Help me find a blue black

[Jon Szanto]

Yep. I got one off Amazon.

Hmmm... your Amazon searching skills must be better than mine! I couldn't find the giant bottle there. May have to give it another go

Try this.

[WmEdwards]

Montblanc Leo Tolstoy "Sky Blue" is a blue leaning "blue back" in finer nibs, and darker in a big stub. I really like it. Montblanc "midnight blue" is a bit "blacker" blue black you might try (if you have and I missed it, sorry!).

[Sammyo]

And I have an unopened bottle of 4B... sounds like I need to crack that open and fill a pen

[stub]

ahoy pen nerds.

I tried Sailor. Great flow and lubrication as expected and has all the qualities desired (even phenol!) but appearance is a box of meh. Looks close to Tanzanite in samples on line but in meatspace it is really dull looking.

Tried another go around with Shin Kai. Not as bad as I remembered, again, great flow and performance, and a bit lighter than I like but not terrible. I have it in an pen now and will write it dry. I don't love it. I don't hate it either.

Filled my Sheaffer Premier Vacuum-fil monster with Pelikan Tanzanite (that sucker gobbles some ink!). I don't love the properties of this ink, good flow, but low lubrication and it (like Pelikan Edelstein Aventurine) feathers like crazy on bad paper. But I just absolutely love the look of it. It is a really handsome ink, charcoal with blue/purple overtones and that red sheen and the strange mix of pop and saturation with very vintage-y chalky bits above where it shades. It is a very beautiful looking ink and is much much much much nicer to look at then all the others I have tried: Pilot Blue-black (which I have used many bottles of), Platinum (which I still like but is a bit chalky and while good flow for an IG ink it still is not a free flowing ink), Sheaffer, Shin-kai, half a dozen Diamines (1872 or whatever it is called which is just black really, their regular puke-y teal etc.), Diamine Chopin is AMAZING but I am not buying the whole set to get that ink (gorgeous though it is), 4001 Peli, MB New and old, the quasi-blbk JFK Navy, which I adore but is winding down, Waterman, etc & co.) ... There are some Bungholebox and Kobebeef ones I'l like to try but I am a bit worn out on these hard to obtain inks. Pelikan has availability going for it too, I can walk down the street and get a bottle of it no hassles. I was so hoping to love the Sailor.

Pelikan Tanzanite wins. Maybe something will come along to replace it. I'll use the rest of the Sailor and Shin-kai or include it in a pen sale but Pelikan Tanzanite is by far the most handsome of the readily available non-limited Blue Blacks I've tried so far. As a life long Pelikan ink hater this is weird to me. haha. Tanzanite is full of charm, part vintage-retro but more saturated, some grey bits some blue/purple tinted bits, NO DAMNED GREEN. It is a nice looking ink.

So pens are inked, back to work!

STUBBB

[datainadequate]

Diamine Chopin is AMAZING but I am not buying the whole set to get that ink (gorgeous though it is)

You can buy single "refill" bottles for those sets.

[stub]

Diamine Chopin is AMAZING but I am not buying the whole set to get that ink (gorgeous though it is)

You can buy single "refill" bottles for those sets.

Thanks for the tip. If I am ever in the UK i'll give that a go. Shipping to Korea would likely be more than the price of the ink itself. It is nice color though.

[HoLmeslice]

For what it's worth, I've got a bottle of KWZI Iron Gall blue-black, and it's pretty solid. Goes on blue, and dries to a wonderful blue-black color. I think it could help you in your search for inks of this color.


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[stub]

For what it's worth, I've got a bottle of KWZI Iron Gall blue-black, and it's pretty solid. Goes on blue, and dries to a wonderful blue-black color. I think it could help you in your search for inks of this color.

Thanks for the tip. KWZI seems to have a lot of neato inks. Maybe next time I travel to the US or EU.

[stub]

Bump to say (since I absolutely can not get myself to dump ink down the drain) that after a full snorkel full of Sailor Blue Black, it is better than I though initially. As for Iro Shinkai, while I don't have the hot burning love others have for this ink, it does perform nicely in a couple of my pens and isn't a bad looking ink if not as handsome as Tanzanite.

In fact, since the snorkel is a bit of effort to clean I am actually going to keep filling it with the Sailor for a while. It has nice flow, is pretty dark and smells like ink (haha).

So my being too lazy and to stingy has lead me to re-evaluete the Sailor. I don't love it but I like it enough that I am not PIFing the bottle. I'll use it.

Blue blacks have so much charm.

[stub]

I tried both the KWZ Iron Gall Blue Black and the KWZ Standard Blue Black. The KWZ Standard Blue Black comes closest to my original search criteria of a non IG easy flowing Blue Black with some punch (like the Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite but with out all the feathering) but not being actually a charcoal near-black (FPN Starry Night, Diamine Anniversary Blue Black) or a ugly green teal.

