Setting The Record Straight With Noodler's Baystate Blue

[Lunoxmos]

I have been using up my sample of Baystate Blue, and I cannot get over how much I LOVE the colour. Of course I experienced some of the characteristic bleeding and feathering on copier paper with it, but some diluting seemed to solve the problem. I'm not too concerned about staining, as I have a dedicated pen I have sacrificed to it (Jinhao X750), and I can can just bleach it out of existence if needed. But then I've come to the question of fading. I am confused as to what exactly will happen to it after a few months or years. Sure, UV exposure will make it fade, as will many other blue inks, though Baystate Blue happens to be the more fugitive of them. But rarely, if ever, do I go around and stick my writing in direct sunlight for weeks, if not months at a time.

 

I use Baystate Blue mostly for notes and annotating things in my school workbooks because it is just THAT BRIGHT. After hearing a few things about it fading in closed books and fading in general on another thread here, I'm concerned that when it comes to do revision, or if I just decide to look back at them in a couple of years for the (?)fun(?) of it, they'll have faded into oblivion.

 

Can someone please set the record straight? Anecdotal/personal experiences are encouraged.

[Monophoto]

I have used BSB intermittently, and I have examples of writing that is now upwards of ten years old that is just as brilliant as when it was first written. But those examples are in journals that are normally left closed, so I can't comment on light-related fading.

 

However, I will note that I have seen evidence of a related phenomenon - if BSB is used to heat-sensitive paper such as is commonly used for credit card receipts, within a few hours a gray haze will develop around the writing. After a day or two, that gray haze will darken to the point where the writing is no longer legible. I believe this is a chemical reaction between a component of the ink and chemicals in the paper that make it heat-sensitivie

[mulrich]

I have some writing with BSB that's a few years old and left in storage and it largely looks identical to what you'd see when first written, though I think it's a teeny bit less electric. Still very bright though. This could just be a cheap paper issue.

[inkstainedruth]

I don't use BSB much, and, like Lunoxmos, it gets relegated to a dedicated pen (currently a cheap Noodler's Charlie eyedropper which came free with a bottle of some other Noodler's ink). I do get very bad feathering, and so I dilute it with distilled water (I eyeball how much ink goes in the barrel, then top off the last 20% or so with the distilled water).

I *will* say that you DO want to have a dedicated pen for BSB because it does not play well with other inks outside the Bay State Series (even other Noodler's inks). Several years ago someone posted photos of what happened when trying to get the "ideal" blue black -- mixing BSB with Noodler's Black. And the results were not pretty.... The inks never did fully mix, so part of a line might be black, while the rest blue. And the person did not see what sort of interactions the mix would have before putting it in a pen; after a day or two the different pHs of the ink started to do their thing and the mix started coming out of the pen in CHUNKS. I felt so bad for the person because I was thinking "How hard is it going to be to fully flush that gunk out?"

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to pen flushing -- but I don't think I could be rigorous enough to fully get every speck of ink out of a pen that was then going to be used for BSB (or, vice versa, for a pen which I'd JUST used BSB in...).

That being said, I don't actually like the color of BSB all that much. It leans a little purple for my personal taste (I much prefer Noodler's Liberty's Elysium, which is more of a middle of the spectrum blue).

As for what Monophoto said about stuff like credit card receipts? That's not just for BSB. I was at my annual two weeks of not-vacation (I still have one more sleeping bag to wash). When we checked in at the gate and got our site medallions and parking tag, we were told to take photos on our phones of the receipts -- we had pre-registered -- in case we lost our site tags, as proof that we had paid because the paper used for the receipts was not UV resistant. (If you lose your site medallion, you have to go back to check in and spend the rest of your time wearing "a wristband of shame", and you have show proof that you've paid to get on site... and in the past the receipts were good enough, but now the paper used they were even having problems with the computer printer ink....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[wallylynn]

I put BSB in the window. It was gone under a week. I had a note on the cork board. After a few years of office lamps it was brown but still legible, just no longer blue. Book writing is just fine after years.

