Tag: Montblanc

May 2026’s Currently Inked Fountain Pens

It’s been a while since I’ve inked up new fountain pens, and this month’s pen roster is both much larger than usual and has some rarely inked pens and new inks.

The list totals 16 pens, which is the most that I’ve had inked since the Inkvent days. It’s split into three major categories: leftover pens from previous months, pocket pens filled with cartridges, and full sized newly inked pens. The last category has a small sub-category of pens in it – the “use the good china” pens. I’ll explain it when we get there.

Leftover Pens

These pens were inked in the end of February (Kanilea, Lamy 2000) or the end of March (Leonardo).

Kanilea Haleakala Silhoutte – fine nib – Sailor Ink Studio 224. I bought this pen secondhand on the Pen Addict slack channel, and it’s a gorgeous pen that is absolutely not worth its retail price. Am I glad that I got it? Yes. Would I ever purchase a Kanilea pen again? No. There are better pens to be had for much less money. The Sailor Studio ink is also overpriced, but in this case the price difference isn’t such that it would hurt to buy it. 224 and 123 are my favourites of the series, but you can get a similar enough experience for less money with Diamine Earl Grey.

Lamy 2000 – medium nib – Sailor Black – workhorse pen, workhorse ink.

Leonard Officina Italiana Bohemian Twilight Momento Zero – fine nib – Robert Oster Fire and Ice – a gorgeous pen that’s one of my favourites. Robert Oster Fire and Ice is a good teal ink, and this bottle dates from the days that Robert Oster was new to the ink scene and all the rage. It’s a good ink but again, the hype was overblown. It’s taken me a long time, but I’m less and less interested in following the latest pen or ink craze. It has rarely been worth it. That being said Robert Oster makes good inks at decent prices, it’s just that they may be harder to obtain depending on where you live. Don’t feel like you’re missing out if you don’t get to try one of their inks.

Leftover pens from left to right – Leonardo, Kanilea, Lamy 2000

Pocket Pens

I bought a good amount of ink cartridges when I was in Paris and I wanted to test a few of them out. I don’t usually ink up pocket fountain pens as I find them inconvenient to use (they require posting and unposting every time you use them), so it’s been a while since I’ve used these (with the exception of the Franklin Christoph).

The pocket pens from left to right – Franklin Christoph, Pocket Six Patina, Pocket Six 3D Teal, Kaweco Sport

Schon Design Multi-color Pocket Six w/ Matching Grip, 3D Teal x Matte Black – fine nib – J. Herbin Bleu des profondeurs – my first Schon Design pen (I only have two) and the only one that I bought full price directly from Schon Design. The ink is a relatively new offering from J. Herbin (released in 2018) and wasn’t part of their offering when I started collecting pens and got into J. Herbin inks. It’s a good blue-black with a tiny bit of shading, and it’s a “wet” ink, which means that with more generous or wider nibs it’s likely to feather on the page.

Schon Design Faceted Multi-color Anodized Aluminum “Pocket Six” – Patina – medium nib – J. Herbin Orange Indien – my favourite pocket pen in terms of looks, but still overpriced for me, so I bought this one second hand. This ink is a hard, hard starter, and I’ve had a lot of trouble with it before. I don’t know how it behaves in bottle form, but I really don’t recommend these cartridges as there’s clearly a flow issue with this ink.

Kaweco Collection Sport Iridescent Pearl – medium nib – J. Herbin Rose Cyclamen – a really nice Kaweco Sport with a magenta ink. There’s some nice shading with this ink.

Franklin Christoph 45 Sage – Fine nib – J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage – the most comfortable and ergonomic pocket pen of the four that I have inked. Lierre Sauvage is the perfect green for spring and summer.

Writing Sample – Leftover pens and pocket pens

Full Sized Newly Inked Pens

I’m dividing this category into two – the “use the good china pens” and just pens that I wanted to use.

