Blue Inks

I’m not a fan of blues, but I like this blue! Rich, clear, saturated, but not too bright, with a teensy hint of grey-green. In super wet pens (or this swab) sheens with a hint of burgundy. The perfect companion for my ‘Blue Clouds’ custom from Atelier Lusso….

Clear, clean royal blue. Perfect if that’s your thing. One of Caran ‘d’Ache’s older series, not he new ‘Chroma’ series. Their new blue, Idyllic Blue, which seems just a touch brighter but less deep.

A basic cobalt blue, much like Pelikan’s Brilliant Blue or Herbin’s Eclat du Saphir, though with much better shading characteristics than either. I’m not a fan of true blues, but the depth and variance in this one might win me over. Or maybe not, since this is one of CdA’s now discontinued line.

Brilliant sky blue with just a hint of turquoise, shades to a clear ultramarine blue. Odd, but not unpleasant ‘jet-fuel’ scent.

A.K.A. ‘Blue Jeans.’ Deep navy blue, not too royal, not too green. Lighter range is a true denim hue. Lovely!

One of the fainter scents of all my DA scented inks, and again, a bit of an odd choice to match the scent. Still, it’s a gorgeous color, a rich teal-ish blue.

Subdued but intense blue-green. Ranges from a sort of dark celadon/aqua to a deep stormy midnight ocean. Hard to describe, but a really beautiful color!

One of Diamine’s Shimmertastics line, this is a deep blue that has both a golden shimmer, and sheens burgundy. WHile it can be a dramatic ink, the blue + shimmer + sheen sort of fight until it seems like this ink doesn’t really know what it wants to be. While sheen can be wonderful, in this case, I’d prefer it if the blue stayed true.

An elusive & sought after UK only release from Diamine. This ink has amazing sheening properties. Going from a cobalt blue, through a deeper sapphire, and into a magenta that stops just barely short of hot pink, it’s hard to know just what color to call this! In a wet pen or broad nib, this is a very dynamic and striking ink!

This ink was a huge sensation, and became a bit of a chase ink almost immediately. I managed to get hold of a bottle, and frankly, I don’t get the hype. It was supposed to have a glorious hot-pink sheen emerging from the ultramarine cobalt. I got a teensy bit of that to show, but it took a regular puddle of ink to even get that much. If any pen is gushing like that, there’s a problem. It’s a pretty blue, but honestly, that’s all I can say about it.

This is one I”m hard put to decide of it belongs in blues or greens- it sits squarely on the divide. Nevertheless, it’s a gorgeous in, a deep teal that shades to a deeper blue green, and sheens o a rich Burgundy when applied generously. A pricey ink, but worth it!

This is a light, summer-sky sort of blue. I actually got this as a possible highlighter ink, for which is is OK, but far from eye-catching. I’ve since sworn lifelong allegiance to Pelikan’s Highlighter ink. While lovely, this is too light to be used in any but the biggest, boldest nibs.

A bright clear true blue, just a smidge shy of a royal blue (it’s a bit cooler and lighter than a royal), with a pale gold shimmer. Herbin seems to experiment a little more boldly with their shimmers; this gold is not quite as ‘brassy’ as some of the Diamine gold shimmers, and I think it complements the blue a bit better than a more yellow gold would. It may be me, but I think Herbin’s shimmer pigments are a bit finer, as the final result seems a bit smoother and less granular than in the Diamine shimmer inks. That said, this has no sheen to it, and (since I don’t do blues much)< leave me a bit meh.

A vintage-ish (depending on how one uses the term; it’s roughly 1990) bottle of J Herbin Periwinkle Blue. It’s a bright clear blue that leans just a smidgen to the turquoise.

AN ink that sits right between blue & green; I’m calling it a blue, but it could as easily go with the greens. It’s a bright, refreshing, summery color. This one definitely needs a pretty broad nib to be effective; in a fine it’s a bit too light to be really legible.

