EFNIR: Pelikan 4001 Blue Black

[LizEF]

52 minutes ago, IlikeInksandIcannotlie said:

Erm,does Benitoite become grey-black after a while? I did ask elsewhere, but I haven't gotten any replies. Pelikan B/B does become grey with time, and I find I don't like that.

Looks like I did my review of Benitoite on 20 July, inked it on 14 July, and as of today my utterly unscientific observation is that it doesn't seem to have changed any.  It's still very blue.

[ErrantSmudge]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

and included Lamy Benitoite because I'm not sure whether it is secretly iron-gall

 

I don't have the reference, but I have read elsewhere Lamy has confirmed Benitoite is iron-gall in correspondence to customers who have asked.

 

[yazeh]

Great review, Liz

It is possible I used Pelikan in my childhood years and maybe at university... but I haven't touched any since.... and I doubt I will.. though if there would be one ink, it would be this one....

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

Great review, Liz

Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

It is possible I used Pelikan in my childhood years and maybe at university... but I haven't touched any since.... and I doubt I will.. though if there would be one ink, it would be this one....

Couldn't blame you for picking this one.  I haven't looked at all the available Pelikan inks of late, but blue-black always goes to the top of my list.

[InesF]

Thank you @LizEF for your review and for the entertaining story. I made it a challenge to myself, guessing what will happen next. In the recent sequels you always surprised me. I'm highly entertained - thank you!

 

Pelikan 4001 inks are cheap (around 4 to 4.5 € per bottle) and almost all stores have them on stock. The food supermarket has at least blue and black, smaller shops have 4-5 colours and bigger have them all. Yes, they are a quasi standard.

The Red and the Pink are my least favorite, Blue-Black and Dark-Green are both beautiful on paper - at least to me.

[LizEF]

19 minutes ago, InesF said:

Thank you @LizEF for your review and for the entertaining story.

You're very welcome!

 

19 minutes ago, InesF said:

I made it a challenge to myself, guessing what will happen next. In the recent sequels you always surprised me. I'm highly entertained - thank you!

😊  Thank you for saying so!  I'm trying a little harder not to be predictable, and it's so nice to hear I'm succeeding with at least one person.  Hope you like what's coming next.

 

21 minutes ago, InesF said:

Pelikan 4001 inks are cheap (around 4 to 4.5 € per bottle) and almost all stores have them on stock. The food supermarket has at least blue and black, smaller shops have 4-5 colours and bigger have them all. Yes, they are a quasi standard.

You live in fountain pen heaven!  I've never seen a fountain pen or similar in any grocery store in the US (there may be some somewhere, but I've never seen them).  I acquired a pen pal in Germany some months ago, and he was somewhat amazed at how "exotic" fountain pens are to Americans.

 

23 minutes ago, InesF said:

The Red and the Pink are my least favorite, Blue-Black and Dark-Green are both beautiful on paper - at least to me.

I like (and share) your taste in colors!  (Though my introduction to murky greens kinda ruined me for more normal greens - which, oddly enough - is how I acquired my German pen-pal.)

[Tas]

I've just now described to another FPN member that Pelikan 4001 Blue Black is an ink without an ego. It simply gets on with the job at hand. No singing or dancing. 💃🏼🕺🏼

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Tas said:

I've just now described to another FPN member that Pelikan 4001 Blue Black is an ink without an ego. It simply gets on with the job at hand. No singing or dancing. 💃🏼🕺🏼

Yep, sort of like the basic Pilot inks.  Sigh.  So many inks, so little time!

[Tas]

8 hours ago, LizEF said:

Yep, sort of like the basic Pilot inks.  Sigh.  So many inks, so little time!

 

Yes! 👏🏼

[lapis]

Yes No. 2 but, to paraphrase so blatantly, "So many inks, so little dough!"

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, lapis said:

"So many inks, so little dough!"

Also true.  Both of the $ kind and the cookie kind (while mom's attention was elsewhere - not that I have to worry about that anymore, just about whether the eggs are safe to eat raw....)

[Schaumburg_Swan]

On 9/17/2021 at 5:15 PM, namrehsnoom said:

Thank you for this review. Overall, I find the Pelikan 4001 line a bit too basic. It’s fountain pen ink, but nothing to get excited about. But I make an exception for this blue-grey, that I find quite appealing. I typically use this ink in cartridges, not from the bottle, and I keep some cart’s in my desk drawer at work. Ideal for use in my EDC Kaweco Lilliput or Sport pens. 

I like this 4001 blue-black a lot better than the Royal Blue. I must have 5 or more of these Royal Blue bottles by now… For some reason, when Pelikan adds a bottle of ink to an LE pen, it’s always the Royal Blue, even if another 4001 colour would be a better match for the pen (only exception are the M200 pens that match the Edelstein Ink of the Year, and come with the corresponding ink). I would love it when Pelikan would swap that Royal Blue for this more appealing Blue-Black… alas, keep on dreaming I guess ;-(

+1

Just say no to school blue. 😉

This Blue-Black and Smoky Quarz are my favourite Pelikan inks.

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, Schaumburg_Swan said:

Just say no to school blue. 😉

But, I like Robert Oster School Blue (though I can't figure out why).

 

1 hour ago, Schaumburg_Swan said:

This Blue-Black and Smoky Quarz are my favourite Pelikan inks.

I haven't tried Smoky Quartz (yet?), but it's hard to go wrong with blue-black.

[Daneaxe]

Hmm... am I the only one surprised that Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is an Iron Gall ink?
There's no mention of the fact on neither bottle nor box, and I've never heard it mentioned before today, in this thread.

Nevertheless, it's a favourite, one of my first inks ever, and sorta the go-to when I want to go 'back to basics', i.e. just write.

Oh, and thanks for the review!

Stay safe,
Daneaxe

[A Smug Dill]

5 minutes ago, Daneaxe said:

Hmm... am I the only one surprised that Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is an Iron Gall ink?
There's no mention of the fact on neither bottle nor box, and I've never heard it mentioned before today, in this thread.

 

https://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US_INTL.CMS.displayCMS.252360./document-proof-ink

Quote

4001 blue-black

The least complicated ink which is still relatively light resistant, is the ink "4001 blue-black", our item no. 310 607. This ink contains iron gall, 

 

[LizEF]

9 minutes ago, Daneaxe said:

am I the only one surprised that Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black is an Iron Gall ink?

I was just going by what I commonly saw mentioned in the community.  Thanks, @A Smug Dill for the official reference.

 

10 minutes ago, Daneaxe said:

Oh, and thanks for the review!

  You're very welcome!

[LizEF]

Here's the line width measurement. The line is one of those used for dry time (used one of the numbers as the lines had too much interference from the other side of the page).  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 300µm.