The quest for the perfect blue ink

[PithyProlix]

2 hours ago, senzen said:

Topaz looks spectacular freshly inked in a B 725

 

Geha 725?

[Chris1]

Parker Penman Sapphire, naturally. Now re-named unobtainium. Love it.

But I like Visconti Blue too and a couple of Diamine blues are fine.

 

[OCArt]

Noodler's Baltimore Canyon Blue has it all, rich blue color and saturation (almost as much as Baystate Blue,) waterproof and lightfast. See review HERE , and another HERE

[lapis]

I keep forgetting it... Noodler's "Blue". Yup, no adjectives or names alongside just "Blue". The only trouble is that it takes hours to dry.

[antares1966]

My “next” blue will likely be Monteverde Horizon Blue.

[Arkanabar]

16 hours ago, lapis said:

I keep forgetting it... Noodler's "Blue". Yup, no adjectives or names alongside just "Blue". The only trouble is that it takes hours to dry.

Dilution is your friend when dealing with smudgy Noodler's inks.  I go about ink 4:1 water.

[txomsy]

Noodler's BSB is probably the perfect hue. If it were better behaved...

 

Montblanc Permanent Blue is a close contender regarding hue, but is permanent and well behaved, making it for me the closest to perfect blue ink.

 

So far.

[MHBru]

More thoughts....

So many really good blues... My all time fav is Iroshizuku Kon Peki.  Other honorable mentions include Iro Tsuki Yo, Herbin Bleu de Minuit, Waterman Serenity Blue, and Edelstein Topaz.  I also have high hopes for the recently announced Edelstein Golden Lapis.

[lapis]

6 hours ago, Arkanabar said:

Dilution is your friend when dealing with smudgy Noodler's inks.  I go about ink 4:1 water.

Thanks for the good tip! I'll give that a run tomorrow!!

[lukeap69]

How do you like your blue? A brighter blue like Royal Blue or darker like Navy Blue? Pastel like blue? Greenish blue? Almost black blue?

 

For me, my order of preference for the blue inks I have is: Iro Kon-Peki>Sailor 840>Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue>Waterman Mysterious Blue.

 

I guess I don't prefer the darker blues. 😁

[landonitron]

On 2/23/2024 at 8:29 PM, PolarMoonman said:

For professional stuff I would go with Noodler's Bad Blue Heron, so many excellent properties that come with it. And for a bright vivid blue I go with Noodler's Blue Eel. Both have served me well.

Similarly I use Lamy 2000 inked with Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher in my chemistry lab notebooks. I think it looks flat and somehow grainy on the page but the color is deep and I know that whatever I may spill on my notebook won't be able to remove the ink.

On 2/23/2024 at 9:41 PM, ErrantSmudge said:

I have over two dozen different Monteverde inks, and a few years ago a handful of them did go bad.  Monteverde replaced the affected bottles and I haven't had problems since.  I'm not concerned about buying more of their inks.

I may have to just get more Capri Blue then. My one bottle has lasted this long. I do really like some of Monteverde's colors and the wet flow of their inks.

On 2/24/2024 at 10:47 AM, MHBru said:

I've been on that quest for many colors but for some reason I found my perfect blue quite early.  For me it is Iroshizuku Kon Peki.  That being said, I have other very nice blues, as well.  Waterman Serenity Blue, Iro Asa Gao,and the old formulation from 20 years ago of Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue (emptied a very long time ago). 

I have wanted to try Kon-peki for a long time but have never committed to buying it. I'll have to order a sample.

16 hours ago, Arkanabar said:

Dilution is your friend when dealing with smudgy Noodler's inks.  I go about ink 4:1 water.

But when the bottles are so full that you can hardly dip a pen in them to fill, it makes dilution quite annoying. I have had to dilute 2 of the 3 Noodler's inks I have bought. I just slowly added water as I filled my pens until the smearing wasn't a problem. I would probably have more Noodler's inks if they didn't smear all the time. And if I didn't have to shake them to get the right color.

