Montblanc limited inks are...meh

[Claes]

Me [Innocently]: But don't they contain precious dyestuffs?

[inkstainedruth]

Snerk....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Centurion]

4 hours ago, Claes said:

Me [Innocently]: But don't they contain precious dyestuffs?

Poor Montblanc, will their marketing department in particular, ever live down their use of "precious". Actually, I read it's an unfortunate translation that doesn't capture the German connotation. Montblanc most know they're being made fun of with their use of "precious". I wonder why they just don't quietly drop it??

[txomsy]

I did understand it was opinion. Can you be certain everyone else also did?

 

Sorry if we have different views. I've been on the net since pre-Internet times, and my experience tells me it is better to always qualify words.

 

You are absolutely right in your views from a face to face POV.

 

The written word lacks all the non-verbal components of communication, and the Net joins together many different cultures. And even -as this is a written medium with some permanence- evolving cultures.

 

I've seen many a misunderstanding start from minor details that would never had happened face to face.

 

What one writes today in one set may look totally different in another or tomorrow.

 

A user in ten years or another place may see the message and interpret it as hard facts. Not to mention that not everyone has the same command of English.

 

All languages allow for qualification. And that is for a reason. Day to day, face to face, one may play games with words and communication. But that's not the case usually online.

 

Personally I prefer to avoid misunderstanding. I take the effort as a deference to other netizens who might otherwise not get the right meaning I intend. But that's only just me. Of course.

[kazoolaw]

Note:  “Inky Thoughts” not “Pedantic Thoughts.”

 

[amberleadavis]

So, are any of the limited edition inks - not Meh?

 

I think Hitchock red was pretty amazing.

I also liked Ink of Joy, Ink of Love, Winter Glow, and Season's Greetings. 

[AndyYNWA]

On 12/30/2023 at 9:34 PM, amberleadavis said:

So, are any of the limited edition inks - not Meh?

 

I think Hitchock red was pretty amazing.

I also liked Ink of Joy, Ink of Love, Winter Glow, and Season's Greetings. 

Leo Tolstoy was (is) great!👍

[Mayavin]

Wow, until this moment I have no clue that Mont Blanc was making such inks! I've only seen a handful of their inks in stores - and they were just black/blue. Intriguing and now I will take a look  

[RJS]

I've only had two MB LE inks, and one of those was an awfully behaved orange that would have been disappointing for £1.80 from Diamine. They're too expensive for me, and I can't see any incredible properties to justify a purchase. 
 

As for their main line of inks- I've always liked what I've tried, and after many years of using Irish Green it remains my favourite green, and my standard ink for annotating. (Though not on poor quality paper, as it tends to bleed and feather).

[ajoe]

I'm a big fan of MB Mystery Black, which is in a league with the best blacks I own.

 

I have simplified my life. All of my inked pens are black and all of them hold blank ink of the same brand as the pen.

 

To paraphrase Frank Sinatra: Colors, I've used a few, but then again too few to mention.

[mizgeorge]

I have a lot of Montblanc LE inks, and with only a couple of exceptions I like them very much - some of them enough to have bought multiple bottles whilst they were available. Some standouts would have to include Kipling, Defoe and Vetiver in the greens, most of the reds, Swan Illusion, and many of the blues, including the Glacier mentioned by the OP. I'm probably in the minority that love Miles Davis, and also have a real soft spot for JFK.

 

However, I use a lot of European piston fillers, and these are inks that suit this type of pen very well - far better than most of the Japanese equivalents. I also use many of them in  vintage latex sacced pens, which I would never risk filling with most of the far eastern inks, however pretty the colours.

 

I also have a lot of Japanese and Korean inks, as well as many from the Phillipines, and find these suit my Japanese and other Asian produced pens better than many of my European inks.

 

1 hour ago, ajoe said:

All of my inked pens are black and all of them hold blank ink of the same brand as the pen.

 

Horses for courses (though black may work better than blank, regardless of brand).  

 

I don't stick to black, in fact it's probably the colour I have the least bottles of, but the broad strokes rule of using the matched ink for a pen, at least until I've learned what it likes best, is generally a very good one.

[AndyYNWA]

On 1/11/2024 at 5:47 PM, mizgeorge said:

<snip> ...and also have a real soft spot for JFK. <snip>

 

 

I would love to get my hands on a bottle of JFK. Just missed it when it was out...

