Darkest Black Ink You Know...

[torstar]

That's what I love about them.

If I want saturated inks I take a "boutique manufacturer" (as R. Binder calls them)

 

 

Having spent my $10,000 on the hobby alread, I have an assortment of pens and inks to make it seem brand new every two weeks or so. Herbin's (to me "out there" colours of) turquoise, red/pink, yellow, orange are the best. Not so for blue and black.

 

One comment that hasn't arisen is that black isn't a must-use colour for a lot of FP enthusiasts that I know, maybe chats like this help answer that for me to an extent.

[lapis]

I'll go along with everything David just said.

Judgement of the 'degree' and/or 'purity' of the colour black is often too subjective here.

Another thing to take into consideration is an objective characterization involving the components' movement/spreading on paper. No, not just feathering and bleeding. If the black component is almost the only one, and if -- whatever 'non-black' components are present -- the black part remains up to practically 100% 'anchored' to your paper while the rest swims off, then that too will contribute to the 'amount of blackness' seen.

Take a look at this and decide.

Or, of course if you are all that hot about owning the very blackest black of all time, then buy a dozen of the blacks we keep talking about and with your own pens on your own papers, you can't go wrong deciding which one it is. (No harm meant.)

Mike

Big PS: My favourite blacks are by no means 100.00% black. I find that too boring. No taste, no style. I prefer it if they instead have a hint or an extremely subtle, indirect suggestion of something else. Anything else. Pizzazz.

[Fabienne]

My favorite topic! Recently I have had to change my mind a bit about blacks. Tim sent me a sample of Old Manhattan Black from Noodlers (exclusive to The Pen Hospital). I was fascinated by putting it up next to Noodler's Black and Heart of Darkness and finding that it is slightly blacker than either!

 

From what I can see, HOD is certainly not as black or opaque as Black.

 

Black is more brown than Old Manhattan (OM) which is more blue than Black is. So OM appears blacker because it is less warm.

 

I find that OM is more matte and so it looks darker when dried! Black dries with a more "eggshell" or slight semi gloss finish and so appears a shade lighter. BUT all this changes on some papers and also depending on which angle you view the comparison.

[lapis]

Herr Ober! Zwei Bier!!

[The Good Captain]

Herr Ober! Zwei Bier!!

Und 'Twisted Spire!'

[Paul80]

Hi

 

If you are looking for a really black ink I can recommend one not to bother with and that's Montblanc mystery Black, the mystery is how they can call it black, Dark Grey yes but black no.

 

The good news its that it makes good old Parker Quink Black look really black.

 

All these different inks you guys get over the big pond in America, do you get them over the counter or only by post, over here in the UK there is virtually zero choice of inks in the high street shops other than Parker Quink, Waterman Cartridges or Generic international cartridges. everything else has to be ordered in. Whats it like over there.

 

Paul

[lapis]

Und 'Twisted Spire!'

 

Mate, I'll buy that (for the three of us). As a matter o'fact, I prefer English beers because they have more body, charm, and more pizzazz. Also, they are served not so cold as the Kraut offers here are. (Other afficiados here often claim exactly the opposite). Basically, I'll take anything I can get....

Edited June 15, 2013 by lapis

[PAKMAN]

I'm not a fan of black ink in general but when I do use it I want it to be black!!

[nakiana]

I'm not a fan of black ink in general but when I do use it I want it to be black!!

Same here. I went through several ink samples yesterday and, although some of them were extremely nice to write with, I would never buy them because they leaned a bit too much toward the gray. When I am writing with what is supposed to be a black ink, I want black, and the darker the better. That is not to say that the other inks aren't nice, they just don't suit my personal preferences.

[torstar]

Hi

 

If you are looking for a really black ink I can recommend one not to bother with and that's Montblanc mystery Black, the mystery is how they can call it black, Dark Grey yes but black no.

 

The good news its that it makes good old Parker Quink Black look really black.

 

All these different inks you guys get over the big pond in America, do you get them over the counter or only by post, over here in the UK there is virtually zero choice of inks in the high street shops other than Parker Quink, Waterman Cartridges or Generic international cartridges. everything else has to be ordered in. Whats it like over there.

 

Paul

 

 

Over the last 3 years I have purchased.... PR, Herbin, Waterman, Cross, Quink, Diamine, Pelikan, Pilot, Noodler's, Shaeffer, De Atramentis, R&K, Aurora, Caran D'Ache, Cartier, Dunhill, Conway-Stewart, Dupont, Lamy, MB, Omas, Platinum, Roting and a few others from a handful of stores about a 5-30 minute walk from my downtown Toronto office.

Edited June 16, 2013 by torstar

[lapis]

Over the last 3 years I have purchased.... PR, Herbin, Waterman, Cross, Quink, Diamine, Pelikan, Pilot, Noodler's, Shaeffer, De Atramentis, R&K, Aurora, Caran D'Ache, Cartier, Dunhill, Conway-Stewart, Dupont, Lamy, MB, Omas, Platinum, Roting and a few others from a handful of stores about a 5-30 minute walk from my downtown Toronto office.

One more reason to move to 'T-O'. (or, Trawna, of course)...

There's also a lot of German beer gardens in T-O (of course with the leather shorts and all that jazz...) but I'd still prefer the ink...

[torstar]

We in Toronto always welcome visitors from around the world.

 

Our beer isn't the best, better than the US though...

[alc3261]

Someone should just make a "Spinal Tap" ink.

 

I'm very partial to Aurora, both for the dark saturated quality and for the free flow out of my Lamy F nibs.

Goes up to 11...?

[bemon]

Quite an old thread, but I'll cast a vote for Cross black.