Just Pens

Just pens – from left to right – Lamy AL Star, Edison, Platinum 3776

Edison Nouveau Premiere Macassar Ebonite – 1.5 stub italic – Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-Yake – I had managed to misplace this pen and so for years it hasn’t seen use. It’s a 2013 limited edition Edison pen made in collaboration with Goulet Pens. I love the shape of this pen, and the ebonite feels warm and light and just right in the hand. The nib is wide and generous, and felt suitable for the Iroshizuku Yu-Yake orange ink that I just bought. This combination will be used for titles, highlighting and journaling.

Lamy AL Star Flamingo – fine nib – J. Herbin La Perle des Encres Rouge Amarante – A new Lamy AL Star. Do I need it? No. But I like Lamy pens and they’re solid enough yet not precious enough to be great for ink testing and as workhorses. The J. Herbin is a new ink, and I bought it mostly because it was the last bottle in this hue in the store. I love Diamine Amaranth and I’m curious to see how this ink measures up against it.

Platinum 3776 White – Ultra Extra Fine nib – Kuretake Ink Cafe Kujakuryoku – I haven’t used this fountain pen in a while. I love the nib but it does provide a lot of feedback when writing – not scratchy, but very close to it. I purchased four Kuretake Ink Cafe inks and wanted to use all of them – but I forgot to log this ink once I filled my Visconti Homo Sapiens. I then decided that I must have forgotten to use it, and so I inked up this pen. The result is two pens with the same ink in rotation at the same time – something that I don’t think I’ve ever done. At least it’s a colour that I love…

Use the Good China Pens

Use the good china pens – from left to right – Wahl Everysharp, Visconti, Sailor Pro Gear, Heny Simpole Jasmine pen, Montblanc, Nakaya

I recently filling in paperwork to get insurance for some of my most expensive pens – which made me realize that I haven’t used most of them in years. So I pulled some of them out and decided to “use the good china” because they’re meant to be used, not admired from afar.

Montblanc Meisterstuck Writers Edition Homage to Victor Hugo – medium nib – De Atramentis Archive Black – this is a relatively new addition to my “expensive pens” collection. I don’t buy limited edition Montblancs, and my other Montblancs are all vintage ones. I purchased this one at a discount on the last week that Mora Stylos in Paris was open, and even though it’s heavy and I don’t love the death mask on it, it commemorates the Notre Dame, and that’s one of my favourite spots in Paris. The ink is a new (to me) waterproof black from De Atramentis. I’m interested in seeing how it works for sketching.

Nakaya Cigar Piccolo Negoro Kise Hon Kataji – elastic flexible fine nib – Kuretake Ink Cafe Kuroganeiro – My one and only Nakaya, ordered from Mora Stylos and it was a whole thing to get it delivered. The price, the effort, and the fact that it was made to order makes it so, so special. It also has one of my favourite nibs – a bouncy flexible fine. The ink is a Kuretake Ink Cafe ink, this one a dark pine green.

Henry Simpole The Jasmine pen – medium nib – Kuretake Ink Cafe Shikon – A pen that is a work of art. I used to visit Henry the Pen Man’s stall every year in Portobello Road, and I always wanted one of his overlay pens. Eventually I purchased this one, and I regret not buying another one when I had the chance. It’s a Conway Stewart button giller with a fantastic gold nib and a wonderful sterling silver overlay designed and made by Henry. The ink is a lovely dark purple, one of the four Kuretake inks that I purchased.

Sailor Professional Gear Sapporo – Naginata Togi Cross Emperor – Kuretake Ink Cafe Ebicha – a nib that has a pen attached to it – that’s the story of this pen. I purchased this pen solely for the Naginata Togi Cross Emperor nib, which is a nib that behaves more like a brush than a standard fountain pen nib. The Ebicha ink is an interesting maroon colour that shows a lot of shading with this nib. It will be interesting using this pen after so many years, as the nib takes some getting used to in terms of writing angles.

Visconti Homo Sapiens – Extra Fine nib – Kuretake Ink Cafe Kujakuryoku – The original Visconti Homo Sapiens, bought at Mora Stylos the year that it was issued and took the pen world by storm. The lava like material, the brass, the nib, the weight – this is a pen with a presence. It will be interesting comparing it to the Platinum 3776 as they are both inked with the same turquoise/teal ink – Kujakuryoku.

