Who wants to make their own Montblanc Racing Green ink?

[Chrissy]

I have some old MbRG cartridges, plus a part bottle of MbRG and I decided to have a look at them to see if they were the same. Not that I mistrust the half bottle that I bought on ebay, but I love playing around with ink and it was MbRG's turn. :)

I recently bought a mixed box of inks, and in there was an old plastic Mb bottle that originally contained black ink. It had dehydrated to powder, so I just put some distilled water in there to see what happened. A few days later, I had black ink and no sediment in the bottom. That was a good start! Then I did a chroma test on that ink.

I do chroma tests on almost every ink that I buy, so that I know what dyes made it. Just cut a piece of kitchen roll into strips of about 1" wide or slightly less, get a cotton bud. Very gently just dip the bottom part of the cotton bud into the ink (so as not to waste too much) and dab it onto the towel strip about an inch up from one end. Then put a piece of sticky tape on the other end and hang up the strip ideally on a shelf where you have another shelf below. Then on the lower shelf, stand a glass half full of tap water and let the bottom of the towel strip touch the water in the glass by not more than a few mm. The water will soak up the strip and take the original dyes up with it. Don't leave it too long though. Just until you can see the water level on the strip is clear of the last dye - a couple of minutes.

The chroma test on the black ink that I had rehydrated showed it contained blue and yellow/orange dyes, with a little black between them. An unusual result for black ink.

Then I did the same chroma tests on my MbRG cartridges, (one from each of two different packs) One chroma tested as the same blue dye that was in the black ink plus yellow dye. Slightly more yellow that that in the black ink, plus a little black in between them.

From that result, I now have a simple recipe to make MbRG. Using two plastic pipettes or syringes, add equal amounts of Montblanc Royal Blue and Montblanc Golden Yellow into a sample vial. Then get a wooden cocktail stick or kebab stick and carefully dip the end into Montblanc ordinary black ink. Stir the mixture in the sample vial with the end of the cocktail stick. That makes the dark green ink. Swab test that on a cotton bud to test how dark it is. Very carefully add tiny, tiny amounts of black on the end of the cocktail stick, and keep swab testing until it's a good dark green. If it's a little on the blue side, add another drop of Golden Yellow. Please don't add too much black or it will be too dark. :)

I compared it against my MbRG cartridge and they were exactly the same colour. :)

Happy Mixing. :)

[datainadequate]

I probably don't want to make MbRG, but I was wondering just last night wondering how to do chroma tests. Thanks for the detailed instruction :)

[FredRydr]

Chrissy,

Are these MB's new inks only, in particular, the black? (Guess who has too much unopened MB black in the old bottles?)

Fred

[distracted_mom]

Thanks for giving an official term to my kitchen chemistry. I thinks it's fascinating to see the different components of the inks! My family is not so impressed though. They don't know good fun!


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[Chrissy]

Chrissy,

Are these MB's new inks only, in particular, the black? (Guess who has too much unopened MB black in the old bottles?)

Fred
No definitely go with as old as possible. My Royal Blue is in the old type bottle, and my bit of black was the rehydrated stuff from the funny old plastic bottle. The older version is more likely to contain the blue and orange dyes :)

[Chrissy]

I probably don't want to make MbRG, but I was wondering just last night wondering how to do chroma tests. Thanks for the detailed instruction :)
My friend sent me a detailed link from somewhere, but I couldn't find it so I had to go through the instructions the way I saw in the link. I think it was from a children's TV show. :-)

[Chrissy]

Thanks for giving an official term to my kitchen chemistry. I thinks it's fascinating to see the different components of the inks! My family is not so impressed though. They don't know good fun!


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You're welcome. :) I love playing with inks and calling it chemistry. :applause:

[FredRydr]

Chrissy,

Are these MB's new inks only, in particular, the black? (Guess who has too much unopened MB black in the old bottles?)

Fred
No definitely go with as old as possible. My Royal Blue is in the old type bottle, and my bit of black was the rehydrated stuff from the funny old plastic bottle. The older version is more likely to contain the blue and orange dyes :)

Uh oh. I can't find any old MB blue. Did it even have a name on the old bottles other than "blue"? Golden Yellow is the new stuff, and that's in short supply.