2 hours ago, lukeap69 said:

How do you like your blue? A brighter blue like Royal Blue or darker like Navy Blue? Pastel like blue? Greenish blue? Almost black blue?

 

For me, my order of preference for the blue inks I have is: Iro Kon-Peki>Sailor 840>Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue>Waterman Mysterious Blue.

 

I guess I don't prefer the darker blues. 😁

I like my blue to be pure blue (as far as my eyes perceive "pure" blue); dark, bright, pastel, whatever. Capri Blue fits that bill. I don't like sapphire blues, green-tinted blues I can sometimes handle if the color speaks to me. Blue-blacks are great though. Currently I don't have any pastel blues but I am looking at getting Anderillium Adonis Butterfly blue. I have their Luna Moth green and am really pleased with it.

 

Interestingly I am not a big fan of Iroshizuku Ama-iro. It's pure blue but it's just too bright for me to love it. Capri Blue is also very vivid but the shade is darker so it's not quite as bright. I'm still going to keep my bottle of Ama-iro though.

[W Mitchell]

Robert Oster True Blue is a nice rich Royal Blue ink which flows well.

[Arkanabar]

On 2/26/2024 at 9:41 AM, Arkanabar said:

Dilution is your friend when dealing with smudgy Noodler's inks.  I go about ink 4:1 water.

I should also have noted that sample vials are your friends when diluting.  You are diluting the biocides as well.

[lapis]

I'd never dilute a whole bottle. Yes, 5-6-ml vials are the only way to fly. Plus, I add distilled water containing phenol and/or sodium azide.

[AndyYNWA]

Sailor x Bungubox Umi-iro Ruri Sea has sailed (excuse the pun) up as one of my favourite blues.

But also Sailor Jentle Sky High and Diamine Blue Velvet are great blue inks.

[senzen]

On 2/25/2024 at 12:35 AM, PithyProlix said:

 

Geha 725?

 

Yup!

[senzen]

The state of affairs...

 

 

Diabolo Menthe is barely legible, but I love that colour. You'll notice the wild variations depending on the pen for Kon Peki and Blue Velvet. On my old Macbook Pro all colours look vibrant, on my also old Samsung monitor everything looks kinda of dull. Catching that slightly more blueish, very vibrant Kon Peki from a Carène M is proving very difficult. While I like Tanzanite it simply doesn't do what's marked on the tin / bottle: there is very little blue in all that gray.

[arcfide]

2 hours ago, senzen said:

The state of affairs...

 

Diabolo Menthe is barely legible, but I love that colour. You'll notice the wild variations depending on the pen for Kon Peki and Blue Velvet. On my old Macbook Pro all colours look vibrant, on my also old Samsung monitor everything looks kinda of dull. Catching that slightly more blueish, very vibrant Kon Peki from a Carène M is proving very difficult. While I like Tanzanite it simply doesn't do what's marked on the tin / bottle: there is very little blue in all that gray.

 

The picture that I'm seeing on my monitor shows what looks like a set of all very dry pens by my reckoning. I have many of these inks, and they don't put down anything like the lines that I see from these pens. It's really surprising how different they all look. Would you consider your pens to write rather dry? If so, do you specifically aim for them to write more on the dry side? 

 

Kon-Peki, Asa-gao, and Bleu du Minuit are all big surprises to me. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

I have Monteverde Capri in a Perkeo italic.  Looks turquoise to me.

[senzen]

2 hours ago, arcfide said:

 

The picture that I'm seeing on my monitor shows what looks like a set of all very dry pens by my reckoning. I have many of these inks, and they don't put down anything like the lines that I see from these pens. It's really surprising how different they all look. Would you consider your pens to write rather dry? If so, do you specifically aim for them to write more on the dry side? 

 

Kon-Peki, Asa-gao, and Bleu du Minuit are all big surprises to me. 

 

725 B, Carène M, Metropolitan M, Muji aluminium F, Professional Gear M, Capless M, Professional Gear B, Vacumatic F are all very wet.