Wahl Eversharp (Vintage) Sterling silver floral – fine nib – Waterman Mysterious Blue – I wanted to ink up a vintage pen, and this one is very “bling-y” and sports a truly flexible vintage nib. It’s also a lever filler, which I hate cleaning out, so Waterman Mysterious Blue (i.e. Blue Black) to the rescue. This ink is my benchmark, my desert island ink, the one ink that I can trust in any pen.

Writing sample – newly inked full-size pens part 1
Writing sample – newly inked full-size pens part 2

This was a long list of pens and a long post – I hope that you enjoyed it, and I hope that you have some nice pens inked up and ready to use.

July’s Currently Inked Fountain Pens

A mixture of some pens left over from last month, coupled with a slew of new pens in mostly long unused inks characterizes this month’s lineup.

The paper is Hobonichi Techo 2024 this time (I bought it on Black Friday, to compare with the original Tomoe River Paper in my 2014 Hobonichi). The paper in it is almost as good as the original Tomoe River Paper for showing off ink properties.

From June’s rotation I only have:

The mauve Sailor Pro Gear Slim with a music nib and delightful yet discontinued Sailor Jentle Apricot. A readable reddish orange ink with generous shading.

Kaweco AC Sport Carbon fine nib with Diamine Ultra Green. It’s almost written dry but has seen less use than I planned since I’m not in love with the ink colour. It is growing on me though.

Writing sample on Hobonichi 2024 paper

In the end of June I added two new pens into the rotation:

Franklin Christoph x Stilo x Stile 03 Sparkling Rock EF nib with Diamine Earl Grey. Earl Grey is still one of my favourite inks and if you want a readable, interesting grey I highly recommend it.

PenBBS 456 Smog with a RM nib and Pelikan Edelstein Golden Lapis ink. I have no idea what possessed me to fill a vacuum filler with this ink, but I’ll pay for that later. Golden Lapis was a gift from the Pelikan Hubs and has turned out to be my favourite shimmer ink.

Closeup on the sheen on Diamine Holly

The proper July inked pens are:

Franklin Christoph 46 Polar Ice EF nib with Diamine Inkvent 2019 Holly. I reviewed this ink here and I liked it enough to purchase a full bottle of it, though I have rarely used it since. Holly is a dark blue green with a wild red sheen and is saturated enough to pass as a serious businesslike black at a cursory glance, so you can sneak it into office use 🙂

Pilot VP Matte Black M nib with Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-rin ink. I used to use my VPs a lot more, especially to take notes in meetings, but now I rarely use them because they have a tiny ink capacity and are a bit of a pain to clean out. They do have beautiful nibs, and I wanted a cheerful green ink so the pairing works well.

Visconti Homo Sapiens Lava black EF with Sailor Shikiori Yama Dori – this is the original Homo Sapiens pen, before Visconti did dozens of versions of it, when it took the pen world by storm. I bought mine at Mora Stylos, and they customized the finial with my initials. Yama Dori is a peacock blue with red sheen, and is a wonderful ink in Sailor’s annoying flat Jentle ink bottles.It was almost impossible to fill this pen due to the bottle shape.

Writing sample on Hobnonichi 2024 paper

Esterbrook Estie Sea Glass Journal nib with Diamine Aurora Borealis. I love the Journal nib, and it really shows off the gorgeous teal of Aurora Borealis. There’s some shading with this ink and a hint of red sheen. This ink is one of the few I own in both bottle and cartridge format.

Leonardo Momento Zero Grande 2.0 Galattica Universe F nib filled with Montblanc The Beatles Psychedelic Purple. A wild pen and a wild ink that have wildly jumped in price over the past year or two. I have a handful of Montblanc inks, but I’ve been priced out of the brand now. Leonardo makes great pens, but I no longer feel the need to buy every limited edition they come out with. The Beatles purple is a wonderful PURPLE – bright, not muddy and perfectly midway between red and blue.

Last but very far from least Parker 51 Plum F nib with Sailor Jentle Peche. A rare 51 and a long discontinued ink coupled together to make sure that I use the good china. Parker 51 pens are my favourites, and this one is a gold capped aerometric with a fantastic nib.

