The curious case of Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black

[dneal]

I had been under the impression that Pelikan blue black was no longer available in the States, and no longer used iron gall as an ingredient.

When I was last stationed in Germany, I made sure to bring some with me when I returned to the U.S. Although I still have some cartridges, my bottles are empty. I discovered Amazon has it, in the large 62.5ml bottles. I bought some, it arrived in a couple of days and life is good again.

I hadn't paid attention to see if there were any change to the formula that made it available now (the wisdom of the internet long suggested there's some "forbidden" component to it), so I fired up the Google machine.

Much of the search results still addressed that it was discontinued in the U.S., some say there's no longer any IG in it; but I happened across This page at Pelikan's site

"The least complicated ink which is still relatively light resistant, is the ink "4001 blue-black", our item no. 310 607. This ink contains iron gall, which makes it much more resistant than for example the ink shades 4001 royal blue or 4001 brilliant black, but due to the addition of special ingredients, you can still use this ink without qualm in piston or cartridge fountain pens. Within time, the ink will change its tone from blue to gray, but it will remain visible. It is not quite as light resistant as the Fount India. Due to the small concentration of iron gall, this ink will not damage your paper (which sometimes happened with historic ink made of iron gall."

So Pelikan blue-black is available to the U.S., and it does still contain IG. Sorry if none of that is news to you, I've apparently been under a rock.