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Franklin-Christoph Black Magic Ink


cybaea

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So I received my four bottles of Franklin-Christoph ink today. The blue (Dark Denim) in particular looks very interesting with some nice, if not very strong, shading going on.

 

But the Black Magic has me stumped. Has anybody gotten this one to work in any pen? I have tried fine fountain pens and dip pens and just can't get it to work. It flows OK, then gushes, then OK, then gush, ....

 

And believe me: gushing is a problem with this one. I did a cotton swap test as the first thing after I opened the bottle. The ink went straight through not one, not two, but three sheets of Velouté 90 gsm paper and one sheet of office paper I had in there to soak up any excess (hah! That didn’t work). I have never seen anything remotely like it. The gush of excess ink from a Tombow extra-fine nib went through the Velouté, three sheets of office paper I had as backing, and onto the next Velouté.

 

:hmm1:

 

Tried a variety of dip pens (=nibs) as well, including my usual tester the Brause Cito Fine, not normally a gusher. No joy. This ink eats Rhodia R paper for breakfast.

 

:unsure:

 

 

On the positive side, watching it dry on the paper is fascinating. Meditative, even. A cotton swap is dry in 2 seconds flat.

 

This ink is so unusual.... I want to make it work. Any thoughts?

 

 

PS: The three others are 'normal' inks and look great. (The black looks great too, if you like your black very black and all the way through your notebook.)

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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A quickly written page to give you an idea about this ink. Paper is Rhodia No 18 dotpad.

 

Front of sheet:

post-101322-0-63789100-1365773208.jpg

 

Back of sheet (!):

post-101322-0-85176600-1365773232.jpg

 

Hope this is useful to someone. Apologies for the atrocious handwriting; can only say that my writing is not great at the best of times and in this case I was terrified of holding the pen still in case the ink would go through my ten (!) sheets of backing paper.

Edited by cybaea

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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Thanks so much for the writing samples, cybaea!

 

:yikes: :blink: :yikes: :blink: :wacko:

 

It's a beautifully intense black. It dries fast. And it's waterproof! If I were in the market for a black ink, this would be high on my list.

 

But that bleedthrough is simply unreal! :yikes:

Seriously, I don't think I could do that with a Sharpie--even if I put my mind to it. How...?

 

Franklin-Christoph, please reduce the surfactants in this one. Black Magic has many tempting qualities, but I'm unwilling to knowingly subject my beloved paper to that kind of gushing.

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That ink looks more like a Minwax wood stain than a fountain pen ink.

 

What a mess!

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice; damn

There goes that fox again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Franklin-Christoph, please reduce the surfactants in this one. Black Magic has many tempting qualities, but I'm unwilling to knowingly subject my beloved paper to that kind of gushing.

 

I exchanged emails with Seth at Franklin-Christoph on this one and their view is that there are no bleed-through problems with this ink and my paper must be strange. The latter is unlikely, and I am seeing other comments on FPN that have the same problems I described, so something is going on.

 

My theory is that F-C has a different batch and that there may be some quality / consistency issues with this brand new supplier of fountain pen inks (F-C says their manufacturer is “not one of the usual suspects”). I am also seeing quite a noticeable film developing on the red and green inks when they are resting, which I am watching.

 

I will keep these inks out of my most precious fountain pens until we all have more experience with them. But meanwhile, the blue, red, and green are great fun to play with and look great in my TWSBI Vac 700 demonstrator.

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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Thanks so much for the writing samples, cybaea!

 

:yikes: :blink: :yikes: :blink: :wacko:

 

It's a beautifully intense black. It dries fast. And it's waterproof! If I were in the market for a black ink, this would be high on my list.

 

But that bleedthrough is simply unreal! :yikes:

Seriously, I don't think I could do that with a Sharpie--even if I put my mind to it. How...?

 

Franklin-Christoph, please reduce the surfactants in this one. Black Magic has many tempting qualities, but I'm unwilling to knowingly subject my beloved paper to that kind of gushing.

Elenita, this ink is not at all waterproof, at least not my sample. It's somewhat water resistant, meaning that something might be legible after getting wet, but probably just barely.

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Franklin-Christoph has added information on all their four inks to the web site and they now recommend this ink only for fine nibs (my emphasis below):

 

Details:

Lubrication - very low. Best used in XF, F, and some M nibs if bleed through is an issue.

Flow - flows very well, but if pen is left out tip can dry as it is quick drying ink. Will stay fluid while pen is capped.

Saturation - 7.5 out of 10 (there is Zero shading)

Waterproof - yes on most papers.

Permanency - 6.5 out of ten for lightfastness.

Dry time - almost quicker than you can get to it, particularly on our paper.

ph level - approx 6.5

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wow, thank you for the review and the link from the other thread.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It's always a contest between bleedthrough/feathering versus drying time. It looks like this ink swings way towards one end of that spectrum.

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Nope. I haven't gotten it to work. Even in a F-C pen M. Worst ink I have ever used. On a fine nib it even bled through. I don't have any so maybe on an XXF or XF it will work?

Captain Kirk is the man and I don't want to hear another word about it! http://straightrazorplace.com/images/smilies/borg.gif

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Nope. I haven't gotten it to work. Even in a F-C pen M. Worst ink I have ever used. On a fine nib it even bled through. I don't have any so maybe on an XXF or XF it will work?

 

I tried it in a Tombow Object with EF nib. It spat ink everywhere and bled through stacks of paper. Tried it with fine dip nibs. Same sorry story. I really want it to work, but can't use it anywhere for anything. :(

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Out of curiosity I had to try this for myself at the Raleigh pen show. They had demo pens loaded up for you to test the ink. I told them that I had heard about the black ink and I was assured that it was working as designed. I do not know what paper or what exact nib they had on the demo pens, but I noticed nothing particularly untoward about the way it wrote or behaved. That said, I came away with the blue. :rolleyes:

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png
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Out of curiosity I had to try this for myself at the Raleigh pen show. They had demo pens loaded up for you to test the ink. I told them that I had heard about the black ink and I was assured that it was working as designed. I do not know what paper or what exact nib they had on the demo pens, but I noticed nothing particularly untoward about the way it wrote or behaved. That said, I came away with the blue. :rolleyes:

 

I hope so. Maybe a better batch or something. I really want this ink to work.

And I love the blue too....!

I am no longer very active on FPN but feel free to message me. Or send me a postal letter!

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