Black Revews

[Pariah Zero]

First review I've done.

 

I'm not much of a fan of color inks; for me, it's black or nothing. (With the exception of Noodler's Blue Ghost. Invisible ink is more of a novelty than a normal writing ink at the moment - and hopefully will remain so!)

 

The darker the black, the better. My ideal is like looking at a black hole - nothing, no sheen, no gloss, no light. The ideal is no photons are reflected at any angle.

 

So, Here's my review of a few blacks:

Aurora Black

Noodler's Black

Noodler's Old Manhattan Black (A Fountain Pen Hospital Exclusive)

Private Reserve UltraBlack

Sheaffer Skrip

 

I had ordered some Pelikan Brilliant Black, but that was on backorder. Oh well...

 

The paper is HP InkJet Bright White.

 

I've used a number of pens for the review; three of which are essentially identical stainless steel nibs (Sheaffer Javelin and Prelude). The other two are on Lamy pens (An AL-Star Safari and a 2000). All are "fine" nibs, and the Sheaffer pens are very consistent in line breadth.

 

http://www.pariahzero.net/Fountain%20Pen/BlackCrop.jpg

 

First, the Aurora Black:

I filled one of my Sheaffer Javelins (My workhorse pen) with Aurora Black. I'm no discriminator for how 'smooth' the ink is - mainly because I really can't tell. My first impression with the Aurora ink was that it feels about as smooth in my Javelin as the other inks I've tried in the same pen. Blackness is good, but there are some shades of grey. I had recently flushed then pen out, and gave it a good 48 hours to dry; though I still wonder if the is still a bit 'washed out' as a result. I've heard rave reviews for the 'blackness' of Aurora, and while it's up there, it's not the blackest in my opinion. There's also a little bit of glossy/reddish sheen and specular highlights to heavily saturated areas (somewhat similar to the 'sheen' of a ballpoint pen).

 

Noodler's Black is in a Sheaffer prelude, and has the same model/size nib. As mentioned, I won't grade the 'smoothness' of the ink, as I just can't tell much difference. Noodler's black does seem darker than the Aurora, though not by much. The color is wonderfully flat, with very little visible sheen or specular highlighting in saturated areas.

 

Noodler's Manhattan black appears quite a bit darker in the scan, though I attribute some of that to the broader 'fine' nib in the Lamy 2000. That being said, in saturated areas, it does appear darker than Noodler's "bulletproof" black, with almost no visible sheen or specular highlights in ink-saturated areas.

 

Private Reserve UltraBlack was drawn using a Lamy AL-Star Safari fine. The AL-Star's fine point is closer to the 'fine' of the Sheaffer nibs than the Lamy 2000's. Private reserve is also an intensely black ink. Drying time seemed to be about the same as Noodler's and Aurora, which makes me wonder about the 'ultra fast' dry time that it boasts. Like Aurora, the ink does have a visible sheen with specular highlights, and is probably the 'glossiest' of the bunch.

 

Sheaffer Skrip is the first fountain pen ink I've ever used. I've been using Skrip for about 10 years now - but mainly in cartridge form. I've still got some of the 'old' skrip formula cartridges laying around somewhere. When the 'bug' hit, a bottle of black Skrip was the first thing I ordered. This Skrip is the Slovenian skrip, though I can tell very little difference between the slovenian and 'original' skrip formulations. They both behave very similarly. Skrip is hands down the least black of the inks, noticibly greyer than the other inks in this review. There is some sheen to the ink in saturated regions.

 

One noteworthy property of Skrip is that, unlike every other ink tested, Skrip doesn't adhere to the metal in the nib, making it almost unnecessary to wipe off the nib after filling.

 

Both of the Noodler's inks suffer from 'Nib Creep' in the (albeit low-cost) stainless steel nibs in the Sheaffer Javelin and Prelude. I haven't seen this in my Lamy 2000. (I haven't tried Noodler's in my Safaris yet)

 

Overall, I'd rank them thusly:

Darkness:

1. Manhattan Black
2. Noodler's Black
3. Private Reserve / Aurora
4. Sheaffer

Flatness in saturated areas

1. Manhattan Black
2. Noodler's Black
3. Sheaffer
4. Aurora
5. Private Reserve

Solvent Testing:

The following is a scan of the various inks, after being subjected to a few minutes of warm running tapwater, followed by a dunk in an ultrasonic cleaner (with dish soap), followed by oven cleaner, rinsed, then dried out.

 

http://www.pariahzero.net/Fountain%20Pen/BlackInks%20-%20Water%20-%20Scaled.jpg

 

The white 'gap' between the Private Reserve and Manhattan black is written in Noodler's Blue Ghost, which is only visible with the aid of ultraviolet light. (Blue ghost is not visible on this paper (HP InkJet Bright White Paper), as the paper has phosphors in it, leaving no contrast between the ink and paper.)

 

Private Reserve and Skrip both ran instantly upon contact with water. Private Reserve did leave a darker 'cloud' of colored water. Aurora slowly started to bleed as time passed. Noodler's Manhattan Black isn't labeled as "bulletproof", or, I believe, waterproof. It did hold up fairly well, but the ink did bleed slightly. Noodler's bulletproof black, is as advertised, solid.

 

It is worth noting that both of the Noodler's black did have a trace of ink run immediately when water was applied - however after the first bit washed away (about 1 second) Noodler's stayed the same.

