On March 16, 2018 my Ghost Franklin-Christoph Model 45 XLV (IF) joined its comrades when it was filled with De Atramentis Adular Blue. The pen was in use for 11 months and was emptied and cleaned on February 24, 2019, saying good-bye to its fellows.

Thoughts Before Filling

This is the ink that started a rash of seven new pen and ink combinations today. I saw some shots of this ink on social media and made a mental note to pick up a sample some time. A day or two later I’m looking over my list of ink samples I haven’t used yet; lo and behold I already have Adular Blue! I’ve also wanted to get my Model 45 back into use and the idea of filling the ghostly white pen with a fun blue ink was irresistible. I have high hopes for this combination, and even though the pen took the entire 1.5ml sample, I expect I’ll write it dry in short order.

Thoughts After Cleaning the Pen

On the one hand I’m surprised to see it took me a year to write this pen dry. Even as an eyedropper filled pen I wouldn’t have thought it would take me this long. However, I didn’t do a great job sealing the threads on the fill, and had a small leak that would sometimes color my finger blue while I wrote. So the pen sat unused until I found the time to carefully open it and re-grease the threads, while the pen and feed were full of ink. After that, everything went great. Despite its size, it is a great pen, and one I enjoy using. The ink is a fantastic shade of blue, one of my favorites. A full bottle of this ink might find its way into my collection some day.