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The Best Black Ink!


Woliaj

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I've so far not had the best of luck with Blacks. The first bottle of black I got was Higgins brand, and it was horrible.

 

I didn't think Higgins made ink for fountain pens. Was it calligraphy ink?

Bottle said "Fountain Pen India Ink". Reviews I've seen online of it backed that up. Just is a cheap low grade ink.

 

Recently I picked up a bottle of Skrip, and, well, not that impressed. It behaves pretty well for the most part, but the color is often kind of a greyish purple, and it also seems to have the flow stop on me, forcing me to shake the pen or pushing the piston to get it going again, only to repeat a short while later.

 

Could your pen be clogged with residue from calligraphy ink? Once a fountain pen has been filled with that stuff, it's questionable whether it'll ever work right again. Or else, it might be fixable with disassembly and sonic cleaning of the feed.

This particular pen has never had the Higgins in it. PR Spearmint, Pelikan Brilliant Brown, PR Blue Suede, PR American Blue, and now the Sheaffer Black Skrip.

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J. Herbin Perle Noire and Noodler's Black are the only ones I ever use. Both are great.

A certified Inkophile

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Tough call. I really like the saturation and lubrication of Noodler's Old Manhattan Black, but have trouble with dry time. J. Herbin Perle Noire has a more acceptable dry time, but I don't find it nearly as saturated as OMB. That being said, they're probably my two favorite black inks. Both perform well and never give me any clogging/staining issues.

"Instant gratification takes too long."-Carrie Fisher

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Hi guys, im amassing a few bottles of lues, blacks and blue black inks before i get onto colours, and i dont have any blacks, so what the best black ink

all opinions welcome

regards woliaj

 

Conway Stewart Black - very intense and really smooth flow.

Currently inked:

Parker Duofold (Visconti Sepia), Parker 51 (Parker Quink Blue), Parker 75 Ciselle (Visconti Sepia), Conway Stewart Oxford Limited Edition (Visconti Sepia).

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For the tl;dr folks, I summarize at the end ;)

 

Everybody's thoughts on the "best" black ink are obviously subjective. There are too many variables involved with pens & ink (pen, nib, paper, personal preference, what you had for breakfast, etc.) so mileage will definitely vary. My opinions on blacks differ from quite a few of the posts I've seen so far, so, as with just about anything I ever post, take it with a grain of salt. Or a few. Nothing here is in any way ink gospel, as it's purely based on my own personal experience.

 

Aurora Black used to be my favorite. It's a nice very dark black, though not quite the darkest. It's got wonderful flow and lubrication (the gold standard as far as I'm concerned) but it feathers quite badly on absorbent papers (and it's not waterproof if that's important to you). It's also generally considered "safe" for vintage pens, though I personally don't buy into all of that controversy and don't want to start that here.

 

I've also tried Noodler's Black, Heart of Darkness, and X-Feather, Private Reserve Invincible Black, and J. Herbin Perle Noir.

 

On cheap paper X-Feather was the blackest. On Rhodia Invincible Black was the blackest. Both inks match Aurora in terms of flow/lubrication. I highly recommend both inks. The trade-offs for these two are somewhat slower drying on Rhodia or similar papers with X-Feather, and a bit of feathering on cheap paper with Invincible Black (though nowhere near Aurora's feathering tendencies). These 2 inks are my personal favorite blacks, though I picked a bottle of X-Feather over Invincible Black since most of my writing is on cheap notebook paper.

 

I found Noodler's Black was roughly equivalent to Aurora in "blackness," with only very slightly less flow/lubrication, and absolutely zero feathering on ANY paper I tried it on, except maybe a little bit on newsprint. I've only started to put Herbin Perle Noir through its paces, but so far it seems to be quite similar in performance and blackness to the Noodler's Black. I consider both to be very good all-round inks on most if not all papers. I would also highly recommend both of these inks, even though they rank slightly behind X-Feather and Invincible Black on my personal scale.

 

The only ink of all these that disappointed me was the Heart of Darkness. I'd seen many opinions praising it's darkness and performance and was quite excited to try it out but in my experience it was neither the darkest (on any paper) nor the best performing. In fact, it was the only ink of these 6 I considered to be dry and non-lubricating to the point of scratchiness with what is usually a quite smooth nib.

 

OK, the summary:

My favorite black inks: Noodler's X-Feather, PR Invincible Black

Best all-around black inks IMO: Noodler's Black, J. Herbin Perle Noir

Definitely try: Aurora Black

Don't waste your time: Noodler's Heart of Darkness.

