Ink Review: Robert Oster Signature Blue Water Ice

[Chrissy]

Robert Oster Signature Blue Water Ice ink is a bright, sky blue ink that’s one of several Robert Oster blue inks.

Blue Water Ice flowed very well through my pens, felt quite wet, and smoothly lubricated when writing across the page. I saw some nice shading and some pink sheen when writing on Tomoe River paper.

I didn’t notice any skips or hard starts when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests, dry times and water resistance. Nor did I see any feathering on the papers I wrote on.

Robert Oster inks come in 50ml plastic bottles that are quite tall making it easy to fill fountain pens from, but they are quite easy to tip over so I usually place mine in a wide, squat, glass pot when I open it. They have good identification labels on the tops of the bottles making it easy to pick out the one you want when they are grouped together. In the UK they cost £14.95 per bottle from The Writing Desk and Cult Pens.

The Writing Desk kindly supplied my sample in exchange for an unbiased review.

• Start-up: Immediate.
• Nib Dry-out: Not noticed.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen.
• Show through/ Bleed through: Showed through on Rhodia and Tomoe River papers but I could still write on the reverse.
• Staining (pen): Not seen after several days - easy clean-up.
• Staining (hands): My hands were clean after one wash
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Water resistance: Not sold as waterproof and water resistance is low.

R Oster Blue Water Ice1.jpg