I'm baffled at a recent experience in changing to Pelikan Blue-Black for my MB146. The flow of that ink in this pen is incredibly bad, but I can't figure out
why. Strangely, as soon as I flushed out the Pelikan ink and went back to Montblanc black ink it flowed fine again. My understanding is that the MB black ink isn't as dense / saturated as most other inks .... but could this explain the difference in flow between the two inks? I'm really curious because I like the color of the Pelikan Blue-black but if it isn't going flow reliably it's not going to work as a daily writer .... any thoughts?

thanks,
Jason

Pelikan inks are known to be dry inks in general. I don't think they are all that saturated, but probably have less wetting agent in them to help with flow. I don't have any yet, but will be getting some for a very wet writer that I have. If you really like the ink, your pen can probably be adjusted to flow better, but if you changed ink after that, you might need to have it readjusted to the new ink.

Dan

Pelikan inks need wet nibs.

I have various vintage Pelikans filled with a 1:1 mix of Pelikan blue and Pelikan blueblack but I have only one vintage Pelikan that gives a nice, dark line of Pelikan blueblack.

On the other hand I have a MB146 that has some flow issues even with Waterman blue. This pen works nicely with Diamine blueblack.

There are some pen/ink combinations that work better than others. Try and error is the way to find the best combination.

Yes, Pelikan inks are known to be dry inks. I have lots of them. Even in my Pelikan pens I don 't use Pelikan inks because the writing is too dry.
Waterman's and Skrip's and MB's inks too are always wetter and better. (Har, har, at least for me).
I don't know excactly why -- who cares ? -- but I suspect that Pelikan inks have only very lttle surfactants/detergents/emulsifiers in them.

I would only tend towards a Pelikan ink if you have the feeling that the pen writes too wet for you.

Mike

I agree with the others that Pelikan inks tend to be dry and seem to like broader nibs. I have a 146 with an EF nib in which I use J. Herbin inks. The pen does well with that diet, but seems not to like Pelikan ink. On the other hand, I have a 146 with a BB nib that loves Pelikan ink and behaves very well with it.

Your choice seems to be to use something other than Pelikan in the 146 you have. - Then, maybe buy another 146 with a broader nib to use the Pelikan ink.

Thanks for your info .... obviously there's a lot more physics going on here than I orginally thought !

Wow, if it needs an emulsifier then I think I know why it's not a free flowing ink !

And the blue-black is especially beastly. The stuff just sits there in the nib, la di dah. The violet and red (god forbid) flow more normally.

If you want a replacement, the Sheaffer blue-black looks just like the Pelikan blue-black.

I have one Pelikan ink, the royal blue 4001, and it's the driest writing ink I've every experienced.
My pens have moderate flow, and they generally write perfectly with every other ink except the Pelikan blue which produces line that's too anemic. So are all my pens defective? No, it's the ink. On the other hand, when I have a pen that's writing too wide, it's nice to use the Pelikan ink to get a finer line. So save your Pelikan ink. The only ink that stopped flow in my pens is Parker's Quink black. Others (not all) have reported problems with this ink, so would avoid it or at least be aware of this. There are some other problematic inks in regards to flow that perhaps others can relate or check out the ink review section.