Inky T O D - Black

[amberleadavis]

Okay, well, I usually have more to say about an ink, but really black ink should stand on it's own.

 

About once a week, someone asks...what's the blackest ink. I usually defer to Ethernautrix who has a "relationship" with black ink that I am too young to understand.

 

Here is what SeeksAdvice stated:

tod = Death

ToD = Transfer on Death

ToD = Time of Death - especially important to us homicide prosecutors

 

Guessing here ToD = Topic of the Day.

FWIW nothing wrong with black. I have six bottles of different "blacks," and am still searching for the consistent burned onto the page by the fires of hell black look. The black that feels like its sucking your soul into the page, regardless of pen or paper choice. The black that makes a lump of coal look light. The black that says abandon hope all ye who read this document.

 

 

So, what BLACK is in your opinion the kind that makes coal look grey and says "abandon hope all ye who read this document."

[Muncle]

Within my experience, I've seen Borealis Black be the darkest of the samples I've received. However, I've heard that FPH's Old Manhattan Black is the blackest possible one. I think somebody described it, not so much as ink, but matter that creates rifts in light.

 

What do I use on a daily basis, on the other hand? I like the shaders: Zhivago and 5 o'clock shadow. I also recently stole a fill of Dark Matter, and am really enjoying that ink on top quality paper. My standard, always go to, black is simply Sheaffer's Black.

[colrehogan]

Okay, well, I usually have more to say about an ink, but really black ink should stand on it's own.

 

About once a week, someone asks...what's the blackest ink. I usually defer to Ethernautrix who has a "relationship" with black ink that I am too young to understand.

 

Here is what SeeksAdvice stated:

tod = Death

ToD = Transfer on Death

ToD = Time of Death - especially important to us homicide prosecutors

 

Guessing here ToD = Topic of the Day.

FWIW nothing wrong with black. I have six bottles of different "blacks," and am still searching for the consistent burned onto the page by the fires of hell black look. The black that feels like its sucking your soul into the page, regardless of pen or paper choice. The black that makes a lump of coal look light. The black that says abandon hope all ye who read this document.

 

 

So, what BLACK is in your opinion the kind that makes coal look grey and says "abandon hope all ye who read this document."

I have to agree regarding Borealis Black. Although, I use Noodler's HoD in a pen at work. My favorite black is Dark Matter. I also liked the older formulations of PR Invincible Black.

[lapis]

(1) The most interesting blacks for me are a few which are namely not 100% black but have a tinge of anything else, making the ink a subtlety, a disillusion.E.g. Dark matter, Eclipse (of course the pen and paper play big roles here, too).

(2) If it has to be a "pure" black, i.e. seen chemically as a material with zero colours and/or non-blacks, then I'd pick Kiwa-Guru. HOD and Invincible Black come in close, but are still neither "black enough" nor subtle or delusive enough.

 

Mike http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/uu264/peli46/blackyum.jpg

Edited May 29, 2014 by lapis

[Algester]

I have a Take-sumi and Kiwaguro with me however I rarely use the Kiwaguro because of its price... its a tad bit more expensive than Platinum's carbon black... but I like both the inks I used the Kiwaguro on my Lamy 2000 which had severe flow issues which has since been resolved... however I already have swabbed both inks and to my surprise Kiwaguro isnt's "black" "black" but it's base is gray... when losing saturation but meh its a nano ink and has good flow and is a wet ink for me, Take-sumi is more interesting that it has a slight green tinge to it when not saturated but is gray as well for it's base

[Ted A]

Well if I had to use only a real black (Zhivago is green), my response would be to abandon all hope.

[avlisyar]

+1 for FPH's Old Manhattan Black ....

 

But I am also becoming very partial to Hero's Black ...

[WaskiSquirrel]

I prefer Noodler's Black, but I think the blackest ink I've used is Noodler's Borealis Black.

[neillmot]

I prefer Noodler's Black, but I think the blackest ink I've used is Noodler's Borealis Black.

+1 for Noodler's Black, especially on cheaper papers.

[WC Lee]

Noodler's Black is my everyday utility black but I also use Platinum Carbon Black and Private Reserve Invincible Black (original formulation) but these two are more used for specific purposes. All three are pretty high up on the deep black scale, to me anyhow for now, I haven't tried all the available black inks out there yet

[ac12]

I use Waterman and Cross/Pelikan black, and they are BLACK. To control ink flow, I use Waterman in my dry pen and Cross in my wet pens.

