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rbiemer
June 10th, 2012, 03:47 PM
After reading here and a few other places about the concerns with Noodler's Bay State Blue and some pens, I am thinking to--perhaps--look for a different Royal type blue ink.

I have not experienced any problems with this ink in my pens; I use the BSB in one of Noodlers' own pens and have used it in my TWSBI 530 before. I really like the color and how well it writes for me in these pens. And I have used it in a Haoilai pen. Just one fill for that pen: it has an italic nib ( I didn't know what that was when i bought it :redface: ) and it is not a nib I'm good with, yet.
And I have one of the Noodlers' rollerball piston fill pens--please don't hate me!--that it works ok in.

But, based in my reading I figure to avoid any potential troubles as I get more pens.

So,

I've been looking at color swatches on line to try to narrow down the choices. I know inks look different on the paper than they look on a monitor and this is partly where I need your help, folks. I looked at swatches from several different sources and even though the same colors looked a bit different on different sites, I tried to compare the different inks against each other at each site.

I have made a short list of 8 different inks that are fairly close in color, I hope, and while the color is important to me, another thing I'll need to consider is how these inks compare to each other in the other areas: how well they flow, feed, water resistance and those kinds of things.

The inks I'm considering:

Private Reserve Electric DC Blue
Platinum Mix-Free Aurora Blue
Platinum Pigmented Blue
Diamine Kensington Blue

And some other Noodlers':
Ottoman Azure
Eel Blue
North African Violet
La Coleuer Royal


Clearly the way to go is to get samples of these and try 'em but I'm hoping that y'all can help me decide on a shorter list of maybe 3 inks to try.
I,m using the TWSBI as my daily pens and just want to settle on an ink for every day use.

Many thanks in advance, folks!
Rob

KrazyIvan
June 10th, 2012, 07:58 PM
If you like BSB try a sample of Aurora Blue. It is a lot less ICU than BSB.

geoduc
June 11th, 2012, 01:10 AM
Aurora Blue is good. I think Diamine Sapphire blue is a little closer to BSB. Neither of those inks are going to be as bright as BSB, though.

Visconti Blue is a bright blue with excellent behavior but it doesn't have the purple undertone that is present in the inks above.

The Good Captain
June 11th, 2012, 01:56 AM
I like the Kensington Blue and am patiently waiting fro a bottle of Aurora from Nordic. The Diamine Sapphire Blue is good and rich too.

rbiemer
June 13th, 2012, 05:43 AM
So, I'm taking the easy way out..I'll be ordering the two "Royal Blue" sample packages from Goulet. That ought to get me sorted out.
Except that there are some interesting greens as well...i may end up with more than two packages...:)
Rob

rbiemer
June 16th, 2012, 06:22 AM
So, I'm taking the easy way out..I'll be ordering the two "Royal Blue" sample packages from Goulet. That ought to get me sorted out.
Except that there are some interesting greens as well...i may end up with more than two packages...:)
Rob

So, I resisted--for now :D--the green inks but did get the blue ink sample pkgs and some O-rings and silicone. I've got a couple Platinum Preppy pens and an eyedropper that I've been wanting to play with.
(cue Tom Petty music...)
Rob