New To Mb Seeking Advice

[Solitaire146]

I have just purchased by first MB FP and about to purchase a couple more (Im afraid Ive caught the FP bug). I work in a profession where its common to mark up documents with red ink. This may be a dumb question, but how do most of you handle this? Do you have a designated red FP? I would prefer to avoid changing the ink color in each pen and instead just assign an ink color to each FP and stick with it. Is this common? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[langere]

Ah, great question! I have enough pens that I when one's ink is all gone I replace it with another pen and a different ink. I also use red a lot, but I have different red inks and so switch them up as well. I also tend to put in an ink that resembles the color the the pen. Only black and gray pens, according to my rules, can have any ink, not just black. Some of us, such as me, are quite silly about this kind of stuff...

 

But that doesn't answer your question. If you do not want to rinse out and clean your pen every time you refill it, keep the same ink in each pen. Then you only have to clean about every 6 months or so.

 

Since you are just starting, I suggest you get different inks (some beautiful choices for red!) and try them out, whether with the one pen you have or the other ones you are inevitably going to get.

 

Welcome to FPN and the fountain pen world!

 

Erick

Edited January 1, 2020 by langere

[FredRydr]

... Do you have a designated red FP? I would prefer to avoid changing the ink color in each pen and instead just assign an ink color to each FP and stick with it....

 

Definitely yes for red inks; red seems to take forever to flush. I have a red Snorkel that is always loaded with a dark red ink, so I don't bother filling any other pens with red.

[CS388]

Yeah, I've always got a red ink pen, somewhere. It changes from time to time, but there's always at least one.

 

Currently I have a Sheaffer Triumph Tuckaway and a MB 334½ in red (or reds).

 

Enjoy the ride, you're in for a lot of fun!

[Tom Kellie]

I have just purchased by first MB FP and about to purchase a couple more (Im afraid Ive caught the FP bug). I work in a profession where its common to mark up documents with red ink. This may be a dumb question, but how do most of you handle this? Do you have a designated red FP? I would prefer to avoid changing the ink color in each pen and instead just assign an ink color to each FP and stick with it. Is this common? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

~ ab100:

 

Welcome to Fountain Pen Network!

With a Montblanc fountain pen 2020 is sure to be a productive writing year for you.

There is generally a pen inked in red ink on my writing desk.

As to which pen that might be, it changes throughout the year.

There are often several pens with various shades of red.

At present a 1970s Sheaffer black and chrome Cartridge Pen is on my writing desk, inked in Montblanc Burgundy Red.

If it's ever comfortable and convenient, others in Fountain Pen Network would welcome a self-introduction in the Introductions Forum.

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

Ah, great question! I have enough pens that I when one's ink is all gone I replace it with another pen and a different ink. I also use red a lot, but I have different red inks and so switch them up as well. I also tend to put in an ink that resembles the color the the pen. Only black and gray pens, according to my rules, can have any ink, not just black. Some of us, such as me, are quite silly about this kind of stuff...

 

But that doesn't answer your question. If you do not want to rinse out and clean your pen every time you refill it, keep the same ink in each pen. Then you only have to clean about every 6 months or so.

 

Since you are just starting, I suggest you get different inks (some beautiful choices for red!) and try them out, whether with the one pen you have or the other ones you are inevitably going to get.

 

Welcome to FPN and the fountain pen world!

 

Erick

 

~ langere:

 

What a delightful post!

Although I don't match pens with inks, I do use a wide variety of inks, including reds.

Last night I flushed and cleaned quite a few pens so as to begin 2020 with fresh pen and ink combinations.

Like you, as pens run out of ink, I flush and ink with other colors.

Thank you for this post.

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

Yeah, I've always got a red ink pen, somewhere. It changes from time to time, but there's always at least one.

 

~ CS388:

 

After reading your comment above I thought about my own case.

From the beginning of my fountain pen odyssey, there's been a pen with red ink on my writing desk.

My first visit to a Montblanc boutique (in Beijing) was in search of red ink as what I had was an old bottle of Royal Blue.

As it happened, the only bottle of red ink they had was Alfred Hitchcock, so that's what went home with me.

Tom K.

[DrDebG]

I too use a variety of ink colors, and there is always at least one red in my rotation.

 

Most of the time, I don't match ink colors to pen colors like many people do.

 

But if I am doing a lot of marking in red, I have two pens, one which is red and the other which is pink, that I will fill with a red (Stipula Calamo Dark Red) and pink ink (either Rohrer & Klinger Solferino or Pilot Iroshizuku Tsutsuji). These two pens are great for doing markups. Matched with the right ink, these pens work flawlessly on any paper.

 

I only have a Montblanc LeGrand at present, and because it is one of my favorite pens, it is almost always filled with one of about 6 different blue inks.

[tamiya]

Do you have a designated red FP? I would prefer to avoid changing the ink color in each pen and instead just assign an ink color to each FP and stick with it. Is this common? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

The practice of carrying multiple pens in each colour was common enough back in FP's heyday that many companies sold matching sets of 2 FPs, perhaps also a propelling pencil. Nurses predominantly (some even had a 4th pen-lookalike thermometer), accountants perhaps, were target market afaik.