Music, verily, is the mediator between intellectual and sensuous life, the one incorporeal entrance into the high world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend. -Ludwig van Beethoven

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Sailor Kiwaguru Nano-Carbon Black ink is incredibly well behaved, smoothly lubricated, and pretty darned much permanent ink. It's pricey, available from a limited number of vendors, but it's been my "go to black ink" now for a long time.

 

I simply haven't used a better black ink.

 

 

 

John P.

 

+1

Too many pens; too little writing.

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I'll have to echo everyone who has said Aurora Black and J. Herbin Perle Noire; however, I had the opportunity to try Sheaffer Skrip Black a few weeks ago and was really amazed at the stuff. The paper we use here is the cheapest of the cheap, and the sheaffer black feathered the least on it. It wasn't as deep of a black as Aurora, but it's good enough for me.

Currently Inked:

Lamy Safari - Noodlers Zhivago

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Okay, I'll do my very best to refurbish.

 

KiwaGuro (sometimes misspelled KiraGuro) Nano Carbon is a nice black, maybe 5% blacker than my other favourite blacks (see above)...

... but even although it is 90% more waterproof but still alarmingly 95% more a slow starter = dry starter ink, it can't end up being one of my favourite blacks.

 

Mike

 

 

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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Sailor Kiwaguru Nano-Carbon Black ink is incredibly well behaved, smoothly lubricated, and pretty darned much permanent ink. It's pricey, available from a limited number of vendors, but it's been my "go to black ink" now for a long time.

 

I simply haven't used a better black ink.

 

 

 

John P.

Kiwaguro Nano Carbon Black is unbelievably good!!!! Nothing comes close!

Definitely. It behaves on EVERYTHING. Doesn't matter if you pen bleeds or writes dry, this ink makes it write like a dream and it's waterproof too.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.

Blaise Pascal

fpn_1336709688__pen_01.jpg

Tell me about any of your new pens and help with fountain pen quality control research!

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ok its down to noodler's black or J herbin. wana vote???? i didnt pick aurora, because i cant find it on any reliable ink website like goulet nd its only 45 ml bottle...

If only money didn't exist, and pens grew on trees...

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I like Pelikan Brilliant Black, but I've not tried as many inks as others on the board.

 

I will be receiving some Aurora black in 2 weeks, and maybe it's time to look up Herbin's Perle Noir.

“It's not the last blow of the axe that fells the tree.”

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You know, I'm actually not a big fan of Aurora black. It is truly one of the deepest blacks I've ever seen/used, but it feathers like crazy and flows far too wet. If I'm not using it in a F or XF pen it just gushes out of the nib and ruins any natural line variation there might have been. Plus, it's one of the most expensive inks per volume. Too bad Aurora has such a lovely bottle and J. Herbin has such a difficult one, otherwise I'd be more tempted to get Perle Noir!

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Best black ink I've ever used: Noodler's Old Manhattan. I use mainly Esterbrook J fountain pens and a Sheaffer Balance lever-fill in my regular rotation. I used mainly Parker Quink Black for a few years before switching to Pelikan Brilliant Black. I've used some Mont Blanc, some Herbin, some Skrip, and some Pilot. The Parker and the Pelikan both worked well with whatever pen I used while the other inks tended to have favorite pens and even some pens they refused to work with.

 

Then I tried Noodler's Old Manhattan! It works very well with whatever pen I use from Chinese extra-fine nibs to Parker Vacumatics with medium nibs. Even stubborn starters start right off when filled with Old Manhattan. I've never experienced any drying problems or feathering problems or bleed through problems with Old Manhattan no matter the quality of the paper. Dashing through a bit of rain a few weeks back, I dropped a wire-bound notebook smack-dab into a puddle. The notebook was thoroughly soaked to the point that when it finally dried the front and back covers were not only warped but they had begun to separate into layers. However, the Old Manhattan had not run or faded in the least!

 

I will readily admit that there is nib creep, but that goes away when the pen is flushed and nib creep does not creep me out in the least.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery. -Anon.

A backward poet writes inverse. -Anon.

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned swisher midnight black. I love it and it dries quickly with little or no feathering.

I'd love to try the Kiwaguro Nano Carbon Black though

Take Care,

Seth

 

Daily users: Ahab, Pelikan M205 with a Binder nib

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