Inky T O D - Black Inks - Which Ones Do You Own And Which Are Your Favorites?

[doggonecarl]

Added Noodler's Dark Matter to my collection of blacks. I like it a lot. Reminds me of Visconti Black, in that it's not the blackest black ink, is well behaved, and demonstrates some character (i.e., shading). Added bonus, has great water resistance.

[tinysnail]

I have a Metropolitan F permanently inked with X-Feather, so that's usually what I use when I use black ink. It's fade-resistant and water-resistant so I trust it for notes! I also have a bottle of Parker Quink Black for no real reason? I use it for my P51 I guess and for filling up pens I give away to people.

 

I have a few black samples, as well, all Noodler's and all water-resistant.

Oh geeeez... I just tried Polar Black in the Metro instead of X-feather. So much feathering! Admittedly, Leuchtturm paper is pretty middle-of-the-road and not amazing for fountain pens, but the difference in the line XF made and PB makes is wacky. Probably not rushing to buy this one.

[TSherbs]

J. Herbin Perle Noire is definitely my favourite.

fabulous ink

[Arkanabar]

There are five black inks which I have put to use: Pelikan 4001, Levenger Raven, Waterman, 80s era Quink Permanent with Solv-X, and some old Mont Blanc in a gold-tone plastic school bottle, with SuperCleaner SC21.

The MB is the worst of them. It's sort of greenish, and not very saturated. The Waterman is also not very saturated, and feathers just a bit on my super cheap paper. The Quink is just fine, as far as I'm concerned. When I first washed it out of my dad's "51" that had been sitting for decades, it left blue spots with yellow rings on the paper towels I used to draw it out of the pen. I used to really like 4001, as it was just a great ink. Raven Black was super dense and dark, but I don't remember anything else about it.

I bought a bottle of Noodler's Borealis Black b/c of the way it gets compared to Aurora, and it's probably going to get loaded into my 3.8mm Parallel, but the day may come when I break down and get the original Noodler's Black as my go-to black ink.

Gammada, the facets on both Pelikan and Waterman bottles allow you to tip them nearly over and so draw much more ink out of them when they are getting low. Of course, these days I'm much more likely to transfer my ink into a 5ml Nalgene vial for filling.

I like my black to be totally black, as if a void had been formed into language. (Yes, I stole that turn of phrase.) But if it's darker than the cheep cheep off-brand ballpoints that our office manager buys, that's actually sufficient for my needs.

[tmenyc]

. It's so waterproof that it almost makes me laugh out loud (the paper can disintigrate, but the writing will remain!

Fabienne, I hear they use Noodlers black in wet suits for surfing...

 

Tim

[mark e]

currently using montblanc black, which is almost black enough and dries quickly--- but only until the shoe empties, then i'll refill it with a new bottle of jherbin perle noire, (i dont like the herbin bottle)-- which is very black, very easy to use and cleanup, and bulletproof enough for me---just for fun, i once wrote the alphabet on an 8x11" sheet, then dishsoaped and wet the paper and wiped off the kitchen counter with it...not even a smear of ink----i had no idea it would survive that

[hbdk]

Ohh yes - black inks - melikes

 

Very much dependent on the pen (pun intended)

 

For wet pens: Pelikan 4001

 

For dry pens: Diamine Jet Black (perfect for my rather dry Picasso pens) or Noodler's Eel Black

 

For the rest:

Sheaffer Skrip, well behaved, not all that dark

Aurora - nice dark black

Waterman Intense black (a couple of my pens starting gushing with this - maybe I got a bad bottle?)

Parker Quink - not really that dark, but easy to clean

J. Herbin - tried once, feathered like crazy, went away in the last PIF

Diamine Onyx - very dark and nice on good paper, but bleed through and feathering on cheap paper

Poky - hmm...not as bad as one might suspect

 

Hmm..got a couple more, can't remember right now...

[Runnin_Ute]

Noodlers Black is all I have currently.

(not counting the susemai testers)

[Arkanabar]

Well, I've loaded my Sheaffer 1mm stub/calligraphy Viewpoint and my M200 Fine with Noodler's Borealis Black. It shows the barest hints of feathering, as in there are occasional darkened fibers that the ink has been drawn into from the edges of the lines, which I blame on the paper; I don't think they have really good fiber consistency. But hey, it's a 17cent 70 sheet spiral-bound notebook, not Clairefontaine or suchlike. I would expect even budget-grade 20lb copy paper should be better. But oddly enough, it isn't.

 

My copy paper is 88 brightness, 20lb Georgia-Pacific, bought at wal-mart to use in our HP Laserjet 1018 printer because it's the cheapest paper we can find. Here, the Borealis Black spreads from every part of the line, but not as far. Those are both fairly wet pens. But I blame the paper. I can't get a smooth-edged line, even out of my Ahab at the very lightest of pressure (using Waterman Violet) or even a green or red Pilot Precise V5.

[Kuhataparunks]

I have Noodler's Black and Iroshizuku Take-sumi. Both are good, but I prefer Take-sumi just for the ink's properties, such as smooth flowing and easier to clean.

Major +1 to Iro's ease of cleaning .

Noodler's likes to leave a lingering gray behind, but Iro leaves everything clean, it washes away completely. But then again, the former is "bulletproof" for a reason!

[SujiCorp12345]

I just picked up Aurora Black yesterday, and it is my new favourite black ink! I love how wet this ink is.

[DaveBj]

My experience with black inks re pretty limited; for most of my life I've used bottles of Parker Quink Black almost religiously. Now I have a few others -- a sample of Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin, Sailor Kiwaguro (which came in the cartridges that I recently received for my Pocket Pen), and whatever the ink is that comes in the Pilot Varsity. They all look nice and black to me, except that the Quink is perhaps a little less so. The BBM is a little less impressive than the Sailor or the Varsity, but that may be because I have it in a fine-point pen, while the other two are mediums. Anyhow, I'm pretty pleased with what I have.

[Sailor Kenshin]

So, I confess, I don't usually use black inks, but when I do, I want them to be something special. Now, some of my FPN friends (Colrehogan) have collections of black inks that are impressive and prove that BLACK inks are special.

 

So, what black inks do you own and which are your favorites?

Yyyyeahhhh....not a big black-ink-user. But Perle Noir is now in a hooded Jin-fari, and this may be my Black Inked Pen Of Choice, knocking out my red Lamy Safari F/Lamy Black that was my previous go-to.

 

I also have Raven Black from Levenger, an unopened Quink Black, an old bottle of MB Bkack (from before they changed the shoe), maybe some Waterman Black, various carts, and a big sample vial of Aurora Black that I plan to put in a black Hero-fari was part of my Halloween Pen Duo.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Sailor Kenshin

[Lou Erickson]

I just opened a bottle of Noodler's Borealis Black, as I'm far too cheap to buy it's namesake.

 

It's pretty black, and a wet ink. That is in contrast to the Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black I have, which is pretty black but a dry ink.

 

Both are fine blacks. Haven't looked a permanence.