A ‘bluer than blue’ kind of blue. Lighter than Waterman Florida, but with a similar lack of shading. (It’s actually a truer blue that shows in the scan, equally dark but just a shade brighter than the Florida Blue.)

I nabbed a couple of vintage Mont Blanc inks in the plastic bottles. I had high hopes, but given that the plastic (similar to that used in many ink cartridges) will leech moisture, I suspect that these brimful bottles had at least partially evaporated and were diluted. I’m not generally a blue-black (or blue) fan, but I’d have liked to see the original color at least. As it is, it will be part of my vintage collection, not my active rotation.

Another of the Warden Series of ‘bullet-proof’ inks from Noodler’s. As far as blues go, I really like this. It’s a blue blue (as in not greenish or grey-ish, as many blue-blacks tend to be), and it has a richness that reminds me of a sapphire ring my grandmother had. Also, bullet-proof!

One of the Warden series bullet-proof inks from Nathan Tardif at Noodler’s. A pretty straightforward blue, this is lighter and brighter than Bad Belted Kingfisher (which I prefer by far), but with a bit less shading and not as…dramatic. Still a blue I can get along with!

This is an odd ink. It goes down as a brilliant, if slightly cool, green. Then it dries to what is frankly, a rather drab ‘cavalry blue,’ which has only at the faintest hint of the initial green. I suppose this is a cool rick, but I’m not sure I see the point. Still the end result is a nice enough color, if you like a sort of subdued blue… And it’s bulletproof.

One of the custom inks created by Nathan Tardiff for Fountain Pen Network. I hear raves about this blue, but frankly, it doesn’t do much for me. Then again, I’m not a big fan of blues to begin with. It’s a deep, dark, blue-black with just a hint of green, sort of a navy. Doesn’t shade much.

A very brilliant ‘true blue.’ Nice enough, even though blues are not my favorite range. Like the other two ‘true blues’ I have, it seems not to shade much at all. It’s deeper than the Eclat duSaphir, and brighter than the Florida Blue, so I think it’s my favorite of the three.

It’s blue black. That’s about it. I’m not overly fond of this color. However, every year, I give my 8th grade English students fountain pens. Buying this in the he 350 ml bottle is the best way to keep them inked up. And pilot inks are known for being very reliable and well-behaved (even in the hands of 8th graders!)

Vintage Sheaffer ink in the classic ‘Skrip’ inkwell bottle from roughly 1940-45. One hallmark of a truly well made ink is (for me at least) that it lasts. True to form, the ink you see here is the original ink and it is exactly thje color it should be, has no weird smells or ‘gloopiness,’ and performs just as well as if it were purchased today. I’m not a huge fan of blues, but those I do prefer are very much the more subdues blue-blacks, so this is a perfect example.

This is another antique store find; a full–and as far as I can tell, unused–bottle of Peacock Blue. It’s a gorgeous brilliant peacock or turquoise, a good bit lighter and brighter than their current Turquoise.

One of Sheaffer’s current line, it’s a brilliant turquoise, with some impressive shading, leading to a true blue in it’s darkest notes.

A rich, deep teal that could be rightly called either a blue or a green, named for the frozen lake that rests at the very bottom of Inferno in Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece. This is a bespoke ink from Tekker, a company that briefly offered a ‘spec your own color’ service. The mechanism was in instant hit, but sadly the folks running the company were nowhere near prepared for the enthusiasm the pen community had , or for the volume of orders they got. There was some talk of them selling the enterprise to a larger ink maker, but to my knowledge, nothing has come of it so far. That’s shame – it was a great idea, and a great ink!

This is another of the older, large glass champagne style bottles. Aquamarine is a good name for this color; it evokes the gem, and shades to a deeper marine blue-green.

Your quintessential Royal blue, if a bit weak. Only the barest hint of shading, tends to dry to a uniform shade regardless of amount of ink laid down. (I did all of these swatches the same way.) Kind of ‘meh.’