The pens in order of appearance here, from top to bottom.

What have you got in your pens this month?

Currently Inked Pens March 2025

Of February’s pen lineup only two pens remain inked, the Parker 51 with Waterman Purple, and the Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight with Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo. As they’re both running low on ink, it’s time for a new pen lineup, with a slightly different theme than last month’s one:

  • All the pens are modern (last time I had more vintage pens than modern ones in rotation) and ones that I haven’t inked in years.
  • All the inks are ones that I haven’t used in years or ever, apart from one that was in the last rotation but I still haven’t figured out so it got another go.
  • The ink colours are much brighter than those that I used in February.

Here’s March’s rotation:

Writing sample on Midori MD Cotton paper

Here’s a bit more about every pen and ink combo:

  • Franklin Christoph 03 modified prototype- Red/White/Black motion with a 1.1 HPSteel cursive calligraphy nib. This is a new pen that I bought last year as my chemo anniversary pen (I buy myself a present every year to mark the occasion). I love the unusual resin colour and pattern, and I like FC’s HPSteel 1.1 nibs. They are just wide enough to really show off the ink without becoming a nightmare to use because it takes ages for the ink to dry.
    As nice as the pen is (and it is), the ink is the star in this one in terms of interest: it’s the ORIGINAL J.Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite, which means that it has NO GLITTER and NO SHEEN. It’s just a deep, bright red with some nice shading and good outlining, but it isn’t full of gold glitter and sheen to the point where you can’t see the base colour. Yes, this is also the bottle that had the problematic crumbly wax cover on the cap, but I really think that I prefer this version to the one they issued later (I have both). I don’t normally use red inks, but this one was perfect for this pen.
The FC 03
The HPSteel 1.1 nib
Original Rouge Hematite compared to Cosmic Glow on original Tomoe River paper. Note the lack of sheen or shimmer.
  • TWSBI ECO Saffron fine nib filled with Rohrer & Klingner Helianthus ink. I use yellow inks even less often that I use red inks, but this ink is fairly readable for a yellow ink. It is, however, not going anywhere near a vintage pen as it has a tendency to crust over (as many yellow inks do). I wanted something bright, cheerful and different, and this ink checked all three. The TWSBI ECO is a phenomenal pen for those starting out with bottled fountain pen ink, and I can’t recommend it enough.
TWSBI ECO Saffron
  • Aurora Ipsilon medium nib with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldrün ink. This is my one and only Aurora pen, which I bought years ago in Florence, Italy. Aurora nibs are nice enough, but the pens are priced well above what I believe that they are worth, so I have steered clear of them over the years. The Ipsilon is small pen, but you can’t post it, which is annoying for such a small pen. R&K Alt-Goldrün is a fantastic ink colour – a non standard green with plenty of shading and character – and the only reason I haven’t used it more is because it was tucked away behind two rows of other ink bottles. If you are just starting out with green inks, give Alt-Goldrün a try.
Aurora Ipsilon
The Ipsilon nib looks ridiculously small but it’s just the design of the section that makes it appear that way. Comparison photo to a TWSBI ECO nib.
  • Leonardo Momento Zero Blue Hawaii Fine nib with Diamine Steel Blue ink. I have used this pen fairly recently compared to some of the others in this rotation, but the ink has been one that I actually forgot that I have. I love teal and turquoise inks, and Diamine Steel is a beautiful member of this group. There’s a hint of shading with it, and it just pops off the page so nicely. If you want a different take on “boring blue” inks, I highly recommend it.
Leonardo Momento Zero Hawaii
  • Montblanc Writer’s Edition Victor Hugo medium nib with Montblanc Around the World in 80 Days ink. I bought this pen in Mora Stylos in Paris before they closed mainly because I adore the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral and it’s featured on this pen. Hugo has the honour of being the saviour of this extraordinary cathedral, and though I shy away from Montblanc limited editions (talk about overpriced) I thought this one was worth purchasing. The ink was last in rotation, in a vintage Montblanc, last month. I just can’t get over how unrelated it is to the green-gold elephant on the box, and I’m not sure what to make of it. I was expecting it to be more like Alt-Goldrün than like the bluish-grey (Payne’s Grey really) that it is.
The Montblanc Writer’s Edition Victor Hugo
The Victor Hugo death mask on the cap
The nib, which features Victor Hugo
  • Finally, speaking of a pen and ink combo that have gotten “lost” in my collection: the Stipula Model T marbled grey pen was also an Italian purchase, and it has a very peculiar fine “flexy” titanium nib. I would characterize the nib as springy, and as my other titanium nib Stipula does, it squeaks sometimes as you write with it. The ink is one that I bought in 2013 in Fahrney’s pen store in Washington DC. Since then I haven’t opened it and used it, mainly because Fahrney’s Tempest Blue is a blue ink, and I don’t use blue inks often. It shades nicely, but other than that it looks close enough to my benchmark blue, Waterman Florida Blue (now renamed to Waterman Serenity Blue), for me not to bother using it often. Waterman Serenity Blue is a best-in-class blue in my opinion because it’s so well behaved, gentle and easy to clean out of pens that you can safely use it in any pen that you have, particularly vintage ones.
The Stipula Model T. A very sleek design.
The Model T titanium nib.

