Ten Blacks Compared By Paper Chomatography

[lapis]

Thanks to Waski, I've finally gotten around to doing something I've always wanted to do.

Of course, if anybody uses any analysis to compare a handful of, say blues, sure, they'll certainly get more than a handful of results. Some blues are blacker, some are redder, some greener etc. Then there are also differences in flow, drying time, waterproofness, you name it.

But a comparison of blacks (BTW not at all my favourite ink colour) has still always overwhelmed me due to its actual simplicity. The first question (no, cap'n, I'm afraid there'll never be an end to this) is our "What is the blackest black?". Again, as almost everything else in life, this may remain completely subjective. So that's why I have long thought about doing a few paper chromatographies on them. And then see how things look stretched out, taken apart, magnified, so to say.

First, here's how I did the job today. Ten strips of blotting paper were used, all of which had the same size on the same type of paper (139 g/m² heavy, 0.27 mm thick); the dot at the bottom -- 10 mm away from the lower paper end -- displays exactly 3.5 µl of pipetted ink. Solvent is distilled water - to - isopropanol, 1 to 1). Don't worry about the tiny beaker inside with a silicon cork in it, that's just to keep the strips' bottom ends apart from each other:

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/10_blacks_glass.jpg

Solvent absorption up to the top took about 26 minutes.

 

A picture being worth a thousand words should now enable me to say no more. Some things here are completely evident:

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/10_blacks_paper.jpg

 

1. Aurora

2. Herbin Perle Noire

3. Montblanc Mystery Black

4. Noodler's Black

5. Noodler's Heart of Darkness

6. Noodler's Old Manhattan

7. Pelikan Black 4001

8. Private Reserve Invincible Black

9. Sailor Kiwa-Guro

10. Visconti

 

Yes, some elutions are not absolutely parallel across the strip. Sorry about that. It's due to the fact that all 10 strips in one single glass couldn't be stood up all at exactly the same angle. But... all 10 strips were all done simultaneously under identical conditions.

Still, using this type of chromatography, it's not all that easy to say which of these blacks is the blackest. E.g. Noodler's HOD is definitely more homogeneous and/or steadfast than their Black, but the HOD seems to be less black because it has a shot of olive in it.

An interesting thing here might be to note that some of these colour differences were already observable by looking at the dried dots of ink on those paper strips even before the solvent was applied. I couldn't help seeing that ink 4 definitely had a tick of grey, ink 8 a half a tick of green, and ink 10 a big tick of a brownish violet.

Almost all of the other off-black colours were IMO not as immediately apparent prior to the chromatography. That's what I like so much about this type of analysis. Bottom line: okay, okay, whether or not there exists indeed the blackest black -- or not -- is up to you to decide, but I'd say that some of these sure do have a lot of non-blackness in them, har, har...

 

Whew!

[WaskiSquirrel]

Interesting! I have been curious about the Sailor ink, so now you've answered several questions with this experiment. I think I may buy a bottle.

 

The Heart of Darkness was also interesting. I haven't worked with this ink, but your experiment got me to read the reviews on Goulet Pens. I may purchase a bottle of this as well.

 

I'm happy with my Noodler's Black, but it has its faults (slow drying, and too viscous in a vacuum-filler pen). I'm going to try these two as alternatives.

 

I liked the rainbow inks as well: the Visconti and the Montblanc. They don't serve my purposes, but are pretty on the chromatography paper.

 

The photo of your setup was useful. One of my students wanted to try out a bunch of the inks, and was limited by the equipment we were using. Your setup may work better for me. Of course, we're using chromatography paper instead of blotter paper, so it may not stay entirely upright as it gets wet.

[tmenyc]

This is very interesting, coming from one who only uses blacks and blues and a couple of blue-blacks, and who is red-green color-blind (clearly, there is a relationship between these two clauses...). I'm also not a scientist. So, in my limited language, is it fair to say that you dipped or applied a solvent to dried drips of ten different blacks, and let them leach up the paper, to see the colors as they separated? And the HOD, PR, and the Sailor didn't leach at all because they're bulletproof, for lack of a better term? If so, I'm surprised that Noodlers Black leached at all.

thanks for doing this!

