Montblanc 149/146 And Using Non-Montblanc Inks - Ok

[TassoBarbasso]

It is true that the "please use only our inks" suggestions is just there to build brand loyalty. You can use any non-pigmented, non-particulate-based ink, and you'll be fine. Be careful however with pigmented inks (such as Sailor sei-boku and similar stuff) or inks with particulate components (such as the De Atramentis document line, or most Noodler's bulletproof inks, which use a binding agent as particulate to ensure waterproofness). I once clogged my father's MB 149 using Noodler's bulleteproof inks (I used a few of them so I'm not sure which ones are responsible) and I had to send it for repair. A hefty bill of EUR 90 was the price. I now use only regular inks in MB 149. I do however use Noodler's Luxury Blue in a MB 234 1/2 with no problems, but that's a really wet pen with an old ebonite feed that never dries out.

[NeverTapOut]

It is true that the "please use only our inks" suggestions is just there to build brand loyalty. You can use any non-pigmented, non-particulate-based ink, and you'll be fine. Be careful however with pigmented inks (such as Sailor sei-boku and similar stuff) or inks with particulate components (such as the De Atramentis document line, or most Noodler's bulletproof inks, which use a binding agent as particulate to ensure waterproofness). I once clogged my father's MB 149 using Noodler's bulleteproof inks (I used a few of them so I'm not sure which ones are responsible) and I had to send it for repair. A hefty bill of EUR 90 was the price. I now use only regular inks in MB 149. I do however use Noodler's Luxury Blue in a MB 234 1/2 with no problems, but that's a really wet pen with an old ebonite feed that never dries out.

 

+1

I mainly use MB inks however I like them. Plus they write fairly well on most types of non fountain pen friendly paper.

I would do a really really good flushing if using different brands to avoid the risk of a chemical reaction. I also worry about staining.

So my main concerns are staining and chemical reactions with constantly changing ink brands.

Regards,

David

[aurore]

You can use any non-pigmented, non-particulate-based ink, and you'll be fine.

Thank you very much. Indeed I have been always trying to avoid such inks, MB 146/149 is neither c/c nor easy to diassemble like Pelikan and I am afraid of the service

 

 

+1

I mainly use MB inks however I like them. Plus they write fairly well on most types of non fountain pen friendly paper.

I would do a really really good flushing if using different brands to avoid the risk of a chemical reaction. I also worry about staining.

So my main concerns are staining and chemical reactions with constantly changing ink brands.

Regards,

David

 

Thank you. I actually like MB colours, particularly brown. Midnight is not that much impressive and while Royal Blue is for sure a flawless ink it is too much purple for me. I love Irish Green but cannot find much use for it.

 

GvFC are usually easy to clean and not staining, but I am still pathetically afraid of inking my new vintage 149 with anything except MB ink

[NeverTapOut]

Thank you very much. Indeed I have been always trying to avoid such inks, MB 146/149 is neither c/c nor easy to diassemble like Pelikan and I am afraid of the service

 

 

Thank you. I actually like MB colours, particularly brown. Midnight is not that much impressive and while Royal Blue is for sure a flawless ink it is too much purple for me. I love Irish Green but cannot find much use for it.

 

GvFC are usually easy to clean and not staining, but I am still pathetically afraid of inking my new vintage 149 with anything except MB ink

 

I tried GvFC ink before...I think it was the violet blue...it was very watery and very undersaturated. I might try their colbalt blue or their midnight blue.

[DrDebG]

I am a huge Montblanc inks fan but like others have said, their "warning" is really more brand loyalty and for those who buy a pen but aren't familiar with all of the options out there.

 

There are only a few inks that I trust in my "prized" pens. One of them is DeAtramentis' standard inks. I have been using DeA inks for years and have never had a problem. I have DeA Pearl Violet in my 146 right now. I have about a dozen DeA standard inks. I love the DeA inks because they are nicely saturated but also easy to clean out. I haven't had one stain even a converter yet.

 

Another brand that I trust is Waterman. Again, this ink is problem free and easy to clean.

