko said:

Perhaps this is the place to ask.  I have learned that Waterman South Sea Blue ink was discontinued in recent years.  Is this still available anywhere?  Or, how would I go about looking for it?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

On r/pen_swap, user tgzme has a few unopened vintage Waterman bottles for a reasonable price, including South Sea Blue.

 

At some point last year, I bought some vintage Blue Black from him. The ink worked great, though the phenol smell was strong.

[Runnin_Ute]

Just checked the reviews. The earliest Inspired Blue review was in 2013, and in it the reviewer refers to Inspired Blue being the same as South Seas Blue. The last SSB review was that same year. There are about five or six of each. This makes sense as it aligns with my memory of when I recall the announcement of the name change. The earliest review of South Sea Blue was a few years earlier than 2013.

[bunnspecial]

10 hours ago, Runnin_Ute said:

Just checked the reviews. The earliest Inspired Blue review was in 2013, and in it the reviewer refers to Inspired Blue being the same as South Seas Blue. The last SSB review was that same year. There are about five or six of each. This makes sense as it aligns with my memory of when I recall the announcement of the name change. The earliest review of South Sea Blue was a few years earlier than 2013.

 

For some reason my brain wasn't working right when I said "12 years ago would be about when they changed." My initial entry into this hobby was a late 2011 and really starting to get serious spring 2012. I bought several bottles of Waterman ink since-well-everyone said they were great(they are) and everything I bought was old names/bottles.

 

Sometime later that year I THINK is when I heard of the name changes to Waterman inks, but since I didn't really use them that often(despite having them) I didn't get too concerned about it. I use them a lot more now, although always hate to touch my old bottles especially with the amount of Blue(Florida Blue/Serenity Blue) I use just for testing and adjusting pens.

[lapis]

FWIW, the earliest (changeover) I recall was towards the end of 2011 as mentioned here, but early 2012 was more well known and discussed. At that time it was also stated here that the (US) Waterman distribution had been taken over by Newell/Rubbermaid and that it was solely the ink names which had been changed. I myself found no visible differences in all of their 9 inks (including their cartridge pinks) but that may have changed in the meantime.

[bunnspecial]

I know this is nearly a month late, but I finally got around to getting a bottle of new Inspired Blue. Along the way, I also happened into, well, more than one bottle of vintage South Seas Blue.

 

 

To be perfectly honest, in a quick check with swabs and a glass dip pen, I don't see much if any difference between the three inks.

I've been on a bit of a turquoise kick in general lately...

 

[txoko]

To @bunnspecial, thank you very much for this!  I have learned a great deal just from this thread about trying to compare inks.  The first is that it is way more complicated than I had any inkling of....

From darkening in the nib from just sitting around to darkening in the bottle over an extended period of time.  And then there is the difference I had noticed with some of my pens of different nib, and have had confirmed here, that different nibs can make a huge difference in the way an ink looks.  It has also made clear to me why everybody who posts ink details in photos does all the different kinds of marks and splotches and all; because it makes a visible difference.

BTW, another very nice turquoise is Van Dieman's Land Freycinet Aquamarine.  A bright, very pretty turquoise.

[bunnspecial]

12 minutes ago, txoko said:

To @bunnspecial, thank you very much for this!  I have learned a great deal just from this thread about trying to compare inks.  The first is that it is way more complicated than I had any inkling of....

From darkening in the nib from just sitting around to darkening in the bottle over an extended period of time.  And then there is the difference I had noticed with some of my pens of different nib, and have had confirmed here, that different nibs can make a huge difference in the way an ink looks.  It has also made clear to me why everybody who posts ink details in photos does all the different kinds of marks and splotches and all; because it makes a visible difference.

BTW, another very nice turquoise is Van Dieman's Land Freycinet Aquamarine.  A bright, very pretty turquoise.

 

Many folks have their methods of comparison, and I think that one of the keys at least for anyone doing for their own reference is to just be consistent.

 

Don't forget to that papers really bring out the differences in inks. My standard paper is 80gsm Rhodia, which is a paper I feel is fairly "neutral" in that it is able to show shading, sheen, and other properties without really highlighting any of them. Tomoe river, just for example, can bring out sheen in any ink, while I feel like Oxford Optik is maybe a bit better than Rhodia at showing shading. Absorbent papers can make most any ink go "flat".

 

I tend to do a lot of my comparisons with glass dip pens specifically. Fountain pen ink doesn't necessarily work great on dip pens as dip ink is often a bit more viscous, but I do find that glass pens behave a bit better than steel pens with FP ink. When doing comparisons like the above, I find using the same pen advantageous also, and glass pens are extremely easy to clean and dry.