Bookbinders Blue Coral (Blue)

March 2, 2017

Earlier last year (2016) I purchased from Australia, hereafter referred to as Oz, several of the new Bookbinder's inks. For those in America, Anderson Pens has been carrying these inks. They come packaged in a little hemp bag, like some snake handler in the Outback might use for trapping and transporting some serpent. The labels are very nicely done. The bottles are glass, 30 ml. So perhaps a bit small if you like the ink quite a lot, and there are some that have much to recommend them.

The Blue Coral is one of those inks. It is a lighter blue, fairly bright but not retina-searing, that is not turquoise. It is actually quite nice. visvamitra has reviewed this ink — twice — and did not have great experiences due to flow issues and hard starts. I did not have these problems, but I did notice some precipitation especially when I emptied my pen. I don't believe it was SITB. The ink acts similar to some of the powder-based dyes inks some of us tested of the early Blackstone experiments.

The shading is really nice, no sheen observed at all. I didn't have problems in flow, but sometimes I needed to nudge the converter piston to make sure the ink flowed into the feed when that acted like it was "running out of ink". Other inks, depending on the pen (I'm thinking of you my beloved little Aurora), need to have this treatment so I don't consider this a fatal flaw, but an annoyance. I tend not to leave pens unused as I prefer to have fewer pens inked and use them regularly than many pens used sparingly. Perhaps this is one of those "shake the bottle like you mean it" inks.

Again, I have the first version of this ink. If you are in Oz, you'll probably get something much more current. My guess is Anderson Pens also has fresher ink. If you like the color I encourage you to add a sample to your cart to give it a go, see if it works for you. My pens will definitely get seeing this ink again.

btw, the ink is not dry in its flow, fairly decent, also quite fast drying on some papers. Very nice shading on the better papers. Some water resistance but that's not really an advertised feature. According to the Anderson website, these inks are mixable with one another. I'm not a mixer, but for those into that will find these inks suitable for your creating your own unique color(s).

Pen: Edison Premiere (F-steel)

Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory.

Camera: iPhone 7