Sapphire Is Gone, What's Your Favourite Blue Ink?

[PAC 1957]

Hi,

Let's face it: Parker Penman Sapphire is gone for good (except for the lucky ones who still have some left....). Since it was discontinued many years ago, for a omg time I've been looking for a replacement. Sapphire was my favourite everyday ink and ended my long lasting " only black ink" period (although I stiil use it but not as much as before Sapphire..). Today there are so many options, different vairations, im my school days in the 70's the choice was much more limited (namely: Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Aurora ), Apart from the lovely Noodler's, Diamine, De Atramentis, Herbin different blues - very hard to find in Italy - I finally selected these 2 inks:

 

Pilot Iroshizuku Asa Gao/Morning Glory : a very saturated deep blue with purple nuance. Bought it today, it's my first Iroshizuku ink, a new benchmark to me.

Pelikan Edelstein Topaz: a "dark turquoise" blue, although brighter, not so far away from Sapphire tones.An instant classiin my opinion.

Here is a photo of the "performance" of these inks on moleskine ( Parker 75 /M nib with Asa Gao - Parker Duofold Centennial /M nib with Topaz)

What do You think?

P.S.: I still consider Waterman Florida/Serenity blue an all times classic that works perfectly in any pen and Montblanc Royal Blue (old and new) quite nice, but Morning Glory and Topaz are my current choices.

P.S: waiting for Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki/Deep Cerulean blue", which, according to samples will probably be added to this list.

to be continued

[inkstainedruth]

Your batch of Asa-Gao is considerably brighter looking than mine. I found it to be a very ordinary blue (and very wet in some pens -- to the point of being drippy). I'm also not enamored of the blues that lean too much towards turquoise.

Colorwise, my favorite is probably Noodler's Liberty's Elysium. Although I'm still trying to make up my mind about Upper Ganges Blue. For dark blues, I rather like Diamine Sargasso Seas, but it tends to clog pens if you're not careful. And Private Reserve American Blue is underrated -- I really should put it in something again....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bearcat]

Your batch of Asa-Gao is considerably brighter looking than mine. I found it to be a very ordinary blue (and very wet in some pens -- to the point of being drippy). I'm also not enamored of the blues that lean too much towards turquoise.

Colorwise, my favorite is probably Noodler's Liberty's Elysium. Although I'm still trying to make up my mind about Upper Ganges Blue. For dark blues, I rather like Diamine Sargasso Seas, but it tends to clog pens if you're not careful. And Private Reserve American Blue is underrated -- I really should put it in something again....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

I agree with Ruth on the American Blue. You should also try their "DC Super Show Blue"--a bit hard to find, but it is a great blue ink.....Second only to Baystate Blue in my humble opinion....

[The Good Captain]

Diamine Presidential Blue and Royal Blue. Also, Mr Pen's 'Diamine' "Radiant Blue" is rather fine as well.

[PAC 1957]

In my opinion, Asa Gao is a very classic "royal" blue, which is much more saturated than many others in the same colur range. This makes it different to me. Of course its "performance" depends on the pens and papers You use. As for Topaz, it's a very dark turquoise , to the extent that it can be considered a classic blue with some turquoise nuance. Every time I try clear turquoise inks, I soon get tired with them. This Topaz is quite different and appears to me as versatile as Sapphire. Besides, at least so far, it doesn't seem to be subject to colour variations, as happened to me sometimes with old parker Penman Sapphire bottles (when I still had them.....).

Thankyou for the suggestions.

 

Best

Piero

[myn]

If it doesn't have to be a turquoise blue I recommend Diamine Sargasso Sea. I've had no clogging with it at all. For the light blues, Diamaine Turquoise or Noodler's Upper Ganges would fit the bill.

[tmenyc]

You seem to want beautiful rather than eye-popping, so I'd not recommend BSB or DCSS, although I love and use both. I have not tried the Elysium Blue, but all the samples I've seen have it lookng very much like my Noodler's Eel Blue, which is my current favorite blue. Next for me would be Visconti blue, which is stunning but too expensive for me for a regular diet; I have a sample I've been nursing, and I add a drop of it to a fill of Eel.

 

Tim

Edited October 19, 2012 by tmenyc

[nana_kathy]

PPS is still my favorite color, and sadly so expensive if you can even find it.. the last time I saw it on eBay the bid was shocking. There is no way I'll pay $65 for a bottle of ink! I believe there are sample vials available again in the FPN Classifieds, and if you are not opposed to mixing a little home brew, there is a formula for a substitute in the Inky Thoughts forum, posted 17 January 2010 - 12:27 PM, titled something like "Yes, Virginia, there is a substitute" I finally collected all the colors needed to make it, but haven't had a chance to try it for myself. IMO Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue is about as close as you can get to PPS right out of a bottle. Good luck in your search for a new "favorite blue".

 

 

[PAC 1957]

2 comments:

1) Sorry, may I ask not to use too many acronyms, in order to better understand Your comments? in particular what do PPS, BSB, DCSS stand for? If here in Italy I'm missing something important I would like to know.......