Has anyone ever determined whether the same company produced both the old and new inks bottled under the Montblanc name? Or more specifically, is it the same stuff? Perhaps your kitchen towel test is in order. ;)

Fred

[Chrissy]

Chrissy,

Are these MB's new inks only, in particular, the black? (Guess who has too much unopened MB black in the old bottles?)

Fred
No definitely go with as old as possible. My Royal Blue is in the old type bottle, and my bit of black was the rehydrated stuff from the funny old plastic bottle. The older version is more likely to contain the blue and orange dyes :)

Uh oh. I can't find any old MB blue. Did it even have a name on the old bottles other than "blue"? Golden Yellow is the new stuff, and that's in short supply.

Has anyone ever determined whether the same company produced both the old and new inks bottled under the Montblanc name? Or more specifically, is it the same stuff? Perhaps your kitchen towel test is in order. ;)

Fred
My old bottle is called Royal Blue, and so is my new bottle. I don't mean the latest permanent blue. My kitchen towel test just shows one blue dye.

[The Good Captain]

And interesting idea. I think, though, I'll stick to the ones I can buy...!

[FredRydr]

Correction. Golden Yellow is still available (in at least one MB boutique). Watch out for premature price gouging.

Fred

[TSherbs]

very cool, thanks Chrissy

[Chrissy]

very cool, thanks Chrissy

You're welcome. :)

[ms8109]

I have some old MbRG cartridges, plus a part bottle of MbRG and I decided to have a look at them to see if they were the same. Not that I mistrust the half bottle that I bought on ebay, but I love playing around with ink and it was MbRG's turn. :)

I recently bought a mixed box of inks, and in there was an old plastic Mb bottle that originally contained black ink. It had dehydrated to powder, so I just put some distilled water in there to see what happened. A few days later, I had black ink and no sediment in the bottom. That was a good start! Then I did a chroma test on that ink.

I do chroma tests on almost every ink that I buy, so that I know what dyes made it. Just cut a piece of kitchen roll into strips of about 1" wide or slightly less, get a cotton bud. Very gently just dip the bottom part of the cotton bud into the ink (so as not to waste too much) and dab it onto the towel strip about an inch up from one end. Then put a piece of sticky tape on the other end and hang up the strip ideally on a shelf where you have another shelf below. Then on the lower shelf, stand a glass half full of tap water and let the bottom of the towel strip touch the water in the glass by not more than a few mm. The water will soak up the strip and take the original dyes up with it. Don't leave it too long though. Just until you can see the water level on the strip is clear of the last dye - a couple of minutes.

The chroma test on the black ink that I had rehydrated showed it contained blue and yellow/orange dyes, with a little black between them. An unusual result for black ink.

Then I did the same chroma tests on my MbRG cartridges, (one from each of two different packs) One chroma tested as the same blue dye that was in the black ink plus yellow dye. Slightly more yellow that that in the black ink, plus a little black in between them.

From that result, I now have a simple recipe to make MbRG. Using two plastic pipettes or syringes, add equal amounts of Montblanc Royal Blue and Montblanc Golden Yellow into a sample vial. Then get a wooden cocktail stick or kebab stick and carefully dip the end into Montblanc ordinary black ink. Stir the mixture in the sample vial with the end of the cocktail stick. That makes the dark green ink. Swab test that on a cotton bud to test how dark it is. Very carefully add tiny, tiny amounts of black on the end of the cocktail stick, and keep swab testing until it's a good dark green. If it's a little on the blue side, add another drop of Golden Yellow. Please don't add too much black or it will be too dark. :)

I compared it against my MbRG cartridge and they were exactly the same colour. :)

Happy Mixing. :)





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Best Regards,
Mike

[ms8109]

I have always wanted MBRG, but refused to pay 100.00 or more per bottle at today's going rates? Thank you for putting together such a comprehensive plan for making some MBRG!


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Best Regards,
Mike

[Bisquitlips]

I am game!

Lead us on Chrissy! We can surely come up with a recipe that is worthy of our efforts!

[FredRydr]

I am game!