Tim

 

 

[cybaea]

Thank you @lapis - very useful!

[neillmot]

+1 - Thank you!

[Fabienne]

I agree, bully for you! I think you actually swayed my opinion on the blackest black! Looks like Sailor to me.

[mirosc]

Now, THAT was really interesting. Thank you so very much!

 

I had to smile when seeing the appropriately named MB Mystery Black - that black is really a mystery...

[TomJKT]

Thank you for the quite interesting experiment!

I just bought a black Sailor ink. Since I cannot read Japanese, I cannot say, whether this is the aforementioned Kiwa-Guro. But what I can say is, that this ink is by far more black than the Sailor Jentle ink or the Pilot black ink which I also own. But of course my comment should be ignored since it is referring to the never ending "What is the blackest black?" discussion. So...psssssst!

 

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

With a user name like Lapis .... I didn't think you'd own black ink. (wink)

[mhosea]

I just bought a black Sailor ink. Since I cannot read Japanese, I cannot say, whether this is the aforementioned Kiwa-Guro. But what I can say is,

Looks like Kiwa Guro to me. I think photometry, not chromatography, is the right way of getting at the blackest-black, though. I suspect, however, that what it would show is that the variables of pen, paper, and lighting conditions matter, i.e. that these variables change the results, leaving a lot of room for endless discussions.

[calluna]

And then we need to look at the ink-flow and pen-care properties of the blackest blacks...

[VillersCotterets]

I just bought a black Sailor ink. Since I cannot read Japanese, I cannot say, whether this is the aforementioned Kiwa-Guro.

 

 

Yes, it's Kiwa-Guro (きわ　ぐろ）

[mboschm]

Thanks a lot! This is really helpful, but I can't see any blue/purple in Perle Noire, which I found when doing my chromatography of this ink (although it didn't really separate from the black, it just turned a bit purple).

[colrehogan]

This is very interesting, coming from one who only uses blacks and blues and a couple of blue-blacks, and who is red-green color-blind (clearly, there is a relationship between these two clauses...). I'm also not a scientist. So, in my limited language, is it fair to say that you dipped or applied a solvent to dried drips of ten different blacks, and let them leach up the paper, to see the colors as they separated? And the HOD, PR, and the Sailor didn't leach at all because they're bulletproof, for lack of a better term? If so, I'm surprised that Noodlers Black leached at all.

thanks for doing this!

Tim

 

No, the ink drops were applied to the papers and the strips were put in a beaker containing the solvent the original poster listed above. The solvent seeps up through the paper and the components separate. Edited May 8, 2013 by colrehogan

[colex]

 

Thanks from Italy!

 

My Blacks

 

http://www.engeika.com/data/engeika/product/20130320_093992.jpg

 

 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/cooltools_legacy/noodlers-bulletproof-inks-3-oz.jpeg

 

 

http://static.jetpens.com/images/a/000/027/27972.jpg

[mhosea]

I think you actually swayed my opinion on the blackest black! Looks like Sailor to me.

 

I can see why above, but you should try some and see with your own eyes. I just got some today (had them throw in a box of Kiwa Guro cartridges with my order of two bottles of Sei Boku) and did some comparisons to Noodler's Black and HOD in fully-saturated mode on Rhodia and cheap copy paper. Suffice it to say I won't be mentioning Kiwa Guro if somebody asks about blackest blacks, particularly on Rhodia or Clairefontaine type paper.

Edited May 11, 2013 by mhosea

[keymanhattan]

Very interesting. What about with different solvent ? For example 50% distilled water/ 50% sodium hypochlorite ?

[Jared]

That's really interesting. I've been facinated by paper chrmatography since I wiped an Esterbrook pen nib loaded with Aurora Black on a wet paper towel and set it to dry (it's now my avatar).

 

Thank you for sharing with us.

[PDW123]

Really Interseting

[Russ]

Thanks! I really liked this.

 

Why does MB Mystery Black appear so different? How can the colors at the top of the strip really become black at all? Please help.