The Royalist Of Blues

[Morames]

I have been looking for a certain blue (pilot Juice Aqua Blue)and decided to ask you all for some ideas. I am attempting to attach a copy of the color I found online, but this is my first attempt at posting here on FPN. I at one time had $80 worth of blue samples in my cart from gouletpens.com. The first blue I tried out turned out not to be as blue as the color swatch appeared to be, that was Noodler's Navajo Turquoise. Then I tried Chesterfield ink's Zircon ink from xfountainpens.com, it's a little darker and ever so slightly green leaning. While both colors are gorgeous they don't match what I'm looking for.

 

I've decided I'm looking for a bright, saturated, pure medium blue. By pure I mean not leaning to far to purple or green. So I bit the bullet and have ordered a few samples from the Goulets.

 

The list as follows: Pilot Iroshizuku Kon-Peki, Asa-Gao and Tsuyu-Kusa(which is the one I'm hoping is the closest), Diamine Royal Blue and Washable Blue, Waterman Serenity Blue, Noodler's Liberty's Elysium, Pelikan Edelstein Topaz, and Private Reserve Tropical Blue.

 

I'm planning on doing a test page to compare them all, but I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas. I believe the Pilot inks should get the task done since it is after all a Pilot pen, but even within Pilot they have two different model pens (Juice and Hi-Tec-C) with two different colors both being called Aqua Blue, sooooooo... Any ideas? Oh, and ideas where to buy inks that the Goulet's don't carry. I know they don't have Montblanc for example and I either go to them or Amazon for purchasing ideas. Thank you in advance.

[Morames]

Here is another image. This is the pilot juice aqua blue from jetpens.com where I bought the original gel pen. Also I'm putting a writing sample someone put online of the Hi-Tec-C which depending on how true the color is actually seems really close to the Pilot Juice color from jetpens

[Morames]

I took these at my house and attempted to color correct.

[dcwaites]

I would immediately think of -

Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue

Sheaffer Skrip Blue, perhaps diluted a bit

Noodler's Blue, again diluted

Diamine ASA Blue

[Bo Bo Olson]

DA Royal Blue is dark, tinges toward purple. Is a saturated ink. I gave away my Waterman Florida Blue to a school kid, when i got this ink.

[mhosea]

It looks like you do need some hint of green. Diamine Mediterranean or Florida Blue might be even closer than Diamine Royal Blue.

 

Nothing in the standard Montblanc or Visconti offerings will come close to meeting your requirements. I think the Noodler's blue palette also misses with the closest ones in hue being either too dark or too green.

[fledermaus89]

Pilot blue might be the one you're looking for, after all...

[lapis]

Great blue, that Pilot: I'll now have to get a bottle..
Thanks. Nice art work!

 

Mike

[inkstainedruth]

Also have a look at Noodler's Liberty's Elysium and Diamine Presidential Blue (maybe also Kensington Blue, but I haven't tried that one). Presidential Blue seemed a little dry to me, but I do have it in a fairly dry writing pen.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bookman]

Newish-formula Omas Blue fills your bill: bright, saturated, and pure medium blue. When you look through the reviews here, make sure you're not looking at old-formula ink which was darker and shaded slightly toward purple.

[Morames]

Awesome. I had started to rule out Diamine's Florida blue because it seemed like it might be too green, but the Diamine blues keep pulling at me whenever I look at them. When I first saw Noodler's Navajo Turquoise I thought I had nailed it based on the gouletpens.com swab. I started using it and realized It was way off, though it is a beautiful turquoise. Ever since then I've been using it to compare blues on gouletpens.com. I ordered a sample of Liberty's Elysium since Brian helped create it and it looked brighter and less purple than the Baystate Blue I have. I had ruled out the diamine presidential Blue because I thought it was really dark. I'll take another look. I love supporting Nathan at Noodler's. I'm the son of a one man company, so I know how much work goes into running your own business, that and he comes up with so very many beautiful affordable colors.

