Pelikan Blue Black

[carpedavid]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/4969157391_51b1276ce6_b.jpg

 

Pelikan Blue Black is a member of Pelikan’s 4001 ink line – their standard, bottled fountain pen inks. It is a pleasant blue-grey that reminds me of denim, and is moderately saturated while exhibiting a modicum of shading. The color of the ink is not dramatically affected by the color of paper – it lays down a consistent line on both bright-white Rhodia paper and off-white Moleskine paper.

 

Blue Black is a dry writing ink, which makes it a great choice for taming wet-writing pens. It’s about as dry as Lamy Blue, but provides much better lubrication. In my Pilot Falcon with a medium nib, this ink produces a line more like a fine nib. As a result, this ink demonstrates a very low level of feathering, show-though, and bleed through – even on the thin paper of a Moleskine cahier. Surprisingly, though, the drying time was longer than I expected – it took twelve seconds on Moleskine journal paper before it was smudge-proof.

 

When I ordered this ink, I was under the impression that it was of the waterproof variety. Alas, I was mistaken. According to Pelikan, this is not a waterproof ink. It’s permanent, in the sense that it is resistant to fading, but it is not waterproof. My testing reveals that it does possess a moderate degree of water resistance. Running it under water gradually reduced the strength of the line over the course of several minutes, and rubbing the ink while wet increased the rate of dispersion. Thus, I think it’s appropriate for addressing envelopes – a little rain won’t render it illegible – but wouldn’t be my choice for signing checks.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/4960629163_6c49f07cee.jpg

 

Pelikan inks come in both 30ml and 62.5ml bottles. While they’re not especially fancy, they’re aesthetically pleasing enough that they could sit atop one’s desk instead of in the drawer. The 62.5ml bottle that I purchased has nice, wide mouth, which is good, but also has a flat bottom, which I suspect will make soaking up the very last drops of ink more difficult than it needs to be.

 

Pelikan Blue Black is my first experience with Pelikan inks, and from what I’ve seen, it won’t be my last. It’s definitely geared to business use, as blue-black is a traditionally conservative ink choice, but it’s perfectly usable for personal journaling. While it’s not especially exciting, it is a good partner for my wet-writing pens, it’s inexpensive in quantity, and it behaves quite well on all of the papers I’ve tested it with. I predict that it will stay in my rotation – it’s a good, solid, workhorse of an ink.

 

Review notes: for the wide strokes, I used a Lamy 1.9 mm steel calligraphy nib on a Lamy Joy. For the narrow strokes, I used an EF steel nib on a Lamy Safari. The paper is bright white 80gsm from a Rhodia No. 16 Bloc Pad.

[piembi]

Thanks for this review!

Pelikan BB is my favourite ink for wet vintage German nibs, mainly vintage Pelikan nibs. IMO it looks best used with wet nibs. Sometimes I mix it 1:1 with Pelikan Blue.

 

The bottle is desinged to be standing on the side for the last fillings.

[geoduc]

Very nice! Your calligraphy makes this ink look as good as I've ever seen it.

 

I've been on a blue-black quest recently and I've found a couple that I like better than the Pelikan, but you're absolutely correct in describing it as a low cost workhorse that tames wet nibs. For those reasons, it will continue to hold a place in my rotation.

[Russ]

I disagree that PBB is not waterfast. Recently I conducted a test comparing Noodler's Polar Black, Pelikan Brilliant Black, and Pelikan Blue-Black. Writing was done with a dip pen. After a long, persistent spray in the kitchen sink, the following was noted:

 

NPB: absolutely permanent. No fading, wash-away, etc. Amazing.

 

Brilliant Black: Wash-away leaving brown letters.

 

Blue-Black: Wash-away of only the blue component. The darker black component remained immovable. Clear, crisp lines. It will run and smear during intial wetting, as when an envelope is exposed to rain, but when really soaked hard, all the blue seems to run away and the black remains behind. Waterfast enough for me!

 

I saved the test sheet and will post it once my new scanner is installed, probably later this week.

[Chrontius]

sweet mamba-jambas. If you (or anyone else) can compare this to Noodler's Legal Lapis on one scan, I'd be eternally grateful.

 

Maybe Lamy blue-black too?

Edited September 22, 2010 by Chrontius

[adam11]

Like this ink, but didn't found appropriate pen to use it yet.