But I'm not paying USD 100 for a bottle on Amazon or eBay.🤯

[inkstainedruth]

@mizgeorge I remember when Swan Illusion came out, and seeing the reviews of it and thinking "It's okay, but not great...."  And looking back at one of the reviews online just now, thinking that I was correct in my original assessment -- I much prefer Iroshizuku Yama-guri and Edelstein Smoky Quartz -- both of which are darker in color even without being in a broad or wet nib.

But STILL kicking myself that I didn't get a back-up bottle of the Jimi Hendrix ink when I had the chance -- even at full retail price... (there are probably other, less expensive purple inks out there, of course, that are close enough in color).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 12/5/2023 at 10:58 PM, lapis said:

THESE I HAVE ALSO.

Carlo Collodi...a bit too red for me.

Diamond...two bottles, the more I used it the less I liked it.

Jonathan Swift...sea weed green, a good murky green.

Meisterstück 90 Years...just used it in a gray test...worth buying back when they were cheaper.

White Forest..feathers a lot, One almost not used and two in the box...My B&M had them left over many years later and there was a good reason for that.

 

 

Season's greetings two boxes....I had to have cracked one of the bottles. Do click the box, it has my White fores comment.

The LE yellow was too light to do anything with.

The LE orange, is one I'd like to know how to pep it up....add a drop or two of something.

I had so few of the W.Germany Pelikan orange cartridges which were better. I've never got around to buying that Herbin orange....sigh cubed.

Could be I never tried the Miles Davis blue (bad reviews)...all three of the last my wife bought for me as a gift, after she won something at a live auction.

 

If I hit the lottery....big, I can think about buying MB inks again, that new named for Oyster gray***....I could go for even though the modern price for the shoe is a rip off...much less the tiny bottles of solid gold capped small ink bottles.

What they are not even sterling silver capped!!!!????

 

*** Too bad I wasn't into grays back when it was affordable...more than likely bought Meisterstück 90 Years Gray instead.

Maybe I should go to Ebay to see if I can find half a bottle of Oyster Gray....what is it's new name?

At €50 a bottle, whoops!!!!1....Meisterstück 90 Years

€23 + is Cool Gray, the new name for Oyster gray.....new and a full bottle.  It's only 3.+ over my limit.....and so starts the slippery slope.

[Bigeddie]

I reviewed a lot of them back when they were c. £11 a bottle, at £30 a bottle they are not so apealing. 

 

Ink of Joy was great, Swift, Balzac, Hitchcock - those are the ones that spring to mind... I still have some I am working through but I will miss these ones when they are gone. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I remember the LE's more at @€15 and the shoe going from €12 to 13 with the new bigger bottle as a 3-4 ink noobie.

That diamond, blue diamond or what ever it was impressed me at the start..I bought a second bottle, and haven't opened it, and that tiny bottle of blue ink is still half filled.

 

The old Christmas inks, which I have four bottles total of two of them....showed feathering.

 

Before the Big Gouge, I'd already  left MB LE inks....I'd not have Davis, Orange or Yellow but my wife won something at a near by live auction and dropped off at my B&M to do me some good.

Got to learn how to perk up that orange.

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:31 PM, txomsy said:

28 EUR for a 50ml Edelstein bottle

At that time I paid €21.50 if that's December ...if June, €19.50....at my B&M.

So now has to be an ink I really, really want, in I have 13 or so with doubles in Smokey Quarz and Oliverine....................being retired for fifteen years is in it's self a limiter.

 

I did just bust my limit with a bottle of MB Cool Gray, at €23. 15 years ago, they had just come out with the 60ml bottle for €13 up from 12 for the 50ml bottle, so I see that as a price gouge, not inflation.

Pelikan Edelstein started out at €16. ???2 a decade or so ago.

 

But MB has to keep up with the Jones...Japanese inks(I paid €25 for a bottle of Kon Piki), Cd'A, and Graff von Faber Castel.

I and my wife did buy some(6-9?) MB LE's at €22, and now at €32 or more. 

 

 

 

[RJS]

8 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

At that time I paid €21.50 if that's December ...if June, €19.50....at my B&M.

