Montblanc Scented Ink, 2005 Or 2006 Limited Edition

[inkish]

Montblanc has put out some limited edition inks around Christmas time, and somehow I ended up with one, probably bought in Europe in 2007. Reading about them, it seems the silver cap on mine means it is from 2005, but the scent is heavy on cinnamon, so I am not sure. It seems the colour was the same both years, and a nice brown it is. Most browns are too light for my taste, or have an uneasy green tinge, or an unpleasant orange tendency. This one is a warm brown, quite rich.

 

 

I used three pens and mainly Clairefontaine Triomphe paper, a gift of a FPN member —thank you!

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3QdMl-7KMko/VnTMkMxZiBI/AAAAAAAABjs/hDtc_ANu0Ys/s1600/MB%2B1.jpg

 

 

Here's the back side of that sheet:

 

 

 

 

 

No surprise that there's no feathering on Clairefontaine, but feathering was minor on more ordinary paper. Here it is on a medium-quality notebook made in Indonesia:

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zTGAlJTrMSM/VnTMkGgA75I/AAAAAAAABjo/fZsjOzpUJtE/s1600/MB%2BIndonesia%2Bnotebook.jpg

 

And here is a higher quality notebook, made in Thailand. I like the brown better on this ivory paper.

 

 

 

Here's the quite yellowish Leuchtturm 1917, which had the longest drying time by far:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tuH2vQU7BZU/VnTMwHVI9kI/AAAAAAAABj4/-Jwrh4IqPoo/s1600/MB%2BLeuchtturm.jpg

 

There's not a whole lot of obvious shading.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gG7F3lV3hjo/VnTMwS5HARI/AAAAAAAABj8/Yc0AKChjjGU/s1600/MB%2BLE%2B2005.jpg

 

Though you can turn it up on coated paper, like this postcard:

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6PwZh83UlpY/VnTOTt6KqCI/AAAAAAAABkY/dQaAi-uTtsM/s1600/MB%2Bpostcard.jpg

 

I live in a monsoon area, so I am very interested in behaviour under water. For this water-drop test, I blotted the left half of the grid after about half a second, like I might do with an envelope that got rained on. The right side I let dry. This is my first review, and I didn't want to use another sheet of paper to do it again, so I will put this up as is. If I do another review, I will make two separate grids.

 

 

It might be a bit hard to read after a long soak, but there is a grey element in the dye that is permanent.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5ndmIsk54KE/VnTOiWyykNI/AAAAAAAABkg/_No2i-nfbl4/s1600/MB%2Bsoak%2B1.jpg

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Te1lnqKaV1g/VnTOy8wvDTI/AAAAAAAABko/BTo1_0D6D7E/s1600/MB%2Bsoak%2B2.jpg

 

 

And finally, a close-up of the comparison with other inks. The brush pen and the first three are the Montblanc. I actually like both the other browns I have (Burma Road Brown is more a khaki for me), but right next to Montblanc's seasonal brown, they lose a lot of appeal.

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2gloaBU75tU/VnTNObDSU-I/AAAAAAAABkE/Uf960UPO2-o/s1600/MB%2Bcomparison.jpg

Edited December 19, 2015 by inkish

[lgsoltek]

It looks very nice!

[northstar]

Nice review, thank you.

[visvamitra]

Exceellent review! Thank you.

[lapis]

Thanks for the nice review. A good -- as you say, rich, dark but warm brown -- IMO in the league of Grand Canyon and/or Galileo Manuscript. Yes, it came out in 2005 and in 2006 as well. Neither the bottle or the box says anything except Season's Greetings SCENTED INK. But the box does include the IDENT. NO. 101265. The same story about labelings (or non-labelings) appears on the 2007 edition (same box and bottle shape, black lid, but vanilla-scented, dark red and IDENT. NO. 102092.

 

Mike

[inkish]

Unfortunately, I lost the box long ago, if I ever had it. On the bottom, it has a figure of some sort, and then '20'.

[ScienceChick]

I got two bottles of brown, cinnamon-scented Season's Greetings at the Dallas Pen Show this year. The bottle cap is black and the Ident# is 38272.

[inkish]

Is it the same colour again? Same properties? Please let us know if you review it.

[inkish]

I did another soak test, to see if the dryness of the pen made any difference. It seems to. I diluted it about 50% with water, and wrote a B which was almost washed away by the soak. The one I labelled Lamy was actually the Loom, medium, the same as I wrote most of the review with.

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hiM7jlPuqmw/VoTGDvqCibI/AAAAAAAABlk/Mua6VQGG96s/s1600/MB%2BBrown%2Bsoak%2Btest%2B2.JPG

Edited December 31, 2015 by inkish

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for a great review and welcome aboard!

[mehandiratta]

I love your handwriting and the review...

thank you

[rudyhou]

i would enjoy this ink. given that i'm a fan of brown inks and cinnamon flavor.