Identifying MB West German ink

[DrWabbit]

I bought this half-used ‘vintage’ West German bottle of MB ink, unsure of whether I'd find sludge inside. It was sold as a blue ink. Indeed, looking through the glass, it does appear blue.

 

However, when I put the ink to paper, it appeared as something other than blue and quite unexpected to me. A pleasing colour. Unfortunately, I don’t have proper cards on which to do ink swabs at the moment, just some Rhodia paper for the sake of some kind of standardisation.

 

Compared to Waterman Serenity Blue, it does not appear to be blue, but more a type of green. But compared to MB Irish Green, it appears to be a type of teal. I’ve seen reviews of MB Racing Green, but this one doesn’t seem to be it?

 

Hoping that someone who is familiar with MB’s iron-gall inks can please help identify it.

 

 

 

 

 

[mizgeorge]

It looks like an original bottle of MB Emerald (from the 80s). This ink was reissued in 2018 in one of the square bottles, and is still available - and I believe the formulation is pretty much identical from reviews I've seen. From your sample, I would say there may have been some evaporation as it looks a little darker and more saturated than I would expect.

 

It isn't an IG ink though - the only discontinued ones I can think of were the blue black and midnight blue, and it isn't one of those.

 

 

[DrWabbit]

On 5/28/2021 at 6:47 PM, mizgeorge said:

It looks like an original bottle of MB Emerald (from the 80s). This ink was reissued in 2018 in one of the square bottles, and is still available - and I believe the formulation is pretty much identical from reviews I've seen. From your sample, I would say there may have been some evaporation as it looks a little darker and more saturated than I would expect.

 

It isn't an IG ink though - the only discontinued ones I can think of were the blue black and midnight blue, and it isn't one of those.

 

 

Many thanks for your reply and for solving the mystery! If there has been some evaporation, would you recommend diluting it slightly with distilled water? Or can I still use it safely in my pen as is, without risk of clogging?

[mizgeorge]

You can safely dilute it - but I would always do this in a vial rather than in the main bottle and use it fill-by-fill as the dilution isn't just about the dyes, but other components (biocide etc) in the ink. From the colour, you don't need to add a lot of water - I would start at about 10% and go up to no more than 25% if it needs it. 

[Dione]

I think it might be someone's own mixture. I have several old bottles of Emerald and none of them look anything remotely like this color

[DrWabbit]

On 6/1/2021 at 12:50 PM, Dione said:

I think it might be someone's own mixture. I have several old bottles of Emerald and none of them look anything remotely like this color

 

I cleaned out my pen from this ink, and the water looked very blue - and very unlike the appearance on paper.

 

 

[Frank C]

On 6/1/2021 at 3:50 AM, Dione said:

I think it might be someone's own mixture. I have several old bottles of Emerald and none of them look anything remotely like this color

I agree. This does not resemble closely any of my West German Montblanc inks. If the bottle was open when you purchased it, it could contain almost anything. I wouldn't put it in a pen that I wasn't willing to throw away.