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  • Mr. Sweet

    I love Baystate Blue, but I experience a fair amount of bleed through and feathering on quality paper (Clairefontaine 90g and Rhodia 80g) when using a Noodler’s Ahab. So, it tends to be a bit temperamental for me, but it is my favorite blue, so I put up with it. Also, I find Baystate Blue to be a wet ink and requires longer drying time than you, Mr. Brown. I live in Seoul, South Korea. Can environment have an effect upon the behavior of the ink? Opinions?

    • Stephen Brown

      Drying time depends on a number of factors, I suppose environment might influence it, and so might paper type, nib width, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised drying time is longer if I’d put it in a very wet broad nib (say Pelikan BB) – but I didn’t try that in the video :-) .

    • Melinda

      I read somewhere that hot/humid weather tends to have an effect on the paper’s ability to absorb ink quickly. Ink apparently takes longer to dry on paper if the weather (or environment) is hot/humid. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this subject can verify that…

      • RagingDragon

        If the air is humid, the paper will have absorbed some water from the air, and thus will have less capacity to absorb water from ink. Additionally the evaporation of water from the ink will be slower in humid air. In contrast heat should speed up both processes. So a hot dry environment should speed the absorption of ink, while a cold damp environment should slow the process.

  • pelahale

    you should have mentioned that BSB has a pH of 8-9 and will dissolve celluloid. Bleach will definitely dissolve celluloid to nothing and will discolor and also partially digest ebonite. This is the main problem with BSB that even Nathan Tardif will also admit. So no controversy, just dangerous.

    • Stephen Brown

      Excellent points: thanks for mentioning them here!

  • http://twitter.com/sakisaki6 SakiVI

    Do J.Herbin’s 1670 Rouge Hematite next, please!

  • http://www.facebook.com/sllong Susan Long

    Thank you for this! I love Baystate Blue. I am careful about what pen I put it in – just to make sure that if it stained, it wouldn’t hurt it (i.e., not put it in an expensive demonstrator). But you can’t beat the color and saturation – it is stunning. I always have a pen inked with BSB.

  • Tamara

    Thank you for reviewing an ink often talked of but rarely seen in use. Time to buy a bottle myself and dedicate a cheapie pen to it. It really is stunning :)

  • snedwos

    I kind of like the new colour of that feed!

    • Stephen Brown

      Funny thing is, so do I ;-) .

  • Inkiefingers

    My solution? I dedicated a TWSBI 540 in Sapphire with a fine nib to BSB. Staining problem solved.

  • Jaz

    Much appreciate the information on staining and cleaning.

  • Maja

    Thanks for tackling this challenging-but-worthwhile fountain pen ink. Loved the review!
    As an aside….On the official Noodler’s website, it states that Baystate Blue ink should only be mixed with other Baystate colours (Baystate Cape Cod Cranberry and Baystate Concord Grape.) if one wants to mix inks (as some of us do)….ie. do not mix the Baystate inks with any other inks.

  • breck

    Pelahale’s comments are disturbing. I wonder if Nathan is ‘on the record’ agreeing with Pelahale’s assertions?