ink review : Waterman Blue Black

I bought my very first fountain pen (a Kaweco Sport in black plastic) somewhere in 2012. Initially, I just used standard royal blue ink cartridges because I didn’t know any better. Sometime after that I learned on YouTube that you could syringe-fill a cartridge. That’s when I made a visit to my local stationery shop and bought my very first bottle of ink – this Waterman Blue Black. And that’s also the moment I got hooked! This Waterman ink was much more interesting than the standard royal blue cartridges I used until then – had that not been the case, I might have lost interest. Instead, it was the start of a very satisfying hobby. As such, this Waterman Blue Black has a special place in my heart.

In this review I take a closer look at Waterman Blue Black. Exactly why this is called a blue black is a mystery to me – what I see is more of a grey-blue leaning slightly to the green. The ink does lay down a darker blue line on the page when writing, but it lightens significantly while drying. I must admit that I like the end result, which is a very eye-pleasing grey-blue. This Waterman ink writes well in all nib sizes, with good contrast to the page and with elegant shading. The ink dries fairly fast in the 5 to 10 second range. This means that while writing you observe in real-time the ink’s transformation from a fairly dark blue to a much lighter grey-blue – fascinating!

To show you the impact of saturation on the ink’s look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I really saturated portions of the Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. As you can see, Waterman Blue Black has a fairly small colour range, without too much contrast between the light and darker parts. This translates to soft and non-obtrusive shading, exactly as I like it. Shading is present in all nib sizes, even the smaller ones.

The ink’s chromatography shows quite some green in the mix of dyes. From the bottom part you might get the impression that the ink remains firmly attached to the page, but sadly this is but an illusion. In reality the ink is not at all water-resistant, leaving only some smudges on the paper when coming into contact with water.

I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On every small band of paper I show you:

• An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip
• 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation
• An ink scribble made with an M-nib Lamy Safari
• The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Lamy Safari
• A small text sample, written with the M-nib Lamy Safari
• Source of the quote, with a Pelikan M200 with F cursive italic nib
• Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari)
  

Waterman Blue Black gets an almost perfect score, with only a nearly invisible amount of feathering on the HP copy paper. It behaved extremely well on the Moleskine paper, with no visible feathering and with only a tiny bit of see-through / bleed-through. Any ink that can pull this off deserves a medal – very well executed! The ink looks great on all papers, with good contrast and fast drying times in the 5-10 second range. I personally prefer this blue on pure white paper – it’s less impressive on more yellow paper.

Writing with different nib sizes

The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. Waterman Blue Black can handle all nib sizes without a problem. With the EF nib, you still get a nicely saturated line. Shading is present in all nib sizes. As usual, broader nibs accentuate the ink’s shading capabilities, which never gets too harsh but always remains subtle and elegant. Be aware that the M-nib writing sample is too light – I had just cleaned my pen, and there happened to be some water residue in the feed that diluted the ink (and I was too lazy to redo the writing sample, so blame me and not the ink ;-).

Related inks

To compare Waterman Blue Black with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. I have no other ink in my collection with this exact shade of blue, although iroshizuku tsuki-yo and Callifolio Oconto seem to come close.

Inkxperiment – Blue Faery Tree

With every review, I try my best to produce an interesting little drawing that shows what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. These little inkxperiments are simply great fun, and they definitely add to the satisfaction I get from my pen & ink hobby. I really like the fact that inks can be used for all kinds of creative purposes – not just for writing.

For this drawing, I used a piece of 90 gsm sketching paper. I started off with heavily water diluted ink, and added more and more layers with ever-increasing amounts of Blue Black. For the tree’s foliage, I used a piece of dishwashing sponge as a stamp (which worked quite well). I like the end result, which gives a good idea of what you can do with Waterman Blue Black as a drawing ink.

Conclusion

Waterman Blue Black is the one that introduced me to the world of bottled ink. It is a really attractive blue-grey (definitely not a blue black) that works well in all circumstances. A good all-round writing ink, with an interesting shade of blue.

Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib

Back-side of writing samples on different paper types

[Originally published on the Fountain Pen Network, on 14 September 2020]