[davidj48360]

 

I've been using BSB exclusively in a Vanishing Point since September 2018 with a goal of destroying the feed and documenting what an effective destroyer it is of the feed. I have been frustrated so far, but I'll keep it up. I use the pen at work and it's always kept inked up and gets daily use, and none at all on weekends. At first I used a fine point, but have switched to a cursive italic to increase flow and exposure to the ink.

 

It's a pretty ink. It's the most controversial ink I've ever known and that's kind of fun. I get bleed through on cheap paper, I've never seen feathering though.

 

Bottom line, I think it's ink. If you like it, use it. It's value as a solvent of Vanishing Point feeds is vastly overstated in my experience. Language like which pen you are "sacrificing" to BSB is kind of hysterical, honestly.

Edited August 16, 2019 by davidj48360

[Noihvo]

 

I've been using BSB exclusively in a Vanishing Point since September 2018 with a goal of destroying the feed and documenting what an effective destroyer it is of the feed. I have been frustrated so far, but I'll keep it up. I use the pen at work and it's always kept inked up and gets daily use, and none at all on weekends. At first I used a fine point, but have switched to a cursive italic to increase flow and exposure to the ink.

 

It's a pretty ink. It's the most controversial ink I've ever known and that's kind of fun. I get bleed through on cheap paper, I've never seen feathering though.

 

Bottom line, I think it's ink. If you like it, use it. It's value as a solvent of Vanishing Point feeds is vastly overstated in my experience. Language like which pen you are "sacrificing" to BSB is kind of hysterical, honestly.

 

[inkstainedruth]

 

Bottom line, I think it's ink. If you like it, use it. It's value as a solvent of Vanishing Point feeds is vastly overstated in my experience. Language like which pen you are "sacrificing" to BSB is kind of hysterical, honestly.

 

It's not that I am "sacrificing" a pen to BSB (for other people it's a case of YMMV). It's just like I said -- I've seen the results when someone *deliberately" mixed BSB with Noodler's Black. I'm OCD when it comes to flushing pens, but not THAT OCD -- and I would prefer to not have the contents of any pen *I* own come out in solid chunks. And having it in a cheap, transparent eyedropper where I can I eyeball the dilution rate easily (to prevent feathering) is just a plus. And a dedicated pen means I don't have to have bad pH interactions between BSB and any other ink.

Previously, I used a cheap Chinese demonstrator, which cost me five bucks, and which I didn't care if it got stained. The only reason I don't anymore is because I caught the clip on the elastic band in a pen case and it broke the cap finial off in the process. I'm not sure I want to use that pen for ANY ink now because Crazy Glue didn't work when I tried to stick the finial back on to the screw threading, and a five dollar pen is NOT worth the time and effort (and cash outlay) of using MEK to "spot weld" the plastic.

Heck -- I can't afford to do that with the crack in the cap on a Parker Vac Shadow Wave.... And I paid WAY more for *that* pen, and another ten bucks on top of that for a replacement cap with a chip under the cap band to try and get one functional cap out of the two broken ones.... So I'm not doing that with a pen that cost half as much as the replacement cap for the Vac did....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: "Sacrificing" a pen implies I rate BSB's color higher than I actually do.... It's an interesting ink, but it's not my "go to, can't be without it EVER" blue. Any more than IRoshizuku Asa Gao (which IS a lot of people's "go to" blue -- but not mine, because I found it drippy...).

Edited August 17, 2019 by inkstainedruth

[MuddyWaters]

Just tried BSB in a wing sung pen and I find it lacking in its ability to lubricate the nib tip. I've had similar experiences with noodler's black and heart of darkness.

[davidj48360]

I like Noodler's Black a lot, it's my standard ink. I tried Heart of Darkness and I don't like it. I used to really like the finest tip nibs I could get, but my eyes aren't so young anymore and I've learned to appreciate heavier lines so lubricating properties don't factor so much. I don't mix ink, and BSB is specifically not one that ought to be mixed if I recall correctly.

