EFNIR: Montegrappa Dark Blue

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Montegrappa Dark Blue

This is review #81 in my series.  Here's the YouTube video:

Post-recording notes: Color in the images is pretty close - sort of a flat blue-grey.  Cleaning was fast and easy.

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

Zoomed in photo:

 

Absorbent Paper Closeup (top is puzzle paper like thick newsprint, bottom is old 20lb copy paper):

Screenshots also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap

Previous Review: Pilot Mixable Colour Yellow.

Want to influence the inky sequence?  Take the "next ink" poll.

Hope you enjoy.  Comments appreciated!

[yazeh]

Great job, Liz. Another nice one

I would've never thought seeing a Wizard in a burger joint. But here we are... Looking forward to the next episode 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Exactly 'my' sort of color, and good dry time!  But I will have to settle for my bottle of Diamine Indigo.

 

Thanks for another great review.  👍🏻

[LizEF]

14 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Great job, Liz. Another nice one

I would've never thought seeing a Wizard in a burger joint. But here we are... Looking forward to the next episode 

 

Thank you!  Hopefully the next episode is worth the wait (it'll be next Tuesday, not this Friday).

[LizEF]

3 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Exactly 'my' sort of color, and good dry time!  But I will have to settle for my bottle of Diamine Indigo.

 

Thanks for another great review.  👍🏻

It seems very close to Indigo, and not that different from Prussian Blue, so I guess you're not "settling" that much.

 

You're very welcome!

[I-am-not-really-here]

Good review, as always.  Not my color; might work okay on a dark and stormy day.  No lack of choice for that requirement though. Flow appears to be the worry with this one.  How was cleanup?

[LizEF]

27 minutes ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Good review, as always.  Not my color; might work okay on a dark and stormy day.  No lack of choice for that requirement though. Flow appears to be the worry with this one.  How was cleanup?

Thank you!

 

Cleanup was quick and easy.  Not sure why it was so picky about moving around in the converter.  As long as ink was touching the feed, flow was fine.  I've heard others complain about air bubbles in the converter preventing their ink from flowing, but this was the first time I've experienced it myself.  (And if I'm being honest, I was a little skeptical of their analysis as I've seen air bubbles in the converter plenty of times and they were never a problem.)  I have to wonder if some converters / cartridges would be fine, while others aren't - based on shape, material, etc.

 

Meanwhile, how does a cart plus some ridges* turn into a little container for ink?  A container, I might add, that doesn't have ridges*.  Or a horse - shouldn't carts have horses?

 

* Am I the only one who, upon hearing "ridges" immediately thinks, "Ruffles have ridges"?

 

Why doesn't the reply editor window include the same buttons as the "new post" editor window?  I had to use an * instead of a numbered footnote! (Hyperbolic emoji.)

[I-am-not-really-here]

A cart without a horse is just a wheeled table.  Okay instead of buying ink now I want potato chips.

 

maybe you can copy/paste footnote formatting?  Assuming the Reply editor respected it.  

[mizgeorge]

Thanks as ever Liz - I'm delighted to say it looks fine, but I'm not tempted. Perhaps because it's just a brand that isn't in my world in terms of pens or ink. 

 

And I want what we call crisps now too  

 

Can I have some if I tell you the etymology of cartridge?

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

A cart without a horse is just a wheeled table.  Okay instead of buying ink now I want potato chips.

 

maybe you can copy/paste footnote formatting?  Assuming the Reply editor respected it.  

  Now you know how I feel every time I hear "ridges".   (Sorry to inflict you with the same disease.)

 

Didn't think about copying and pasting - good interim idea.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, mizgeorge said:

Thanks as ever Liz - I'm delighted to say it looks fine, but I'm not tempted. Perhaps because it's just a brand that isn't in my world in terms of pens or ink. 

 

And I want what we call crisps now too  

 

Can I have some if I tell you the etymology of cartridge?

You're very welcome!  I'm not terribly tempted either - at least, not with this nib.  I'm thinking it might be good for my Pelikan m405.

 

So sorry.  Appears I started a potato-chip/crisp pandemic!

 

You can have all the crisps you want - I'm sure they have plenty at your local grocery* store.    As to the etymology, I suppose you could explain, or I could go look it up, but it's so much more fun to make fun of the word.  (That's rather redundant, isn't it?)

