Montblanc Permanent Black

[jhataway]

I also bought both the blue and black. The blue is waterproof, but the black is not. I returned the black to Montblanc, and have been told that a replacement is in the mail. I will check it out upon arrival. I think a mistake was made at the packaging stage wherein regular black ink was put into the permanent package.

[Bigeddie]

That's a scary development, my bottle was extremely water resistant. Might be a batch problem.

[carlos.q]

I recently bought a bottle of this ink in the Tampa MB boutique and it is, not only extremely water resistant, but also very black and nicely lubricated. Expensive but nice.

[jhataway]

When the first cartridge pack I bought turned out to contain a washable black ink, Montblanc customer service readily agreed to send a replacement pack. It arrived today, and the ink is, again, not permanent. I sent a note to customer service informing them of the findings. I would not advise members to buy the permanent black (at least in cartridge form) until this problem is resolved. But I don't know how we will know when it is resolved.

 

I should add that the first pack of cartridges was purchased from Pen Boutique, and the replacement pack came from Montblanc's distribution center in Ft. Worth, so the problem isn"t isolated to a particular source.

 

I got an email from Montblanc customer service saying that they had referred the ink problem to Montblanc Germany, so maybe the problem can be discovered ans solved.

Edited February 25, 2014 by jhataway

[jhataway]

Hello again,

 

This note is a follow up on my earlier note re problems with permanent black not being permanent. There has been no info on this problem from Montblanc Germany, so the nice customer support people have agreed to send me a pack of permanent blue cartridges (my suggestion) as a replacement. Back to Noodler's black.

[BillZ]

jhataway,

Don't know about the newer ink but the older Blue-Black was only water resistant in the bottle. Cartridges were not. I hadn't heard that this policy changed but I don't use MB Black ink.

[jhataway]

Montblanc customer service told me that the formula for permanent black was the same for bottles and cartridges. The box that contains the cartridges states that it is ISO 14145-2 compliant. So, I am fairly sure that it is suppossed to be permanent black. But the cartridges I received from two different locations contained a washable black. I know that this problem probably represents a relatively small quantity of total production to date, but it happened.

[BillZ]

Hope you are right about the "small quantity". I have a Starwalker and normally refill empty cartridges with a syringe so I can use my old-style

bottled Blue-Black. I was wanting to try the Permanent Black in cartridge to same time and effort. I shall check with my ink monger when I go to

Houston in two weeks.

[BillZ]

Just checked at the MB web site and both permanent Blue and Black are "currently not available". Maybe they are working on a fix. We shall see.

[jhataway]

Today I received from Montblanc two permanent blue cartridge packs to substitute for the one pack of black cartridges that turned out to contain a washable ink. Thanks to the service reps who came through in fine style. Hope the problem with the black gets sorted out without much difficulty.

 

The blue ink is very pleasing, and is similar to Private Reserve American Blue in color but is a permanent ink.

[arashdeepsinghmann]

Hey Jhataway, is the MB permanent blue really same as Private Reserve American Blue in color?? American Blue is my favorite blue ink and if MB is similar color I would love to buy couple bottles .

 

Second question is will this ink stain ink window on Montblanc 146/149 fountain pens?? any experience anyone has here on staining?

I appreciate your help.

Thanks

[jhataway]

The MB blue looks very similar to PRAB to me when I look at both used to write on Rhodia white paper. Maybe not exactly the same, but close to my eye. So far, I have only used the MB ink in cartridges so can't say anything re staining.

[arashdeepsinghmann]

Thanks thats great. as long as it doesn't stain my MB pens I am up for it

[dneal]

I also bought the blue and black, with the same non-permanent results for the black...

[jhataway]

I count four people ( including me) that have found the black ink to be washable instead of permanent. So, maybe I'm not dillusional after all. Also noted that these permanent inks are not currently available from the Montblanc website, so maybe they have recognized the problem with a fix in the works. I have seen no problems with the blue ink, however, so the problem could be just with black.

[lapis]

However similar one might find that MB permanent blue and Private Reserve American Blue look, there is no way that they are the same (as re formulation and/or manufacturing).

 

Mike

[jhataway]

I never said they were the same. Just similar in appearence.

[Jordan N]

I’m a little bit disappointed, MB should not allow this kind of mess. Many people use fountain pens for signature, so they need permanent ink.

 

Old midnight blue was not perfect permanent ink, but it was good enough to leave permanent marks on document. I think it was some kind of balance, the ink was permanent but didn’t clog MB pens. Also, the color was really nice.

 

It may be a good idea to wait for MB to clear this mess. In the meantime, I’ll try to buy few bottles of old, permanent midnight blue.

[georgeb]

MB Permanent Black works well for me, waterproof, nice flow, etc.

[petachiu]

The blue and black are both working well