Blackest Black Ink...beating A Dead Horse Or Worth Revisiting?

[lordofnumpties]

Just inked up my Pelikan M200 with a newly arrived bottle of Sailor Jentle Black. It's really black. It's also fairly wet, like Aurora Black, but it dries faster.

Nice! So how does it compare to the gold standards like Perle Noire or Aurora Black in terms of shading? I really hope it lays down a nice, dark line with minimal to no shading, because I'm considering buying it since I can't find any other ink where I am.

[Donato777]

I have only used two black inks - J.Herbin Perle Noire and Aurora Black. They both look about the same in terms of blackness, with Aurora being slightly blacker. Both inks are extremely well behaved, flow well and dry fast. But because I want an even blacker black than these two, I am leaning towards buying Noodler's Old Manhattan Black or Heart of Darkness.

[Dip n Scratch]

Can I mention Hero 233 Carbon Black. Or is it viewed as a dip-pen or drawing ink on account of the fact it contains particles of pen-clogging carbon?

I don't have great use for black ink. I was using the odd slurp of Diamine Registrar's, which is a black shade after the ferro-gall content oxidises. I had it so long it went off & so down the toilet it went. The Hero 233 is still in transit.

At the moment the only black ink I have is 2 cartridges of Herbin Perle Noir.

 

Blue is the colour that I am devoting my attention to at the present.

[aeba]

Can I mention Hero 233 Carbon Black. Or is it viewed as a dip-pen or drawing ink on account of the fact it contains particles of pen-clogging carbon?

I don't have great use for black ink. I was using the odd slurp of Diamine Registrar's, which is a black shade after the ferro-gall content oxidises. I had it so long it went off & so down the toilet it went. The Hero 233 is still in transit.

At the moment the only black ink I have is 2 cartridges of Herbin Perle Noir.

 

Blue is the colour that I am devoting my attention to at the present.

Particles such as "nano"-carbon isn't a direct disqualification. After all there's Platinum, and Sailor nano-carbon inks, and some others which are fountain pen inks. The question is how thick it is, and whether it has shellac or gum arabic like drawing inks have. (I don't think that Hero Carbon black has either.)

[Dip n Scratch]

How would you tell if the hero 234 contained actual carbon black?

Without knowing for sure if it was safe I would not wish to leave it in any pen any longer than needed to complete whatever task required black ink.

 

I did leave Registrar's Ink inside a pen for several days. That ferro-gallic ink was kept from the air by a screw cap. I was more concerned about staining of the internals as the pen was a demonstrator type.

[aeba]

Good question. I wouldn't know. I have a old(er) sample of Private reserve invincible black, which makes paper conduct electricity. On the other hand Sailor Kiwa-guro doesn't seem to make paper conductive. On third hand, that invincible black is so sludgy, that I never tried it in a fountain pen. But both Kiwa-guro and Invincible black has that silver graphite sheen.

[pw1224]

I have an older bottle of Noodler’s Heart of Darkness (it came with a Preppie, not a Charlie). I would swear that the ink has lost some black intensity over time. I have a bottle of Noodler’s Old Manhattan Black that’s maybe a year younger than the HOD and the Old Manhattan seems blacker on both Mnemosyne paper and Life note cards.

[Dip n Scratch]

I got the Hero 234 Ink. It seems rather thick stuff for anything that would be used with a fountain pen. Is it just my perception or does the ink appear slightly brown to anyone else who has tried it? If it is not a carbon-based ink is there an amount of red in the mix?

I was using a Jinhao 599 with a nib marked 'F', used as a dip pen.

 

How does anyone else use this ink? I have some expendable pens...

The unlucky 'volunteer', a Lanbitou 3059 has been charged with the ink.

So far I have only dipped pens into the ink and rinsed them off immediately afterwards. I will leave the pen loaded as one would with any other ink, then see if it clogs the pen.

[Dip n Scratch]

I tore a sheet of paper out of a notebook and wrote with two pens.

You can see that the quick brown fox was written with two inks. One was Herbin Perle Noir, the other Hero 234.

The pen with the Perle Noir had some blue ink in before that & clearly I didn't get it all out.

But you can clearly see that the Hero 234 ink did not wash away & I held the paper under a running tap until I was afraid it would disintegrate.

I need to run the test again with a clean pen. The Hero 234 does have a noticeable brown tone to the dry writing. It does look like there is some brown present after the wash test.

 

Some members have been saying Hero 234 does not have carbon black pigment.

It looks like a serviceable black. Though definitely NOT for use in a valued pen until I know for sure.

Edited March 18, 2018 by Dip n Scratch