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INK REVIEW - DR. PH. MARTIN'S OCEAN FOUNTAIN PEN INK - DARK MATTER BLACK Background: Dr. Ph. Martin's artist products are manufactured by Salis International, founded in 1934. Ben Salis, the founder's son, began to work for his family's business in 1936, at the age of 16. That year, in the height of the Great Depression, he was paid just $1 per week. Ben Salis was given the honorific title of "Dr. Martin" after he invented many graphics and color products, and obtained several design patents. Although he was not a real doctor, products with the trade name of "Doctor" earned instant respectability in the patent medicine era, so the name was applied to his inventions. Dr. Ph. Martin's products are among a handful of "doctor" products that remain on the market today. Ben Salis passed away in 1996, but his business and his legacy remain, and today his children continue to manufacture Dr. Ph. Martin's inks and color products. They are the third generation in a family tradition. (Excerpt from http://www.dickblick...s/dr-ph-martins). Dr. Ph. Martin’s new series of brilliant Fountain Pen Inks are pigment base inks. Originally designed for TWSBI #580 & #700 fountain pens, they can be used in similar fountain pens. Dr. Ph. Martin’s claims that these are the only pigment base fountain pen ink that is lightfast and archival. These highly saturated inks are intense in color. The colors currently available are: Ocean Edge Blue (Reviewed) Garnet Red Rose Dark Matter Black They are AP approved Non-toxic. docmar9 kindly provided samples to test these inks, which is greatly appreciated. Materials Used: Papers used: Xerox 24lb Multi-Purpose paper purchased from Costco Tomoe River-like paper in Traveler’s Notebook refill 013 Staples Notepad paper Staples ARC Notebook paper Pens used: Baoer Horses with fine nib Jinhao 450x with Goulet 1.1 stub nib TWSBI Diamond 580 with Tomahawk stub nib (kindly loaned by amberleadavis) 2. Writing sample on Xerox 24lb Multi-Purpose paper using Baoer "Horses" with fine nib: No feathering, bleedthrough or showthroughHighly saturated.Dries quickly (under 10 seconds)No smearing as would be expected on a relatively absorbent paper. My only complaint was that the ink also dried very quickly in the nib; causing very hard starts. 3. Writing sample on Tomoe River-like paper in Traveler’s Notebook refill 013 with Jinhao 450x: In this Jinhao 450x with Goulet 1.1 stub nib, the ink flowed very well with a nice lubricated feel. As expected, the ink took a great deal longer to dry. 4. Writing sample on Staples ARC Notebook paper with TWSBI Diamond 580 with Tomahawk stub nib (kindly loaned by amberleadavis): This ink pairs well with the TWSBI, which is what it was made for. It flowed smoothly and dried fairly quickly without drying in the nib. Overall I was impressed with this pairing. 5. Test for water, alcohol, ammonia resistance: As with the other Dr. Ph. Martin’s inks tested, I prepared a brief writing sample on Staples Notepad paper (an unfavorable paper for fountain pens). The ink wrote very smoothly on the paper, with very little feathering and surprisingly no bleedthrough and little showthrough. I then placed this small sheet of paper into a bowl of water and left it there for 2 hours. There was almost no fading of color indicating that the ink is waterproof. As with the other Dr. Ph. Martin Ocean inks, this ink is also mostly resistant to alcohol and ammonia. While I would not call this completely “bulletproof”, I would consider it clearly archival. I did not test for lightfastness, however. 5. Cleaning: The ink requires a more rigorous cleaning in order to remove all traces of the ink. I used Goulet Pen Wash which helped. Impressions: Bottle: The ink comes in very nicely weighted, stable, round glass bottle with an accompanying eyedropper. Color: Dark Matter Black is a very dark black. I am generally not a fan of black inks, but I must say that I like this one. It is intense and serious. There is no shading or sheen, but it is fairly bulletproof. Formulation: The ink is fairly dry in flow and needs a wet nib. When used in a medium nib, the ink dried quickly in the nib causing hard starting. This was not the case in the TWSBI or the Jinhao x450 stub nib. Overall: I generally do not like black inks. I do, however, like this one. It is black – seriously black. It has good archival properties. It does, however, required extra efforts to clean. In conclusion, this is a highly saturated, archival quality ink that would be an excellent choice for someone who needs a “bulletproof” ink that shows limited feathering and bleed through even on cheap papers, but still maintains nice shading qualities. This is now my choice for a bulletproof black.