Noodler's Black Vs. Sailor Nano Black-Which Is Blacker?

[Fabienne]

http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af174/fabienne301/blacksmackdown1_zps1b19405c.jpg

 

http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af174/fabienne301/blacksmackdown2_zpsb53a0a2f.jpg

 

This review was done especially to annoy The Good Captain. The colors you see on the screen are quite accurate. I was amazed but there you are. My scanner caught the nuances perfectly. I stand by what I concluded with: whichever one you choose, you will be right. They are both great inks. It's just that Noodlers is blacker, and that's a fact.

[The Good Captain]

 

This review was done especially to annoy The Good Captain.

Ooohhh, Fabienne: you little tease.

You spoil me! But what about 4001 Brilliant Black?

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!!!

[Fabienne]

Dang! Didn't take long to get you to bite on that one.Now I know how to summon you up!

[tmenyc]

yes, I want to see Pelikan v Noodlers Black... and Noodlers Black v Old Manhattan Black v Heart of Darkness...

I'm getting down to the bottom of my OMB and will need to decide what to replace it with.

 

Oh, and this is a great review, thanks!

Tim

[betsypreston]

I love the black ink smackdown. I would love to see a whole ink smackdown series, black and otherwise!

 

What's pinker? Diamine Scarlet or J Herbine Rose Cyclamen?

 

Magenta vs Maroon Smackdown: is Yama Budo really purple, or is it actually maroon? See it compared to Noodler's Saguaro!

[Fabienne]

Great idea....go for it! I want to see that, too!

[colex]

Thanks to show your test's...

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/tvb1rsS.jpg

 

 

... This is mine!

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/ogWHdC9.jpg

Edited June 1, 2013 by colex

[Fabienne]

I have always said that everything sounds better in Italian. It does. Wish I could hear you read it! (Even the list of ingredients on the backs of cereal boxes sound better in Italian).

[ever onward]

Thank you for doing this. I'd been thinking about sampling the Nano, but now I'll pass. I get really frustrated by not-that-dark blacks.

 

best wishes,

eo

[dcwaites]

Here are some samples from my collection of black ink.

The paper is Reflex Ultra white, a standard copy paper in Australia that has outstanding properties with inks.

The pen is the nib from a Huashilai 3000, removed and put into a pen holder and used as a dip pen.

 

 

 

 

The Heart of Darkness is a little blacker and more intense than standard Noodler's Black. It also spreads and bleeds a little more.

I use Noodler's Black in normal pens and HOD in fine nibbed and/or dry pens.

 

Pelikan Brilliant Black 4001 is a normal dye ink, whereas the first two are bulletproof inks and the last two are carbon nano-particle inks. How black they look depends on the type of paper.

 

These scans are not accurate, they are relative, designed to bring out the relative differences between the ink.

The results you get will depend on the paper and pen you use.

 

[Fabienne]

Wow, thanks for that great job! I think that makes it abundantly clear whether Pelikan or Noodler's make the blackest* ink out there. HOD changes a lot for me depending on papers and nibs. Noodler's Black is pretty consistently the champion on just about all set ups. I have been amazed by it since I started caring about fountain pens.

[Nonsensical]

Ohh....Fascinating. I find that Sailor Nano Black LOOKS slightly less black due to the sheen/way it dries, but actually is more well behaved than Noodlers Black on cheaper paper. Pelikan 4001 Black is, in my opinion, the least black of the three.

[TSherbs]

Thanks for these comparisons. I have only Noodler's X-Feather, and these results are further evidence to me that I don't need to sample other black inks; I somehow chose well the first time!

[WaskiSquirrel]

I'm enjoying this thread because I wondered the same thing.

 

I loved the smell of the Sailor Nano black, but I did't like the sheen it had. It met my waterproof criteria. It was really difficult to clean out of my pen, but did behave well in the pen.

 

The Noodler's Heart of Darkness is a nice black. It's a little more gray than the regular Noodler's black, but not appreciably so. The good point with it is that it plays well with my vacuum-filler pens (TWSBI Vac 700 and Pilot Custom 823). The regular black just wouldn't let bubbles rise as I wrote. As a result, they would collect at the base of the piston and the pen would quit writing.

 

I tried Pilot Namiki Black. I didn't like the smell. More than that, it appeared very gray on the page. I don't recall testing its waterproofness. I will say that the 70mL bottle is one of my favorite bottle designs.

 

Parker Quink Black used to be my go-to ink, until I quit buying in stores and went online. It's black, plays well with my pens, but it is kind of gray compared to other blacks, and doesn't have the waterproofness I want.

 

Noodler's Bulletproof black is my favorite. It would be my only back were it not for some issues I cited above with vacuum filler pens.

[mhosea]

The Noodler's Heart of Darkness is a nice black. It's a little more gray than the regular Noodler's black, but not appreciably so.

 

In my case I think this was so because the ink was just over-saturated. Once you get a certain amount of dye in one spot, more is not better. I think it actually got blacker when I started diluting it 2 parts ink to 1 part distilled water, though I have to admit it is not clearly blacker than Noodler's Black. It's about the same on most papers I've tried. Unfortunately, it still feathers more than Noodler's Black, but overall I think it performs well.

[smk]

Thank you for this comparison Fabienne, I have been considering getting a bottle of Noodler's Black for some time now and this review has helped me make my mind. Now to find a store that carries it...

 

Salman

[Gcouch]

Now throw Aurora Black in there and see who wins I think it'd be the darkest or at least tied with noodlers... it's such a dark ink.

[Fabienne]

Honestly, I don't think so. I have not had the darkness from Aurora that I did from Noodlers. I bought a bottle of it, too. Gave it to someone else or I would put it up.

[mhosea]

Inks are fun. My first try with Kiwa-Guro was in a Professional Gear with a Naginata Togi M-F. I didn't feel that it flowed well in that pen, and at first I thought the ink just wasn't going to work out for me. But today I have it in a Sailor 1911 large with H-B nib that I've reshaped to suit me, and it seems perfect for that pen. I love the feel of it in that pen. It goes down wet on notebook paper without feathering. And yeah, sure, it's not as black as Noodler's, but it's a nice, opaque, gray-black. The not-so-black black inks that I don't care for are the ones that are so unsaturated that it's the lightness of the paper that is seen through parts of the stroke.

[inkstainedruth]

Just got a sample of Nano Black. It will go into the queue of my "best black for x situation and conditions in a rollerball" which started last summer with Noodler's Black and PR Invincible Black. Neither of which were ideal for the application (and Invincible Black stained the barrel of the Preppy it was in horribly). Ironically, while the other Preppy is almost empty (and I've heard that you can have problems with eyedroppers when that happens) I still pick it up occasionally and the Noodler's Black starts right up (even after the better part of a year).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth