Found Old Parker Super Quink Blue Ink -Love It!

[gammada]

Just got hold of several old bottles of Parker Super Quink Blue ink that came in cheap looking, black plastic bottles that look nothing like Parker Quink ink -or any other ink for that matter!

 

They were manufactured in Parker's plant in Mexico sometime in the 1980's and they differ from their American counterparts in that there's no mention of Solv-X in them -which from what I've read, these inks had- and it only states the ink as permanent.

 

Upon opening the first bottle I found that evaporation took the better half off it and that it has a chemical aroma that is not present on any other ink I've tried so far. So being a cautious guy, I proceeded to fill my trusty old and cheap Manuscript Chinese pen with the liquid and give it a try.

 

I followed the recommendations of fellow FPN users on testing that the ink had no strings attached while submerging a stick into it. I also made sure no mould or other foreign items were floating around.

 

So after using it for a while, I found that the ink colour is more blue-black or dark blue than anything I've got on my ink stash, so I decided to compare the ink with other old cartridges I have from pens I recently bought in NOS condition. And here am attaching the result.

 

Not of a big fan of blue hues, but in this particular case, I kind of love how dark and saturated this ink is.

 

I had since refilled the bottle with distilled water in order to restore the original volume, but I've yet to try the diluted version. I'll post updates as soon as I fill my tester pen with it.

 

What do you all think?

 

PS Sorry, forgot to attach the image

 

 

Edited August 26, 2018 by gammada

[mhguda]

Thanks for sharing your find. That Super Quink looks really luscious, I hope something of the saturation remains, now that you've diluted it. I'd be interested in seeing how that turns out. The 2000's vintage looks like what I have a few of, although I think mine is slightly darker. But no longer available like that, either.

I also found some Quink with Solv-X, and that is really nice ink. I found black and blue. I usually mix in a little of my more saturated blues for added interest.

[Dip n Scratch]

It is slightly dark, but not excessively concentrated. I have a bottle of the same shade, made in England. It was old stock, had never been opened & was full to the brim.

Herbin Bleu Nuit is almost exactly the same shade. This blue (from my bottle) is not really to my taste.

Unfortunately Parker's idea of 'Permanent' must be related to the difficulty of getting a blot out of a child's school uniform. It is nothing to do with the light-resistance of the colour. Two months of being in the light and... Well, it looks as if it was written with a pencil.

It is the same for most blues, nothing peculiar to Super Quink Permament Blue.

[gammada]

Thanks for sharing your find. That Super Quink looks really luscious, I hope something of the saturation remains, now that you've diluted it. I'd be interested in seeing how that turns out. The 2000's vintage looks like what I have a few of, although I think mine is slightly darker. But no longer available like that, either.

I also found some Quink with Solv-X, and that is really nice ink. I found black and blue. I usually mix in a little of my more saturated blues for added interest.

 

Diluting the ink seems to have had no effect whatsoever! It's still a deep dark blue tone. I was hoping that the water would restrain the ink from bleeding, but it made no difference there either.

 

For the most part, I've never been a fan of blue inks, but then the dark tone on this one, really pleases me. Will do more test on Tomoe to see how it performs there.

[gammada]

 

Herbin Bleu Nuit is almost exactly the same shade. This blue (from my bottle) is not really to my taste.

Unfortunately Parker's idea of 'Permanent' must be related to the difficulty of getting a blot out of a child's school uniform. It is nothing to do with the light-resistance of the colour. Two months of being in the light and... Well, it looks as if it was written with a pencil.

It is the same for most blues, nothing peculiar to Super Quink Permament Blue.

 

Never tried J. Herbin's blue but I concur that Parker's inks fade horrendously over time. My black turns into a sepia-like tone in the span of a couple months. So far, the only pemanence this ink has managed, is to stay on my fingers for 4 consecutive days!!

[AreBeeBee]

Another vintage of Quink blue-black that I have found to be usable is the 1960s version, found in the blue diamond-shaped bottles with the white caps. I have about 3 oz of that currently, plus what's in my 1945 azure Vac. When dry, it still retains some blue, which I like.

 

I also have 1940s and 50s vintage blue-black Quink — yeah, I went on a 'Bay-binge — but I find it dries down to gray. The blue dye, although visible when the bottle is held to the light, simply fades away in use on the paper.

 

I remember those black plastic bottles fondly — not for the pedestrian-looking bottle, but the ink inside.

 

Currently, I have collected a small number of empty 2 oz and 4 oz Quink bottles from the 1930s. They are round, almost ball-like — see the avatar. The 2 oz ones have a little "toe" where you can park the nib point while pumping the filler plunger. (The blue-black ink of that era, sadly, is kaput.)

 

I'm filling them with my solution to deal with the eventual using up of the 1960s vintage ink I have. I'm making my own blue-black by mixing Quink blue with Quink black in a 5:1 proportion, which I got from here on FPN.

 

(Why go to all this bother? Fact is, I don't care for the teal color of the current blue-black Quink formulation.)

Edited September 18, 2018 by AreBeeBee

[JotterAddict62]

All of my Quink is from the 30's - 50's and very usable with the exception of the 51 Superchome.

[AreBeeBee]

All of my Quink is from the 30's - 50's and very usable with the exception of the 51 Superchome.

 

JotterAddict62 — Are you reconsitituting dried ink or using still-liquid ink from whatever source?

[penrivers]

All of my Quink is from the 30's - 50's and very usable with the exception of the 51 Superchome.

 

Where do you get it ?.

