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Showing results for tags 'permanent blue ink'.
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The following is a review of Platinum's Pigment Blue Ink (INKG-1500 #60). The ink comes in a nice squat glass bottle that is easy to dip a pen or syringe into. Through the bottle, the ink appears to have a deep purple hue. In my demonstrator, the slight purple hue is also evident. I purchased this ink because I needed a suspension of colored microparticles for a completely unrelated purpose. Having the remainder of this ink for fountain pen use was simply an added bonus! On to the ink... I have made comparisons using two pens that, in my hands, reflect a wet writer (Pelikan M200, fine nib) and a dry writer (Lamy Studio, fine nib). With a wetter writer, the ink goes down smoothly and dries a nice classic blue. It is not eye popping bright, but rather a more muted blue that borders on 'chalky' blue. In a drier writer, the ink appears more of a light blue. For me, it reminds me of the blue cartridge ink that I used as a school boy in the late 1970s -- though I have no idea what that ink was. Below is a writing sample from both pens on HP laserjet 24 lb paper. The dry time for this ink on HP laserjet 24 lb paper is a little on the long side. With the Pelikan, the ink took over 30 seconds to dry. With the drier Lamy, the ink dried between 20 and 30 seconds. On slick papers, you will want to be careful with this ink unless you don't care if it smears on your hands and clothes... On cheaper copier paper, the ink soaks in and dries very quickly. Below, I circled a dry time test using the juicy M200 -- the ink was fully dried by 5 seconds. I don't typically use cheap copier paper, but I was still very impressed with how little feathering I saw. Like many inks, the character of this ink on cheaper paper is largely lost for me. One of the suggested benefits of the pigment inks is the resistance to water, alcohol, etc. Below is a writing sample (Lamy Studio, fine nib) on HP laserjet 24 lb paper. The ink was allowed to dry for two hours before the water test. The right side of the paper was dipped in warm water for about 20 seconds -- long enough to fully saturate the right side of the paper. The left side remained dry as a comparison. During the soaking, there was no evidence of any ink lifting off the paper. After the soaking, I saw no difference between the water-treated writing sample and the dry control sample. In a separate test, I soaked a writing sample in 70% ethanol to determine the resistance of the ink to organic solvents such as would be common in a lab (or a bar fight). Ethanol also had no perceivable effect on this ink. In my experience, THIS INK IS PERMANENT. With pigment inks, there is a concern about clogging fountain pens. So far, I have had it in two pens for about 2 weeks and have yet to have problems with clogging. However, evidence of clogging might take considerably longer to appear -- I'll update after a few months use on this issue. For those interested in a well-behaved permanent blue ink, I would highly recommend Platinum's Pigment Blue. It's a great blue for when you are looking for a professional and nicely readable ink without retina-scorching color. While the pigment seems to be playing nicely with my pens so far, I don't plan to use this ink in my nicer pens until I have had more experience with any potential staining or clogging issues.