So the winners so far have been the Sailor (which is a bit dusty and grey but really does have its own charm and has grown on me) which has typical good Sailor flow, lubrication and behavior and this KWZ Standard Blue Black.

Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite does have a pretty and wonderfully unique color but the feathering was a bit of a bummer.

Blue blacks are a fun adventure in a way. There are so many small differences.

KWZ Iron Gall Blue Black is not really part of this search as I noted I am looking here for a NON IG Blue Black as I was already pretty happy with Platinum Blue Black as my IG option (of course it really is an IG Blue, but a pretty one)... but this ink also seems promising an the KWZ inks are a nice price so I threw it in my cart and I will try it out more extensively.

KWZ Standard Blue Black is not bad. Not merely charcoal but some real visible blue in it, really close to bog standard Blue Black. Less shading and character than the Sailor but would be a very good daily work ink especially at the nice price and no nonsense bottle.

[KrazyIvan]

Just throwing this one out there as I ran into it while browsing inks. Monteverde Blue Black.

[stub]

The older Monetverde Blue Black was nice and was looking to score a bottle but then noticed that the whole line had been revamped. Bummer.

[stub]

2 quick updates:

The KWZ Blue Black was really nice in every way but olfactory. Good color. Good flow. Looked boss coming out of my Eversharp Symphony. But I just can not get past the smell. It isn't phenol but something else that smells like feet or a other body parts. Hidous.

Sailor Blue Black. My luke warm endorsment of this ink needs an upgrade:

This ink is boss. Great behavoir. Super nice flow and lube. Rich complex color if the flow is generous. In a dry pen, or a pen that has some water still in it, this ink is not that much fun and looks one dementional and boring. In a moderate to wet pen it is a super rich complex swirly wintery storm of greys and blues with a little sheen at the spots where it pools. A very handsome dark rich blue black ink. If it evaporates and darkens a little it get sexy smoky hot. A slightly darker more saturated version of this would be increadible. As it is, it is pretty great.

Additionally, can verify that Maruzen Athena Ink Blue Black is 100% one and the same as Sailor Blue Black. No difference other than the bottle. So now I have 2 bottles of this, so it is good that I like it more now.

[titrisol]

I bought Monteverde Black (it was cheap) and it is a meh ink.
IN the dry lamy F nib it looks gray, but in wetter nibs (eg Wearever school pens) it looks great but never dries
I would order a few cartridges of the BB ink (or a variety pack I saw somewhere) to test their colors.
According to this review, it is more grayish than blue or teal...
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/fo...e-black-w-itf/

Re: BB Inks, I grew up with Parker's Quink BlueBlack and love the look of it, the new one (Waterman misterious blue) not so much.

[Rollo the Cat]

I never saw it in person, but J. Herbin's Blu Nuit might be to your liking.

[Silverbreeze]

Isn't Aurora doing a Blue-Black

Also if you aren't dealing with Celliod or Sac pens Noodlers 54th Mass


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[Chrissy]

Isn't Aurora doing a Blue-Black

Also if you aren't dealing with Celliod or Sac pens Noodlers 54th Mass


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Aurora has launched a new Blue-Black, but I'm not sure whether it's currently available outside of the US.

[titrisol]

Anyone tried Diamine Prussian blue???
It looks quite nice on he screen

[Wade]

I really enjoy Waterman Mysterious Blue, but I think most would find it more of a blue/grey than blue/black.

Likewise for Chesterfield Sodalite, which is re-bottled Diamine Prussian Blue, more blue/grey.

I'm also enjoying a bottle of Chesterfield Night Sapphire which I believe equates to Diamime Blue/Black.

[Pennanngalan]

Anyone tried Diamine Prussian blue???
It looks quite nice on he screen

I bought a bottle of this a couple months ago. I like it, some people believe that it is too light but that has not been my experience. I tried it out in a Parker IM with a Cross Adventura 2 medium nib and it was almost black to my eye and very feathery. Took it out of that pen almost immediately, as I like the shading aspect of FP usage. I currently have it in a Jinhao 950 with a medium nib. Here, it shows the shading but can be quite feathery on poor quality paper.

I usually use it in my Conklin Duragraph with a fine nib. This pen is a fairly dry writer so most of the ink I have tried using in it have not been satisfactory. The Prussian Blue, on the other hand, works quite well. The line has good shading and is more than dark enough for me. Additional note, when used next to a true blue/black, say... Noodler's 54th Mass., it does look pale

This is not really a blue/black though. It is more of a dark slate blue, light in the thinly inked parts of each letter and nice and dark where it is supposed to be.

Final analysis, I will buy it again, I would recommend you try a sample if you are able, but it may not be what you are looking for.