Montblanc Inks

[Darius]

It's been a long time since I sat down and tested some inks.

I have done some reviews a few years ago of the MB inks that I had.

MB standard inks

MB scented inks

With the new inks that were released between then and now, I thought of testing the new ones and putting everything together in one place.

 

 

The older, recently discontinued, standard inks:

These were made in Germany, and came in the familiar shoe shaped bottles with 50 ml, or cartridges with 6 cartridges/pack. Inks in the bottles and cartridges are the same, except for the blue-black, which is an iron-gall in the bottled version.

Discontinued in 2010, some can still be found in shops.

 

Black

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7715/02black.jpg

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Blue-black bottles

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4567/03blueblackbot.jpg

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Blue-black cartridges

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Royal Blue

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/316/05royalblue.jpg

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Turquoise

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3678/06turquoise.jpg

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Emerald Green

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/9318/12emeraldgreen.jpg

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British Racing Green

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8529/11racinggreen.jpg

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Sepia

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5542/10sepia.jpg

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Violet

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/3501/07violet.jpg

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Ruby Red

http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/7182/09rubyred.jpg

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Bordeaux

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The new current standard inks:

When I first heard of the new inks, I thought they were the same inks that were renamed and repackaged. However, these are made in Austria, as MB changed their ink supplier. They are different than the previous ones, and come in a new redesigned bottle, that employs the same basic design with 60 ml, and come in cartridges with 10 cartridges/pack. As with the previous standard inks, the inks in the bottles and cartridges are the same, except for the Midnight Blue, which is an iron-gall in the bottled version.

Released in 2010.

 

Mystery Black

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3724/mb03mbtn.jpg

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Oyster Grey

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3451/mb04ogtn.jpg

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Midnight Blue bottles

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/7669/mb05mbbtn.jpg

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Midnight Blue cartridges

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Royal Blue

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9905/mb07rbtn.jpg

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Irish Green

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/4831/mb08igtn.jpg

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Toffee Brown

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3876/mb09tbtn.jpg

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Lavender Purple

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8299/mb10lptn.jpg

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Burgundy Red

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Special Releases

Since 2005, MB has released special inks in limited quantities. The first special releases were scented, and included an annual release near the end of the year around the Holidays time, from 2005 until 2009, of a Season's Greeting ink. Later special releases were not scented, and included inks released with LE pens.

Until late 2009, the inks were made in Germany, with the exception of the first scented ink "Love Letter Je t'aime ink" which was made in France, and since late 2009, these inks were made in Austria (same time as MB changed their ink supplier for standard inks). The last special ink made in Germany was the Gandhi Saffron ink, and the first one made in Austria was the Season's Greeting "White Forest" of 2009.

With the exception of the Gandhi Saffron ink, the special releases came in special 30 ml bottles, and most were available in cartridges (the inks released with pens came in bottles only).

 

 

Scented special release inks

 

Season's Greeting inks

These were made in Germany, with the exception of the last one which was made in Austria, and came in 30 ml bottles and cartridges with 6 cartridges/pack.

 

2005

Cookies & Spice scented Chocolate Brown

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/5066/05sg05.jpg

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2006

Cinnamon scented Chocolate Brown

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/795/06sg06.jpg

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2007

Fine Vanilla scented Dark Red

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/3334/07sg07.jpg

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2008

"White Forest". Pine scented Green

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1871/mbsg08s.jpg

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2009

"White Forest". Pine scented Green

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5293/mbs01sg09tn.jpg

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Love Letter inks

There are 2 scented "Love Letter" inks, the first was made in France and was MB's first special release ink in 2005. The second was released in 2008 and was made in Germany. They came in 30 ml bottles and in cartridges with 6 cartridges/pack.

 

2005 Je t'aime

Rose scented Ruby Red

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/3305/03jetaime.jpg

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2008 Love You

Rose scented Ruby Red

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4661/04loveyou.jpg

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Sakura

This was a market specific ink, released in Japan in 2007.

It was made in Germany, and came in a 30 ml bottle and cartridges with 6 cartridges/pack.

Sakura scented Cherry Red

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7043/02sakura.jpg

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Non-scented special release inks

 

Inks released with pens

These inks were released with and named after LE pens. There are three of them so far. They only came in bottles, and didn't come in cartridges. The first one, the Gandhi Saffron released in 2009, came in the old 50 ml standard shoe shaped bottle, then the new redesigned 60 ml bottle, and was made in Germany. The other two, Collodi and Hitchcock, were both released in 2011 and were made in Austria. They came in 30 ml bottles. The Hitchcock ink was the latest special ink, and was not available in some places until early 2012.

