Pelikan Blue-black

[ProfMike]

Have this one and it does not look that dark. Looks more gray and washed out. Like your version better.

 

x2 The ink works beautifully, but mine is nowhere near this dark and shady. I'll have to try it in one of my wetter pens and see what I get. I might just learn to love this ink again!

 

[Cursive Child]

How different does this look on your Pelikan M605? I have one with a Medium nib, a wet writer, and wondering if it would be any good (i.e. not grey and washed out)?

 

Hi rdugar,

 

It is different. I dont get half the shading that I get from the stub 78G. My M605 is a fine point though. I have never written with a medium point pelikan so there is a possibility that it may have a different character.

 

David

 

Thanks David!

 

I tried with my Pelikan M605 Medium, and it is a chalky colour, duller than my Pelikan Royal Blue. I guess the wetness didn't make much of a difference for me. Will try it on other paper to see if it makes a difference. Nice shading, though.

[JinhaoMaster]

Same eregrayish blue instead of that scan, but a bit of pelikan black should do

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

After reading this review and the discussion following it, I think I will have to give this ink a try in several different pens. Ernst Bitterman's comments, in particular, intrigue me.

[memphislawyer]

Have this one and it does not look that dark. Looks more gray and washed out. Like your version better.

 

 

This is my experience as well, and I was so looking forward to this color. Now, it is not a bad color at all, but it lends itself to a bluish purple with a M-B stub nib from a Waterman Phileas. Then at times, it appears washed out somewhat, and greyish.

[Marvin McMurphy]

A couple of months back I bought a Pelikan script 1.5 a couple of months ago and when I was looking at ink for it I saw the blue-black cartridges, but I wasn't sure about it and asked if I could try out the colour. They opened a bottle of the same ink and when I dipped the pen in and wrote with it I was happy with the colour, a blue darker than royal blue and I therefore bought a pack of large cartridges.

 

When I got home and put one of those in the pen the result was a gray, washed out tone that I didn't like at all. But I thought that I might have gotten a bad batch and lived with the disappointing colour. This week I bought a Waterman Expert II and the only ink the store had was the Pelikan and when I told them about my experience with their blue-black ink they told me that the pen I used it with might have had water in it from cleaning and therefore the strange colour. Therefore I bought a pack of the small cartridges but looked in another shop for the Waterman BB, which I am now using in my Expert II. But I cleaned the Pelikan pen and used one of the small cartridges, but again the result was a gray tone I didn't like.

 

I then thought that maybe the broad nip causes the strange colour and put then cartridge in a cheap no name pen I have with a medium nip - again gray. I now have given up on the Pelikan BB cartridges, I might give the bottled ink another chance, but not the cartridges.

 

I wish I had the result that was shown by SteadyHand, that was the colour I wanted, but for some odd reason it didn't happen with the pens I have, and I refuse to try it in my Waterman pen, I kinda only want to use it with Waterman ink.

 

PS: I also tried a drop of the ink on white paper and on a sheet of kitchen roll, I always only had the same result, nothing that even resembled blue.

[Geoff V]

It is almost certain that the beautiful colour obtained in the original scan is down to the Rhodia paper. I've just recently bought the same pads (finally available in Australia!), and they give some of my inks (such as Aurora Blue) a hue and shading they never before possessed. I'd be interested to learn what paper those who have experienced only a washed-out blue-grey are using.

 

 

[sentraser165]

This looks beautiful! I think that how good this ink looks depends partly on the paper you use. I have this ink and have use it on multiple types of paper; the results vary. It is beautiful on the paper in the review though.

[ethernautrix]

I use Pelikan Blue-Black mixed with Pilot Black, about 9:1, and I get a wonderful dark blue-black that is more water resistant.

[Penman1964]

Recent topics have inspired me and thankfully surprised me.

 

 

Thank you.

 

Like many others, my experience has not been a good one with this ink. Very washed out and very grey using the same paper, Rhodia #18.

 

[kersen]

Following the advice I will also try this ink with other pens. Now I am using pleikan BB (permanent) with a Safari and the result is a kind of gray-wased out that doesn´t show blue at all. Thanks for the review!

[leicamaster]

My favorite ink. It has a great flow and nice color. Different from mine though

[SteadyHand]

Hi FPN'rs

 

It's awesome that everyone is still captivated by this ink. I still have the same paper, ink and pen. I'm wearing it as I write thi.I think I will post new test tonight.

[tawanda]

Im totally addicted to Pel BB! I got a bottle from a dear friend here on FPN a while back. And, having been put off by Royal Blue and Waterman's BB and Florida, I was rather reluctant to try another less saturated ink (having developed an addiction to PR inks) But I am soooo glad I did. The shading is incredible, and I love the slightly dry feel to it. It works fantastic in italic pens in particular (something else that's a growing addiction! )

 

I usually ink up about ten pens in a two week period, and I'm finding that at least half of those are with Pel BB. And that's unusual for me, I don't normally do duplicates.

[ethernautrix]

I don't know if adding a bit of Noodler's Luxury Blue made the ink problematic, but I think it might be my bottle of Pelikan Blue-Black. I'm using it, just the Pelikan Blue-Black, in a clean pen, and it's made the pen a hard starter. Once the flow starts, it's fine... until hours later. I'm thinking it's this particular bottle. Maybe particles of mystery got in it. That's more likely than an ink that I've used off and on for years would suddenly start clogging my ink feeds.

[RoyalBlue]

I don't know if adding a bit of Noodler's Luxury Blue made the ink problematic, but I think it might be my bottle of Pelikan Blue-Black. I'm using it, just the Pelikan Blue-Black, in a clean pen, and it's made the pen a hard starter. Once the flow starts, it's fine... until hours later. I'm thinking it's this particular bottle. Maybe particles of mystery got in it. That's more likely than an ink that I've used off and on for years would suddenly start clogging my ink feeds.

 

Hello Ethernautrix,

 

I know lots of people mix inks all the time, but Pelikan specifically warned me against mixing with their inks. This was more because of possible ensuing instability than going mouldy (moldy in US?), I think. I've used about 3 or 4 bottles of 4001 BB now and though a dryish, draggy ink in some drier pens it's never been a reluctant starter in the 5 pens I've tried it with; these are mainly Pelikans with different nibs and a Sheaffer Valor.

 

Particles of mystery? I'm intrigued. By the way, are you saying the BB in the clean pen has also got some NLB in it still from the mixture before filling?

 

Tom

[Gran]

Pelikan Blue-Black has become one of my favorites. I put it in a pen today which I'd used other inks in, a tiny Lady Balance. The Pel. BB has wonderful shading in this pen. Odd how Pelikan blue-black is so lovely, and the Pelikan blue is not so eye-catching. I like the violet especially, and the black, too.

[Chthulhu]

I bought my first bottle of Pelikan Blue-Black this morning and have so far only tried it in a fine-nibbed Dollar 717i "demonstrator." I like the way it seems to dry to almost a lilac after a minute or two, at least on the linen paper I used, and look forward to trying this in a pen with a broader nib! :-)

 

For those in the north San Diego County area, I found this and several other Pelikan inks at Palomar Pen in San Marcos, along with some Sheaffer and Montblanc inks. I paid $6.99 for the bottle.

[WyattS]

Just bought this ink, going to ink my Waterman Phileas with it tomorrow, thanks for the great review!

 

And by the way, your handwriting is amazing, I hope someday mine can be that neat and stylish.

[Pfhorrest]

My Pelikan BB looks like ballpoint ink in wet and dry writers... Are you sure you didn't pick up a mislabeled Royal Blue?