So it’s only sort of nice, and this one is only my “first nice pen” in the sense that my first nice pen was another blue marbled Phileas in M. That pen walked off somewhere, and this one is the replacement. It’s still a nice writer, but the nib is just not quite as nice as the one it replaced.
That Private Reserve Naples Blue has been around since Y2K, I’m pretty sure, though hell, I coulda got it a couple years after that. I’m old now, the bygone years of shirking my studies blend together, LOL.
It’s still in good shape, no odor or mold that I can see, maybe a touch darker than I recalled, and still just as much of a pain in my butt to get out of a pen as it ever was. Had to flush the Waterman here four times just after dipping.
If your ink is that old and is being recalcitrant like that, and is darker as you have observed, that’s likely because it has lost a lot of moisture over the years via evaporation. You might find that putting an ml or two of water into the bottle makes it behave.
Yeah, I think it’s darker, but I’m not completely sure. The stuff was always a bit finicky anyway. It’s the only non-red ink I’ve ever used that crystallized when it dried out in a pen, and the color was lovely but never quite lovely enough to risk that in a pen I really liked. If I decide to ink anything up with it, I’ll take your suggestion, though; it certainly can’t hurt.