February 2025 Currently Inked Pens

I have finally written dry all of my Inkvent 2024 fountain pens, which means that after two months I get to write with a whole new set of fountain pens and inks. I normally don’t spend too much time selecting which pen and which inks I’ll use next, but this time I decided to use some criteria for the next pens in my rotation:

  • They need to include at least 50% vintage pens. I don’t use vintage pens with Inkvent inks, and vintage pens make up most of my pen collection.
  • All the pens need to be pens that I haven’t used in a long time (at least a year). It was time to mix things up.
  • The inks needed to be inks that are new to me, or that I haven’t used in years, and all of them need to be inks that I haven’t swabbed before. This was not only to mix things up, but to get me to use and swab more inks in my collection, instead of going again and again to a few select favourites.

Here’s February’s fountain pen lineup:

The pens from left to right: Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight, Sailor Pro Gear Slim Graphite Lighthouse, Edison Nouveau Premiere Cappuccino, Montblanc 32, Mabie Todd Swan L2 Leverless pen, Waterman 52, Parker 51, Parker Vacumatic Standard double striped jewel.

And here are ink swabs of the inks that I’ll be using:

Ink swabs on Col-o-Ring cards

The Vintage Pens

  • Parker Vacumatic 1st generation Laminated Burgundy Pearl Double Jewel (striped jewels, striped section) – I adore Parker Vacumatics and this is a “use the good china” pen. The grip section is also laminated (and not plain black), the body is transparent, and the nib is a sharp extra fine gold nib with a bit of character to it. It’s filled with a brand new ink for me, Diamine Writer’s Blood. I never use red inks, but this got raving reviews and seemed dark enough for me to try. I bought the ink in Oxford last year, and the pen years ago from the late Henry Simpole (Henry the Pen Man) in London. I don’t think I inked up this pen since I bought it, as it was too precious, and I still won’t let it leave the house, but I am looking forward to actually using it.
Parker Vacumatic first generation burgundy laminated grip section
Closeup on the striped jewel and the grip section of the Parker Vacumatic
  • Parker 51 Burgundy aerometric with a silver cap and gold filled arrow clip. I love Parker 51s, they are my absolute favourite fountain pens. I believe this cap is on the rare side, though it’s far from pristine or attractive (it’s blackened in specks, and there are a few scratches and micro scratches on it). The nib is a generous fine, bordering on medium, and like all other 51s that I’ve used, it’s magic. I haven’t used this pen since I bought it, so it’s time to give it a whirl. It’s filled with Pilot Iroshizuku Yama Budo, which is a lovely, sheening burgundy ink, one of the more popular inks in the Iroshizuku lineup. In hindsight coupling this ink with this pen wasn’t the best choice, as the 51 has generous nibs and Iroshizuku inks are on the wet side. It just means that I’ll have to steer clear of cheap paper with this combination.
Parker 51 cap and nib closeup
  • Waterman Ideal 52 Red Ripple fountain pen with a super flex extra fine nib – my word but this pen has the most glorious nib. The pen itself is elegant and pristine, and because of its age it doesn’t have the ebonite stink to it. The nib is why I bought this pen, and it effortlessly moves between extra fine and broad or double broad lines, with the feed easily keeping up with tines. Like all Waterman nibs that I’ve tried, there is some feedback, so if you like butter on hot pan nibs this one isn’t for you. This is the kind of nib that you can only get in a vintage pen, and it puts modern flex pens to shame. It’s only minus is that this is a lever filler, and I hate cleaning out lever fillers, which is why I rarely use them. This pen is filled with Diamine Autumn Oak, which I haven’t used yet (in bottle form at least – I have cartridges of it). I wanted a brighter ink in this lineup, so Autumn Oak was a perfect choice.