Lead us on Chrissy! We can surely come up with a recipe that is worthy of our efforts!
She already has. See her OP above:


...I now have a simple recipe to make MbRG. Using two plastic pipettes or syringes, add equal amounts of Montblanc Royal Blue and Montblanc Golden Yellow into a sample vial. Then get a wooden cocktail stick or kebab stick and carefully dip the end into Montblanc ordinary black ink. Stir the mixture in the sample vial with the end of the cocktail stick. That makes the dark green ink. Swab test that on a cotton bud to test how dark it is. Very carefully add tiny, tiny amounts of black on the end of the cocktail stick, and keep swab testing until it's a good dark green. If it's a little on the blue side, add another drop of Golden Yellow. Please don't add too much black or it will be too dark.

Chrissy, I snagged a couple of bottles of MB Golden Yellow ink (I presume the later sterile formula) from the local Montblanc boutique, and I already have their Royal Blue (though in the new-style bottle) and too much MB black in several unopened old bottles. So today is mixing day. Do you ever make a full bottle of a successful recipe, or do you remix in vials only as you need it?

Fred

[Chrissy]

I have only made some in a vial so far, as I have a part bottle and a couple of cartridges. If I didn't have any at all, I would make more.

Here are some chroma tests:

The first one is Montblanc Black from the old plastic bottle. Next to it is a chroma test from one of my old Montblanc Racing Green cartridges.

2929829302

Then there is one of the mixture I have made using the recipe in the original post on here:

29301

[FredRydr]

I was unable to find my graduated syringes, but that was not going to stop me today.

I put four full pipettes of Montblanc Royal Blue and four full pipettes of Golden Yellow into an empty Waterman bottle. I then started carefully (as Chrissy cautioned) adding Montblanc black drop by drop and compared swabs against swabs from my bottle of Racing Green. A lot more black was needed as I tried and tried again, and finally I added 4 more drops of yellow. When the swabs matched Racing Green, the ratio was:

4.0 parts MB Royal Blue
4.2 parts MB Golden Yellow
0.8 parts MB Black

If I had proper measuring vessels handy, I'd be more specific.

Fred

[Chrissy]

As an additional observation, my bottle of Racing Green gives me a completely different chroma test to one of my packs of cartridges. So Montblanc had more than one batch of Racing Green made, and they were different in that the dyes used to make them were different, but they ended up as very similar colours.

[Chrissy]

I've returned to this thread because I found the link that Laura so kindly sent me when I first talked about chroma testing.

Chroma Testing Link (http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/papertowelchromatogr.html)

[Chrissy]

Someone recently contacted me about Montblanc Racing Green ink. I'm bumping this thread up so that he can easily find it if he's a member on here. :)

[FredRydr]

Chrissy,

What currently produced ink have you discovered that is about as close as you can get to Racing Green?

Fred

[The Good Captain]

These two images from when I did the brief comment about Diamine Classic Green might be of some assistance.

38966

38967

Always worth another look. Diamine Salamander could also be a contender but might be a bit dark - of course it depends on nib width and paper.

[Chrissy]

Chrissy,

What currently produced ink have you discovered that is about as close as you can get to Racing Green?

Fred

I would also say Diamine Classic Green and Sailor Jentle Tokiwa Matsu or Epinard (99.99% same)

[lsmith42]

What they all seem to miss is the /grey/ aspect of MBRG (note that it is not MBBRG).

I’ll stick with the original a while longer.

[junglejim]

You might want to also view Geoduck's excellent side by side comparison of MB Racing Green to the seven closest contenders at the other forum pen site. (I don't know if this forum will ban me for linking to another group's forum, so to view it just google "Geoduck, Montblanc Racing Green Comparison".) That should get you right to it.

All the Best.

[FredRydr]

...I don't know if this forum will ban me for linking to another group's forum....
Nah! Geoduck's excellent side by side comparison of MB Racing Green to the seven closest contenders (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/203677-montblanc-racing-green-comparison/)

On closer inspection of Geoduck's exemplars, IMHO of the eight inks in his selection, only the Noodler's Sequoia is close to MBRG in color, but other attributes of Noodler's inks knocks that out of contention.

[Chrissy]

What they all seem to miss is the /grey/ aspect of MBRG (note that it is not MBBRG).

