Montblanc Oyster Grey

[Wael El-Dasher]

Awesome review! Just fantastic....Thanks for all the amazing effort.

 

cheers

 

Wael

[ruud2904]

I was wondering if there is already an online source that is selling these new MB inks and is willing to ship internationally ???

 

Ruud

[Michael R.]

I was wondering if there is already an online source that is selling these new MB inks and is willing to ship internationally ???

 

Ruud

 

Try Rolf Thiel from missing-pen.de (missing-pen@t-online.de); he told me that he expects to get those inks very soon.

 

Rolf also ships internationally.

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[pixwriter]

The bottle's front compartment is to empty residue? What the....?

 

...this is funny and a case of lost in translation and not a case of solid ink residues which will clog your pen :roflmho: The German text means/translates to something like "the bottle has a front compartemt so you can use up small amounts of remaining ink when the bottle is almost empty" = ink residues .

 

 

Even more confusing, the midnight blue is an iron gall ink? Is that even safe for FP's?

 

As hollyuk writes: ...same as it ever was (OT: any Talking Heads fans here?)

 

Cheers

 

Michael

 

 

What may be lost in translation is the fact that the German language is quite literal in its meaning of describing something.

 

 

John

 

No argument there, it is easily done, as you only have to reverse the word order to get confusion ......... residual ink is not the same as ink residues .....

Edited February 1, 2010 by pixwriter

[DecafAmericano]

 

Wow, you learn something new every day. I didn't know they used iron gall in their ink. With all the warnings I see about IG ink, it was kinda unexpected.

 

Just flush periodically and don't let it dry out in your pen, and you wont' have a problem.

I flush once a month or two, less often if I'm refilling often, and in my 149, i've never had a problem in the past 15 years. I enjoy the vintage look and its water resistance. I use it to address my envelopes among a variety of purposes.

 

 

So - is this the purpose of the iron gall -- to increase water resistance? I didn't know that.

[Readymade]

That new bottle's gonna take some getting used to. I prefer the older design :/

[lensassaman]

I was wondering if there is already an online source that is selling these new MB inks and is willing to ship internationally ???

 

Ruud

 

Which ones do you want? You and I have to meet up soon anyway -- I can get them for 12.90 euro each from my local store.

[lensassaman]

Hello,

 

I don't see Bordeaux, Racing Green, nor Violet in that list. Will they dare not to produce them any more?

 

While I haven't compared the Burgundy with the Bordeaux, I can say the Lavender Purple is *identical* to the Violet in my eyes. It's been confirmed for a while now that British Racing Green is gone, to be replaced with a "greener" green, but it looks like the only difference between the old violet and the new purple is the packaging (oh, and the new inks are made in Austria, not Germany -- has anyone mentioned that yet?)

[lensassaman]

...this is funny and a case of lost in translation and not a case of solid ink residues which will clog your pen :roflmho: The German text means/translates to something like "the bottle has a front compartemt so you can use up small amounts of remaining ink when the bottle is almost empty" = ink residues .

 

That is exactly what has happened here. The German word 'Rest' translates to residue, but means rest in general.

Montblanc uses the word 'Restentleerung' in their German description, which according to most dictionaries is: emptying of residues, but actually doesn't have the connotation it has in English.

 

 

Yep. "Extracting of residual (ink)" would be a better way of translating it. The word is particularly confusing because when translated to English in the manner they have, they've made it ambiguous as to what the subject, and what the object, are. Effectively, it becomes confusing as to which direction the ink is being emptied -- into the pen, or into the compartment. They mean into the pen, but the native English speaker will find that parse to be awkward.

[ruud2904]

I have used the Oyster Grey for some time now in my L139 BB. At certain papers, postcards and heavy quality, rough writing paper, the ink flow of my L139 stopped whilst there is enough ink in the pen. On normal, smooth PC printing paper I have no problems with this ink. The pen is in good shape. Strange.... I switched back to MB Blue and no problems whatsoever. I have to this grey in other pens.

 

Does anybody else noticed this with the MB Oyster Grey or am I the only one ?

[Blade Runner]

No problems here using various 100% cotton stationery and correspondence cards and wood pulp paper.

[Michael R.]

I have used the Oyster Grey for some time now in my L139 BB. At certain papers, postcards and heavy quality, rough writing paper, the ink flow of my L139 stopped whilst there is enough ink in the pen. [...]

 

Does anybody else noticed this with the MB Oyster Grey or am I the only one ?

 

I've noticed something similar but have not used Oyster Grey extensively enough to draw conclusions yet.

 

From my initial experience it is not the "best flowing" ink....

 

Michael

[gelshocker]

Wonderful colour, is it like write with a pencil?

 

IMHO yes, very much like writing with a pencil. I'm not sure I like it very much. I am writing with a Waterman Charleston M nib. Maybe I'll try with a wetter pen.

 

For a 'Oyster' grey I was hoping for more tones & textures with wisps of 'silver' effect :embarrassed_smile: Not sure how that's possible but that's my impression of 'Oyster' grey. The new bottle's nice, Cheers.

Edited April 9, 2010 by gelshocker

[TWRDO]

I picked up a bottle of Oyster Grey not too long ago. I pretty much concur with Michael R's Review. This is only the 2nd MB ink I've tried, so I can't compare it to the others, but compared to Racing Green, it's certainly on the dry side of things. In a dry writer, it's quite light (too light for me), and doesn't have enough lubrication. In a wetter-writing pen, however, it's a very different story. It's an attractive dark grey, fairly neutral with some warm hints, with good lubrication and pretty nice shading, even on "cheaper" more absorbent papers. I won't be using it in all my pens, but it will certainly see use in my wetter pens.

[stephenchin]

I too am finding flow problems with this ink--in a normally wet writing Pelikan M800 with a BB nib. Normally the pen is decent at feeding the thirsty nib, but with Oyster Grey I have lots of skipping and stopping--I can even see the ink run dry between the spread tines. Ironically, in my Parker 51, the capillary action of the hood keeps the ink flowing--but it looks so pale it's like light pencil lead out of the fine nib.

 

This ink can look beautiful when it's flowing through a broad, wet nib: great color, depth and shading. But performance issues are a problem. I will post later if I find a pen that can work well with it.

[kokoma]

thank you immensely for the comparison of the greys. they are wonderful!

[perdu]

Thanks for a very nice review. I wanted to like this colour but it skips my my 146 B and although it's better in my 149 F it spreads a few seconds after I lay it down in both, so what starts as a crisp line never ends up that way. . Looks ugly. Something I've never had with my usual blue/black MB.

[PDW]

Reading here that Oyster Grey is a dry ink, I filled my broad-nibbed grey Eversharp Streamliner which Diamine Twilight had turned into a paintbrush - and the result is very pleasing. Well-controlled, and some rather nice shading. So thanks, people!

 

BTW I notice that the ink's box has a date on a sticker - Oct 2015. Never heard of an expiry date on an ink before. Any comments?

[mrphyig]

BTW I notice that the ink's box has a date on a sticker - Oct 2015. Never heard of an expiry date on an ink before. Any comments?

 

I've got expiry dates written on my Montblanc ink bottles too. My impression is that this is to safeguard the company against claims rather than to denote a brand unusually susceptible to developing civilization. (I've got a couple of MB bottles well past their expiration dates which haven't changed their performance profiles since the day I first tried them.)

 

- Mr. P

[Ed44]

Is this ink available in cartridges yet? I haven't seen it in MB Boutiques yet?