Waterman 52 cap and nib closeup. You know the nib is going to be fabulously flexy once you see that heart shaped breather hole and the slight bend down in the nib.
Writing sample on Midori MD Paper. Notes written with a Platinum Preppy.
  • Mabie Todd Swan L2 Leverless L205/62? Not sure – Swan did a poor job labeling their pens, and I didn’t write down notes when I bought it. This is a lovely pen that I bought from Henry Simpole years ago because of the phenomenal Swan nib. It’s an oblique flexible nib with Swan’s gimmicky “Leverless” filling system (which is a lever system in disguise, but such were the ’30s – you needed a gimmick to sell pen). I haven’t used it at all since I bought it because I don’t remember the experience of cleaning it out very fondly – imagine all the bother of cleaning out a Lamy 2000, but with a piston that has just one twist of travel. I used Pilot Iroshizuku Asa Gao with this fountain pen, and it’s a gorgeous ink with a good amount of sheen with this nib. I love this shade of royal blue, and I haven’t used this ink in a while. Take a look at the Swan above – it’s almost 100 years old and works perfectly.
Closeup on the nib and cap of the Swan Leverless pen
Writing sample on Midori MD Paper. Notes written with a Platinum Preppy.
  • Montblanc 32 (1967) OM 585 nib – heavens, you can get a gold nibbed, piston filling original Montblanc with an Oblique Medium nib for less than a steel nibbed Pelian M2xx costs? Yes, you can. I love the design of this pen (you can read about it more here) and the nib is great… provided you write in the exact angle it expects. The Swan’s nib is generous in terms of the writing angles it accepts, and the Monblanc 32 is demanding: you will use the nib at the precise angle it is designed for, or it will not work at all! I only wish that the Montblanc Around the World in 80 Days ink was so exact. From the description and the illustration on the box I was expecting a brownish gold ink, maybe with a hint of green. In reality I got a dark, cold grey ink, with a hint of blue to it. No brown, no gold, nothing at all to do with the elephant illustration on the box. I had to double check just to make sure that I hadn’t landed on a bad bottle by chance.
Montblanc 32 semi hooded nib
Writing sample on Midori MD Paper. Notes written with a Platinum Preppy.
Writing sample on original Tomoe River Paper

Modern Fountain Pens

  • Sailor Pro Gear Slim Graphite Lighthouse H-EF nib – I haven’t used this pen in over a year, and I wanted a pen with a very fine nib, so that I can use it for note taking. It’s inked up with Sailor Black, a new ink for me and one that’s supposed to be water resistant. I’m using this combination for my certification study notes, and I may also try it out with some watercolours in a sketch, just to see if I can use Sailor Black ink as part of my sketching kit.
  • Edison Nouveau Premiere Cappuccino fine nib – I bought this pen in early 2012, before they did a run of seasonal limited editions of this pen design. I haven’t used in years, and the same goes for the ink in it: Lamy Petrol. This is a limited edition ink, one that Lamy issued with the Lamy Safari Petrol, and it’s a wonderful blue-black with red sheen.
  • Leonardo Momento Zero Bohemian Twilight fine nib – this pen has “only” been a year out of rotation, and it’s one of my favourite Leonardos. The colour of the resin is gorgeous, and it works very well with the Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-yo ink that it’s filled with. Tsuki-you is a bluish-teal with red sheen and a wet flow, and it suits the Leonardo’s fine nib.
Modern pens writing sample on Midori MD paper.