 

These days I prefer Pilot Coleto multi pen

[Zdenek]

... I would prefer to avoid changing the ink color in each pen and instead just assign an ink color to each FP and stick with it. Is this common? ...

 

 

It is my current practice - the particular pen(s) is/are filled with the particular ink. So, my three pens are fuelled by Royal Blue, the remaining four are filled with Corn Poppy red, Irish Green, Diamond Blue, and Permanent Grey.

[BillH]

I'm mostly a blue-black or gray person, but I also keep at least one EF nib'd pen with red and one with a gold or brown (think KWZ Honey and Lie de The). Use those for Bible margin notes and such... the blues and grays for everything else, in nibs up to O3B.

 

Enjoy the hobby!

[Karmachanic]

I currently have seven pens, all inked, each with a different colour/hue. Colours are Blue, Red, Grey, Golden-Yellow-Brownish-Orange and Black. Several hues of each.

 

Only one pen (for now) is dedicated to a particular colour/hue (Blue-ish).

 

Flushing a pen is easy enough; for me.

[Tom Kellie]

It is my current practice - the particular pen(s) is/are filled with the particular ink. So, my three pens are fuelled by Royal Blue, the remaining four are filled with Corn Poppy red, Irish Green, Diamond Blue, and Permanent Grey.

 

~ Zdenek:

 

I've never heard of many older Montblanc inks.

Was the Diamond Blue ink you mentioned above offered many years ago?

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

I'm mostly a blue-black or gray person, but I also keep at least one EF nib'd pen with red and one with a gold or brown (think KWZ Honey and Lie de The). Use those for Bible margin notes and such... the blues and grays for everything else, in nibs up to O3B.

 

~ BillH:

 

Is it possible to fall head over heels in love with an ink?

Ever since first writing with Pilot Iroshizoku Kiri-same, I'm eager to find excuses to write with it.

The soft grey reminds me of the best pencil leads of my childhood, you know where.

Tom K.

[Tom Kellie]

Most of the time, I don't match ink colors to pen colors like many people do.

 

But if I am doing a lot of marking in red, I have two pens, one which is red and the other which is pink...

 

~ DrDebG:

 

Like you, I don't match inks with pens.

What powerfully struck me was your mention of regularly using a pink ink.

I'd never owned any pink inks until a couple of months ago when I acquired a bottle of Montblanc Ladies Pearl.

The pink tone shows so well that it's useful for marking manuscripts without seeming excessively shrill, in a visual sense, as certain reds might seem.

I'd wondered if any others did the same. Thanks to your post, now I know.

Tom K.

[Zdenek]

 

~ Zdenek:

 

I've never heard of many older Montblanc inks.

Was the Diamond Blue ink you mentioned above offered many years ago?

Tom K.

 

 

Diamond blue ink was LE in 2012. It was reviewed on this forum: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/225885-montblanc-meisterstuck-diamond/.

A nice survey of MB special inks you can find here: http://kmpn.blogspot.com.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Zdenek

[CS388]

 

~ CS388:

 

After reading your comment above I thought about my own case.

From the beginning of my fountain pen odyssey, there's been a pen with red ink on my writing desk.

My first visit to a Montblanc boutique (in Beijing) was in search of red ink as what I had was an old bottle of Royal Blue.

As it happened, the only bottle of red ink they had was Alfred Hitchcock, so that's what went home with me.

Tom K.

 

Very nice.

 

Our experiences have been somewhat opposite:

 

I cannot count the number of Montblanc boutiques I have been into and asked for a bottle of Hitchcock ink!

In the year of its release, I was touring the UK and Europe and it became a 'thing' that I would call into a boutique and ask for Hitchcock, in every new location we visited!

I still do go in and ask, if I find a boutique I've never visited, before.

 

And yet it is one ink I have never managed to attain! (Dare I say "yet"?)

 

Best wishes, CS

Edited January 2, 2020 by CS388

[Scylax]

I definitely have designated pens for the two colours I use, though my second is usually pink instead of red. It's much easier not to have to worry about cross-contamination or obsessive cleaning, and it makes everything much more comfortable I think - no thought needed - that's the 'red pen'. Have fun with your MBs

[tanalasta]

Usually for marking up documents, definitely a change in pen. A pilot vanishing point (or Boheme in MB) with a simple retractable mechanism may work well here.

 

I tend to suggest carts for red pens. Easier to flush!

[BillH]

 

~ BillH:

 

Is it possible to fall head over heels in love with an ink?

Ever since first writing with Pilot Iroshizoku Kiri-same, I'm eager to find excuses to write with it.

The soft grey reminds me of the best pencil leads of my childhood, you know where.

Tom K.

 

 

It's one of my very favorites too Tom. It's in one of my pens on the desk now, the M800 Brown in fact. I like the shade of it so much that some time back I made a passable copy with de Atramentis document inks to get an ink I could watercolor wash over. But that's another story