Caran d'Ache Carbon Black

August 31, 2008

Caran d'Ache Carbon Black

Ink #1 in my series of reviews and tests of as many different shades of black ink as I can acquire.

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My first reaction to this ink was: Wow, that's black!. The ink is fearsomely black, and thick, and viscous. It glistens on the page as it dries. There is no hint of another hue cluttering up the black. If pure blackness were the only criterion in a black ink, I'd have found the perfect ink already, and my test series would end with the first ink. For a moment, I thought it had.

Unfortunately, thickness and viscosity are not necessarily the best traits for an ink. In my Pelikano, it tends to skip rather badly. If the nib isn't positioned precisely the right way, it simply will not write. Intriguingly, when the ink flows, it's so viscous that it makes the already smooth nib even smoother; it feels as if the pen isn't quite touching the page, but is coasting along on a cushion of this thick, glossy black primordial ooze.

A few notes on the test page:

The three squares are, from left to right, filled in with moderately dense hatching, filled in completely and then immediately blotted, and filled in completely and then allowed to dry. On this standard Rhodia paper, there was no bleed-through at all. There is very faint show-through, which as expected is a bit clearer on the darker squares.

The ink performed very poorly indeed in the smear test, as you can see. There was still slight smearing after twenty seconds; only after twenty-five seconds would I call the ink dry enough to turn the page.

The ink is not water-resistant at all. The water test was a simple one: I allowed the ink to dry completely, waited about ten minutes, then wiped it with a wet paper towel. Only faint traces remain.

The last bit is a swab sample, the first a single line, the second gone over twice more to bring out any shading.

The Verdict: Caran d'Ache Carbon Black is a wonderfully dark, pure black ink, but it is not the perfect black ink (in my opinion). It's too viscous -- though that is part of what makes it interesting -- and it would probably perform poorly in many pens. Nonetheless, it's on my list of inks to buy. I wouldn't use it as an everyday ink, but I would like to have it on hand for writing the occasional letter, or whenever I want a deep, dark black, but don't mind waiting for it to dry.

Finally, my thanks to James P of The Pear Tree Pen Company. Without his ink sample program, my series of ink reviews would be severely limited in scope.

September 8, 2008

Nice review! Judging from the water test this isn't a real carbon ink, but rather an ink that is "black as carbon." It looks like a very nice black!

I highly recommend trying Sailor Kiwaguro Nano Carbon ink; it's quite different than "normal" inks. Platinum carbon ink looks interesting too, but I've heard it requires more pen maintenance/flushing.

Thanks again for the review.

Neill