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Noodler’s Upper Ganges Blue This is an ink that you would either love or hate. It's a sky blue ink, with very fast drying times and then nothing moves it. It hates Japanese Ef steel nibs, wet pens and flex nibs. It'll almost bleed through anything. Ironically the line was thicker when I wrote reverse with Japanese Ef nib. It's very paper specific, Rhodia, Midori and Maruman Mnemosyne. But don't try writing with a gusher/flex nib combo. It'll eat your paper. Let's start with the chroma: Writing samples: While the colour of the first three lines look different it's the scanner not ink. It didn't like the TR at all. Look at the bleeding and bleed through with EF, reverse Ef, fine, flex and fude. Ironically it likes only M and B nibs Massacre of Hammermill Water test: It doesn't budge. Comparison: As usual an art work. This naïve work was inspired by Tara Brach's quote: When we trust that we are the ocean, we are not afraid of the waves. The paper is Fabriano Water colour Black ink Platinum Carbon Black The colour is darker, but the phone camera couldn't capture the blue correctly. The dilution effect was created by a water brush before applying the ink. The ink doesn't budge the moment it touches the paper. Note: Like the Russian series, this ink is more expensive than typical Noodler’s ink. Ink is fluorescent. · Pens used: Pilot Kakuna Ef, Lamy Safari (EF/F/M/B), Jinhao with Kanwrite Ultra-flex /fude · What I liked: Super fast daytimes and looking for spiritual quotes · What I did not like: In general, I prefer inks which have better lubrication or more saturated. · What some might not like: Dry ink, the fact it doesn't like cheap papers, plus it needs a well-sealed pen preferably. · Shading: No. · Ghosting: Depending pen paper combo. Doesn't iike cheap paper. It prefer M/B nibs. · Bleed through: Same as above. · Flow Rate: Very wet. · Lubrication: It doesn't make your scratchy pen cushion-y. · Nib Dry-out: None · Start-up: None · Saturation: Unsaturated · Shading Potential: Maybe with broad nibs. · Sheen: None · Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Yes on newspaper paper and depending some pen/nib combos. · Nib Creep / “Crud”: Depends. · Staining (pen): No · Clogging: No · Cleaning: Surprisingly easy. I put one of the feeds in an cleaning solution. It was clean. · Water resistance: Excellent. · Availability: 90 ml bottles Please don't hesitate to share your experience, writing samples or any other comments. The more the merrier

I LOVE Noodler's Baystate Blue. In my humble opinion, it is the best color of blue for fountain pens. My only complaints about it are: It is not fully bulletproof.It might not be eternal meaning it might not archival nor fade resistant.It bleeds through most of my papers I use including my checks.Rectifying the above are very important to me. I would not be ashamed to try a different brand of ink, but I do really like Noodler's products so I guess I am a Noodler's fanboy I am thinking about ordering a bottle of Noodler's Bad Blue Heron which appears to have what Baystate Blue is missing above other than it is not quite the same color. Noodler's Upper Ganges also might be an alternative, but it does not appear to be as bright as Bad Blue Heron. Noodler's Luxury Blue looks just like Upper Ganges to me, but will glow under UV light which I find kind of cool, but it is not important to me. Noodler's Periwinkle does what Luxury Blue does and kind of looks brighter, but the stock image on the Noodler's Ink website makes it hard to tell. Noodler's Polar Blue looks like Bad Blue Heron with the added possible benefits of being freeze-resistant and lubing piston-fill pens. So my question is what comes close to Baystate Blue that is bulletproof. eternal, and doesn't bleed through most papers? I did a search and found this thread about this subject, but it lists alternatives which are not really pertinent to my question above and things have changed in 6 years: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/185947-baystate-blue-alternative/ THANKS!