I’ll stick with the original a while longer.
Yes they do seem to miss the grey aspect of Montblanc Racing Green and although Noodler's Sequoia get's that aspect, it also looks a bit more blue. And I agree it was never issued as Montblanc British Racing Green :facepalm: @The Good Captain: I'm afraid you got that wrong. :(

[The Good Captain]

What they all seem to miss is the /grey/ aspect of MBRG (note that it is not MBBRG).

I’ll stick with the original a while longer.
Yes they do seem to miss the grey aspect of Montblanc Racing Green and although Noodler's Sequoia get's that aspect, it also looks a bit more blue. And I agree it was never issued as Montblanc British Racing Green :facepalm: @The Good Captain: I'm afraid you got that wrong. :(

Frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn...:pound:

[lsmith42]

What they all seem to miss is the /grey/ aspect of MBRG (note that it is not MBBRG).

I’ll stick with the original a while longer.
Yes they do seem to miss the grey aspect of Montblanc Racing Green and although Noodler's Sequoia get's that aspect, it also looks a bit more blue. And I agree it was never issued as Montblanc British Racing Green :facepalm: @The Good Captain: I'm afraid you got that wrong. :(

Frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn...:pound:

Obviously... that’s ok... really... don’t worry about it...

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

[The Good Captain]

What they all seem to miss is the /grey/ aspect of MBRG (note that it is not MBBRG).

I’ll stick with the original a while longer.
Yes they do seem to miss the grey aspect of Montblanc Racing Green and although Noodler's Sequoia get's that aspect, it also looks a bit more blue. And I agree it was never issued as Montblanc British Racing Green :facepalm: @The Good Captain: I'm afraid you got that wrong. :(

Frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn...:pound:

Obviously... that’s ok... really... don’t worry about it...

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

I wasn't and I'm not. It's just ink - coloured water, if truth be told...

[FredRydr]

Shootout between junglejim's and FredRydr's two faux RG mixes against OEM MBRG.

39073


39074

It's nice to have an original bottle of Montblanc Racing Green on hand, but really, with the formula, anyone can mix up a batch that is close enough that no one can tell, except perhaps for the writer when it comes to drying time. Jim was more precise in his measurements than I was (white cap), and he used the modern MB black. His care and precision paid off, and IMHO is the better of the two faux inks. If I had a half bottle or so, I would add another drop of black, but I only have about 6ml left. I know! I'll mix Jim's and mine together!

Have fun!

[junglejim]

Beautiful job, Fred! Thank-you for the comparisons. :applause: Thanks to Chrissy and her chroma breakdowns, Fred was able to mix up a batch of Racing Green. Keeping all the inks within the Montblanc family lessens the chance of nasty interaction (curdling, seperation, precipitation). Unfortunately, MB Golden Yellow is a Limited Edition ink which means it will disappear from sale sometime in the future. It's also expensive at $20.95 for 30 mls (very nice container, though), so mixing up Chrissy's Racing Green is only for the desperate. I spent $23.50 x 2 plus $20.50 = $67.50 US for this experiment. Happily, I do have a lot of MB Mystery Black and Royal Blue left over for work.

All the Best.

[Chrissy]

Excellent review Fred, thank you. :) I can confirm I've seen your original and faux MBRG writing in person and I couldn't see any difference. :)

[Chrissy]

Beautiful job, Fred! Thank-you for the comparisons. :applause: Thanks to Chrissy and her chroma breakdowns, Fred was able to mix up a batch of Racing Green. Keeping all the inks within the Montblanc family lessens the chance of nasty interaction (curdling, seperation, precipitation). Unfortunately, MB Golden Yellow is a Limited Edition ink which means it will disappear from sale sometime in the future. It's also expensive at $20.95 for 30 mls (very nice container, though), so mixing up Chrissy's Racing Green is only for the desperate. I spent $23.50 x 2 plus $20.50 = $67.50 US for this experiment. Happily, I do have a lot of MB Mystery Black and Royal Blue left over for work.

All the Best.
You're welcome. :)

As far as Mb Golden Yellow is concerned, it's nothing particularly unusual as yellow inks go. I'm confident Monteverde Topaz Yellow would produce a very similar result. I've also used Diamine Sunshine Yellow for mixing. There aren't that many different yellow dye and water based inks that there will be any particularly noticeable difference in the final ink mix. :)