Montblanc Permanent Gray

[yogalarva]

As much as I love bright, cheery inks, I’m really a sucker for sort of boring colors - brown, gray, blue-black… I feel like these colors have so much potential to be really interesting with just the right twist, so they hold my interest much more than some of the neon inks.

 

 

I received a sample of this ink from a friend, though he had no idea that it had also been on my wishlist of inks I wouldn’t mind getting for Christmas. Turns out, I’m quite glad that I did not get a full bottle of it because it is not one of my favorites.

 

 

This is the first MontBlanc ink I’ve ever tried, and I expected it to feel a bit more… premium. Similar to Iroshizuku, in that it is a joy to put pen to paper. This ink was more troublesome than I am willing to put up with on a regular basis and I frequently had my pen run dry, something that I’ve never had happen with other inks. Granted, it could have been the pen and not the ink, but when I did my swab I found that it dried very fast and did not pucker the paper the way that I expect when paper gets wet. Which leads me to think that this is a dry ink by nature.

 

 

On the plus side, it is what I would consider 100% waterproof. I promise that I did actually do a drip test on the above sample, but the ink would not budge at all.

 

Overall, this is not an ink that I would recommend. I think that you could get a much better experience by simply diluting a waterproof Noodler’s ink, like Heart of Darkness, and then you still get all the same properties and hopefully better flow. And, when you dilute an ink yourself, you can tune it to exactly the shade of gray you prefer.

 

Full page scan of the review here.

 

This ink was sent to me for the purpose of review and I am not being compensated for this review in any way. All opinions above are my own and you are free to disagree with them if you like.

[visvamitra]

Quite interesting. Thank you for the review.

[PS104]

Nice review but I kind of dislike the reference to an outside link which one is 'encouraged' to open an account

Thanks but no thanks

The reviews on FPN should be self-contained and I wish the mods would delete reviews that have such outside links. If you have something to say, say it here.

 

Full page scan of the review here.

 

 

[yogalarva]

Nice review but I kind of dislike the reference to an outside link which one is 'encouraged' to open an account

Thanks but no thanks

The reviews on FPN should be self-contained and I wish the mods would delete reviews that have such outside links. If you have something to say, say it here.

 

 

I apologize if this format has caused any kind of inconvenience and if the mods decide that this is against the spirit of the FPN boards, I can certainly modify my posting methods. I want to make the scanned review available for viewing at 400 dpi, which makes the file size ~3 MB and therefore too large to directly post here or on my blog. This simply seems to be the most convenient way to make such a file viewable online. I have no vested interest if anyone uses Evernote or not and for the most part all the vital information is posted directly in my review and the full page scan is simply for anyone else who is curious.

[jasonchickerson]

Nice review but I kind of dislike the reference to an outside link which one is 'encouraged' to open an account

Thanks but no thanks

The reviews on FPN should be self-contained and I wish the mods would delete reviews that have such outside links. If you have something to say, say it here.

 

 

I like the idea for self-contained reviews here, but..

 

This site's upload manager is overzealous in compressing the scans. It is simply not possible to upload photos to this forum which have the vibrancy and depth of the offline photos, even when care is taken with out of gamut colors.

[wastelanded]

I bought a bottle of this on a whim and have yet to try it, but now I'm more inclined to!

 

Regarding pics, just drop the full-res files in flickr or photobucket and paste the link here.

[Axial]

Grey inks are never majestic, in my opinion (OK, except J.Herbin Stormy Grey with its golden dust) . They are watered down blacks by necessity (there is no such thing as grey, or white, dye).

 

Most Montblanc inks are on the dry side. Not as dry as Pelikan 4001, but if you prefer free flowing inks you may want to look elsewhere.

[fireant]

I actually like this ink. I like to sketch and doodle and I think this would be an awesome ink to use for that. It reminds me of soft pencil marks on paper and I like that it's permanent.

 

Thank you so much for this review.