 

2) I suggest to rephrase this post's question: What's the most similar blue ink to the old and beloved Parker Penman Sapphire ?

 

Best

Piero

[Kalessin]

2 comments:

1) Sorry, may I ask not to use too many acronyms, in order to better understand Your comments? in particular what do PPS, BSB, DCSS stand for? If here in Italy I'm missing something important I would like to know.......

PPS = Parker Penman Sapphire

BSB = Bay State Blue (ink from Noodlers)

DCSS = DC SuperShow (a blue ink from Private Reserve that was originally labelled 2004 DC Supershow Blue, from the 2004 Washington DC pen Supershow)

 

 

2) I suggest to rephrase this post's question: What's the most similar blue ink to the old and beloved Parker Penman Sapphire ?

 

For ink that you can buy from a supplier today, the DC Supershow Blue is probably the closest you can get to Penman Sapphire.

[PAC 1957]

Thankyou very much Kalessin!!

 

Best

Piero

[PAC 1957]

PPS is still my favorite color, and sadly so expensive if you can even find it.. the last time I saw it on eBay the bid was shocking. There is no way I'll pay $65 for a bottle of ink! I believe there are sample vials available again in the FPN Classifieds, and if you are not opposed to mixing a little home brew, there is a formula for a substitute in the Inky Thoughts forum, posted 17 January 2010 - 12:27 PM, titled something like "Yes, Virginia, there is a substitute" I finally collected all the colors needed to make it, but haven't had a chance to try it for myself. IMO Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue is about as close as you can get to PPS right out of a bottle. Good luck in your search for a new "favorite blue".

 

Thankyou Nana_Katy.I agree that 65 USD for a Penman Sapphire bottle is too much also considering the darkening variation this ink often has in the bottle when it becomes old. Thanks to Kalissin's clarification, I had a look at DCSupershow on gouletpens.com. Quite Nice but, according to the picture I saw it has a purplish tone that makes it different from Parker Penman Sapphire. Of course I should try it to draw a final conclusion, but since the photos on goulet pens seem often be very close to ink colours, (for example Iroshizuku Asa Gao / Morning Glory actual colour is very close to the picture posted on gouletpens, according to my experience) I'm afraid it's actually different from Sapphire.

For the rest also Noodler's Bay State Blue is nice, but it wouldn't change my current favourite blue ink listed above.

Probably, as You say blending inks ( not the easiest solution, but quite fun) is the only solution.

For now, anyway,Iroshizuku Asa Gao (although very expensive, but worth the money in my opinion) - my new benchmark blue - Pelikan Edelstein Topaz, my new Istant Classic and Iroshizuku Kon-Peki Deep Cerulean blue (waiting for it, but it seems to me a must have) are my favourite blues.

 

Best

Piero

[PAC 1957]

P.S: but it's an ongoing search: sooner or later I'm sure I'll run in something that looks exaclly like Parker Penman Sapphire. Maybe because Parker will finally accept the countless requests from dealers in many countries (including Italian ones) (to my experience) to reintroduce a new Parker Penman Sapphire. Besides, Parker is the one of the few top brands which have a very limited and certainly non high end ink line, unlike for example Caran D'Ache, Pelikan, Stipula, etc.

 

Best

Piero

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

I've settled on Private Reserve American Blue, diluted to about 80%, as the body double for PPS. Its not a clone of PPS, but it has allowed me to have some PPS for those times when only PPS will do.

 

I did try the PR DC Supershow Blue, but found the ink in my bottle had extended dry times, and really wasn't closer to PPS than the PRABl.

 

Bye,

S1

- - -

 

Parker Penman Sapphire - My Review

11 2 20 Blue Inks - My Comparison & Summary

[lapis]

MB's old or new. Great!

 

Mike

[de_pen_dent]

Can anyone provide some info on how the DC Supershow Blue and Liberty Elysium behave, in terms of not mucking up/clogging inside the pen? Well-behaved inks or not?

 

I am still trying to find my standard blue - really like Waterman Serenity Blue but I find it fades a little after drying, and loses punch/becomes too light.

[Lazarus Long]

I really like Diamine Majestic Blue. A very dark blue, darker than Noodler's Midnight Blue, but is blue and not a blue-black.

[fourseamer]

Diamine Sapphire Blue is a current favorite for its wonderful color. Nice mid blue with a red glint without looking overly purple. Amazes me every time I write with it. No water resistance to speak of, but I solve that problem by keeping liquids away from my writing.

[Tdot]

Ink was just ink, some nicer than others but nothing to get emotional about, until... I bought a bottle of Penman Sapphire. Ink was never the same after that. At the time when it was available, I remember some people didn't like it because it didn't flow well in some pens, but I never had a problem with it.

 

Big disappointment when they discontinued it. I've been wishing ever since that someone would replicate it, but I haven't seen anything close yet.

[Alohamora]

I think Private Reserve Electric DC blue is very close to PPS, certainly in color,, maybe not quite the equal in writing characteristics.