 

Mahatma Gandhi Saffron ink

Orange

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1143/mbs02gstn.jpg

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Carlo Collodi ink

Brown

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1263/mbs06cctn.jpg

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Alfred Hitchcock

Dark Red

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8732/mbs07ahtn.jpg

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"P.S. This ink being similar to the earlier released Ink of Love, which is also a dark red, is thought to be, by many, the same ink in a different package (actually, the bottles are the same, but the outer box is different. However, it is not. The two inks are different."

 

 

"Ink of" inks

This was a special line released in 2011, and was made in Austria. They came in 30 ml bottles and in cartridges with 10 cartridges/pack. It includes three inks: Ink of Love (dark red), Ink of Joy (orange) and Ink of Friendship (turquoise).

 

Ink of Love

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3796/mbs03iltn.jpg

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Ink of Joy

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6204/mbs05ijtn.jpg

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Ink of Friendship

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9248/mbs04iftn.jpg

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Now these are all the MB inks I have.

To recap and put them all together:

 

Overview page 1

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Overview page 2

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For Montblanc Meisterstuck Diamond Blue, please see here.

 

Now water resistance is always an issue with FP inks. So I usually test inks by running water for 5 minutes over a page written and left to dry for a day.

 

Older stabdard inks

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Turquoise and Emerald Green dissappear completely.

Black, Royal Blue and Ruby Red leave an illegible trace.

Blue-black cartridges and Bordeaux leave a faint legible line.

Bottled blue-black, violet, sepia and Racing Green leave a clear legible line.

 

New standard inks

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Mystery Black, Royal Blue and Toffee Brown have completely disappeared.

Burgundy Red leaves a very faint and difficult to read trace.

Both Midnight Blues, Oyster Grey Lavender Purple and Irish Green leave legible lines.

 

Special release inks

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The five Season's Greeting inks, and the Hitchcock leave a legible line.

The Love Letter inks, the "Inks of", the Collodi, the Gandhi and the Sakura completely disappear.

 

 

Sorry for the very long post and thank you for reading. I hope you find it helpful.

If I missed any ink, or there are any releases that I haven't included, please let me know.

Edited August 16, 2012 by saskia_madding

[Chrissy]

Thank you Darius for doing that review. :bunny01:

 

I found it particularly helpful as I usually prefer to use Mb inks in my Mb pens.

[torstar]

Thanks Darius, great work!!

[saskia_madding]

This is so amazing! Thank you for this. It makes me super jealous that I didn't get any Sakura.

[leod]

very nice compilation of inks/writing samples.

[Joane]

Wow! A monumental task, brilliantly accomplished! Thank you so much!

[PenTieRun]

I'll add my thanks as well. The side by side old with new comparisons are very helpful.

[Wael El-Dasher]

Fantastic review Darius! Thanks for taking the time, this is certainly a tremendous effort on your part. I think I'm getting old because I can't figure out the difference between ink of love and Hitchcock.

 

cheers

 

Wael

[Saphyx]

Brilliant

[reprieve]

This is a phenomenal resource. I can really see the subtle differences between the old and new inks. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[tenurepro]

Awesome, thanks! - should be pinned.

[yus2001fr]

Excellent review ! Thanks

[Darius]

Thank you for everyone's kind words. I'm glad that this was found to be helpful in some way.

[Bigeddie]

Fantastic resource, great for being able to compare one persons scans of multiple inks!

 

thank you.

 

PS. The difference in water resistance between the Blue Black and Midnight Blue is rather more striking than I would have expected!

Edited March 13, 2012 by Bigeddie

[jandrese]

Excellent work, thanks for posting this useful resource.

[Polleke]

Many Thanks for your great work ,Super

[el.Fakir]

Thank you Darius for your reviews. It's a great and complete guide to Montblanc inks. It's really nice to see all of them at one place. Since you seem to have all the colours it would be great if you could make a swab page showing all inks on one page.

[Darius]

Thank you Darius for your reviews. It's a great and complete guide to Montblanc inks. It's really nice to see all of them at one place. Since you seem to have all the colours it would be great if you could make a swab page showing all inks on one page.

It's a pleasure. You can find two links towards the end to two pages with all the inks sorted by colour.

[agentdaffy007]

Excellent ink comparaison. To me, it seems that the newer inks are more saturated. Done are the days of watered down ink from MB.

 

Except for Racing Green and Gandhi ink, i think the newer inks are much better.

[inky]

Great scans. Very easy to navigate and I really like that your comments are concise, and to the point. Thanks,