What A Difference An Ink Makes. In Praise Of Pelikan 4001

[AlanO]

I've got a new bottle of the reformulated blue-black, available here in the UK, and it seems to very well behaved on the several papers I've tried and with a variety of nibs. The colour looks very good to me when it's freshly dried, but I haven't had it long enough to comment on any longer term fading.

[TSherbs]

I am currently experimenting with a 5:1 = Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue : Noodler's Black ink mixture. It's performing nicely in a Noodler's Nib Creaper piston filler so far. The Royal Blue by itself I am not thrilled with. Mixed into a blue/black ink mixture it is nice .

I've done this, too, and like it.

 

I like 4001 RB very much.

[Grafeus]

I am not vastly experienced with this ink but as it happens I am using it right now alongside a few other Blue-Blacks like Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite, Waterman Blue-Black, Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo (yes, I like Blue Black inks that much ) and also the aforementioned Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black for good measure. The label in the bottle I have is different that the one shown above (it looks like the one in this Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Pelikan-4001-30ml-Royal-Blue/dp/B0009WFNAQ). The ink is definitely the driest of the lot. I use it with a Kaweco Sport that writes medium-broad and it behaves extremely well. With this pen it comes out as a dark blue which dries out into a lighter blue-grey. It's generally a lighter shade than the similar but more saturated and wetter Pelikan Tanzanite. I read earlier today this thread and I ran a wet finger over some notes and Tanzanite smudges a lot. 4001 Blue Black on the other hand does so less and remains legible. None of the two seems completely waterproof (Tanzanite certainly isn't). I actually like the colour of Waterman or (the very similar) Parker blue black better, both of which I have used for years and years, but 4001 has certain qualities that may make me go back to it when the current bottle I use runs empty. I am not so sure about Tanzanite. We'll see.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Grafeus

[fabri00]

One more point is the price: we pay for the 30 ml bottle € 3,85, which make it a fairly priced ink.

[fplover01]

I've got a new bottle of the reformulated blue-black, available here in the UK, and it seems to very well behaved on the several papers I've tried and with a variety of nibs. The colour looks very good to me when it's freshly dried, but I haven't had it long enough to comment on any longer term fading.

 

I also got two new bottles lately and noticed that the ink is slightly different from my old bottle of Pelikan Blue Black. Is a bit wetter (definetely wetter than the old bottle), and a broad M800 nib puts a lot more blue on the paper. The ink darkens when it dries, to a bluish grey. That is typical of the iron gall content. Do we know positively that it was reformulated? I got my bottles in September 2015 and i suspected something like that but i thought it was just my observation. The ink is a lot more useful with a greater variety of drier pens this way, a drier pen with the old bottle was a disaster. My old bottle was bought in Easter 2015.

Edited October 21, 2015 by fplover01

[AlanO]

The ink darkens when it dries, to a bluish grey. That is typical of the iron gall content.

Yes, mine does exactly the same. It works well with a Lamy Safari fine nib, which is not a wet nib.

 

Alan

Edited October 21, 2015 by AlanO

[fplover01]

There is a lot more blue in it than the old bottle. Both when wet and when dry.

 

The old bottle was much drier even with wet pens, leaving a bluish grey line when wet, which dried up to a more grey tone with time.

[Pterodactylus]

 

(Pelikan Ibis 130 - EF ..... Pelikan 4001 Blau-Schwarz)

[fplover01]

I am not aware of an official change as well, however comparing my newly bought bottle with the one I had from early 2015, the ink looks more blueish and pleasantly wetter than before, while exhibiting the same darkening behaviour as it dries over time and similar level of water resistance. I have filled some drier pens I had which were a disaster with the old bottle and now they work surprisingly well. it might be just my bottle. Bought from Müller Drogerie in September 2015. My old bottle was bought at the same place.

 

The ink is definetely not discontinued and widely available in Germany (as far as I can see bottles go away quite fast esp at the start of the school year). American members point out that the ink is no longer exported to the US.

 

ps. your handwriting is impressive...

Edited October 22, 2015 by fplover01

[ac12]

 

I've become a big fan of Pelikan 4001 blue. However at the San Francisco Pen Show this summer I picked up a bottle of 4001 blue-black for $5 from a table that had a small collection of odds and ends. I encountered terribly mixed results with that bottle and when I later read that this ink was discontinued in the US, I threw it away. I suspected that the bottle was very old.

 

So what is the story with Pelikan 4001 blue black? Is it again available in USA?

 

Best,

Alan

 

 

If you bought it from Sunny (Straits Pens) that was the non-US version of Pelikan Blue-Black. I know because Sunny is from Singapore and he brought a few hundred bottles of ink in from Singapore.

 

The blue-black ink goes on the paper a washed out blue, then darkens to a dark gray/black. The exact color will depend on your pen (wetness) and paper (absorbency), as the IG reaction and how it looks depends on both.

 

BTW, the other ink you should have is Waterman. I use both Waterman and Cross/Pelikan inks as my standard inks. I load up a pen with either Waterman or Cross/Pelikan ink, then evaluate the ink flow.

- If I loaded Waterman, and the ink flow is too much, I switch to the dryer Cross/Pelikan ink to slow down the ink flow.

- If I loaded Cross/Pelikan, and the ink is not flowing, I switch to the wetter Waterman ink to increase the ink flow.

 

Even with this, I had one situation where even Cross/Pelikan ink was not enough to tame the ink flow of a very WET Parker 51. I had to open the pen and adjust the nib to slow down the ink flow. Similarly, if I want to use a specific ink in a specific pen, that may require physically adjusting the nib to get the ink flow that I want.

Edited October 23, 2015 by ac12

[Precise]

Despite being a big fan of Pelikan 4001, I recently went wetter. I was running Pelikan 4001 Violet in a Duke D2, which is the best writing of my collection of Duke pens.

 

It seemed so stingy that I was considering cleaning. The converter was still 3/4 full. I had previously loaded this pen with Duke blue. So I returned to that.

WOW! Suddenly this pen is super again. Not only does it lay down a perfect line, but the drag on the page is much lower. Duke ink must be lubricious.

 

Regards,

 

Alan