Slime In Lavender Purple Ink Cartridges

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

So today, my Montblanc special edition kept on having odd problems. It would act as though the cartridge inside was empty even though it wasn't. So, I decided to clean my pen, and this is what I found.

 

First there was a weird bit of slime covering the opening of the cartridge. I gently pulled it out. As you see, the cartridge looks funny. There are bubbles there. Why?

 

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3718/10162411273_d13a343be9_b.jpg

 

So, after removing most of the ink from the cartridge, I discovered why there were the bubbles. Usually there aren't all that many bubbles that refuse to pop in the cartridge. There is a large blob of slime in the cartridge.

 

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2855/10162175784_7fe7ff7b31_b.jpg

 

I did some more cleaning, and here is our slimy friend suspended in the cartridge

 

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2863/10162176744_5f92326075_b.jpg

 

After pulling that out, I pulled out another piece of slime in the cartridge. Here it is inside of a glass pipette.

 

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5542/10162178314_facdd3c7f7_b.jpg

 

This is the smallest piece of slime. The others could not get sucked into the pipette. I pulled the biggest one out using the suction of my glass pipette to drag it out of the cartridge.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7392/10162287475_ac32eff646_b.jpg

 

 

Needless to say, I called Montblanc customer service right away. This is the second cartridge from this pack with a slime problem, and the other cartridge only had one small bit of slime which I thought was just plastic or some odd residue in the cartridge. This one had the worst slime problem I've seen in any of these cartridges. I also flushed my pen out very carefully and several large pieces of slime came out. I'm not taking it apart. If it needs more serious cleaning, I'm sending it to Montblanc service. Montblanc told me that they would clean it for free since this is the only ink that the pen has seen and the pen is fairly new. As soon as it came out of the box, I filled it with this ink. I only have one cartridge of this ink left, and my first two cartridges were fine. My third had a tiny piece, my fourth, fifth, and sixth didn't have anything, and this seventh cartridge was really nasty. The eighth I'm not even trying out. The person at Montblanc told me she'd contact me tomorrow once she gets in touch with the repair people as well as the people at Montblanc HQ.

 

I wonder if this was the reason the ink was withdrawn. I've called Montblanc customer service several times asking about it and got a different answer each time. I've also spoken to my local boutique and got yet another answer. They told me that it will be reformulated and reintroduced. If it is reintroduced, I might talk to my local boutique and see if I can exchange my existing stocks of Lavender Purple. I made sure to give the customer service representative the lot code of my pack of cartridges. I'm also keeping an eye on my other C/C pen filled with this ink although that pen is filled from the bottle and not from these cartridges.

 

Odd, but I'm sure it can be sorted. Montblanc has been really courteous about it and all. I've not had any problems with slime since I quit using Private Reserve more than seven years ago. This was unexpected. As this is a rare occurrence, I still see myself using Montblanc inks for the foreseeable future.

 

Dillon

Edited October 8, 2013 by Dillo

[Chrissy]

This may well be one of the reasons why that particular Lavender Purple was withdrawn.

 

Montblanc will be reintroducing a reformulated version so if I was you I would wait for that. I bet your boutique would exchange your pack of cartridges for a new one under the circumstances.

[Dillo]

My last cartridge seems to have slime in it too. I haven't opened it yet, but it looks like it's there. It also looks odd. In most circumstances, as in the good Montblanc cartridges, you typically only get one bubble on the top. In this one, You get the same bubble patterns as in my very first picture up top. Very odd. It's probably from the slime. I can promise you that I didn't shake anything to get it like that. I'll be retaining it if it's needed for anything later.

*sigh* I guess I'll just have to wait. I guess it was a pretty good call to use only MB ink in this MB pen. No one can blame it on anything else. The pen wasn't inked with anything other than this specific Montblanc ink. I even put the complimentary cartridge of Mystery Black in a different pen.

 

Dillon

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

After cleaning the pen yesterday with water, the pen bloomed. So today, the pen got cleaned, and I disinfected it and the empty cartridges I have with a special pen-safe solution. I reinked the pen with Montblanc Lavender Purple from the bottle, and it seems to behave differently than the Lavender Purple in any of the cartridges. The color seems much better, flow is better, and the ink doesn't seem to get so weird after sitting in the pen for some time. This is consistent with my experience with the ink in a different pen that I have that I filled from the same bottle. It seems much better behaved. I wonder what the problem was with the cartridges. Were the inks in the bottles and cartridges different? Maybe the machine that filled the cartridges got contaminated. I know some companies use different inks in the cartridges and the bottles. Cross is an example. Their cartridges are bought from a different company than the ink bottles. I'm not sure if the names of the companies are classified or not, but I can tell you that the ink bottles are from Pelikan. The cartridges are not. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell you who does the cartridges.

 

Dillon

Edited October 11, 2013 by Dillo

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

This is a new development. Today, when I uncapped two of my pens, including my MB, that were filled with MB Lavender Purple ink from a bottle instead of the cartridges, I found that they had grown mold. I contacted my MB, and my MB is going back to them to get the ink feeder and feeder case replaced and the pen in general disinfected. The customer service representative made sure that I marked on my cover letter that feeder case and ink feeder BOTH had to be replaced. This time I was able to contact someone more knowledgeable who also informed me that the reason for withdrawal was actually due to the preservatives in the ink failing.

 

Previous reasons they mentioned

"The ink colour just went out of fashion. There wasn't anything wrong with it."

"There were viscosity problems."

"The ink wasn't performing properly"

This last explanation about the preservatives in the ink failing makes more sense, and for the record, mould does stop ink flow and make ink flow erratic in my personal experience when using a mould infested Montblanc.

 

Take a good look. My MB looked like this, but worse. The feed and nib was covered.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7437/11228516555_0d7dd99748_b.jpg

Full Size

 

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3773/11228629653_b36257f59d_b.jpg

Full Size

I recommend that people with the Lavender Purple be cautious and watch their pens. When usage is discontinued, make sure that the pen is carefully cleaned. The Platinum in the picture has been cleaned and is being disinfected to kill any remaining mould spores. Montblanc was nice and provided me two bottles of ink, Royal Blue and Burgundy Red, to replace my two bottles of Lavender Purple.

 

Dillon

[Ghost Plane]

Eew! Sounds like MB ran into the same SITB problems as Herbin once the EU reg changes messed with tried & true formulations.

[mirosc]

yuck!

Lavender Purple is my favorite ink in a 146 from the 1950s and now I'm starting to worry...

[Dillo]

Yes, ghost plane, quite possibly. I've never had a problem like this with MB ink before, and I'll continue using MB ink, albeit not the Lavender Purple for the time being.

 

Mirosc, you might want to clean up the pen while you still have time and fill it with something different. Look it over with a loupe. Sometimes it doesn't bloom all fuzzy, it shows its tendrils right where different parts of the pen meet. Keep an eye out for anything that looks like bits of "plastic" or black bit or bits in general that are coming out of your pen when you are cleaning. That is likely mould. Pilot ink still contains phenol, and filling your pen with Pilot blue for instance and keeping that in the pen for some time, might kill the mould. The pen would still need to be taken apart for cleaning to remove any solids from the mould. You would want someone familiar with the pen to do that for you.

 

Dillon

Edited December 6, 2013 by Dillo