One week 100 people day 2

I almost didn’t post today as I wasn’t up to sketching and I got only three sketches in, none of them great. But I like it when creators show their failures so I’m doing it myself today: my lack of shoulder mobility coupled with a lack of sleep and the difficulty of the subject made for a bad sketching day.

Parker 51 with Montblanc The Beatles Psychedelic Purple on a Stillman and Birn Alpha. Sketched 6-8 were done today. As usual the goal for me is to get to 100 even if it takes more than a week.

Celebrate your failures.

Montblanc The Beatles Psychedelic Purple Review

A few years ago I used to be really on the FOMO limited edition fountain pen ink band wagon, but over the last two years my ink purchases have petered out to nothing. At some point I realized that any limited edition ink that I buy is bound to be pretty damn close to an ink that I already own, and a person can only have too many inks (IMHO). How many inks can you use at one given time anyway?

The precious few new bottles of ink that I have have all been given to me as part of large (vintage) fountain pen purchases, and so I haven’t felt comfortable reviewing them. You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, do you? Then again, the gift was from the store, not the ink maker, so here we are.

The Montblanc Beatles Psychedelic Purple limited edition ink comes in a very groovy box, that is very well designed. Normally I couldn’t care less about ink packaging (excepts as it pertains to price — looking at you Pilot Iroshizuku. You started the trend and you know it), but someone really put some thought in this.

The little ribbon tab helps open the box easily

Look at that design:

I’ve never seen an ink bottle’s cap protected before, but then again this is Montblanc:

The bottle itself is pretty conservatively designed, but classically pretty:

The ink itself is a rich, saturated purple with a good amount of shading (despite being pretty dark), and a very slow drying time. It’s one of the few cases where the actual ink matches the colour of the packaging. There’s some sheen to the ink, but I’ve seen it sheen only on Tomoe River Paper, and it’s super hard to photograph.

I love this ink’s shade of purple (it’s slightly more to the red side of purple than the blue), but this ink was a hot mess in terms of behaviour on various papers. This ink is usable only on Rhodia/Clairfontaine and Tomoe River Paper, it becomes a bleeding, spreading monster on everything else. It also takes a really long time to dry (not surprising, as it’s a very saturated ink), which means that it’s going to be a no-no for left handed users and you really have to take care where you put your hand when you write with the stuff.

And that’s the thing. This is an expensive, not readily available ink that is finicky and temperamental in a hue that’s not so rare as to be unobtainable. Why spend good money and time buying it if you can probably get a spot on match from Diamine? Montblanc Psychedelic Purple cost about $40 when it came out and $80 now for a 50ml bottle. Diamine Majestic Purple costs $15 for an 80ml bottle. You do the math.

If you enjoy hunting for limited edition inks as part of the hobby, that’s fine. Just don’t get swept away by the marketing and the hype. Remember: there’s a very good chance that that expensive limited edition ink is not very different from the ones that you already have and don’t use, or that you can get a similar hue for less than half the price from Diamine.

#Inktober 24: Chop

Another weird prompt. Montblanc 149 fountain pen filled with Montblanc psychedelic purple ink, with shading from a water brush, all on a Field Notes Signature sketchbook.

#inktober day 10: flowing

Drew this with a vintage Montblanc 149 and Montblanc’s new Beatles Psychedelic Purple on a Field Notes Signature sketchbook. As usual, purple doesn’t reproduce well – this is a super vibrant ink.

#inktober day 9: His Master’s Voice

Drew this with a vintage Montblanc 149 and Montblanc’s new Beatles Psychedelic Purple on a Field Notes Signature sketchbook. As usual, purple doesn’t reproduce well – this is a super vibrant ink.

A quick sketch of an HMV gramophone needle tin.

#inktober day 8: Star (trek)

Drew this with a vintage Montblanc 149 and Montblanc’s new Beatles Psychedelic Purple on a Field Notes Signature sketchbook. As usual, purple doesn’t reproduce well – this is a super vibrant ink.