Noodlers Bad Blue Heron

[jniforat]

Hubba hubba!!!! great color!!! where to buy???

[Inka]

Light color?

Not to me, but then I've been using blues like Polar Blue, Luxury Blue Eternal and Swisher Gulfstream Blue, all of them far lighter than Bad Blue Heron looks herein.

I guess if someone is used to using blues such as Bay State Blue, Private reserve DCSSB and similar than yes this may seem a bit on the "light" side of the blues spectrum.

Personally I love the color, the shading, the accents of turquoise tossed in to make the ink look a bit semi-florescent, seems just about perfect with the "bulletproof" and Eternal characteristics, and the price is right!

Must... resist... the... Bad...Blue...Heron...., must resist... the... Bad...

Eh, who am I kidding, I can't afford the shipping, let alone any more ink right now.

Sure is purdy, though.

Heavy sigh...

Edited October 15, 2009 by Inka

[blopplop]

Thanks for the review, Tom. Looks like I'll be snagging another Noodlers ink.

 

I see someone compared it to O-Azure; I'm wondering how close it may be to Midway Blue (new Vmail ink).

 

Dave

[bphollin]

Once again, a penguinmaster inky review proves to be detrimental to the pen budget. Thanks for posting this! This might be the ink that gets me to see what all that Noodler's hoopla is about.

[penguinmaster]

Thanks for the review, Tom. Looks like I'll be snagging another Noodlers ink.

 

I see someone compared it to O-Azure; I'm wondering how close it may be to Midway Blue (new Vmail ink).

 

Dave

 

 

Dave,

 

I'll put up a comparison on Monday. All my ink scans are at work.

 

-Tom

[reprieve]

Has anyone used this in a pen with an ink window? Any staining?

 

I put it in my Aurora Optima. I'll let you know in a week or so when it's time to flush and refill.

 

I flushed Bad Blue Heron from my Optima today. There was zero staining in the ink window. It was relatively easy to flush out, although it took longer than, say, flushing an Herbin ink.

 

By the way, I used this pen and ink to do crossword puzzles in the newspaper. There was no noticeable feathering!

[cds]

Thanks for the review. I picked up a bottle last week and it is quickly becoming one of my favorites!

[farseer911]

And I just bought a 4.5oz bottle of polar blue.... Guess I will have to order that and a bottle of white peacock from jetpens this week too.....

[KCat]

This looks very tempting. Does it have a sort of soft or chalky texture? It looks like a nice BP alternative to my beloved Diamine Prussian Blue which has a soft look. But if it is more like a typical blue then maybe not. Am I making sense? Probably not.

 

If you've tried Violet Vote that's the sort of "chalky" texture I'm referring to.

[ahtzib]

I use mostly Diamine, Waterman, and other “traditional” inks, but long ago recognized that I needed to have at least one waterproof ink on hand. I’ve been biding my time, waiting for an “eternal” ink that I actually wanted to buy. Despite its newness (I am not really an early adopter), something about the Bad Blue Heron spoke to me -- and I’m not denying it might have been the truly awesome label.

 

I got my bottle from JetPens today. I immediately inked up my Namiki Falcon <sf> and got to work. First of all, the color is great – there are, at times, a hint of teal/turquoise but it looks mostly like a dark blue verging towards blue-black to my eye. (I did get a bit a variation due to the Falcon's nib.) In fact, with the teal overtone especially, it is reminiscent of Waterman Blue-Black when it first goes onto the page. The Blue Heron out of my Falcon is a little darker than even that, however, and seems to retain that initial color when dry. It is both a smooth- and free-flowing (though somewhat thick) ink, producing a line slightly wider than normal (at least from this one pen) but without much feathering at all. I find the dry time is a little long; in my experience, it is most equivalent to Herbin’s Cacao du Brésil. As with the Cacao, I think the dry time is worth the additional wait.

 

While I would definitely not call it “chalky,” it is a little dull (i.e., “not bright”). That said, I still find it a very interesting color (i.e., not “dull”). KCat, I am not familiar with Violet Vote and cannot offer a comparison, but what I am thinking of as “dull” might be what you are getting at when you describe Violet Vote as “soft.” The Bad Blue Heron is darker and grayer than Diamine Presidential Blue and therefore may be a bit closer to Prussian Blue (which I also have not tried, but definitely have on my list). *** As noted in my "post script," below, I got a much lighter line from a second pen.

