Waterman Florida Blue

[wimg]

Hi FPN-ers,

 

Here is another review, of Waterman Florida Blue this time, as I threatened in another thread.

 

A slightly bland ink, IMO, but a very good performer for everyday writing, in pens with "normal"nibs.

 

One of the great advantages of this ink is its washability. It rinses out quite easily. After the review it took me only a few minutes for each pen to rinse and flush it properly, and remove all traces of the ink. Contrast this with Noodler's Ottoman Rose, which took about half an hour to an hour per pen, depending on the type of ink reservoir .

 

Anyway, here is page 1 of 3:

 

Page 2 of 3:

 

Page 3 of 3:

 

Page 4 of 3:

 

Conclusion: great ink for everyday use, provide you like the colour. Personally, I only happen to have it in the ink collection to complete the set of Waterman inks. It doesn't normally get used around the house. However, it is another good ink for priming nibs.

 

I hope you enjoy the review.

 

Warm regards, Wim

 

edit: Added page 4 of 3 to rectify a incorrect statement made, due to a tine misalignment.

Edited November 8, 2010 by wimg
Fixed links

[southpaw]

Wim,

Another stellar review! I agree with you that WM FB is a little bland regarding color. It's a shame, really, as the ink is superb in every other respect IMHO.

southpaw

[Ann Finley]

Oh my! Maybe I should have waited a few days--I have some WM FB on the way--and I use sharpened to crisp italic nibs, most about 0.8 - 0.9 mm! I'll let you know if my experience is the same as yours with these nibs.

 

Thanks for another great review, Wim.

 

Ann

[Elaine]

Ann, don't worry about your order. Just mix Florida Blue with Purple 1:1 and you get something very close to Tanzinite without the ex-lax effect or smearing. I got this tip from Richard.

[southpaw]

Elaine - thank for the wonderful tip on the mixing. I'll try it in the near future as I have both on hand. Probably be one day next week - this week is swamped! THANKS again!

[Ann Finley]

Elaine,

 

I saw on PT awhile back where Richard mixes these two colors, but I thought this was for color altering purposes, not for flow altering.

 

Wim says: "Flow of this ink is average, and it seems to perform best with standard types of nibs, as demonstrated in the first few paragraphs. With this 0.9 mm cursive italic it has considerably more problems, ..."

 

Maybe I'm mistaking what you are trying to tell me. My concern was that I ordered the ink because I thought I may like the color--I don't want to have to mix it with something that would change the color in order to be able to use it!

 

Ann

[Leslie J.]

I wouldn't say FB is bland. Rather, it is *conservative*. It is indeed a classic blue, and WM inks do well in mixes. Give it a try straight in your crisp italics Ann. You may find it suits your purposes just fine.

[Elaine]

I saw on PT awhile back where Richard mixes these two colors, but I thought this was for color altering purposes, not for flow altering.

 

My concern was that I ordered the ink because I thought I may like the color--I don't want to have to mix it with something that would change the color in order to be able to use it!

 

Aha! I think I was mixing up the Tanzinite thread with this one. My brain without enough estrogen :bonk: went something like this: Wim wrote review on WM FB, Ann has some coming and now she doesn't think she'll like the color after all [brain took a detour. Wrong reason for worrying about ink, and somehow Tanzinite got thrown into the mix (probably borrowed from the Tanzinite thread) and I came up with a great use for the ink on the way. Of course that's only if the problem was not liking the color.

[wimg]

Hi Ann, Elaine,

 

Let me try to put this straight a bit. I only had problems, writing at my usual speed, with a single nib. And that is a little dry writing anyway. Flow can be adjusted, but as I generally use a free flowing ink with that nib and pen, it isn't normally a problem.

 

The other Pelikan nibs used here were ok with the ink, but they write a little wetter. I found, in general, that Pelikan nibs have more problems with certain inks, like Skrip Burgundy, MD inks, most Waterman inks, some Noodler's inks, unless they are tuned for a higher ink flow.

 

And, Ann, increasing ink flow is very easy to do yourself, by the way, so if you do have problems, just ask, and I'll provide instructions for increasing the ink flow. It'll take you probably all of two (2) minutes to accomplish.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[wimg]

Hi Leslie,

I wouldn't say FB is bland. Rather, it is *conservative*.  It is indeed a classic blue, and WM inks do well in mixes. Give it a try straight in your crisp italics Ann. You may find it suits your purposes just fine.

Well, yes, maybe I am a little spoiled with 32 bottles of ink and another 8 on the way (owww, did I really say that?), plus a bunch of KCat Sampling System Samples (KCSSS). And I like to "shock" people at work, by varying colours and pens and nibs as I write notes during a meeting...

