The Perfect Black Ink

[Darth_Roo]

I keep going back to Edelstein Onyx.

I've used it in £25 pens and £350 pens and was exceptional in both. A little shading makes it almost a very dark grey but I kinda like that

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi all,

 

Another vote for Aurora on quality papers; Lamy Black or J. Herbin Pearle Noire on lower grade papers.

 

Be well.

 

 

- Anthony

[pepsiplease69]

I agree, HOD is an awesome black. I reserve it for finer paper. I REALLY love kiwa guro, just don't like the shine.

Have ordered a barrister Black. Let's see how it goes

My personal advice is that youre probably not going to get much better than kiwa guro in terms of poor paper performance. Theres just very little out there that compares.

 

Maybe you can somehow adapt your preferences and try to get used to the shiny appearance of the ink. It has a lot going for it and very little drawbacks.

 

I fell into the rabbit hole of searching for an ideal ink ( a dark black ink with a distinct red sheen). I never quite found what I was looking for and amassed quite a beastly trove of black inks which is way too excessive for my needs.

 

I have some regrets about my pen hobby. Buying WAY too much ink is one of my regrets.

[Karmachanic]

My personal advice is that youre probably not going to get much better than kiwa guro in terms of poor paper performance. Theres just very little out there that compares.

 

Maybe you can somehow adapt your preferences and try to get used to the shiny appearance of the ink. It has a lot going for it and very little drawbacks.

 

I fell into the rabbit hole of searching for an ideal ink ( a dark black ink with a distinct red sheen). I never quite found what I was looking for and amassed quite a beastly trove of black inks which is way too excessive for my needs.

 

I have some regrets about my pen hobby. Buying WAY too much ink is one of my regrets.

Giving!!

[pepsiplease69]

Giving!!

I tried giving away several inks for the ink testing stations at our yearly pen shows. I got rid of some of them that way.

 

Shipping is a big issue for me.

[sakib]

My personal advice is that youre probably not going to get much better than kiwa guro in terms of poor paper performance. Theres just very little out there that compares.

 

Maybe you can somehow adapt your preferences and try to get used to the shiny appearance of the ink. It has a lot going for it and very little drawbacks.

 

I fell into the rabbit hole of searching for an ideal ink ( a dark black ink with a distinct red sheen). I never quite found what I was looking for and amassed quite a beastly trove of black inks which is way too excessive for my needs.

 

I have some regrets about my pen hobby. Buying WAY too much ink is one of my regrets.

Probably that is the best way to go. Just waiting to try out Blackstone barrister Black and then I m done. But I have to say, overall, the more I use kiwa guro,the more I'm amazed by the ink.

[Mongoosey]

If my pens worked better with Kiwa-Guro, I'd be using that pretty exclusively. I find it quite dark and rich under the sheen and probably closer to HOD than anything else I've used in terms of hue.

 

I did have luck with Kiwa Guro in a PenBBS 309, but with a mediocre original nib and a shifty fitting of jowo replacements, I had to give that up .

 

I had a lovely Franklin-Christoph that worked great with Kiwa-Guro as well (Jowo nib unit with well tuned F-C nib), but that pen got too slick for me and I had to let it go .

 

--------

 

I do keep Noodler's Black around just in case because it's descent on cheap paper, but I honestly find it too gray in my present assortment of pens and cheat and use an easyflow9000-rOtring_Tikky instead .

[sakib]

If my pens worked better with Kiwa-Guro, I'd be using that pretty exclusively. I find it quite dark and rich under the sheen and probably closer to HOD than anything else I've used in terms of hue.

 

I did have luck with Kiwa Guro in a PenBBS 309, but with a mediocre original nib and a shifty fitting of jowo replacements, I had to give that up .

 

I had a lovely Franklin-Christoph that worked great with Kiwa-Guro as well (Jowo nib unit with well tuned F-C nib), but that pen got too slick for me and I had to let it go .

 

--------

 

I do keep Noodler's Black around just in case because it's descent on cheap paper, but I honestly find it too gray in my present assortment of pens and cheat and use an easyflow9000-rOtring_Tikky instead .

I use it on my 3776 with a medium nib. And it writes pretty well.

My luck with Noodlers black has been very bad. 2 bottles later, I had to give up on it. I can bear the drying times, but that washed out grey color! Just can't stand it.

[dowlf]

At work I end up writing a lot on cheap yellow pads. I use a Pilot VP with a fine nib filled with Noodler's Dark Matter and it behaves wonderfully.

