Mb Permanent Blue Nightmares

[Arijit]

So, I got the MB permanent blue from a local stationary store a few months back.

It clogged literally every pen I tried it with. I use IGs and Noodlers inks as my EDC, so dry inks are not something I have no idea about. In fact, I have used Hero 234 pigment black too, so pigment inks are also not something too new for me. But an ink this dry...... It was unusual.

Then I found a pen that could write with it. A Mohi Star ebonite eyedropper. It worked well for a month or so.

Troubles started a week or so back, when the pen started having hard starts. I didn't pay any attention to it, just washed the nib assembly abd called it a day.

Today, the pen plainly refused to start. So, I tried to shake some ink out, hoping to prime the feed. The pen started throwing up murjy brownish lines. Snd the ink droplets dried with s peculiar rusty halo around the pigment.

(sorry for the awkward crop, this was some random page I scribbled on)

Then I disassembled and wiped the nib clean

There's definitive pitting around the nib slit, in the middle half or so.

I bave used this nib and similar ones with IG inks, so I don't suspect that the material is of low quality. But even if it was so, is there any reason why a pigment ink is acidic enough to etch steel?

[Uncial]

Over the years I've read many, many complaints about Montblanc's Permanent Blue which detail all the same issues you've outlined here.

I thought it was more recently released as a non-iron gal, but I could be wrong.

[Arijit]

Yes. This ink is pigment based, which is NOT iron gall. That's what was most surprising. There's no reason why this ink should be so corrosive

[Silent Speaker]

The sense I've gotten hearing about this ink over the years is that the batches seem to be incredibly inconsistent, horrifically so for a company of MB's size and stature to even consider continuing selling. It's one thing for small concern, handmade niche inks to vary batch to batch and quite another for a mass manufacturer like MB. Especially considering all their other inks are without issue.

 

User experience with it seems to range from horrible like the OP's (ink window staining, clogging and now apparently pitting) to fine, favourable and for some a favourite ink. I have been lucky in that my first and only bottle is fine. "Fine" with all the caveats that go with any pigmented particle ink, ie. don't leave it in there so long such that it solidifies etc. Obvious stuff they warn you about.

 

I can't detect any pattern to it either. IIRC the first batch was unanimously judged as junk. Then after a year or something there were reports that MB "fixed it" (when I bought mine) and from then onward it seems to have been intermittent praise or derision in about equal measure. I can only come to the conclusion that it's a varying batch issue as, before anyone springs to MB's defense, the people using this ink have been using it in the same general range of pens as the people with actually good experiences: Montblancs. The complaints have been read on enthusiast forums where people are generally pretty conscious about the potential problems particle inks can have when not used with care.

 

I used it in a 146 (and sometimes a 149) for about a year. I didn't empty it out after "every session" or whatever "covermyass" warning MB puts in the instructions, maybe they say week or something; can't remember. No staining. No clogging. No nothing. It did exactly what it promised on the label: be a permanent, albeit boring, shade of blue ink. The shading pattern was a bit odd though. Can't say I'm fond of that aspect of it.

I used it with the general care required by any particle ink: I didn't leave it for months on end and would do a clean flush every few fills.

I have not yet finished my bottle, but am wary about purchasing another if it means having to participate in this apparent lottery which people are still going on about. I read the first complaints on here several years ago before purchasing my own bottle and members even then expressed such varying experiences.

Plenty of other pigmented permanents on the market with more interesting shades of blue IMO, like Sailor's Seiboku and Souboku.

 

IIRC, I don't think anyone's really complained about MB perma black. It's only the blue I believe that seems to garner such differing experiences.

"YMMV" has never been more apt to describe an ink.

[Mr.Rene]

So, I got the MB permanent blue from a local stationary store a few months back.

It clogged literally every pen I tried it with. I use IGs and Noodlers inks as my EDC, so dry inks are not something I have no idea about. In fact, I have used Hero 234 pigment black too, so pigment inks are also not something too new for me. But an ink this dry...... It was unusual.

Then I found a pen that could write with it. A Mohi Star ebonite eyedropper. It worked well for a month or so.

Troubles started a week or so back, when the pen started having hard starts. I didn't pay any attention to it, just washed the nib assembly abd called it a day.

Today, the pen plainly refused to start. So, I tried to shake some ink out, hoping to prime the feed. The pen started throwing up murjy brownish lines. Snd the ink droplets dried with s peculiar rusty halo around the pigment.

IMG-20200827-WA0042-01.jpeg (sorry for the awkward crop, this was some random page I scribbled on)

Then I disassembled and wiped the nib clean

IMG-20200827-WA0040-01.jpeg

There's definitive pitting around the nib slit, in the middle half or so.