 

I also like all of the blues in Pilot Iroshizuku inks. I have only had a few issues with the reds and pinks. Same also with J. Herbin inks.

 

While I love Sailor inks, I put use them only in cartridges in pens that are easy to clean out.

[aurore]

 

I tried GvFC ink before...I think it was the violet blue...it was very watery and very undersaturated. I might try their colbalt blue or their midnight blue.

 

I have used Midnight, Cobalt, Hazelnut and Orange. Orange is actually lovely in every way but not much useful in my case, cobalt is quite a bit purplish but well saturated and a kind of somewhat (but not overly) dry ink great for wet pens, Midnight is a classic blue-black - nothing amazing but the colour is nicer than the current MB Midnight imho.

 

I am a huge Montblanc inks fan but like others have said, their "warning" is really more brand loyalty and for those who buy a pen but aren't familiar with all of the options out there.

 

There are only a few inks that I trust in my "prized" pens. One of them is DeAtramentis' standard inks. I have been using DeA inks for years and have never had a problem. I have DeA Pearl Violet in my 146 right now. I have about a dozen DeA standard inks. I love the DeA inks because they are nicely saturated but also easy to clean out. I haven't had one stain even a converter yet.

 

Another brand that I trust is Waterman. Again, this ink is problem free and easy to clean.

 

I also like all of the blues in Pilot Iroshizuku inks. I have only had a few issues with the reds and pinks. Same also with J. Herbin inks.

 

While I love Sailor inks, I put use them only in cartridges in pens that are easy to clean out.

 

Thank you very much! Indeed I would be very hesitating to use Sailor in my 60/70s 149.

Never have tried standard DeAtramentis, seems I should.

 

I believe Pelikan 4001 and Endelstein would hardly couse any troubles to 149, but somehow I do not like the colours much... so I would rather use what I already have or get MB Toffee or Royal Blue eventually.

[bstnnyc]

I'll add one positive shoutout for Sailor inks

 

I use them nearly exclusively now in all of my pens including Montblancs (from 1950s piston fillers to modern limited editions), and after 4 years I do not have any issues with them. Unless you are using specific vintage pens (celluloid pens, pens with rubber ink sacs...), I readily recommend their inks. For me they offer the trifecta: complex colors, smooth writing experience, and reliable preservative system.

 

NB: The only Sailor inks that I do not use in my piston fillers are from the category of blue inks that present a heavy red sheen once they dry. (By sheen, I do not mean shimmer; I do not use any kind of shimmer inks with glitter type particles in my Montblancs.) I've found that blue inks with heavy red sheen dry out faster in the pen and one such blue ink made it more difficult to operate the piston in my ink tester pen. This is true of heavy red sheening blues from Sailor and from other pen manufacturers, but I wanted to call it out to be safe.

[AndyLogan]

I have the Sailor Studio ink 123 in my Dean with an OBB nib, I noticed that the pen writes crazy smooth, hopefully it won't stain the internals, I also inked my MB 146 BB nib with the Pilot Hoteison, which had been inked for two months, flushed it out diligently and I see that there are still residual stains when I place water in the ink chamber and let it dry out in an upright position on a piece of tissue with the nib down. Will probably flush it again with a pen flush and see if there are still residual stains.

[bstnnyc]

I have the Sailor Studio ink 123 in my Dean with an OBB nib, I noticed that the pen writes crazy smooth, hopefully it won't stain the internals, I also inked my MB 146 BB nib with the Pilot Hoteison, which had been inked for two months, flushed it out diligently and I see that there are still residual stains when I place water in the ink chamber and let it dry out in an upright position on a piece of tissue with the nib down. Will probably flush it again with a pen flush and see if there are still residual stains.

How are you liking 123? I received mine yesterday and am loving it! I put it in a B nib Copernicus and they go so well together. Its such a complex color and easily the most interesting grey Ive tried.

Edited August 14, 2019 by bstnnyc

[Time-Traveller]

‘Brand loyalty’ ought to be something that starts from the user / customer, based on the customer’s satisfaction with products of that brand. MB's insistence that we use only their inks in their pens is more like the marketing strategy known as FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt), i.e., ‘scare your customers into using your products’.