BTW, nice review, like always

[Lloyd]

I disagree that PBB is not waterfast. Recently I conducted a test comparing Noodler's Polar Black, Pelikan Brilliant Black, and Pelikan Blue-Black. Writing was done with a dip pen. After a long, persistent spray in the kitchen sink, the following was noted:

 

NPB: absolutely permanent. No fading, wash-away, etc. Amazing.

 

Brilliant Black: Wash-away leaving brown letters.

 

Blue-Black: Wash-away of only the blue component. The darker black component remained immovable. Clear, crisp lines. It will run and smear during intial wetting, as when an envelope is exposed to rain, but when really soaked hard, all the blue seems to run away and the black remains behind. Waterfast enough for me!

 

I saved the test sheet and will post it once my new scanner is installed, probably later this week.

I've noticed that many washable inks, when heavily soaked into an absorptive paper, become water-resistant.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Many thanks for the Review, and the always impressive calligraphy. :clap1:

 

I very much agree that this ink is a very solid work horse.

 

It shares the dryness of the Pelikan Royal Blue, which will indeed counteract overly wet writers. For me, the greatest benefit of the dryness is its ability to perform well on pretty much any paper encountered in a typical work environment. It will hold its own on hard surface / less absorbent papers simply because of its colour, (unlike the Royal Blue).

 

As for the water resistance, I suppose it depends on one's methodology. For example, I don't 'scrub' the wet paper. For my 'Soapy Soak', I'll take some water from a typical sink of dishwashing water, which has a thimble of bleach, but not the dirty dishes! My intent is to emulate written pages involved in a domestic accident - not a concerted effort to eradicate what's written, or emulate an industrial / bio-chem lab HazMat incident.

 

I fully respect your methodology, and appreciate your clear explanation of that methodology.

Once again - FPN gains strength through diversity!

 

Oh, did I mention that it is indeed a good-looking ink?

 

Bye,

S1

Edited September 22, 2010 by Sandy1

[carpedavid]

As for the water resistance, I suppose it depends on one's methodology. For example, I don't 'scrub' the wet paper. For my 'Soapy Soak', I'll take some water from a typical sink of dishwashing water, which has a thimble of bleach, but not the dirty dishes! My intent is to emulate written pages involved in a domestic accident - not a concerted effort to eradicate what's written, or emulate an industrial / bio-chem lab HazMat incident.

 

Good point. I was testing with the idea of someone trying to clean a check of a signature. I think, too, that the paper that's being tested probably has a significant effect on an ink's waterproofness. My tests were all with Rhodia paper, which is highly feather-resistant, but is not at all absorbent. Those same qualities may make this ink less waterproof than on a more absorbent paper. Something to test!

 

Dave

[777]

Nice review, thank you. Most interesting color. I love your calligraphy as usual.

 

Regards,

777

[watch_art]

great review i love this ink!!! my favorite bb so far!

[mori45]

Thanks for the review. It seems like an interesting color--maybe it's just my screen, but it looks more purple than blue.

[ailleurs]

Is there really no greenish tinge at all to this ink? According to what I'm seeing on my monitor, there's just a lovely dark blue.

[Ondina]

Is there really no greenish tinge at all to this ink? According to what I'm seeing on my monitor, there's just a lovely dark blue.

 

No, there is no green, it is a quite intense dark blue in wet pens that turns darker and grayer overtime. And Russ is correct, regardless of what paper used it is one f the more waterresistant inks in the market.

[kwpalzang]

Do any of you guys know anything of the iron-gall content of this ink?

[piembi]

Do any of you guys know anything of the iron-gall content of this ink?

This is a water based ink. No iron-gall.

[kwpalzang]

Yes, it is a water based ink. However, iron-galls are water based too. Fountain pen inks are water based. I inquire because there was a thread a while back : https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/137998-pelikan-blue-black/page__st__30 with a post about that. I wanted to ask just for further confirmation because I want to try an iron-gall ink, and at the same time, I want to try this ink, so if this is an iron-gall ink, then I'll be covering two of my bases. The shading and properties of the ink might make it a good addition to my daily rotation.

[Oranges and Apples]

The ink and the review looks amazing. Thank you.

[Garageboy]

After reading a buncha posts about people who hate this ink because its too bleh, it's beautiful to see someone showing us its true potential.

[piembi]

Pelikan Blueblack is the ink for a real wet nib.

 

I am using many vintage Pelikans or other German piston fillers from the 1950s/1960s. Those nibs are wet writers and don't work well with modern inks - but love a dry ink like Pelikan BB.

Edited September 29, 2010 by piembi