[Mongoosey]

I use it on my 3776 with a medium nib. And it writes pretty well.

My luck with Noodlers black has been very bad. 2 bottles later, I had to give up on it. I can bear the drying times, but that washed out grey color! Just can't stand it.

 

I'm waiting for the Bock Titanium nibs to be available. They're supposed to be juicy, but they're always sold out.

[Lloyd]

I use it on my 3776 with a medium nib. And it writes pretty well.

My luck with Noodlers black has been very bad. 2 bottles later, I had to give up on it. I can bear the drying times, but that washed out grey color! Just can't stand it.

Are you shaking the Noodlers bottle well before using?

[jmeldorf]

Need to show my ignorance; what is a nano pigment? How does this apply to ink color? Thx

[DonM]

Platinum Carbon Black ticks all the boxes for me: Waterproof, Really Black, works well with cheap paper (low bleed, low ghosting), and low cost. And I've never experienced clogging or other bad behavior.

[Arkanabar]

Need to show my ignorance; what is a nano pigment? How does this apply to ink color? Thx

Normal fountain pen ink is a solution; the dyes dissolve in the water, surfactant, and biocides that make up the largest part of the liquid. If the ink dries out, the dyes left behind in the pen can be dissolved again in water without issue. Nano-particle inks contain particles of pigment in suspension, so small that the brownian motion of the water molecules keeps them from settling in the bottom of the bottle, at least in theory. I've never used one.

 

The reason we say that nano-pigment inks are high maintenance is, should the liquid parts of the ink evaporate, the pigment particles will be left behind, and may well not be carried away by more ink, or by cleaning solutions, or anything else. I deliberately say "may" because I just don't know, never having used them.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Arkanabar

[torstar]

guess I'll chime in once again for Aurora

[silverlifter]

Are you shaking the Noodlers bottle well before using?

 

While my experience of Noodlers bears this out, this should really not be necessary for a normal (ie., non-shimmer) ink.

 

One of the reasons why I don't buy that brand.

[Mongoosey]

Noodler's is a frustrating brand.

 

My experience makes me quite hesitant to use Noodler's inks in certain pens, many in fact, usually being those of a higher price.

 

They vary so Gosh Darn much that you don't know what you're going to get.

 

BUT when you find one that works for you in a certain pen, it's fantastic, especially with how affordable they are (at least here in the U.S.). And all the frustration subsides...

 

BUT then you pray Nathan Tardiff doesn't change the Gosh Darn formula, breaks your heart, and makes you give up for an indeterminate amount of time again lol.

 

I finally found a home for a Noodler's Ink I haven't used for a long time: Walnut in a Lamy Vista EF. I hope he doesn't change that formula.

[Darth_Roo]

Normal fountain pen ink is a solution; the dyes dissolve in the water, surfactant, and biocides that make up the largest part of the liquid. If the ink dries out, the dyes left behind in the pen can be dissolved again in water without issue. Nano-particle inks contain particles of pigment in suspension, so small that the brownian motion of the water molecules keeps them from settling in the bottom of the bottle, at least in theory. I've never used one.

 

The reason we say that nano-pigment inks are high maintenance is, should the liquid parts of the ink evaporate, the pigment particles will be left behind, and may well not be carried away by more ink, or by cleaning solutions, or anything else. I deliberately say "may" because I just don't know, never having used them.

I would have thought the particulate mass would have been to great to be suspended via brownian.

Possibly a W/O/W colloid?

Edited July 5, 2019 by Darth_Roo

[pararis]

Over the last few years I've become somewhat a black ink specialist. The answer to "the perfect black ink" is like the answer to beauty -- it lies in the eye of the beholder. With black ink, that beholder sees it through different pens with differing nibs and feeds, different papers, different lighting and different expectations.

 

Generally, I'd have to side with DonM. Platinum Carbon Black has become my "perfect" ink over the years. After a lot of research and testing, I chose it for my archival work.

 

As a good starting point, I usually direct people to a Jet Pens post on black inks. Naturally, they only discuss what they sell, but it's a pretty broad range and covers just about everything discussed in this thread. It's worth seeing...

 

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/the-best-black-fountain-pen-inks/pt/20

[Arkanabar]

I would have thought the particulate mass would have been to great to be suspended via brownian.

Possibly a W/O/W colloid?

I think you overestimate just how much pigment is required, and frankly, it isn't much.