 

I heard about BSB early last year, and was tempted to try it by the strong opinions on both sides. I have extra nib-sections from buying different nibs for VP pens and thought it would be interesting to see the damage happen that Richard Binder describes in his blog. As I said, I haven't noticed anything happen. The only thing that I can think of is that Binder refers to a "translucent" feed, and I've never seen one of those. The first VP I ever bought was in 2004, which I lost one terrible day. My current VP I picked up in 2008, so I've had 4 different section/feeds and have not seen a feed I could call translucent. They have all been the same black opaque plastic.

[miwishi63]

I finally put BSB into regular rotation when I found a pen that liked it. It's a preppy with a custom ground nib (cursive italic). The combination seems to work and I must admit that I do like the color now that I'm not using it with a F/EF nib.

[FOUR X FOUR]

[wallylynn]

 

thought it would be interesting to see the damage happen that Richard Binder describes in his blog.

That Binder article is, what, 10 years old now? You'd think after all that time someone would have replicated the damage. (though from memory, it wasn't even BSB, just "a noodlers ink")

[Dmact]

I will say this, i have had NO ill experiences with it staining any of my pens or deatroying anything... However i am positively menacing when i go at a pen flush between colors (i take the nib/feed out and go at the sections bore with a miniature bottle brush and qtips till it is SPOTLESS).

 

DO

NOT

MIX

BSB

WITH

OTHER

INKS

!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I have a glass of plain water on my desk which i use to flush my dip pens. It frequently is the last glass of water i used to clean some pen with, it so happened i had cleaned a cartridge of its bsb so the water had an EVER so slight blue tint... I doubt there was even a single drop of BSB in that 16oz of water. I was experimenting with Baystate Concord Grape mixed with Bernanke Black (its a no btw... Its crusty in the vial) and using my dip nib to test the mixture. The SECOND the BSCG/BB covered nib hit the water with molecular amounts of BSB it flashed a yellow green in the most amazing (nonviolent) reaction i have ever seen. I have a picture of it but need to photoshop it down to FPN size for uploading if anyone is interested... Its actually quite lovely

[wallylynn]

I'm interested. But concord grape is the same family as bsb. How did that not react?

[inkstainedruth]

I'd also love to see the photo.

But yeah, only mix the Bay State Series inks with themselves -- not even with other Noodler's inks. Not surprising that BS Grape didn't interact well with Bernanke Black -- *especially* since the Bernanke series inks are superfast-drying (my understanding is that the line is designed for lefty overwriters so as not to smudge what they've just written; but the name of the line is just Nathan being Nathan...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Dmact]

I havent tried mixing bsb with bscg beyond the accidental in glass of water described above. I'm a bit depressed there isnt a Baystate BLACK (that i know of... Beuler? Beuler?) because DH likes suuuuuper dark purple and loves the rollerball i bought him that takes FP ink but seems to write better with noodlers inks than the other purples i've found so i'm trying to get him that super dark/almost black purple that writes well in a pilot v5... He's OK with the Robert Osters Deep Purple but i know he would rather a deeper purple.

 

I'll post the pic in a few

[Dmact]

 

SO as you can see the water is EVER so slightly tinted by the Baystate Blue, the BSCG/BB is the neon greenish yellow swirl. on paper its a gorgeous dark purple, similar to the color of the darkest purple morning glory flower you'll ever see but on contact with baystate blue the stuff did this.

[mulrich]

Blue + purple ≠ green; this is really bizarre.

 

I have a bottle of BSB but it doesn't get much use because I haven't dedicated a pen to it and don't want to deal with cleaning it out of a pen (and the inevitable staining–maybe I go outside and use a garden hose). But, this thread reminds me how unique the color is and I may find a pen for this ink with my next filling.

[torstar]

the mix clearly improved over the first years of the ink

 

and no other ink has come close to that colour

 

i use it once in awhile, a few bottles half-used lying around somewhere....