3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - Ink Drop

Korean brand, 3 Oysters released a new series in the early part of 2023. The Hunters series features six water-based, dye inks in an intriguing palette of colors. They kindly sent me the series, and I have been enjoying them for the past couple of weeks.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - Ink Sheen

Let’s take a look at Blue-Water Navy. This is a deep water, dark blue with influences of grey and a tiny hint of teal from a dash of yellow in the mix. I wouldn’t call it a shading ink, but there’s more variation than you might imagine on a full page of writing. Lighter areas have a delicious, cottony aspect that is very attractive in a mid-to-dark blue. Darker areas are a bold and confident blue black. There’s a bit of sheen on the swatch card, and in writing, there was a noticeable edge sheen on coated papers. Even with the stroke edge sheen, this ink is dressed for business in the best of ways!

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - Light and Dark

What really strikes me is just how nice this ink is in terms of writing experience! Blue-Water Navy is a wonderful writing ink. It’s extremely comfortable on the page and flows very nicely. It’s quite wet in flow, but not watery at all. It isn’t repelled but the nib like more watery inks, and hugs it gently as they work together to put ink to paper. I like that in a writing ink.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - on Cosmo Air Light

3 Oysters says that it dries quickly, and they aren’t joking! This is a very fast drying ink on many papers. I used a paintbrush to brush a wide, wet swath across a sheet of high-quality, uncoated paper, and it was completely dry in one second! Writing on coated papers isn’t dry in one second, but it is faster than average. On all test papers, it’s been very clean and sharp in stroke profile, too. I haven’t seen even the smallest hint of feather or spread. I’d say performance is exceptionally good.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - on Rhodia

I’m really impressed! I’ve always liked 3 Oysters inks, but there’s something different here. Whatever they’re doing, I hope they keep doing it! Blue-Water Navy is rich and wet, and writing is a real pleasure. Looking at the results on Cosmo Air Light (previous image), I imagine it has good potential with a water-brush, too.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - Writing Samples

The Hunters series inks are available in a number of retail shops in Asia, but as of March 2023, they are hard to get in North America and Europe. This series is new, so hopefully that will change soon. Blue-Water Navy will make a lot of people very happy!

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - Ink Swatch Card

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - Swatch Comparisons

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - 38ml Bottle

3 Oysters - Hunters - Blue Water Navy - 5ml Sample Bottle

Special thanks to 3 Oysters for sending the Hunters series inks for me to try. As always, my review reflects my full and honest opinions about the ink based on my personal experience using it.