Review: Montblanc Oyster Grey

[GutSchrift]

Please see the attached photo. Just a quick little review of an ink new to me -- which I love! Really enjoy this color. It's a very true grey color, but just dark enough to be more legible than other grey's I've used previously. Thank you!

 

Edited: Forgot to mention the paper -- Original Crown Mill Pure Cotton, A5

Edited May 10, 2013 by GutSchrift

[queenofpens]

^{Interesting, you seem to have gotten different results than I did in regard to lubrication and flow. Or it might have been the pen, an MB Cool Blue Starwalker.}

 

^{I started using it with some old MB turquoise I still had a partial bottle of - which was a very wet ink - and it liked that.}

 

^{It did not like the Oyster Grey, very hard starting and tending to skip even after it started.}

 

^{I also liked the color - which I would have called silver rather than grey, almost the color of sterling - so I diluted it with a couple of drops of clear dish detergent and a couple of drops of water.}

 

^{The Starwalker liked it much better that way. Although I may have overdone it a little, because now it feathers some on puzzle magazine paper. But I don't mind that as long as I can still read the letters.}

 

^{But I was annoyed that I got a bottle of MB ink, pretty expensive as ink goes, and an MB pen did not write well with it.}

[ShinyDemon]

I have some of this and I must admit to being ambivalent about it. It's an ink that really shows the differences in pen/nib combinations and qualities. I will be posting my own thoughts on this soon. I'm also concerned that this looks too much like washed out black.

[lapis]

I really like this ink. It is -- to a certain degree, just like a black -- inasmuch as everybody keeps on asking what is the "best" (i.e. "blackest" black). We may now be faced with the question "what is the best grey?". In the meantime I've become more interested in any special "character" of a colour. Any "pure" grey can be boring, but this MB grey has with its own very special touch of brown IMO a real reminiscence of oysters themselves. Thus...

 

... Yay!

[sny]

Very nice ink (I use it quite often myself) and beautiful handwriting!

 

Regards,

 

S.

[Pterodactylus]

http://imageshack.us/a/img534/9840/t81v.jpg

 

(Faber Castell Osmia 883 - OF ..... Mont Blanc Oyster Grey)

Edited July 18, 2013 by Pterodactylus

[cs4225]

I use this ink in my MB 149. Nice match.

[Russ]

Please help me. I can't imagine a practical use for Oyster Grey. Private correspondence, maybe. Other uses?

[provis]

The odd thing about Oyster Grey to me, is that it's light-grey with a pink tinge when it's fresh out of the bottle. But the same ink, once the water content has evaporated by about 30% (or leaving a pen untouched for about 2 weeks), writes a darker, slate grey that not only shades well, but doesn't exhibit any pink tinge at all.

 

Most inks just turn a darker colour when it loses water content. Oyster Grey changes color families!

 

Anyone experienced the same phenomenon before?

[lapis]

  On 5/15/2013 at 1:15 PM, Pterodactylus said:

http://imageshack.us/a/img534/9840/t81v.jpg

 

(Faber Castell Osmia 883 - OF ..... Mont Blanc Oyster Grey)

No harm meant but I see a hint of brown in my own batch as I had written above. I also see it GutSchrift's handwriting up at the top of this thread... and... in yours, too! That's what makes it so oysterish!!

 

Mike

[Pterodactylus]

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/43/8a5i.jpg

 

(Montblanc 264 - OBB ..... Montblanc Oyster Grey)

 

Also my software can´s see a real red peak.

Maybe a little bit in the dark areas, so I guess you have eagle eyes to detect it.

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/22/2g3l.jpg

[I like mango cheesecake]

I have this ink and used it in my 149 and was less than impressed. It is too washed out and looks too much like 2H pencil lead. I have since switched to a Diamine Grey which is much darker, but still a bit light for my liking. By MBOG is way to light. I have used perhaps 2ml out of a full bottle of this stuff.

[idazle]

I'm also ambivalent about this ink. On the one hand, I like the colour. I believe it's a true grey. I also like the shading and thinks that overall the ink produces very attractive texts.

 

On the other hand, I find it extremely dry and with flow issues. I guess it is an ink to be used with broad,extra broad or stub nibs, and nevertheless even with some broad nibs tend to narrow the lines. I don't think it presents skip issues, but looks like it does because sometimes, maybe because of its peculiar hue, it appears as if the pen were not writing at all.

 

To sum up, this is probably an ink to be used with some carefully chosen pens, and in that case the result can be superb.

Edited January 19, 2014 by idazle

[oregano]

  On 1/15/2014 at 7:18 AM, provis said:

The odd thing about Oyster Grey to me, is that it's light-grey with a pink tinge when it's fresh out of the bottle. But the same ink, once the water content has evaporated by about 30% (or leaving a pen untouched for about 2 weeks), writes a darker, slate grey that not only shades well, but doesn't exhibit any pink tinge at all.

 

Most inks just turn a darker colour when it loses water content. Oyster Grey changes color families!

 

Anyone experienced the same phenomenon before?

I saw a pink tinge too the first time I used it (on Tomoe River paper); I don't recall having the same experience with Rhodia, though. Having used it in the same pen on these two different papers, I think the flow differs depending on the paper, not the pen necessarily. I like how milky it looks on Tomoe River, but it can turn out a bit light for business use on bright white.

[Blade Runner]

A favorite of mine. It's a drier ink, so works and looks best (lots of shading) in a broad nib with generous flow.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Blade Runner

[Newjelan]

I loved the colour when I first saw it but have since developed mixed feelings about this ink. I think it looks nice on some paper and hideous on cream Tomoe River. I also find it can be dry.

[GutSchrift]

  On 1/19/2014 at 6:15 PM, idazle said:

I'm also ambivalent about this ink. On the one hand, I like the colour. I believe it's a true grey. I also like the shading and thinks that overall the ink produces very attractive texts.

 

On the other hand, I find it extremely dry and with flow issues. I guess it is an ink to be used with broad,extra broad or stub nibs, and nevertheless even with some broad nibs tend to narrow the lines. I don't think it presents skip issues, but looks like it does because sometimes, maybe because of its peculiar hue, it appears as if the pen were not writing at all.

 

To sum up, this is probably an ink to be used with some carefully chosen pens, and in that case the result can be superb.

I still really like this ink ever since posting the original review. I do find two characteristics though that probably narrow the range of admirers: it can be dry. I have mostly very wet Pelikans so that's not generally a problem for me. Also, it does change hue somewhat depending on the paper. Mostly its a wonderful standard grey, but it can look more brown. However, I've noticed that this is true with lots of different inks. I love J. Herbin's Blue Myosotis, but it looks positively violet on some papers and a wonderful soft true blue on others.

[ShinyDemon]

I've found that MBOG comes into its own as a dip pen ink. Like many a high-shading ink it looks stunning in copperplate. There is no shading, of course, but what you get is a dark grey with a black outline. Gravitas to burn.

[LargeSofa]

I like this ink too quite a bit... also vary it up with the new seaweed green that reminds me of this ink, but with a greenish tint.

[arrScott]

I've been using this ink for an extended period for the first time, and I've gone from ambivalent to pleased with it. The main thing is that for the first page or so of writing after a new fill, in several different pens, the ink has been very light. It seems to darken (or thicken?) after a bit of use. It's an odd phenomenon that I've never experienced with other inks, and the bad first impression has previously left me hesitant to use the ink. But once I get past that first light phase, the ink darkens just enough to be nicely readable for note-taking.