Parker Black Quink

[Sard]

There was no review, or any comment really, on Parker's Quink Black so I decided to do this review. I hope its useful, and not just something so common nobody has done a review before.

 

After leaving the cap off for an hour, the ink came out in a rush and feathered badly then normalized after a word or two. It feathered on the review paper, but does not feather on the Blueline Archival books I normally use to take notes.

 

I'm going to do a fade test be covering half the page and leaving the other half exposed to sunlight. Those results will be posted eventually (after I see a change).

 

Kris

[Chris H]

I've been using Parker Quink Black for several years now. I've found it to be a serviceable ink. I too find it a bit darker than Sheaffer Skrip. But I like Sheaffer Skrip, at least the old stuff. Haven't tried the new. But it still isn't quite black enough for me and I am moving on to others.

 

Chris

[psfred]

Yup, good old Quink dark gray.

 

I've got the bottle I quit using 25 years ago to refill Sheaffer cartridges because it was so disappointing.

 

I bought a new one not long ago, and it's better, but still nowhere near as nice as Noodler's BB, so that's what I'm staing with.

 

Good review!

 

Peter

[Limerick]

Do the permanent and washable black have any differences in appearance? My Parker Quinck Washable Black does not look equally black, but a bit wishy-washy between blue and brown, depending on the paper

[Sard]

I've not idea about the difference between permanent and washable. I haven’t been able to find any of either. What I have locally available is known only as Quink Black.

 

Its not the blackest black, but one thing I do like about it is its flow and its ease of clean up. It’s a good serviceable ink for note taking. Not much more.

 

One other nice thing is that it does not give me nib creep like Noodler's does (having said that I still intend to order a bottle of Heart of Darkness as soon as it becomes available again).

 

[Ovidius]

Thanks for the review. I like Quink black, but unfortunately for Quink, there are other black inks which out perform it in various ways, though not for the price. The Quink is a pleasing shade of black when dry, which I prefer to the look of the Aurora Black, despite the fact that Aurora Black is better in other ways. It is a great note taking ink for some of my wet pens which use a lot of ink, and because it is readily available at the local Staples Business Depot and is relatively inexpensive per oz. it is always a good choice.

[Sard]

Here is the fade test after 6 months in the sun. The formerly black ink has faded away to brown. The left 1/3 of the page was left exposed, the rest was covered. I would guess that Sheaffer Skrip is about 3% more fade resistant than the Quink, but that could be a difference in wetness between the pens I used.

 

[Chupacabras]

Wow, way to be dedicated to a review, thanks!

[nicoledb]

Hey, thanks for the 6-months follow-up! Nice to know that the covered part doesn't look much faded with this ink.

[ofpwriter]

Thanks for the review! I mainly use Quink, and It's nice to know about the fading. I'm really pleased how the ink flows, and I think mixing red and black gives a nice dark red with a bit of shading too. Good everyday ink! Not a big deal because it's not totally waterproof. Black could be 'blacker' though...

 

edited for a missing word

Edited May 8, 2009 by ofpwriter

[tmcneil82]

I just bought a bottle of this after spilling my Noodlers Bulletproof Black. The bottle design is better than Noodlers, the ink is far inferior. Since this is literally the only ink available to me within an hour drive, I can say that i will be ordering 2 bottles of Noodlers BB so I don't have to use this ink ever again.

[vans4444]

I like Parker/Quink Black. I use it a great deal. It is nearly always the first ink to go into a vintage pen when it arrives; that way I can compare the flow and nib performance against a benchmark ink. I have not found that it staines and is easy to flush out of a pen. Because it is cheap and freely available locally I don't really mind if some goes down the sink, after a trial period with the pen.

 

I find it free flowing. I used a number of inks in an Aurora 88 that was very dry and Parker Black produced the best result.

 

It is not as dark a black as many, but in all but the thinnest and driest nibs it looks black to me.

 

This ink is never going to be seen as a star, but it is a perfectly good everyday ink.

 

Thanks for the review

[Zaarin]

Here is the fade test after 6 months in the sun.

 

Your Quink Black seems more resistant than the stuff I used in cartridges for several years. In my experience it doesn't exactly fade very much, but it does discolour badly - worst in the sun, but often quite badly out of it on many paper types - to a sort of shaky-looking brown-gold colour. I stopped using it for that reason.

[cocojj]

Does anyone know how the modern black compares with the older blacks of Quink (particularly the Solv-X formula) in terms of feathering and other qualities? I find the older ones darker and more "black" than the modern which I find grayish, but it seems to me that the older ones feathered more, although I can't be sure. My blue-black Solv-X seeems to behave fairly well, though.

Edited August 8, 2010 by cocojj

[lovemy51]

I just bought a bottle of this after spilling my Noodlers Bulletproof Black. The bottle design is better than Noodlers, the ink is far inferior. Since this is literally the only ink available to me within an hour drive, I can say that i will be ordering 2 bottles of Noodlers BB so I don't have to use this ink ever again.

your last line cracks me up. is it that bad for you? i have an old bottle and only use it in my Parkete from the 50's -that darn thing only takes Quink Black. other than that, i have no use for it.

 

PS i do agree is a very serviceable ink (OP's comment) ... just don't like the color

[ag273n]

i just got myself 5 quink cartridges for black, and i've read over the review to see how the ink will work or react... well, i gues it'll do just fine with me, given that it doesnt totally fade if i write something ...

i guess i'll see how it'll do later..

[breaker]

nice review

[ag273n]

i already had the black quink cartidges and a bottle for a while now, and an interesting fact about it, is that it has some traces of blue... i mixed it with red quink and filled a cartridge and surprising how the ink went purple after days of use instead of the desired brown... :blink:

[John B]

I used it for years not knowing there was anything out there other than Penit ink, which was pretty bad.

[CatBookMom]

I found 2 lonely bottles of Parker Quink black at my local Staples; the wear on the boxes would seem to indicate they've been sitting there a long time. Kind of a nice bottle; I thought it would be a good basic ink for my penmanship practice.

 

There's no indication of 'permanent' or 'washable' on bottle or box. Is there any way to tell?