I have a 145 (the ‘Classique’, i.e., a cartridge / converter model) in which I use just about every ink I have. I say ‘just about’, because I have a few inks that are slightly suspect. I would not use any ink with glitters, nor the inks that carry the manufacturer’s explicit warnings (“be sure to rinse your pen regularly”), like all the archival and sketch inks. But in this respect I’m careful not only with MB, but with all my finer pens.

My 145 is very well-behaved with all the inks I’ve tried. My favourite combination is with Pelikan Edelstein Sapphire (as I have mentioned in another thread), which brings out the shine of that ink better than in most of my other pens.

But apart from the Pelikan Edelstein inks, I also use inks by Waterman and Diamine in the 145. All of them work fine.

[AndyLogan]

How are you liking 123? I received mine yesterday and am loving it! I put it in a B nib Copernicus and they go so well together. Its such a complex color and easily the most interesting grey Ive tried.

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I really like the 123, I bought two as the 20mls was just too small, plus am wary of filling it from the bottle, I try to transfer some mls to a medicine cup and fill it up from there, but at that price point I'd probably look for an alternative, heard that the troublemaker line has an ink that looks like the 123.

[bstnnyc]

I really like the 123, I bought two as the 20mls was just too small, plus am wary of filling it from the bottle, I try to transfer some mls to a medicine cup and fill it up from there, but at that price point I'd probably look for an alternative, heard that the troublemaker line has an ink that looks like the 123.

I just ordered a few backup bottles of 123 as well. Yeah this new size is good for deluxe sampling, but the older 50ml squat bottle (the Kobe version without the plastic insert) was much easier to fill from.

[Fermata]

A friend of mine used Diamine Grape in his new 146, flow wasnt great. He would flush it out, refill and that was ok until the ink was half used and then it would clog. He washed out the pen and took it back to MB and explained the problem. First question was 'have you been using Diamine ink?'. Not have you been using some ink other than MB but , have you been using Diamine.

 

MB serviced the pen, they also changed the barrel as they said the window had become discoloured, the man at MB said he was surprised that they had done this FOC. They suggested that he threw away the rest of the Diamine, no further problems.

[praxim]

Regarding brand loyalty or FUD marketing, there is reason in a manufacturer saying "use only mine". That way, they do not have the problem of testing every other ink on the market or otherwise deciding whether it could or should be safe. Inks are not specified to an SSAE or ISO standard, so far as I know. However, many other inks are manufactured to appropriate standards. Most of these have been canvassed above. I have many different pen brands, pens anything from now to a hundred years old. I buy only inks I feel confident I can use in any such pen. Even then, I happen not to buy some I expect also to be safe, from report. My main constraint is the colours I am willing to put in pens with ink windows, and a degree of colour-caution with sac-based pens.

[aurore]

A friend of mine used Diamine Grape in his new 146, flow wasnt great. He would flush it out, refill and that was ok until the ink was half used and then it would clog. He washed out the pen and took it back to MB and explained the problem. First question was 'have you been using Diamine ink?'. Not have you been using some ink other than MB but , have you been using Diamine.

 

MB serviced the pen, they also changed the barrel as they said the window had become discoloured, the man at MB said he was surprised that they had done this FOC. They suggested that he threw away the rest of the Diamine, no further problems.

Exactly the thing that makes me nervous. However Diamine are normal water based inks and it's rather a shame for MB that pens work so poorly with such rather standard inks.

[Time-Traveller]

Regarding brand loyalty or FUD marketing, there is reason in a manufacturer saying "use only mine". That way, they do not have the problem of testing every other ink on the market or otherwise deciding whether it could or should be safe. […]

 

It is also true that a pen manufacturer's own ink will be attuned to the pens he makes. Pelikan inks are on the whole somewhat 'dry', because Pelikan pens tend to be wet (so they fit together). The opposite is the case with Waterman, who offer wet inks to match their pens that lean towards being dry.

 

However, Montblanc (mine, at least) works very well with every ink I have tried in it.