The Color Of 12 Blacks

[vossad01]

I think I will drive myself crazy if I try further nail down a description of what I see in these vials.

You all have probably read that blacks are usually a mix of colors so that if you dilute them you should not necessarily expect a pure gray. You maybe have even noticed this when flushing a pen and watching the dilute black in go down the drain or changing the color of the water you dipped it in.

I wanted a reference to what these colors were in case so I could be mindful of them when mixing inks. I purchased a number of black samples for this purpose and this shows all blacks I thus have in my possession.

I tried adding a drop of the ink to a full sample vial, but that was still too dark to see the color and I don't have a way to make smaller drops. The method I used was to dip a cotton swab, swab out a sample, then dip the cotton swab into a sample vial of distilled water. I would dip as much as need to get to the point of it being dark enough to recognize color. Here are the results:

Dark Matter: Definitely blue, as the blue spectrum goes it tends more towards yellow then it does towards red, but I would not call it green.
Aurora Black: Purple. Very similar to Borealis but more red(pink).
Borealis Black: Purple. Very similar to Aurora but more blue, making it seem a little darker, dustier
Carbon Black: Yellow, a little more brown/orange than Noodler's Black, but very close.
Lamy Black: Purple. Not as vibrant as Aurora, making it closer to Borealis, though I think more yellow making it seem paler.
Heart of Darkness: Grey? More Blue and Red than the Yellows, more Blue than the Chinese Cartridge.
Noodler's Black: Yellow
Noodler's Blackerase: Yellow
Private Reserve Velvet Black: Purple. Like Lamy but less dusty.
Waterman Intense Black: Pink. Fits in well with the purple ones, but when you look at them side by side, it is definitely less blue.
Quink Black: Pink. Less blue than the Waterman
Generic Chinese Cartridge: Peach. Initial reaction on this one was grey; it really matters which inks you juxtapose.

I note that the color of light the vials are viewed under could make a difference in how I would classify them above. I came up with the above viewing them under an incandescent desk lamp bulb (so a fairly yellow light).

Everything below preserves the same order listed above.

Pictures of the vials, I did my best to capture them but still not great:






Swabs:


The top line for each color was gone over 3x, the second 2x, and the bottom 1x. The purpose of this was to get into the what is the darkest black discussion, but the swabs are fairly revealing on on that front as well.

Accidental pesudo-chromatography (ordered left-to right, top-to-bottom):

 

EDIT: Note: The above paper is try in both pictures, Noodler's Black does have that smokey ring but it is washed out in the second picture by the strong light.

Edited June 18, 2014 by vossad01

[visvamitra]

Great comparison, but I hate black ink so much that I wouldn't be able to pick one that that would be acceptable to my taste

[Xqmano]

Thank you for doing this. I enjoyed reading that very much.

[trdsf]

I can use this for choosing a black -- I prefer a black with bluish or purplish highlights, now I know which ones to look for. Thanks!

[Tas]

Brilliant and ingenious solution to a rather difficult problem.

Thank you. I'll defo bookmark this.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Tas

[lapis]

Excellent review. Thank you. I once did a similar comparison using paper chromatography. I don't know where it is/was, but that way, too, it's easy to see how much and how many different "colours" are actually on hand. Blues, greens, reds but even yellow. Again, one good way to at least try to answer the age old question, "What is the blackest black". I think the "best" one -- in that sense -- I found was Kiwa-Guro. Nonetheless, I myself still find that most of the "really interesting" blacks are by no means "100%" black. If they are, they're lacking character, individuality, pizzazz.

 

 

Mike

 

[ethernautrix]

Very cool review of the various black inks. I really like the last picture of the vials - pretty!

 

I love black ink and tried many, many brands - many of which were very good - but I've chosen Noodler's Black as my go-to ink (of all inks) and use Platinum Carbon Black in one pen. I think I might prefer Sailor Kiwaguro, but I have two bottles of Platinum, so... for now, it's the Platinum Carbon Black in that pen.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Pentulant]

Fun and unique review - thank you for posting it.

[TheModernGent]

Thanks for doing this

[janelle]

This is great info to have; thanks for posting it. And the photo of the vials with the long shadows is a work of art!

[The Good Captain]

I am renown for not liking or using black ink. However, there are four that I have that I pick and choose if necessary. You mention one - Aurora Black - and I agree about the purple. I bought it to mix with their Blue to make an excellent blue-black. Also, Namiki Black - a bit on the green side; Sheaffer Skrip - ditto and Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black - a little bit of brown.

Black has its place but I prefer the ones with a bit of another colour in there so thanks for this great comparison review.