Noodler's Black Vs. Sailor Nano Black-Which Is Blacker?

[ever onward]

Now throw Aurora Black in there and see who wins I think it'd be the darkest or at least tied with noodlers... it's such a dark ink.

 

That's one of my go-tos. The other is Perle Noir. But I do want to try Noodler's blacks. I don't like the black Eel that much--it seems really dry.

 

eo

[ethernautrix]

Hmm... I wouldn't have thought that Noodler's Black is the BLACKEST black, but it is the most problem-free and therefore my favorite ink. I boost my N. Black with a bit of Noodler's Old Manhattan Black. This is my FAVORITE ink.

 

Thanks for the comparison!

[mhosea]

I boost my N. Black with a bit of Noodler's Old Manhattan Black. This is my FAVORITE ink.

 

 

The mix is your favorite or Noodler's OMB? The dust has pretty much settled on my ink selections, but I'm still playing the field with black inks. I'm wondering if I should order some OMB, but if straight-up OMB isn't your favorite for some reason (e.g. not so "trouble free"?), it's likely that I'll be sensitive to the same matters.

[tmenyc]

Hmm... I wouldn't have thought that Noodler's Black is the BLACKEST black, but it is the most problem-free and therefore my favorite ink. I boost my N. Black with a bit of Noodler's Old Manhattan Black. This is my FAVORITE ink.

 

Thanks for the comparison!

Very interesting...what does the added OMB do to the Black? I am down to 1/4 bottle of OMB, will soon have to either get another or get Noodler's Black (which I've had before and thought was the same as OMB), but this may lead me to get the Black and use the rest of the OMB with it.

 

Tim

Edited June 6, 2013 by tmenyc

[amberleadavis]

If I used black more often, I do like the polar black and BBM.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/INK/images/_nb_mediaFrames/129742012_02_25_16_33_48.jpg

[radellaf]

The Noodler's Heart of Darkness is a nice black. It's a little more gray than the regular Noodler's black, but not appreciably so. The good point with it is that it plays well with my vacuum-filler pens (TWSBI Vac 700 and Pilot Custom 823). The regular black just wouldn't let bubbles rise as I wrote. As a result, they would collect at the base of the piston and the pen would quit writing.

 

While I haven't had the bubbles problem, I switched to HoD after some regular black left a residue on the walls of my TWSBI Vac 700. Granted, it was a very old bottle (2006?), and I did leave it in there since the Vac came out (last May?). Fortunately the TWSBI is a cinch to take apart, but water, soap, and scrubbing with a Q-tip didn't remove what was on the walls. Isopropyl alcohol took it right off, though I wonder if it was a good idea to use that on polycarbonate. Might have fogged it a bit, but the piston moves smoothly. If I did it again, I'd use ethyl (vodka). The 823 I don't care to disassemble, and I don't know what plastic it is. Anyway, HoD is just as black, I don't need the waterproof part, and I do like to leave ink in pens for a year or more.

[Strombomboli]

In my pens, Heart of Darkness is the blackest black, and what I like about it is not only the name (I like it very much), but also that it has the same warm shade as Aurora's Black. The Pelikan Brillant Black is very black as well, but I find it to be of a colder shade. So Heart of Darkness is my favourite black when talking about black as black can be, Aurora is my cozy black because I love Aurora after having used Aurora Blue for many years before I started to have many fountain pens instead of just one, and the Pelikan Brillant Black is in my Serwex with flex nib which I use mostly to draw thick lines while being on the telephone. (Great fun; and it's all I can do with a flex nib.)

[ethernautrix]

The mix is your favorite or Noodler's OMB? The dust has pretty much settled on my ink selections, but I'm still playing the field with black inks. I'm wondering if I should order some OMB, but if straight-up OMB isn't your favorite for some reason (e.g. not so "trouble free"?), it's likely that I'll be sensitive to the same matters.

Noodler's Black is my favorite ink, ever. The OMB makes it just a tad blacker.

 

Hm. I think I prefer Noodler's Black simply because it is available from more vendors, thus adding to the ease of its use.

[ethernautrix]

Very interesting...what does the added OMB do to the Black? I am down to 1/4 bottle of OMB, will soon have to either get another or get Noodler's Black (which I've had before and thought was the same as OMB), but this may lead me to get the Black and use the rest of the OMB with it.

 

Tim

That's what I would do - add OMB to the Black for the blackety-black black boost.

[tmenyc]

That's what I would do - add OMB to the Black for the blackety-black black boost.

 

So, to you OMB is a touch blacker than Black, and probably preferable to Black if readily available; if not, mix it into Black. In your view, is their drying/feathering/other behavior the same? Since I live in Old Manhattan, availability shouldn't be an issue...

 

I will also say that I just finished a lot of note-taking over two days at a professional conference, using Pelikan black in my Snorkel in my Apica notebook, and it just flowed unshaded black...really black, and dried really quickly, typically so for Pelikan. So, my two selections for future keeping will probably be OMB and Pel black.

 

I have also recently received samples of MB black and Mystery black and Sailor Nano. Am curious how they stack up against the front-runners; the MBs for use in my 149, if the MB Midnight Blue (love the MBMB acronym...) ever misses a fill. My normal pens for blacks are the nice and wet Parker 51s and Vacs and the Snork.

 

This is all part of a long-running project to get down to 4-5 inks that I really love and always want to use, with the knowledge of which of my pens they work best with. Getting there with blacks, blues, and blue-blacks, which is all I really ever use.

 

Tim

Edited June 15, 2013 by tmenyc