 

I did try a few other things, listed below with their effect. (No scan for now) All of these were applied to a Q-tip, and rubbed across the ink repeatedly

1. Isopropyl Alcohol (some smudging on Private Reserve, some smudging on both Noodler's.)
2. Acetone (minor smudging on Private Reserve)
3. Saliva (Surprisingly effective on all inks. Significant fading even with Noodler's Bulletproof. The paper did start to suffer damage, and the ink was still visible.)
4. Coca Cola (Nearly identical to saliva)
5. Thoro (An old dry-cleaning fluid that's no longer on the market. This did nothing to any of the inks.)

Edited October 26, 2007 by Pariah Zero

[philm]

Excellent review. Thank you very much!

[Inkling]

Fabulous review, thanks! Like you I prefer really black ink. I have been quite happy with my Aurora black, which is slightly blacker than my Pelikan. Must try Noodlers, apparently

[girlieg33k]

Thank you for the great ink review! It's chock-full of information. Pity you don't use other colors other than black because your reviews on other colors/brands would be just as valuable as this one.

 

I have a bottle of Pelikan Brilliant Black that has not been opened, which I know I'll never use. If you want it, you're welcome to it.

[southpaw]

Way to go PZ! Excellent comparisons and tests! THANKS for sharing. Some very good info in there.

[PAKMAN]

Good review! Thanks! I have Noodlers black and Scrip (old) black and like them both but prefer colors over black!

[nimrod]

Thanks for doing the comparison. Is the "bulletproof" black eel or polar black?

 

I have a sample of the noodler's "regular" black and polar black. The polar black seems to be significantly darker.

 

Something else you might try to get a better comparison between inks is take a Q-tip and get it wet with ink, try to squeeze the excess out of it against the side or lid of the bottle, then rub it over a whole sheet of paper (as though you were trying to color the whole sheet black) and watch how it starts to shade as the q-tip starts to get dry. Do this with all the inks and compare.

 

It seems like the problem with comparing blacks is that it's tough to get exactly the same amount of each one in a given surface area of paper....

 

You might also do this with a heavily pigmented non-fp-safe ink for comparison purposes.

[Pariah Zero]

Thanks for doing the comparison. Is the "bulletproof" black eel or polar black?

 

I have a sample of the noodler's "regular" black and polar black. The polar black seems to be significantly darker.

The Noodler's inks are "Old Manhattan", and regular non-eel/catfish "bulletproof" black.

 

While I have a bottle of Polar Black, I don't have a pen filled with it at the moment. It's just not cold enough outside to warrant it . As it stands, I've got five pens with five different inks in it. I figured I'd better write them out (and then clean the pens) before moving on to polar black. By then it'll be plenty cold outside; I can do a review of Polar Black with a pen & paper that have been sitting outside all night. (And maybe show a frozen/cracked cartridge of a 'normal' ink for comparison).

Something else you might try to get a better comparison between inks is take a Q-tip and get it wet with ink, try to squeeze the excess out of it against the side or lid of the bottle, then rub it over a whole sheet of paper (as though you were trying to color the whole sheet black) and watch how it starts to shade as the q-tip starts to get dry. Do this with all the inks and compare.

 

It seems like the problem with comparing blacks is that it's tough to get exactly the same amount of each one in a given surface area of paper....

The difficulty in getting a consistent amount of ink by using a Q-tip is exactly why I avoided using it. All you have to to do get 'pure black' with any ink is soak the paper until the ink bleeds through the other side, which is easily possible with a q-tip. The amount of ink applied with a q-tip isn't necessarily representative of the ink's color when written with a pen.

 

It seemed logical that a pen would produce a more consistent/repeateable result, which is why I went down that path.

You might also do this with a heavily pigmented non-fp-safe ink for comparison purposes.

The problem there is that I have no practical reason to get a non-fp ink. I'm not an artist; I just take a lot of notes. A dip pen and inkwell would raise more than a few eyebrows in a meeting. I have to admit, though, I am curious how these inks would compare to a 'historical' ink, such as an india or iron gall ink.

 

That being said, I have done less formal comparisions with several popular disposable roller-balls, such as the Uni-Ball Vision and Pilot G2. These inks weren't as black as Noodler's Old Manhattan, and were about as dark as Skrip. I'll have to update the article as time goes on with more kinds of black ink, including non-FP ink.

 

Ideally, I would have liked to be able to look at the scanned image's color value; however when the saturated areas of any ink are "pure black" in the scanned image, I've obviously got to adjust the settings on the scanner.

Edited October 28, 2007 by Pariah Zero

[Shelley]

Comprehensive review PZ, do some more-however, if you can be bothered try and use the same pen for each ink, as the nib characteristic can change the density of ink distribution.

[Pariah Zero]

Comprehensive review PZ, do some more-however, if you can be bothered try and use the same pen for each ink, as the nib characteristic can change the density of ink distribution.

 

I have every intent of updating the article. The initial plan is to make a 'form' for each ink, and then have a sample of each of my pens writing with that ink. I tend to prefer writing a pen out after filling, so putting the results together may take a few weeks.

[SamCapote]

Excellent review. Very thorough on many aspects. I agree about the Noodlers Old Manhattan being the blackest black I have found of 8 blacks so far.