[Dip n Scratch]

Super Quink Royal Blue resembles other makers ideas of a blue/black.

I have a Airmail 58C that is a bit of a Franken-pen as I swopped the Wality nib for a Pilot nib I pulled from a 'Tank' eyedropper. This pen writes somewhat on the dry side and the Quink looks like normal blue.

[JotterAddict62]

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/Jotteraddict62/IMG_20180919_083411309_zpsgph8wnyg.jpg

 

All full bottles

 

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/Jotteraddict62/IMG_20180919_083424819_zps0dto76mj.jpg

 

First six rows on bottom [ 3 deep ]. The last two rows on bottom far right [ 2 deep 4 oz bottles ]

 

All bottles on top level [ all full ]

 

Where do I find all this Quink? Mostly at estate auctions in and around Rock & Walworth County Wisconsin.

Some I bought on ebay in bulk.

 

If I can not find a pen I'll buy ink..

[AreBeeBee]

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/Jotteraddict62/IMG_20180919_083411309_zpsgph8wnyg.jpg

 

All full bottles

 

 

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f239/Jotteraddict62/IMG_20180919_083424819_zps0dto76mj.jpg

 

First six rows on bottom [ 3 deep ]. The last two rows on bottom far right [ 2 deep 4 oz bottles ]

 

All bottles on top level [ all full ]

 

Where do I find all this Quink? Mostly at estate auctions in and around Rock & Walworth County Wisconsin.

Some I bought on ebay in bulk.

 

If I can not find a pen I'll buy ink..

 

 

That is one very impressive collection! I presume that most of the full bottles, whatever their age, are new-old-stock.

 

As such, do you have many NOS bottles from the 1930s, the first decade when the ink was introduced? And even after roughly 80 years, that ink is still usable (i.e., it dries to a color close to or identical with its original color)?

 

Again, I'm really impressed. But perhaps my limited vintage ink experience, even with full bottles in their original boxes, has been unlucky. I find that the older blue-black Quink tends to dry down to a gray, with very little or no blue tint in it. I'll keep looking!

[JotterAddict62]

I would have to really research on the Quink bottles based on box style that holds the Quink. I'm looking at three 2oz. bottles

at this time and two have metal caps [ both different ] and the 3rd has a plastic cap. I know there must be someone with more knowhow

with a timeline on Quink packaging and the evolution of the box styles. With no barcodes and/or date stamps on the bottles/boxes this

would be a fun project.

 

Just another research project for the winter when snowbound.

 

Ken

[AreBeeBee]

Ken, this is an old thread here on FPN regarding bottle styles. In the first photo, you see five bottles of various vintages.

 

Back row: 1938/9-1948 (the "wartime" bottles), Superchrome (1940s-1950s?), 1990s to now

Front row: 1960s (blue diamond), 1950s

 

The first Quink bottles came in a couple of styles, but all were roughly spherical (see my avatar). Some had metal screw tops, some bakelite, some used corks. There must have been a rhyme and reason for each, but I don't know what it was.

 

This thread also shows an early Quink leaflet and a box and bottle in sample size.

 

My source for the dates is the Parker catalogues in a big pen archive collected by Dr. Walter Isaacson, the fellow who runs the (bleep).com website. He has a gazillion catalogues stashed in free-access Dropbox folders, among which is a Parker folder. I didn't collect every catalogue and piece of literature from there, but I got the catalogues for 1934, 1937, 1938, and 1940. These show bottle styles along with all the pens and pencils and desk sets.

 

As I noted here, I have four 2 oz wartime-style bottles with both metal and bakelite caps. The dates of the bottles are imprinted on the bottom, as a single digit (plus perhaps a dot ot so) in the 6 o'clock position. The date code is similar to the one used on Vac and other pens of that era. Far as I can tell, only the squareish wartime style bottles used this dating system.

 

Well, there you have the sum total of what I've gathered for info on these things!

Edited September 19, 2018 by AreBeeBee

[JotterAddict62]

Ken, this is an old thread here on FPN regarding bottle styles. In the first photo, you see five bottles of various vintages.

 

Back row: 1938/9-1948 (the "wartime" bottles), Superchrome (1940s-1950s?), 1990s to now

Front row: 1960s (blue diamond), 1950s

 

The first Quink bottles came in a couple of styles, but all were roughly spherical (see my avatar). Some had metal screw tops, some bakelite, some used corks. There must have been a rhyme and reason for each, but I don't know what it was.

 

This thread also shows an early Quink leaflet and a box and bottle in sample size.

 

My source for the dates is the Parker catalogues in a big pen archive collected by Dr. Walter Isaacson, the fellow who runs the (bleep).com website. He has a gazillion catalogues stashed in free-access Dropbox folders, among which is a Parker folder. I didn't collect every catalogue and piece of literature from there, but I got the catalogues for 1934, 1937, 1938, and 1940. These show bottle styles along with all the pens and pencils and desk sets.

 

As I noted here, I have four 2 oz wartime-style bottles with both metal and bakelite caps. The dates of the bottles are imprinted on the bottom, as a single digit (plus perhaps a dot ot so) in the 6 o'clock position. The date code is similar to the one used on Vac and other pens of that era. Far as I can tell, only the squareish wartime style bottles used this dating system.

 

Well, there you have the sum total of what I've gathered for info on these things!

Thanks for the information.

[AreBeeBee]

Just a followup here. This page (scroll down) shows a number ink bottles from Parker and others. Part of what makes it neat to me is that the ads are from magazines and newspapers in the Phillippines.