Found the answer to my own question in the API reference. Blobs
don't get converted unless you specify filters. I was using
IBExpress. There is no way to get it to specify filters when opening
a blob and, thinking about it, it would be very difficult to provide
such functionality in any easy-to-use component. The problem is not
in writing code to do it, it is that it is difficult to decide when
filtering should be used.

--- In ib-support@yahoogroups.com, "ericthorniley"
<eric_thorniley@c...> wrote:

> I can't get BLOBs to use character sets in the way I expect.