How Many Blues Is Enough?

[senzen]

So I was quite content with my six blues: Ama Iro, Kon Peki, Tsuyu Kusa, Asa Gao, Myosotis, Ajisai. I mean how could one fit more and tell them apart? Already Ama iro and Kon Peki could look too close for comfort in certain pens... But oh I had to keep reading FPN, didn't I? So while I was looking for other stuff online I sort of accidentally got Callifolio's Equinoxe 6 and Sailor's Souten, half expecting them to be close to what I already had. It's at night and I can only take a photo using my phone under a yellowish led lamp... But I think I may have scored, i.e gotten two good looking and different blues...

 

Equinoxe 6 was a particularly crazy purchase, since it looks different on various online reviews.

 

Also, notice how different Ama iro looks when coming out of a Muji F, after it's been there for a few days, and a freshly inked Waterman Lauréat... That's part of a salvage operation for another Laureat, so I'm not sure if this pen is going to explode, but as much as I like Ama Iro on a Muji, I'm not getting its true colour as on the right in this shot.

 

[Arkanabar]

I'm a believer in restraint in ink purchases, to Six Essential Inks. (See the Waypoints post/thread linked to in my signature.) So for me, one blue is enough, if it's either Noodler's Blue or Noodler's Blue Eel.

[NicolausPiscator]

Enough blue is enough! The pairing of pen-nib-ink-paper is complicated or simple, it depends on the eye of the beholder, so one blue is sometimes not enough for the pens and colour expectations you have. I have for example Pelikan 4001 Königsblau which is absolutely boring in most pens, but I have one pen which makes a blue black out of this ink with a nice sheen... of course you can set yourself restrictions. But I prefer to concentrate on the pairing that is why I have a variety of inks.

[FOUR X FOUR]

This is my personal opinion and I don't mean to be at odds with those who have a different take on the issue, but for me, there isn't a clear limit on the amount of blue inks I can buy. Blue is a wonderful color and I dont want to limit myself to just a handful.

Plus, you don't even have BSB. For that alone, you should have to serve some sort of of Pensense. 😀😀😀😀

[inotrym]

^ What he said.

 

Take a look at Robert Oster and tell me if you can choose only one blue...

[Immoteus]

Nonsense, that's a trick question.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

This is my personal opinion and I don't mean to be at odds with those who have a different take on the issue, but for me, there isn't a clear limit on the amount of blue inks I can buy. Blue is a wonderful color and I dont want to limit myself to just a handful.

Plus, you don't even have BSB. For that alone, you should have to serve some sort of of Pensense. 😀😀😀😀

Or Texas Bluebonnet or Blue Steel! Supershow blue, Brilliant blue. Like the commercial says, who knew they were so many blues.

[senzen]

Yes, it was a rhetorical question, we each have our preferences; but if someone had told me I would be using 8 blues when I thought all ink was black or blue/black and all pens were any colour as long as they were black with gold trim... I would have looked at them askance. For me it's very simple, it's hard not to smile at any of these inks while looking at them on paper on a sunny day.

 

It's rainy today, can't have it all! I just hope that Lauréat behaves and keeps Ama Iro looking spectacular.

[TSherbs]

I'm a believer in restraint in ink purchases, to Six Essential Inks. (See the Waypoints post/thread linked to in my signature.) So for me, one blue is enough, if it's either Noodler's Blue or Noodler's Blue Eel.

I like this.

[Sasha Royale]

Just one more will be enough.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

It's always just one more!

[ErrantSmudge]

Blues are the biggest chunk of my ink collection, but even so there's only so many variations on a theme before they start looking the same. I went through seveal blue samples before choosing Diamine Blue Velvet as my "medium" blue, then Monteverde Horizon Blue came along. The two are subtly different, but doing it over again I would just get Horizon Blue and not bother with the relatively expensive Blue Velvet.

 

I think if I had to pare it back to the minimum, I would get one blue from each of the following families:

 

A blurple

An ultramarine

A medium blue

A sky blue

A blue-black

 

For a total of five blues.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

For years I used one ink+pen combo, and was somehow immune to the FP/ink/paper bug. I thought I'd gotten it in one.

 

But now, after accumulating a fair few inks and being on remote assignments for years, I do wonder about the 'next Blue'.

 

Bye,

S1

[Pensei]

I have a piece of paper where I put a few scribbles from any new ink I get. At the bottom of the page is written: "Absolutely no more blue ink." But periodically I violate that resolve. There are so many nice blues. Particularly if samples are included, I can't see feeling too bad about having any number of blues up to about thirty.

[TSherbs]

I have a piece of paper where I put a few scribbles from any new ink I get. At the bottom of the page is written: "Absolutely no more blue ink." But periodically I violate that resolve. There are so many nice blues. Particularly if samples are included, I can't see feeling too bad about having any number of blues up to about thirty.

"Absolutely" is a subjective term! 😉

[eharriett]

I feel you. I have a blue problem too. Especially if you add in the blue blacks and blurples.

[inkstainedruth]

Do you want a light blue, a teal blue, a royal blue, a navy? Bright or soft? Shading? Sheen? Water resistant/waterproof? And that doesn't begin to consider turquoise or blue-black inks (I have blue blacks that lean green/teal, ones that lean blue-grey, and ones that what I would call a "true" blue black -- ones that don't lean either way, like Edelstein Tanzanite).

There is such a range of blues and blue blacks for colors and properties that I'd be hard pressed to narrow the range down to just a few.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Edited June 30, 2017 by inkstainedruth

[ca49reber]

DeA Sherlock Holmes, Akkerman Shocking Blue, Visconti Blue. I think I have over 30 diff blues & just ordered another yesterday.

[praxim]

I have no idea what is the answer*, except that I just ordered another despite not being a big user of blues, that I have really noticed. Having tried S T Dupont's cartridge of Royal Blue that came with a pen, I have ordered a bottle. A pity about the bottle shape, it seems.

 

* checking, I seem to have ten colours in the range from turquoise to blue-black, with this to be the eleventh, nearly a third of inks. Thinks: why so few other colours?

Edited June 30, 2017 by praxim

[alexander_k]

Blue is a tricky colour; there's always a next blue to try, as Sandy1 points out, so ErrantSmudge isn't alone in having too many blues among their inks. In my own case, I can argue I've been progressing in many respects: for a bright blue I started with Penman Sapphire, moved on to Diamine Majestic Blue, then to Diamine Sargasso and now to Diamine Blue Velvet, which comes very close to what I want of a bright blue. In the process, there have been several sidesteps, e.g. to De Atramentis Jules Verne, Noodler's Baystate Blue and others, which are either already consumed or delegated to menial and draft writings. In other areas, I've managed to reach a conclusion quite soon: for a true blue I've stuck to Visconti Blue. But the real problem is that there are so many variations that when I put the inks next to each other on paper in order to identify the less inspiring ones, I also realize that I like many blue hues and that some work better with finer and some with broader nibs. So, it's inevitable that having enough blues is mostly an expanding condition.