Montblanc Perm Blue + 5% Black

[martinbir]

As requested, a scan of my Montblanc Permanent "Blue Black"

 

I find my idea of waterproof differs from those frequently expressed. Many are happy if the page can be read after an encounter with water. I set the bar much higher, looking for something which is completely unchanged by its watery encounter.

 

I don't like black. Blue could be acceptable, but blue black is the ideal. Full strength IG ink seemed promising, but a bad experience with Diamine Registrars put me off (varnish-like coating inside the ink window of an M200 after 4 days - took ages to clean).

 

January '16 I tried Montblanc Permanent Blue and it did all I wanted. Ran happily in two Pelikans and an L2K, but was just a little too bright. By April I had acquired a bottle of Permanent Black for mixing. A little experimenting and it seemed the addition of just 5% black made all the difference needed. In July '16 this mixture took up residence on a Lamy Studio and has remained ever since.

 

The ink is completely waterproof in all tests I have done, is (to me) an acceptable blue black and performs well with minimal maintenance. It has slightly stained the converter, there is some nib creep and it seems to need refilling before it's empty. To me these are minor irritations.

 

Here is a sample page.

 

 

Despite some fiddling, the image looks a bit too purple on my screen. With many BlBks being rather grey, it is warmer than most. But the water has had no effect at all.

[torstar]

very nice!

 

i keep a bottle of Pelikan black on hand just to do stuff like this when the whim hits me, usually it works out very well.

[lapis]

10% works even better for me. Thanks for the “confirmation”.

[torstar]

I'm not used to 5 or 10% rations, I just blip in a few drops from a syringe

[Tasmith]

Martinbir,

 

Thank you for this technique!

 

Just added 3ml of MB Permanent Black to my 60ml bottle of MB Permanent Blue (a few ml's of Perm Blue were used so the Perm Black added will be a bit more than 5%). I used a 3ml syringe to measure and add the Perm Black. The Perm Blue would dry out and clog the nib and feed of my MB 146 and other pens I tried it in except my Pelikan M200s. Adding a little distilled water helped, but didn't completely solve the problem. Since I find MB Perm Black to be much wetter than the Perm Blue, I'm hoping this will fix the problem as I really liked my first bottle of Perm Blue that worked great in every pen.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Tasmith

[martinbir]

Glad this has been of some interest. I am often amazed at how much others contribute here and pleased to restore the balance a little.

[Chrissy]

It looks like a great colour. I would tend to call it dark or navy blue since Blue-Black inks tend to look much blacker. In fact that's why they don't usually make it into my pens.