Pelikan Blue Black Discontinued In The U. S.

[radellaf]

I'm using 6:1 and, yeah, looks about right to me. In 250ml bottles it is about 7c/mL.

[The Good Captain]

I'll go along with that mix too. I did make up one similar - ignore the 'name'!

[Phormula]

I got a 10:1 mix of Pelikan's Royal Blue : Brilliant Black that looks very near Pelikan BB.

 

This is what I was doing in my school days... buy one liter (yes, it was sold in one liter bottles) of Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue, transfer half into a glass bottle, add one bottle (50 ml or so) of Pelikan Brillant Black, and here you go... Phormula's Productions Blue-Black. :roflmho:

[P.A.R.]

The same proportions of Pelikan violet and Brilliant Black yield a very pleasant dark purple - and it has amazing flow out of my Ahab.

 

EDIT

 

It seems to me that unless you want to only use Pelikan Blue Black, it's best to buy a bottle of blue (or their other colors) and black and do some mixing. You'd have access to at least three colors that all perform pretty well.

Edited March 31, 2012 by P.A.R.

[CaptainGroovy]

I went a did a little hunting and Pam at apenloversparadise.com still has a small supply of Pelikan Blue Black. They also have in stock some of the Pelikan 1871 style bottles (these are the bottles with the pen rest built in) of ink in Royal Blue if you are interested.

[lsmith42]

Well... My SO just gave me a bag of EIGHT bottles of Pelikan BB she smuggled in from Amsterdam... And yes, that's all she smuggled... Even put it on the customs form and everything... No one was paying attention I guess.

 

The best part: she told me that if I wasn't going to use it all (!), I could sell some, and she would bring more on her next trip! Gotta love a girl that gets what we are on about!

[ruckin]

Hmm, two weeks ago I picked up a bottle in Barcelona. I was there for meetings and was in need of some ink.

[gregamckinney]

If you are willing to somewhat overspend for it (12GBP for a 62.5ml bottle,) check out ebay seller signmaterialsdirect.

I just bought a bottle from them (more for the dryness than for the color or other properties) and it was a great transaction.

 

Regards, greg

[Gcouch]

And there goes one of my favorite inks... one would think that they would give us customers some notice, so we would have time to swich. Time to stock up all I can get.

 

I guess the only saying that applies is: alll good things must come to an end. Not very satisfying, is it

[stefanv]

FWIW, I just did an in-depth comparison of the Pelikan Blue-Black (new bottle I bought in December in Germany) with the new Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite (their "boutique" blue-black, samples kindly provided by Brian Goulet). It can be found on my web site, complete with high res scans of both inks with four different pens on seven kinds of paper:

 

www.stefanv.com/pens/pelikan-blue-black-and-edelstein-tanzanite.html

[shiaokun]

Hi, newbie here,

 

I recently came across a bottle and bought it as the packaging/design reminds me of an old bottle of Royal Blue washable I have. I am guessing my RB is older as it has no bar-code on the box while this BB has.

 

But what led me here is the "strange" color of this bottle of BB. It is not blue black as I am used to. It is more like light grey with a green-ish hue. I drew some lines for the comparison (all Pelikan 4001): BB-Turquoise-Brilliant Red.

 

One of the older post (#33) also mentioned this strange color. I am using an Osmiroid 65 with Italic Broad Straight nib. Have not tried it with other pen although I don't understand how a different pen can yield a different color...

 

Or maybe we just got a bad bottle?

[The Good Captain]

I spotted another post about it on here somewhere, quite recently and it recommended shaking the bottle slightly before filling. I tried that yesterday and I got a bluer-looking result with all the lovely ageing characteristics happening too.

Still a favourite ink.

[Vignette]

Well... My SO just gave me a bag of EIGHT bottles of Pelikan BB she smuggled in from Amsterdam... And yes, that's all she smuggled... Even put it on the customs form and everything... No one was paying attention I guess.

 

The best part: she told me that if I wasn't going to use it all (!), I could sell some, and she would bring more on her next trip! Gotta love a girl that gets what we are on about!

 

True Love.

[fiberdrunk]

Hi, newbie here,

 

I recently came across a bottle and bought it as the packaging/design reminds me of an old bottle of Royal Blue washable I have. I am guessing my RB is older as it has no bar-code on the box while this BB has.

 

But what led me here is the "strange" color of this bottle of BB. It is not blue black as I am used to. It is more like light grey with a green-ish hue. I drew some lines for the comparison (all Pelikan 4001): BB-Turquoise-Brilliant Red.

