Quink vs Waterman

[Catsmelt]

I was in Seattle this past week, and while I couldn't afford a single pen I saw at World Lux, I did buy some ink. The pens were expensive, the ink was affordable, so I didn't mind feeling too much like a chump demanding the clerk's attention as she fitted a $1,300 wristwatch on the customer ahead of me.

 

I buy my bottled ink wherever I can -- I live in the mountains of North Carolina -- and I happened to scoop up some Waterman and Quink Blue-Black (as well as Namiki Blue and MB Racing Green). I like blue-blacks so I can never have enough. While in my hotel room, I turned the bottles upside-down and noticed how similar the Waterman and Parker BBs appeared via my solar chromatography. Then I recalled the discussions here on FPN about the Parker/Sanford/Rubbermaid takeover of Waterman and how that might affect which ink gets placed in which bottles.

 

I'm home, I can get the ink in my pens, and I've got coffee filters, so I decide to conduct an experiment:

 

Hypothesis 1: modern Waterman BB is the same as modern Parker Quink BB.

 

Hypothesis 2: Given hypothesis 1, modern Waterman and Quink BB is the same as vintage (80s) Waterman BB.

 

I'm not much of an interpreter of paper chromatography, so I'll leave it to the experts here on FPN. I tried to be as scientific as possible (same brand of coffee filter, same pen -- Pelikan M400 w/ a Binderized F nib). The only caveat I can think of is that there may be some evaporation from my 1980s-era Waterman blue-black. Given that caveat, I believe all three look similar, but I'd like to hear from those who are interested.

 

Other minor point -- the modern Quink BB is made in France. My only bottle of older Quink (Black w/ Solv-X) is made in England. Given the (to my eye) similarity of the inks, perhaps Quink is being infected with Waterman, not vice-versa.

 

 

[NeoTiger]

To my eye the modern Waterman and Quink look as close to identical as you can get, with the green tones and the light/dark blue tones. The 80s Waterman looks like it has a bit less green, and more of a darker blue in there.... Evaporation could have caused some difference, but chromatography should just be separating out the dyes in the ink, which should've remained the same after evaporation...

[psfred]

I would say the same thing. The two modern inks appear to contain the same dyes in very similar amounts, while the 80's ink appears to share only the fast traveling light blue dye with the others.

 

Peter

[jicaino]

turn over your quink bottle (cap on! :ltcapd: ) now if you read "Made in France" they are indeed the SAME ink. If you read Made in UK then you got a 10 to 15 yo vintage pre-sanford Quink bottle. Those are (bleep)!.

[saintsimon]

If that Quink B-B would be somewhat fade proof on paper ... it is getting lighter quickly.

[BobR]

I find it kind of strange--I did a dip test of modern Quink and Waterman and they appeared to be identical (it's posted on FPN somewhere). Yet the performance in pens is noticably different--the Waterman seems lighter and tends to dry to a teal in certain of my pens. Using the same pens and paper, the Quink stays blue, although it does lighten a bit.

[RayMan]

Does anyone know if there's a Waterman Blue which is the same as Quink Blue?

[hatherton_wood]

Quink blue seems very, very similar to Waterman Florid Blue these days. The Quink washable blue is different though unless this has changed recently. I'm not sure why there are still two Quink blues as the blue is no longer said to be permanent and the washable blue is not longer said to be Royal Blue. If the blues were distinct in colour and name I could understand it better.