Mont Blanc Petrol Blue (Colour Of The Year 2019)

[GregW]

What a beautiful review, it is both thorough and artistic - bravo !

I have a little anecdote about this ink below. 
Also, there is more on the origin of “Petrol blue” as a color on Wikipedia‘s French language page : it originated in the fashion industry in the early 20th century, shortly after the introduction of “electric blue”. 

So when I recently bought a new fountain pen (my first since high school - a Lamy 2000), I asked the sales person to fill it with some blue ink. As I liked the color of that random ink, I asked for its name and was told that it was MB’s Starwalker Blue Planet. Soon after, I had my Lamy 2000 serviced, as its nib was horribly scratchy. It came back in a perfect condition but empty.

As I had fallen in love with this ink, I went back to the store and bought a bottle of MB blue planet. But to my great disappointment, it was the wrong color. Blue planet lacks the teal. So I went back to the store with a writing sample of that mysterious ink and was sold this time Iroshizuku‘a Tsuki-yo and - just to be on the safe side - Lamy’s amazonite. But once again, it wasn’t the same ink! While a closer match than Blue Planet, Tsuki-yo still has less teal. And Lamy’s amazonite is way lighter and more turquoise.
God, I was so upset. As the store “only” sells inks by MB, Pelikan, Lamy and Iroshizuku, I studied their catalogs and jotted on a piece of paper “syo-ro” and “ky-jaku”. I always get confused with these Japanese names.

So back to the store I went, but again : these two inks were not the right match - they are both more greenish !

Puzzled, I looked at the sales lady, who said “look it must be an ink that we don’t have anymore“ and, taking her time to think about it, came up with the answer : “it must have been MB’s petrol blue, we had it on display - but I’m very sorry : it was a limited edition and we are out of stock.”

Needless to say that two days later, my nice Lamy pen was happily filled with Petrol Blue I found in another store. 
As to why I love this ink : besides its beautiful shading, it reminds me of the color of water in a mountain lake or a deep granite pool at sunset, like on the photo below. Purely subjective.

One might say, what a waste of time ! But you folks will surely understand 😉

Greg 

Edited December 6, 2020 by GregW

[Dione]

Excellent review. Thank you. 😀

[Chiroptera121]

This is the review that sold me on petrol blue awhile back 

[vtgt]

Lovely pictures,  but to me not petrol until a lot of ink is laid down. I note the green only comes out when it is applied thickly. Otherwise, a drab blue with watery shading.

[yoplaboum]

Thank you VERY much, namrehsnoom, for this review. I didn't know this ink, but I'm in love for these kinds of blue, and when I started yo hear about MB "Petrol blue", this page was one of the first reviews I found on the net, with the other french page with a Petrol Blue-Tsuki-yo comparison.

Reading these 2 pages, I found this ink was perhaps my Graal, my dreamed Petrol blue. I found a bottle (not so easy in March 2022), and Hallelujah ! This is it !! MY perfect blue, with gorgeous shadings, the perfect green touch, and an exquisite saturation. On my Pelikan-Sorowka-stub-grinded, this ink has a perfect flow, a perfect everything... My Graal, I told you 🏆 ! And the Montblanc guys really know how to package, to present an ink bottle.

 

So, just like Tom Kelly did, I looked for other bottles, now I will try to find the perfect recipe of MB Petrol Blue with the help of others inks. Right, the Tsuki-Yo is near, but more blue, the Diamine Eau du Nil and Ku-Jaku are near but more green. the Akkerman Israel's Zeeblauw is similar too...

Thanlk you again for your excellent review and your very usefull pictures !! 🙂

[bunnspecial]

FWIW, if one is looking for this ink, I'm still not convinced that Around the World in 80 Days Blue is not Petrol Blue in a different box...haven't checked availability recently but given that 80 Days is a more recent release it may be easier to find.

[yoplaboum]

20 hours ago, bunnspecial said:

FWIW, if one is looking for this ink, I'm still not convinced that Around the World in 80 Days Blue is not Petrol Blue in a different box...haven't checked availability recently but given that 80 Days is a more recent release it may be easier to find.

 

Bunnspecial, I found your post : "Montblanc Around the World in 80 Days vs. Petrol Blue vs. Blue Hour Twilight Blue", and that's right, the similar colors are disturbing...🤔

I found this other page : https://www.ink-addict.com/2021/08/around-world-in-80-days-montblanc.html

As told, the writing samples are very different from the color on the box : the samples are on the green side, like the Petrol Blue, but the color of the card box is a deep blue on the red side, like the Pilot Asa-Gao.

After my first Petrol Blue bottle I could find 2 more, but the next visit to the Montblanc store in Toulouse I will have an attentive look on this Around the World in 80 Days... 👍