 

One of the older post (#33) also mentioned this strange color. I am using an Osmiroid 65 with Italic Broad Straight nib. Have not tried it with other pen although I don't understand how a different pen can yield a different color...

 

Or maybe we just got a bad bottle?

 

Iron gall inks don't last forever, so it has probably just aged. Is there sediment on the bottom of the bottle?

[shiaokun]

There is no sediment at the bottom. It was my first thought actually after I saw the strange color. I shook the bottle, filled another pen, and it's still the same color...i guess it's just aging? Although the box looks new, this bottle was made in...wait for it...W. Germany!

 

Now if only I can get someone I know to "bring" me some fresh stock...

[stefanv]

Pelikan Blue-Black is not an iron gall ink. However, old Pelikan Blue-Black does tend to lose its blue. I bought a dusty package of BB cartridges a couple of years ago, and they were pale grey too. I was almost turned off of the colour, but people kept telling what a nice deep colour it has, so I bought a fresh bottle in Germany last December, and they were right.

 

You can see what the ink is supposed to look like, with a variety of pens and papers, in my Comparison of Pelikan Blue-Black and Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite.

Edited August 18, 2012 by stefanv

[PenTieRun]

Pelikan Blue-Black is not an iron gall ink. However, old Pelikan Blue-Black does tend to lose its blue. I bought a dusty package of BB cartridges a couple of years ago, and they were pale grey too. I was almost turned off of the colour, but people kept telling what a nice deep colour it has, so I bought a fresh bottle in Germany last December, and they were right.

 

You can see what the ink is supposed to look like, with a variety of pens and papers, in my Comparison of Pelikan Blue-Black and Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite.

This was exactly my experience: bad cartridges, then great bottle.

[shiaokun]

Wow! Great and thorough comparisons! Thanks. Indeed that deep blue color is more like what I remember. Now I need to look for a fresh bottle...

[Runnin_Ute]

Well that sucks....

 

Absolutely love this ink. Have been using it my Lamy Alloy. I have never seen any green tinges, turns to nice dark color. I use bottle exclusively. Do I on occasion see a bit more grayish blue than blue black? Sure. But it is the exception not the rule. Whether I am using the back side of something that came out of my HP printer or the highest quality paper I use - a Southworth Granite patterned 25% cotton 24 lb bond in gray. On that it looks almost black.

[fiberdrunk]

Hi, newbie here,

 

I recently came across a bottle and bought it as the packaging/design reminds me of an old bottle of Royal Blue washable I have. I am guessing my RB is older as it has no bar-code on the box while this BB has.

 

But what led me here is the "strange" color of this bottle of BB. It is not blue black as I am used to. It is more like light grey with a green-ish hue. I drew some lines for the comparison (all Pelikan 4001): BB-Turquoise-Brilliant Red.

 

One of the older post (#33) also mentioned this strange color. I am using an Osmiroid 65 with Italic Broad Straight nib. Have not tried it with other pen although I don't understand how a different pen can yield a different color...

 

Or maybe we just got a bad bottle?

 

 

Iron gall inks do age, especially if there is a lot of air in the bottle. The IAMPETH website has a .pdf file called "Freshening Up Iron Gall Inks." It's probably intended more for traditional iron gall inks that require a dip pen, rather than the fountain pen kind. But it might be worth trying the experiment to salvage the ink. From the document:

 

Unlike some

ink preparations that require stirring, the sediment that gathers at the bottom of the bottle

should NOT be stirred or mixed prior to use. The reason is that the pigment in these ink

preparations is metal. When the ink is fresh the metal, usually iron, is dissolved and ‘in

solution’. The acidity of the ink helps keep the pigment dissolved in solution.

When iron gall type inks are exposed to air after writing the metal will precipitate ‘out of

solution’ and deposit on the surface. Once this occurs it will not re-dissolve. This can

happen in the bottle as the ink ages and a precipitate or sludge will build up on the bottom.

The relatively large and irregular particle size makes attempting to resuspend the sludge

impractical and writing impossible. As the ink gets older some of these insoluble particles

can float on the surface and cling to the nib when dipped into to the ink. Iron gall inks were

occasionally ‘freshened up’ by adding a few drops of an acidic solution such as vinegar or

lemon juice.

 

Read the rest of the document for instructions how.

 

I've read mixed statements as to whether Pelikan Blue-Black was an iron gall ink or not. Somewhere on this forum I remember reading that the ink was discontinued here in the U.S. because it was iron gall and there was some regulations about shipping this type of chemical ink here.

Edited December 8, 2012 by fiberdrunk