I recently ordered a bottle of MB blue black ink. As if ruled by Murphy´s law, the next day I ordered the ink I read a topic at FPN describing the evil effects of this iron gal ink on fountain pens .

Now the beautiful MB bottle is there, standing on my desk, and I am not sure if I am going to feed any of my pens with it, and if I'll do it what kind of pen should I give it a try. Should it be one with a wider nib, and thus avoiding this ink in pens with Fine or Extra-Fine nibs?

Does this fear make any sense in a practical point of view or is it just non-justifiable collective histeria?

My pen collection is mostly made of modern Pelikans (12 - M150(1), M200(2), M205(1), M215(2), M400(1), M405(1), M600(2), M800(2)), some modern Sheaffers (Legacy Heritage (2), Prelude(1)) and Lamy 2000 (2).

It seems that Blue Black is the only MB ink that contains iron gal and therefore the only one that requires some special care.

Any of you would like to share your experience with this ink and and put this matter into a real and practical life context?

Thanks in advance for your advice,

Joao

So, you're confused as well! You probably saw some of my postings, posted after I saw the previous worried poster, who posted after...

I look forward to ever more input about it since I still have my bottle. The issue seems to inspire in me a sort of sick fascination.

I will say, though, that before I had any clue about iron gall ink and its properties, I used it footfree and fancy-loose in my MB MS with no obvious problem. That is, until I left it for horribly long in there, and now I must send the poor thing to the Fountain Pen Hospital.

I didn't write habitually with it, though, and probably wouldn't have recognised signals that something was awry.

If I can afford to fix my MB, I will continue to use the blue-black ink in it (and care for the pen properly), but I wouldn't try putting MBBB in another pen of great value just yet.

I think people should have certified training courses before they're allowed to touch FPs or inks.

Montblanc Blue Black never has caused any (yet visible) problems to my pens yet. I enjoy using this ink since a couple of years. I clean out the pen with water after each filling and no problems so far. It is one of my all-time favorite everyday inks.

BUT if you're afraid it could do any harm I would stay away from using this ink in pens with steel nibs, Demonstrators or clear pens with direct ink-contact to the barrel; wouldn't risk using it in a precious mint vintage celluloid pen neither.


Cheers

Michael

I've used MB Blue Black in several of my pens with no problems. If you leave pretty much any ink sitting inside a pen for long periods of time, it's going to cause problems. MB would not sell and ink that would damage their pens. If the pen is going to be left to sit for more than a couple of weeks, then it should be flushed out with water.

I've used MBBB for many years without a problem in MB pens.
Just followed the routine flushing schedule that comes with the ink. I think its ever few weeks, although I've gone much longer.
However, just to be safe, I'd avoid using it for those instances that Michael R. stated.
I really like the vintage looking colour.

Thank you all for sharing your experience.

Michael, from what you said I will avoid this ink (though I find the colour very attractive) in my Pelikans, because they are all piston filling and I don´t want to cause any harm to my striated barrel pens (M400, M600 and M800). And I shall not use it in my steel nib pens (M150, M200, M215). Well, it eliminates all my Pelikans...

What about the Sheaffers? Two beautiful Legacy Heritage (deep cut palladium and black lacque) both with fine nib, and they use converters... Hummm, fine nib, guess I won't risk them either... My prelude, I think it is a steel nib.

It lets me with 2 options, Lamy 2000, Medium and Extra Fine nib. I think the one with medium nib is a strong candidate for this ink, or should I risk the prelude (even knowing it has a steel nib)? Yes, I think I will try this ink in a Sheaffer Prelude with medium nib because it is the cheapest pen in my collection and, if no problem arise from using it I will try it in my Lamy 2000.

Ed44, I totally agree with you, it makes perfect sense what you said, MB is a long established company with a reputation to keep, I don't think they would do a poor quality product, BUT there is that piece of paper that comes with every MB ink bottle and it states that blue black ink contains iron gall and proper care should be taken. Not to mention the posts discussing this matter.

If any problem arise with my pen I'll let you know. Meanwhile, if any of you gets interested in a brand new MB blue black ink bottle for a fair price, just let me know... ... just kidding...

Once again, thank you all for your kind attention to this post.

Hi,

I would avoid using it in Pelikans because the Pelikans you mentioned have steel parts the collar of the nib and the trim-ring on certian Pelikans. I would also avoid using it in the 2000 because that also has steel parts (the hood of the nib). Sheaffers too because of the steel (the cartridge connector).

What you want, is a pen with a very high karatage gold nib (18, 21, 22, or 23K), and no parts made of another metal that would possibly get touched by ink. The ink is very acidic, and eats away most metals that are not gold.

Dillon

This summarizes exactly what I needed to know about MBBB. It all boils down to that. I hope people doing future searches in the forum on iron gall ink find this thread, it will save them the trouble of looking further.

(It might have been stated as such in other threads, but I hadn't found it.)

I use it in modern Pelikan pens (gold nibs) with no bad results yet BUT I leave the ink no longer than 1-2 weeks max. in the pen if I don't use it up anyways.

No worries about the Sheaffer or Lamy 2000 at all.


Cheers

Michael

double post


Cheers

Michael

Actually, MB themselves warn that their iron gall ink requires special precautions in use. And while any ink CAN cause problems, some are worse than others. Iron gall is about as bad as it gets.

While MB BB has had no ill effects in my Aurora Optima or MB 146s, I never use it in my modern Pels, because as Dillo rightly points out, the section's metal trim ring would be in serious danger of corroding. Why Pelikan continues to put that decorative trim ring near the nib is a really baffling and disappointing.

According to MB, you need to flush your pen at least every 2 weeks if you use it. I've used it in a vintage Waterman leverfill with a flex nib and it was outstanding. It's definately one of my favorite inks for very flexy nibs.

I`ve never had any problems with this ink, but have only tried in on a Montlblanc 146. As I like blue-black inks in general, I used it as my regular ink for the 146 (it´s the classic "hey, if they make good pens, their ink must be good also" syndrome) and never followed any special cleaning routine. However, I see a lot of topics saying how dangerous this ink is.