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View Full Version : A Comparison of Montblanc Iron Gall INks


silverlifter
October 7th, 2020, 10:16 PM
After a discussion with Fred in another thead...

Bear in mind, the Blue Black is a bottle that I originally opened in the mid-1990s and then promptly forgot to unpack after a move. I discovered it recently when digging through papers. So it may have oxidised slightly over that time. The Midnight Blue I opened for the first time last week.

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The Blue Black is closer to Regsitrars and other old school IG inks. The Midnight Blue goes down darker and dries to an almost black. The lighting is not great, but you can see where I blotted the swabs the underlying colours are quite different. BB is a greyish hue, and Midnight Blue is, well, midnight blue.
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Pterodactylus
October 8th, 2020, 03:35 AM
MB IG Midnight is an awesome ink, one of my all time favorites.
I still have a bottle and you reminded me that I should ink up a pen with it again.

Itˋs a pitty that they discontinued this fantastic ink.
FredRydr
October 8th, 2020, 04:13 AM
Thank you, silverlifter. If I didn't have two 50ml bottles of the old stuff and 80ml of ESSRI, I'd buy a bottle of the new MB IG ink. I like the darker color of the latter, which appears the same as my non-IG version.
Yazeh
October 8th, 2020, 08:14 AM
What I prefer most is your elegant handwriting :)
Chrissy
October 8th, 2020, 09:32 AM
Thank you silverlifter. :) I quite like the look of Midnight Blue. :)
silverlifter
October 8th, 2020, 11:40 AM
Each has their own charm. Currently, I am more inclined to the Midnight Blue. But that may only be due to the fact that there is more in the bottle :p

I'll try and get some better photos today that actually capture the subtle colour differences.
Ole Juul
October 8th, 2020, 01:26 PM
I'm a little confused. I was under the impression that Mont Blanc discontinued the use of iron gall. Perhaps I'm wrong, but a three year old email (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/pa0ic9tdapd8c3i/MB_iron.png) from them states "According to our ink specialist, the permanent ink no longer have an Iron-Gall content and we have changed to a new ink with black or blue solid pigments. With these pigments, the ink corresponds to ISO 14145-2 (documentary use).”

Edit: So what I meant to ask, is this a new thing, or are these older ink samples? If it's a new thing I'd like to know where to get them. :)
silverlifter
October 8th, 2020, 02:07 PM
Yes, I mentioned on the page that Blue Black was discontinued in 2010, and Midnight Blue (the iron gall variant) was only made between 2010-2013. The current Midnight Blue is, sadly, free of ferrogallic content.

So, it is a comparison of two inks that are no longer available. Sorry about that. :p
Ole Juul
October 8th, 2020, 02:36 PM
Yes, I mentioned on the page that Blue Black was discontinued in 2010, and Midnight Blue (the iron gall variant) was only made between 2010-2013. The current Midnight Blue is, sadly, free of ferrogallic content.

So, it is a comparison of two inks that are no longer available. Sorry about that. :p

That's kind of what I thought but wasn't sure. No need to be sorry. It's a very cool idea. :)
FredRydr
October 8th, 2020, 03:10 PM
...and Midnight Blue (the iron gall variant) was only made between 2010-2013....
And I'm not paying attention and missed that.
Chrissy
October 8th, 2020, 10:44 PM
The current Midnight Blue is, sadly, free of ferrogallic content.

If the current version of Midnight Blue is the same colour as the discontinued IG version then that's the one I would be attracted to. :)
silverlifter
October 8th, 2020, 11:02 PM
The current Midnight Blue is, sadly, free of ferrogallic content.

If the current version of Midnight Blue is the same colour as the discontinued IG version then that's the one I would be attracted to. :)

Unfortunately, I don't have the modern Midnight Blue to compare to. Going off reviews (https://inkxplorations.wordpress.com/2019/10/27/ink-shoot-out-mont-blanc-midnight-blue-vs-pelikan-edelstein-tanzanite/), I would consider the older IG formulation to be a bit darker, and definitely drying to almost black (as you'd expect).

Perhaps someone who has the modern variant could comment?

# Edit: of course, someone has done a comparison of the two (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/253849-montblanc-midnight-blue-non-iron-gall-formula/)
Pterodactylus
October 8th, 2020, 11:39 PM
The current Midnight Blue is, sadly, free of ferrogallic content.

If the current version of Midnight Blue is the same colour as the discontinued IG version then that's the one I would be attracted to. :)

Not the same, neither in color nor in behavior.
You just canˋt remove the IG and think it perform equally well.
Good IG inks perform normally exceptionally well.......