MontBlanc
2010 Colour List:
Mystery Black, Royal Blue, Midnight Blue, Lavender Purple, Burgundy Red, Oyster Grey, Toffee Brown
Previous colours: Royal Blue, Blue-black, Black, Emerald Green, Ruby Red, Turquoise, Bordeaux, Sepia, Racing Green
In 2010 Montblanc updated the look of what was a classic ink bottle and issued a new, larger (60 ml vs 50 ml) bottle. I must say that I like the look of the bottle, but the not the new cap. The old cap has a real classic feel and look. The new cap is plastic and it looks like plastic.
This is a relatively expensive ink, up in price from the previous line. Some of the Montblanc colours have not appealed to me, too watery while others, like the old Violet, and which is the same as the "new" Lavender Purple are inks that I use on a regular basis.
I must say that the ink comes in very classy packaging.
The bottle sites in a study box that has a canvas pull to slide the inner drawer that holds the bottle of ink.
And for some of the inks this is repackaging in terms of the same in a new bottle.
Some of the ink holds the name previously used, while others have new names and the bottles hold the same ink. There are two new colours: Oyster Grey and Toffee Brown.
In March 2010 when I popped down to my local store (Vancouver Pen) they were sold out of all but the Royal Blue and Oyster Grey.
- New Royal Blue - I don't see any difference between this colour and the previous Royal Blue. My comments remain, a crisp colour, but a little too much purple to the blue.
- New Oyster Grey - I was going to buy this, although I must admit, grey is not my favorite ink. But I did try the ink in the store and found it to be a very light grey, too watery for my preference.
- New Midnight Blue - not selecting this colour either as there is no real rich blue tone to the colour. Montlbanc notes this to be a permanent ink with ferro-gallic content. Ferro-gallic ink tyically flows onto the paper with a relatively light shade of colour, and then, with exposure to oxygen, it darken and bonds with the fibers in paper. The downside is that it is corrosive.
- Old Green - The green has a little more blue than Waterman Green.
- Old Red - Too light to rank up with a red.
- Old Royal Blue - there is a fair amount of purple tone to this blue, but it is crisp.
- Black - I have used this in a pinch but tend to prefer the richer blacks offered by other brands of ink.
- Old Burgundy - I have used this ink for a while, and I did like the ink, it looked great on cards, but I have tended to use other brands where the colour has more saturation.
- Old Violet - nice rich tone and it looks good on the paper, even with considerable amount of writing. Some violets start the "scream at you".
- Old Racing Green - this is basically a black ink with a tinge of green. You can hardly see the green, but it is there. Flow was good but in the end I tend to lean towards a true dark black. With the new bottles and colours issued in 2010, this colour will no longer be available.