The caviat(sp?) is that the pen has to be wet enough to put down enough ink. Not wet enough and the black inks tends toward dark gray. But this is the case with other colors as well. It is just that the difference between black and dark gray is more visible, for those of us who like black to be BLACK.

As an example, my BLACKEST black is Cross ink out of my Esterbrook. The Esterbrook is a wet pen and that makes the ink line really BLACK.

 

I recently purchased a bottle of Aurora, which is supposed to be blacker than Pelikan black.

This is just for my dryer pens where I can't get the ink flow high enough to make the Waterman ink look BLACK.

 

I use Sheaffer black in my italic calligraphy pens and that is BLACK ink.

I have not tried it in other pens, I bought the ink specifically for the Sheaffer calligraphy pens.

 

I have not tried Noodlers or carbon black inks.

 

One other note, the size of the nib will also affect how black the black looks.

I found that the narrower the nib, the more gray the black ink looks.

What I determined is that this is an optical illusion. The black ink line out of a F or XF nib is still black, but there is just less of it to see, your eye sees more of the white paper, so it looks gray. A broader nib will make a wider ink line so even if the ink line is not as BLACK, the wider ink line give your eye more black ink to look at, thus it looks darker.

So with a XF nib, you are fighting this optical illusion in addition to the blackness of the ink. Thus you need a WET pen with a BLACK ink, to give you as dark black an ink line as you can get.

Edited May 28, 2014 by ac12

[TSherbs]

1) Noodler's X-Feather Black

2) J Herbin Perle Noire

 

all the rest that I have tried show some grey or other color as part of it

[dcwaites]

Backing up Lapis -

Sailor Kiwaguro has to be the blackest black because of quantum (it has nano-thingies in it that absorb the light).

However, to mere human eyes, it doesn't look the blackest, because it, and the other pigmented blacks, are all matt black.

For some reason due to psychology, the shiny blacks (HOD, Noodler's Black on hard, smooth paper, etc) look blacker because of the glossy.

 

The problem is not the inks, it's your psychology. For a more accurate view of reality, please adjust your brain.

[Runnin_Ute]

I have some Waterman Intense Black carts that isn't too bad. But blackest? nah.

 

 

Noodler's Black - it's bulletproof!

 

Levenger Raven Black is interesting. I spilled some and the back side of the page there was a lot of red in it.

[Vgimlet]

HoD is probably my favorite black at the moment. I want true black ink, so I've also been testing blacks over time. Dark Matter is a runner up, and possible contender for my next bottle of black.

[wallylynn]

 

I used HoD in my Lamy Vista for a long time but was disappointed at how grey it was. It wasn't until I got my Ahab that I saw how black it could be. My Lamy was always a dry writer, the Ahab wet. So it was putting down the same amount of ink (perhaps more) all concentrated in a thin line. Also, absorption into the paper can make it look lighter too. Regular black may not be as dark as HoD, but more sits atop the paper whereas HoD soaks in.

 

Then there's blackness vs saturation. Some are very saturated, but not really black. Boralis has that green. Regular black I think has a touch of brown. There's a few threads where members tried to do some simple chromatography separations. HoD should be a truer complete black than both. Of course, carbon inks are true black but may not lay a saturated line enough to appear so.

[amberleadavis]

Saturation v. Color

 

Good point.

 

Turns out I do like those sneaky colors that look black but aren't so long as they are super saturated and NOT chalky. I hate chalky.

[AAAndrew]

I just picked up a bottle today (from my one and only brick and mortar store) of what I believe is now my favorite "black" ink. It deviates from the "blackest black" that I used to look for in my black inks (Aurora, Parker Penman and Herbin were my favorites before).

 

I've gone over to the "color" side. Private Reserve Ebony Purple. There are a ton of reviews on this color which I didn't even see until after I had already bought it, so I won't bother posting another one. Go look and you'll see what I mean.

 

It's black, but then, not black. It's definitely not purple except on exceptionally white paper under bright light. It's black, with pizzazz.

 

I think I'll use my wimpy Quink black to mix with my wimpy Sheaffer blue to see if the two together can do something. There's a new ink in town, and it makes even my solid black Penman Ebony look boring.

 

And Amber, this is not a bit chalky. It's shiny!

[davisgt]

I like the Waterman Black a great deal, which I currently have in my Man 100, but I also have a fondness for the Aurora Black.

 

Todd

[JuInd]

An abstract black that absorbs all my thoughts, does it really exists?

​On the other hand, black that sends one into coma state after looking at it briefly is very nice since people like to use it signing for their divorces.