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 Ink at the Heart of a Fountain Pen 

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Mont Blanc - Elvis Presley Old Glory Blue

28/3/2021

1 Comment

 
​Mont Blanc have released many great characters pens and inks this time it is Elvis (the King) who is honoured.  Old Glory Blue is inspired by the stars and stripes of Elvis’s stage costumes.
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What can one say about Elvis when there is so much known.  I like his music but wouldn’t call myself a super fan however I did enjoy my visit to Gracelands in 2017 (oh the days when we could travel).
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​From that trip I learned a few new things such as
​1. Elvis was naturally blonde – he became sandy blonde as he got older.  The black we all know was dye and he initially started with boot polish.  There is a photo hanging in Gracelands of a young Elvis – he is blonde
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2. ​In 1973 he had two overdoses the second due to barbiturates, he spent three days in a coma in a hotel
3.Priscilla is amazingly honest on what she has said about her time with Elvis and what you can read about it there.
I ended up being interested in learning more and went down an Elvis rabbit hole ending up discovering the book ‘Elvis what happened?’ written by three of his bodyguards and published two weeks before he died.  If you ever get a chance to read it do, it is very very interesting and paints quite a damming picture of someone who made a lot of money for others who clearly did not concern themselves for Elvis’s welfare.   Maybe the authors did have an axe to grind but a lot is now known to be true, the authors just give background detail that was previously unknown e.g. Elvis’s drug use started when he was in the army in Germany.
I for one though still don't understand why a girl the age of Priscilla was allowed to leave her family and stay with Elvis when she was still at school.

The packaging for the ink is the standard limited edition Mont Blanc box of outer hard sleeve with a drawer inside holding the ink bottle. The bottle is square glass and looks like crystal, the Mont Blanc logo is on the cap.  I haven’t included a picture of the bottle as they are to be seen on any of my other Mont Blanc LE ink reviews.  However the box is interesting as Elvis surely has left the building.
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I am not sure what I was expecting with this ink, I'm not usually a blue ink purchaser.  Maybe it was because Mont Blanc were having a sale and the ink was 20% off.  Opening the bottle its just  a dark blue
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Chromatography wasn’t really surprising but I had hoped I might see some red sheen.  Alas no it is just dark blue.
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On col-o-ring and Tomoe it was school uniform blue, if you live in the UK or one of the old colonies you will likely understand what I mean by that and be able to immediately visualise the shade of blue I mean.  It is the first ink I have had in which the colo-o-ring and Tomoe swatches are virtually identical.
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Col-o-ring
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Tomoe
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For the writing I was using a Mont Blanc pen with a medium nib.  The papers are cheap note paper about 80gm weight, Midori cotton and Tomoe river 52gm.   
On the cheap paper it is blue!, surprisingly slow to dry as I find cheaper paper tends to soak up the ink.  However, there was no feathering or show through which means the paper didn’t soak up the ink so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the dry time.  There was even some shade.
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I was pleasantly surprised by the Midori as I had previously used this pen and ink combo and had found it very wet.  Today it wasn’t and was a surprisingly quick drier, it also appeared a little lighter than on the cheaper paper.  Again it’s just blue and again some shade
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Tomoe it dried quite dark but with a lot of shading.  Dry time increased but that is to be expected with Tomoe
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I like Mont Blanc inks – they are so well behaved BUT they are expensive and this is just a blue ink.  I am sure there are a lot of blue inks out there that will be similar, I have a few but found Wancher blue identical.
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In summary -
Saturation – high
Shading – yes 
Sheen – no
Shimmer - no
Flow - good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – Excellent 
Feathering - no
Drying – ok
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – not sold as waterproof and definitely isn't
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1 Comment
Matthew Williams link
6/10/2022 20:22:00

Show when speech whom painting gun board. Hot produce old month. Throw consumer three new five.
Direction describe from everything push long. Forget when threat offer.

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