 

Call me mad...

 

Warm regards, Wim

[wimg]

Hi Southpaw,

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

Warm regards, Wim

[Ann Finley]

Wim, Elaine, & Leslie,

 

I appreciate that you've each tried to help regarding my forthcoming WM FB.

 

Elaine, now it makes sense where you were coming from! You thought I was worried about not liking the color.

 

Wim, if I do have a problem--well--I'm reluctant about what I think you're suggesting! (If you're suggesting that I adjust my nib to be a wetter writer.) I like drier writing pens. Please set me straight if I've misinterpreted what you meant.

Regardless, I appreciate the offer of help.

 

Leslie, indeed I will try the WM FB straight out of the bottle. If it doesn't flow well in any of the pens I would want to use it in, or if I don't like for any reason, I will put it up for sale.

 

Thanks again folks,

Ann

[Guest Denis Richard]

Waterman Florida Blue is "Ze Blou", as I say after 8 pm Great colour. Unfortunately, after using it for 20-some years of school, I'm just bored to death with it... a shame because it is truly a great ink.

[wimg]

Hi Ann,

Wim, if I do have a problem--well--I'm reluctant about what I think you're suggesting! (If you're suggesting that I adjust my nib to be a wetter writer.) I like drier writing pens. Please set me straight if I've misinterpreted what you meant.

Regardless, I appreciate the offer of help.

I just finished another review , which I will post tonight sometime, and I found I had problems with the same nib. Also, from what I could remember, this was a medium wet writer, so I checked the nib, and it appeared to be slightly misaligned and I corrected this.

I´ll give it another go tonight, with WM FB (haven´t got it with me right now) to see how it performs now, but I reckon, that might have just been it. I had to write quite slowly and deliberately with it, as I mentioned, but it should be ok now.

 

I´ll come back on this later tonight.

 

However, regardless of this, I still think this ink looks better from a wet writer, but then, I like strong colours . You may be fine with it.

 

Regarding your interpretation, you are right, that was what I meant, adjusting the ink flow. It is very easy, honestly. Of course, if you don´t want to do that, that is fine too.

 

Warm regards, Wim

[wimg]

Hi Ann,

 

I added page 4 of 3 of the review , due to the fact that the pen and nib wrote all right with Waterman Florida Blue after the nib alignment . So, you don't have to worry anymore . Sorry about that :bonk:

 

Warmest regards, Wim

[Ann Finley]

So glad to see the info on page "4 of 3" ! Can't wait for my Flordia Blue to arrive to see if I get the same good results!

 

Best regards,

Ann

[wimg]

So glad to see the info on page "4 of 3"  !  Can't wait for my Flordia Blue to arrive to see if I get the same good results!

 

Best regards,

Ann

Hi Ann,

 

I'm sure you'll get better results! Your writing is marvelous, so no competition!

 

Warm regards, Wim

[amin]

Awesome review Wim. I have been using Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue for the past few days. I've been enjoying it, but something just wasn't right. The color, while supersaturated, stressed me out a bit. Shaded areas looked too dark. Took too long to dry and smudged even when I thought it had dried. Too hard to wash out of pens. Got home, flushed the Supershow Blue out of my current two daily writers and replaced it with Florida Blue. Ah, now that's more like it. I can see how this color may be bland, but to me it is peaceful. This is the color I imagine when I think "blue."

[cecirdr]

I too am greatly enjoying florida blue. I had been using noodler's gulfstream blue and PR supershow blue (2004). But since I recently bought a waterman pen and it came with some cartridges, I thought "why not try 'em"? I'm glad I did. I too find the waterman blue color to be peaceful. Perhaps it's because I'm new to the ink, but I don't find the color to be bland or ordinary at all. I'm really enjoying it. I expect it'll stay in my rotation of frequently used inks from now on.

 

Different strokes for different folks. Great review as usual Wim.

 

Ceci

[Anne-Sophie]

Waterman Florida Blue is "Ze Blou", as I say after 8 pm Great colour. Unfortunately, after using it for 20-some years of school, I'm just bored to death with it... a shame because it is truly a great ink.

This is my ink of choice, beautiful, earasable and classy.

 

I love it, I love it, I love it. It is my most used ink without a doubt. It's perfect for my 3 wet writer blue fountain pens and doesn't clog my rollinks.

 

I used it for as long as Denis, (may be longer), and there is no sign of being bored with it what so ever.

 

Florida Blue rules!!!