I just picked up some Mont Blanc Blue/Black. I know its an iron gall ink. Any tips on how I should handle it?

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Bottle is iron gall, but carts I believe are not. Enjoy the ink - great color. Just remember to flush your pens on a frequent basis every couple fills or if switching inks. What pen(s) are you using it in? There are many threads here about the iron gall issue and safe practices. I don't use it, so I haven't paid that much attention to what it should not come into contact with.

It is just ink. Maybe rinsing the pen after each use.

Full HazMat suit?

Heh. The iron-gall paranoia is a bit overblow. I've run this ink in a number of pens and have had no problems. I've gotten into the habit of emptying/flushing/refilling at the end of every week, but this is probably over-kill.

No, that's a shrewd act of wisdom. I let some get dry in a Lamy Safari and it nearly killed the pen. Now I only put it in gold nibbed pens. The rotation is too wide and I can't flush every week.

On the other hand I've used Lamy Blue-Black in a Lamy Safari with no corrosion or other problem at all. But I do flush it out at the end of the week, all the same.

I am using Rohrer & Klinger Salix and Scabiosa. Scabiosa gets a flush once a month or so. It's not only iron gall but also reddish and thus goes into a Lamy vista.

Salix get's flushed before I refill my vintage Pelikan 400. So far I had no problems with the inks.

Mont Blanc recommends flushing pens using their BlueBlack ink at least once every 2 weeks.

Keep in mind that Alfred Nobel used this type of ink. Please handle it very, VERY carefully! Additionally, I always turn down my stereo to minimize the risk of explosion.

But seriously, based on measurements I've seen, while it is fairly acidic for a fountain pen ink, it's not alarmingly so--its pH is pretty close to that of lemon juice. Although this is not based on my own experimentation, I imagine that it would take many years to cause visible damage to most stainless steel nibs, although some may fare worse (I've read about nibs corroding with Waterman inks, and they're less acidic--closer to vinegar or Coca Cola). Let your common sense guide you--ask yourself whether you think lemon juice or vinegar will dissolve your pens' nibs over time. Many people here use Montblanc Blue-Black without any apparent issues, but theoretically there could be issues, especially with long-term use, so as with any ink, use it at your own risk.



This should help prevent the ink from both becoming more concentrated from drying out and precipitating hard-to-redissolve solids that could clog your pen. It's a reasonable precaution, and many people do this when using "normal" inks, as well, albeit less frequently perhaps.

Personally, I'd only use this type of ink occasionally for its retro-coolness, to reproduce the look of old documents, or to write indelibly on real parchment (unlikely but still a good reason). Otherwise, I'd just stick with Noodler's bulletproof inks when indelibility is required. If I had to use a somewhat acidic ink on a daily basis, I'd use it in a pen that has a solid gold nib (14K or higher just to be safe) and is generally resistant to chemical reactions, such as a Parker "51" Aerometric with a plastic breather tube, for example; either that or a cheaper pen that I wouldn't mind damaging slightly over an indeterminate amount of time.