 

* Or whatever you call it.

[mizgeorge]

5 minutes ago, LizEF said:

So sorry.  Appears I started a potato-chip/crisp pandemic!

 

You can have all the crisps you want - I'm sure they have plenty at your local grocery* store.    As to the etymology, I suppose you could explain, or I could go look it up, but it's so much more fun to make fun of the word.  (That's rather redundant, isn't it?)

 

* Or whatever you call it.

Oddly, my daughter has just been eating a potato chip ice cream. Odd, but surprisingly quite nice. 

 

I may have to bribe someone to get me some crisps tomorrow. Shops are just about to shut here and I don't go out yet (soon, though, I get my first dose vaccination next week).

[LizEF]

7 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

Oddly, my daughter has just been eating a potato chip ice cream. Odd, but surprisingly quite nice. 

 

I may have to bribe someone to get me some crisps tomorrow. Shops are just about to shut here and I don't go out yet (soon, though, I get my first dose vaccination next week).

Hmm.  Not sure about that ice cream.  Though, with chocolate syrup, it might be OK - chocolate + potato chips = yum!

 

Someone should definitely bring you crisps!  Hope the vaccination goes well!

[LizEF]

Looking through swatch cards today for my next ink, and the swatch card for this is almost completely grey.  Just the slightest hint of blue (or even something greenish).  I'm wondering if this is an iron gall ink!!

[Dimy]

Thanks for the review.

 

Ok am I the only one who sees a bit of green in close-up shot. Still the colour is not bad, the dry flow with stuck ink is.

 

Now about the ink being stuck and not moving, what to say I am seeing a similar (but not at high level) issue in my kiwaguro ink, that is getting lumped in movement, it will either move like entire block or will remain stuck until I gently tap the pen......wonder something happened to ink cos I tested in several convertor and cartridge already (a single aggregator works fine for me and even sudden push works so its not too bad, probably pigment particles being pigment particles).

I don't think changing convertor will show much different results from my experience with such case especially if even aggregator is of no use.

[LizEF]

8 hours ago, Dimy said:

Ok am I the only one who sees a bit of green in close-up shot.

No, but it's an artifact of the digitization capture-upload-view process.

 

8 hours ago, Dimy said:

Now about the ink being stuck and not moving, ....

I don't think changing convertor will show much different results from my experience with such case especially if even aggregator is of no use.

I think the shape would have to be different in a way that encourages the whole lot to "slide" down the converter / cartridge - or a pen with built-in filling system and a large enough inner diameter that the ink can hold tension across that large a gap.  (I'm totally guessing; fluid dynamics was not in any class I ever took back in the stone age when I went to school. )

[Dimy]

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

No, but it's an artifact of the digitization capture-upload-view process.

 

Ah that makes it much better, I was thinking what was happening really.

 

2 hours ago, LizEF said:

I think the shape would have to be different in a way that encourages the whole lot to "slide" down the converter / cartridge - or a pen with built-in filling system and a large enough inner diameter that the ink can hold tension across that large a gap.  (I'm totally guessing; fluid dynamics was not in any class I ever took back in the stone age when I went to school. )

 

True, shape and materials used in manufacturing play a major role in how the ink will flow, decent onces cost something due to this (though I have a feeling that most use same material, well Schmidt supplies many so that's probably where my feeling comes from). But I think pilot, platinum and Schmidt (3 decent convertor and cartridge I own) at least use decent material in making.....plus the aggregator, this case really has ink to blame.....at least that's how it looks to me.

 

On side note pilot needs to stop putting so many aggregator in that puny convertor, like really why, just why.

[LizEF]

53 minutes ago, Dimy said:

this case really has ink to blame.....at least that's how it looks to me.

Agreed!

53 minutes ago, Dimy said:

On side note pilot needs to stop putting so many aggregator in that puny convertor, like really why, just why.

  I'm pretty sure "Why?" is the most common reaction to Pilot converters.

[LizEF]

Here's the line width measurement. The line is one of those used for dry time.  Magnification is 100x.  The grid is 100x100µm.  The scale is 330µm, with eleven divisions of 30µm each.  The line width for this ink is roughly 270µm.