So now has to be an ink I really, really want, in I have 13 or so with doubles in Smokey Quarz and Oliverine....................being retired for fifteen years is in it's self a limiter.

 

I did just bust my limit with a bottle of MB Cool Gray, at €23. 15 years ago, they had just come out with the 60ml bottle for €13 up from 12 for the 50ml bottle, so I see that as a price gouge, not inflation.

Pelikan Edelstein started out at €16. ???2 a decade or so ago.

 

But MB has to keep up with the Jones...Japanese inks(I paid €25 for a bottle of Kon Piki), Cd'A, and Graff von Faber Castel.

I and my wife did buy some(6-9?) MB LE's at €22, and now at €32 or more. 

 

 

 

It makes buying whole bottles of those inks too hard to justify, when compared to the likes of Diamine and R&K.

[txomsy]

Ever since I was a U student, I've made a conversion of money costs to beers or the equivalent. Will I get more fun/benefits out of that price than what I'd get out of its equivalent in soirees with friends? If the answer is yes, then it is worth buying. The onus then is on me to make the investment work.

 

Many of those inks are in the end worth their price. And that there are cheaper inks is sometimes no reason if the cheaper ones do not fill the gap that the more expensive will.

 

For me, some Montblanc ink are not worth, but many others are actually unbeatable so far. As long as I put them to work, obviously.

[Bo Bo Olson]

 

I was looking to perk up MB Joy, and ended up digging up some of my Oranges. Putting Apache Sunset into the mix would be unfair.

Having many of my normal pens, in the dirty pen cups (or in the inked cup, ended up cleaning and using pens I hadn't in a long while.

 

Medium-small Black&Gold Pelikan Pelikan 150, inked with Akkerman Oranje Boven. A light bright red-orange, no shading.

.............

I'm testing orange inks, and I realized I'd not achieved perfection in the first place. Two of the four pens I have testing my 'home made' orange mixture are F's...not the M's or wider needed to test an ink...in my books..

So just cleaned out a Pelikan Silverx F, now loaded with pre-91 W.Germany re-hydrated Orange cartridge. The first orange I tried...almost back in the day, 12 years ago, and I liked it. Now...it don't shade.Lively enough, is not quite enough now.

The Dutch ink is red orange.

 

A Mutchler made Reform flighter F between a semi-nail and regular flex spread. The Kaweco Sunrise Orange, also needed a tad of rehydration, it being 5-6 years since I bought those cartridges. I'm wondering now if the pen was squeaky clean.

It is darker on Clairefontaine Triomph than on Oxford Optic and it shades...

I might call it a tad pumpkin....

 

Will have to let the Pelikan orange set for a while more to get the feed wet....in the meanwhile.......with the feed wet, it was orange.

 

MB Joyless has to be inked to compared to that old Pelikan Orange.

I cleaned out a 'clean' pen. glad I checked. An Italian made Pelikan 151, the same green as on a 120, in a 150 form...F.

Will come back with the MB Joyless report. MB Joy is a red orange ink...a slight tad more than the Akkerman ink.

 

What was interesting, is similar nibs making a difference in the same ink sample.

The F's of my black pens, a Pelikan Celebry and a Dupont Classic both regular flex.one darker, the other more orange. Those were with MB Joy and PE Apatite, a turquoise.

 

I tried to put just one drop in each sample, but ended up with 2-3. So could be off a lot, from the advice given to me.

MB Joy and Pelikan Aventurine, The green marbled pens, a Celebry F were considerable darker. and a Pelikan 381 OB...regular flex. The OB had/has lighter orangey shading parts than the F nib. (one of the reasons I like M&B for testing inks)

 

I could expect a difference between F and OB but not the real two toned shading.

Unfortunately....only half of the very same sample showed 'extreme' shading.

.........................

Akkerman Oranje Boven. is a good ink for those who don't want to spend a fortune on the LE MB Joy. A nice non shading red-orange ink.

In my pen Kaweco shaded but was a bit too dark...perhaps the pen was not squeaky clean...orange late pumpkin.

Antique re-hydrated Pelikan orange, is orange, but don't dance nor shade.

 

MB Joy and PE Apatite, a turquoise. Was the better mix, and the feeds and F nibs of the Dupont and the Pelikan are different enough to give remarkably different shades.

Eight pens inked in orange is a few too many.