I bave used this nib and similar ones with IG inks, so I don't suspect that the material is of low quality. But even if it was so, is there any reason why a pigment ink is acidic enough to etch steel?

 

Hi all!

in my opinion the blue permanent ink & black permanent ink were a BIG mistake by Montblanc factory... Blue Black montblanc ink , permanent for records was a very good product and it was in the market for a long time without troubles...

Regards,

[txomsy]

I agree the Blue-Black was a great ink. I just finished my last bottle.

 

But in my experience, Permanent Blue has always been great as well, I love the color and have never had any issue with it. So, in my most humble opinion it is not a mistake from MB, and is a color I'd like to continue using for a long, long time.

 

That said, if your experiences are different, maybe there really is an issue in batch variation, which I would also consider surprising from a company like MB, and you'd be better off using any other ink. I don't know, for me, that's still to happen and until it does, it'll keep on being a favourite.

 

As for fixes.. if it truly was so bad some years ago, maybe the OP got a NOS bottle from those times that had been lurking in the back of the store.

[loganrah]

Given the size of Montblanc and the likely slow turn over of products in bricks and motor stationary stores, could the explanation be that some of these stores are still carrying very old stock? If there is some kind of batch number on the bottle or packaging it would be very interesting to compare it with people who have had good experience (myself included, I'm not at home to check my bottle now and I don't have the original packaging, but I will see if any of the stickers on the bottle have something).

[Arijit]

As for fixes.. if it truly was so bad some years ago, maybe the OP got a NOS bottle from those times that had been lurking in the back of the store.

I checked my bottle. It didn't have a manufacturing date, or any obvious batch number for that matter (the weird alphanumeric string with a letter followed by 3 numbers stuck in one face of the box didn't say anything about it being the batch number, but it's the only one likely to be), but it had a date of import- 02/2020.

So, it was imported just before the COVID.

Although that just means it was imported in February, not manufactured in February, I don't think the ink was made too far before that. Right?

[Arijit]

Given the size of Montblanc and the likely slow turn over of products in bricks and motor stationary stores, could the explanation be that some of these stores are still carrying very old stock? If there is some kind of batch number on the bottle or packaging it would be very interesting to compare it with people who have had good experience (myself included, I'm not at home to check my bottle now and I don't have the original packaging, but I will see if any of the stickers on the bottle have something).

I don't see any obvious batch numbers, but a sticker with N906 is stuck on one face. Is that the batch number?

I'm sharing the only two faces of the box that has anything useful printed on it

[Silent Speaker]

I don't see any obvious batch numbers, but a sticker with N906 is stuck on one face. Is that the batch number?

I'm sharing the only two faces of the box that has anything useful printed on it

I don't think that's old stock. I may be mistaken, but I think I can recall the very first packaging for MB perma blue being all blue rather than white. I think mine came in a white box too.

 

[Arijit]

I am in talk with the seller. I think he will exchange it for a safer ink, like BSB.😜😜

[meiers]

I have had great experiences with permanent blue in some of my pens. It works best in wet writers, I think.

Edited August 29, 2020 by meiers

[max dog]

I've only had great experience with this ink over the years.

Edited September 1, 2020 by max dog

[AndyLogan]

No problems when I used it on my lamy and leonardo pens, noticeably a dry ink tho as stated before.

[MadAsAHatter]

I just got my first bottle yesterday and put in my Edison Menlo. It is a noticeably dry ink as other's mentioned but it works well with the 1.1 stub nib. Being a boring color blue is a matter of opinion & I like the color. I've read the mixed reviews and decided to take a chance on it. Hopefully I don't experience any of the issues others have.

[max dog]

As long as people adhere to the instructions provided with the ink, you won't have any issues.

 

Important Note:

It is particularly important to clean the fountain pen regularly if permanent ink s used, as the high solids content of the ink can lead to deposits forming in the feed system.

 

I clean/flush the pen at every refill. Ink should be used with intent for daily writing, and not filled and left unused in the pen for weeks.

[meiers]

I agree.

[Arijit]

As long as people adhere to the instructions provided with the ink, you won't have any issues.

 

Important Note:

It is particularly important to clean the fountain pen regularly if permanent ink s used, as the high solids content of the ink can lead to deposits forming in the feed system.

 

I clean/flush the pen at every refill. Ink should be used with intent for daily writing, and not filled and left unused in the pen for weeks.

Considering I use eyedroppers, my fills easily last a week. More, in fact. And the only pen that works well with it is the Mohi Star. C/C like Sailor Sapporo just won't write with it.

 

I wash between fills, so the pen gets washed weekly.