 

Soaking Blue Heron in water produces a teal/turquoise “halo,” but the writing remains perfectly legible (as expected). Repeated soakings of Blue Heron on a page of Black n’ Red basically wiped out the Waterman and Diamine inks I used for comparison. I do not have a scanner to show my results, unfortunately, but I didn’t see anything I didn’t expect.

 

I am not too sure about creep at this point -- it's still a bit early to tell, of course, but I am hoping it never shows up. The ink does seem a little “clingy” to the feed. The likelihood of creep, for me, has been one of the great deterrents to buying a waterproof ink in the past. What is really noticeable – as has already been mentioned in this thread a couple of times – is the smell. It is a strong, chemical smell that could be difficult to work with if one is sensitive to it. It is not a great smell, for sure, but if that is the only drawback, then it is a small trade-off for what seems to be an otherwise fantastic ink.

 

POST SCRIPT: I have now tried Bad Blue Heron in a drier, more medium-ish nib and found that I get a color that is lighter (though not brighter) and definitely more of a teal or dark turquoise than anything else. In fact, I think the pen I used in this second instance produced a line lighter than what Tom scanned into the original post. I wish I had a scanner to show the extremes I got -- the difference is really quite remarkable! The Falcon was probably not, in the end, the right pen to use with this ink, likely being too wet of a writer. In my second test case, running water did not affect the ink at all, as it had clearly bonded entirely to the paper.

KCat -- in neither of my test cases could the ink possibly be confused for something from a BP or RB -- you're safe no matter where you end up on the continuum.

Edited October 25, 2009 by ahtzib

[KCat]

 

While I would definitely not call it “chalky,” it is a little dull (i.e., “not bright”). That said, I still find it a very interesting color (i.e., not “dull”). KCat, I am not familiar with Violet Vote and cannot offer a comparison, but what I am thinking of as “dull” might be what you are getting at when you describe Violet Vote as “soft.” The Bad Blue Heron is darker and grayer than Diamine Presidential Blue and therefore may be a bit closer to Prussian Blue (which I also have not tried, but definitely have on my list).

 

ta muchly! I'll definitely put it on the list. "Dull" sounds about right. I like all sorts of ink but I really want a blue to have some particular characteristic that makes it stand out from rollerball or ballpoint blue.

[bphollin]

I got this ink in the mail yesterday. I really like the color. It was devilishly hard to wipe the excess off both nibs I tried it with, and there's a lot more creep than I'm used to (but this is my first go with Noodler's and I understand that is par for the course). The color reminds me an awful lot of pretty blue cerulean Crayola crayons. Yum!

[Dave Johannsen]

It was devilishly hard to wipe the excess off both nibs I tried it with, and there's a lot more creep than I'm used to...

Thank you for mentioning these small facts, they are actually fairly important to me.

 

 

Dave

[dizzypen]

The color reminds me an awful lot of pretty blue cerulean Crayola crayons. Yum!

 

That was always my favorite crayon in the box.

[blopplop]

I just ordered a bottle of this yesterday so I'm anxious to give it a try.

 

Dave

[gillyohan]

The color reminds me an awful lot of pretty blue cerulean Crayola crayons. Yum!

 

I really like that crayon color! I think I have to have this ink now.

[wiseshark]

From the look of it, perhaps this is a good replacement for the much-maligned, but sought after Penman Sapphire? It would be fun to see them compared. Thanks so much for the review!

[penguinmaster]

From the look of it, perhaps this is a good replacement for the much-maligned, but sought after Penman Sapphire? It would be fun to see them compared. Thanks so much for the review!

 

I am going to disagree. It's much more of a subdued color than Penman Sapphire. I think Diamine Majestic Blue is probably a closer possibility. (Probably opened a can of worms there!)

 

-Tom

[dizzypen]

It was devilishly hard to wipe the excess off both nibs I tried it with

 

+1 it really sticks to the nib. I understand some of the Russian Eternal inks do the same. It usually comes off with a bit of rubbing otherwise a little detergent or ammonia gets the job done.

 

I wonder what causes this.

[Annie]

From the look of it, perhaps this is a good replacement for the much-maligned, but sought after Penman Sapphire? It would be fun to see them compared. Thanks so much for the review!

 

From the look of it, perhaps this is a good replacement for the much-maligned, but sought after Penman Sapphire? It would be fun to see them compared. Thanks so much for the review!

 

I am going to disagree. It's much more of a subdued color than Penman Sapphire. I think Diamine Majestic Blue is probably a closer possibility. (Probably opened a can of worms there!)

 

-Tom

BBH is nothing like Penman Sapphire. Majestic Blue is darker than Penman Sapphire, and lacks the Penman shimmer and shading.