 

I'll check out the regular Pilot Blue right away. I'd been flip flopping about the Private Reserve Lake Placid Blue and I think ultimately passed due to my spending over $100 on samples. I'll go back and look more seriously into it.

 

DCWaites do you have any posts or sites that discuss diluting ink? I've seen a little regarding inks people have reviewed and they use a diluted sample as part of it, but I'm hesitant as my only experience with water and ink has been trying to restore my Diplomat. It went ignored for 15 years after using cartridges that wrote dryly and usually held minuscule amounts of ink causing skipping and a rediculous number of dry starts. Getting that pen to run again is what really got me back into fountain pens and learned how to disassemble them and swap nibs, thank you Brian Goulet and youtube.

 

I'm also going to check out the Omas blue, though I can't remember if the Goulet's carry that brand.

 

Thank you all for responding.

[Morames]

I've been stumped by this before, but is DA Diamine, De Atramentis or something else?

[lapis]

DA is usually De Atramentis. Often also called De A. Diamine is usually not abbreviated, otherwise simply "D".

[Fabienne]

...so what happened? Did you find the ink of your dreams?

 

(As good an ink as Pilot blue is, I doubt it is the one you seek).

[Morames]

...so what happened? Did you find the ink of your dreams?

 

(As good an ink as Pilot blue is, I doubt it is the one you seek).

 

You are correct, neither Iroshizuku Kon-Peki nor Tsuyu-Kusa were the colors is aught. Chesterfield zircon is very close to Kon-Peki, along with Pelikan Edelstien Topaz and PR Tropical Blue. Tsuyu-Kusa, Diamine Royal blue and washable blue are all very similar, though Tsuyu-Kusa is a touch lighter and to me shades beautifully from deep royal to an almost sky blue. Noodler's Liberty's Elysium is on my to acquire list. Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, Omas Blue and Diamine Sargasso Sea are to dark, but lovely. Waterman Serenity Blue is too purple, but not to the level of Noodler's BSB. I even purchased a bottle of Sailor Souten and a sample of Sailor Jentle Sky High Blue...not quite right.

 

I'm thinking of trying Diamine Florida Blue, PR Lake Placid, and then giving up. I now own 5 bottles of blue and a vast array of samples. I need to start using what I have and be satisfied. I love Noodler's Bad Belted Kingfisher, Chesterfield Zircon (which oddly I like better than Iroshizuku Kon-Peki), and Iroshizuku Tsuyu-Kusa...even my Parker Blue-Black is gorgeous, not to mention its lubrication abilities. I also am going to be buying bottles or Noodler's Vmail North African Violet, Liberty's Elysium, Apache Sunset, Bulletproof Black and eventually want to find my ideal reds. I like J. Herbin Rouge Hermatite and maybe Diamine Red Dragon for a deep red, Oxblood always goes brown on me.

 

My new mission, after playing with Apache Sunset, is to find a nice shading pen or two and a few fun shading inks.

[mhguda]

You do not mention Pilot blue (not the fancy Iroshizuku but regular) that can be found at Jetpens. I think - if I interpret your color pics right - that it is pretty close to what you're looking for, but you want a little more of what Zircon has. I have both, and I've mixed them to good result. Why not try that? I find you can be looking for the perfect blue ink until you're blue in the face, but when you mix what you already have that's close, the ideal color can pop out... I know that worked for me. Also, some inks change color, becoming much darker, when exposed to light for some time. I've had ink in a transparent barrel demonstrator, and it darkened visibly over the weeks it took to write the pen empty. This increases the possibility of color combining to an alarming degree, of course.

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Colors/Blue/slides/2012-08-20-washed_001.jpg

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Colors/Blue/slides/2013-Ink_624a.jpg

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Colors/Blue/slides/2013-Ink_625a.jpg

[amberleadavis]

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Colors/Blue/slides/2013-Ink_803.jpg