"best" Black Ink

[ethernautrix]

Fabienne: "If I have said it once, I have said it 1,000 times: Noodler's Black," for color, performance when wet, cost, and performance on a variety of papers.

 

Considering your extensive experience and knowledge, allow me to pick your brain and ask you to compare Noodler's Black with Platinum Carbon Black.

 

Thanks.

These two are my favorite black inks, but the reason I favor Noodler's Black is that it is far easier to clean and doesn't leave a residue on the underside of the nib (which makes me wonder what's happening to the feed). I do like Platinum Carbon Black - it is very black, blacker than Noodler's, and it leaves a kind of sheen (not red as with some saturated blues). Sometimes I like the sheen, but not always.

 

Noodler's Black might take a few seconds to dry, but I've long been in the habit of placing blotter sheets between pages of my notebook, so it has not been a problem.

 

Forgot to mention that I use PCB in pens with nibs I can easily take out to clean with a soft toothbrush (nibs and feeds).

Edited April 22, 2015 by ethernautrix

[JimCouch]

Aurora. Deep, dark, well behaved black.

[dylim1]

I haven't tried Noodler's Black. But I've used Noodler's Heart of Darkness on cheap paper and it works really well. I even used it with Kaweco broad nib and see no bleedthrough or feathering on cheap paper. It looks amazingly well-behaved. Love it. Buy and sample and try it.

[torstar]

Aurora.

 

It's just good black ink.

 

No razzle-dazzle-jazz-hands dog and pony show about blackness or waterproofity or thermonuclear warhead proofbangle.

[NibDog]

Sailor Kiwa-guro (sp?) is my favorite black ink. It is my favorite because of its performance on cheap paper and its "blackness". It does have a sheen at certain angles than can make it look a little more grey but i think that looks good too. Def a black not a grey ink.

[JimCouch]

Aurora.

 

It's just good black ink.

 

No razzle-dazzle-jazz-hands dog and pony show about blackness or waterproofity or thermonuclear warhead proofbangle.

+1

[Roseofsharon]

I don't have much experience with ink at the moment as I've only recently really gotten into using bottled ink rather than cartridges or ballpoints. However I use a LOT of black ink and have tried both the manuscript black and Swann Fox's best quality ink for dipping pens and personally I prefer the latter. It works well both drawn up into a converter and when using as a dip pen (my preference). I only buy cheaper end note paper (although I refuse to buy the cheapest on the grounds that the paper quality is terrible) and find that it plays well on paper. My only hesitation is that it is not waterproof (to the best of my knowledge).

[HCD]

what about caran d'ache cosmic black?

[dcwaites]

[BobR]

what about caran d'ache cosmic black?

Besides Noodler's, the other black inks in my arsenal are J. Herbin, Aurora ans Pelikan. If you willing to spend the money on the Caran D'ache, I think you can instead find a very satisfactory ink among those four, and at a lower price I would imagine. All four have behaved very well for me.

[BMG]

There are probably as many best blacks as there are users of ... best blacks.

 

FWIW, I use 3 blacks, depending on how wet or dry the pen in question writes:

 

1. Pelikan, if I need a dry ink

2. Aurora, if I need a wet one

3. Herbin Perle noire, in all other cases

 

For many years I used only black ink. Over the past year, I have strayed from the fold – it is now rare that I do. I am much preferring dark browns (Diamine Macassar, Maruzen Athena Sepia, Sailor Doyou). In a normal to wet writer, they look *almost* black, but not quite, and the bit of depth added by that "not quite" is quite beautiful.

Edited April 24, 2015 by BMG

[HCD]

I asked about caran d'ache because since i'm from portugal it is quiet dificult to find the other on a local store and online they achive the almost same price as the caran d'ache

[BlazeOrangeGuy]

Noodler's Black is a great ink for sure and meets your criteria. I've found on more porous papers, it tends to be blacker while on coated papers like Rhodia, it can appear slightly lighter. Now, you can't tell if you hold the papers at a normal reading distance. If you pull out a loop, you will see a difference but that is semantics at that point. It's dark black for everyday use. Has a lubricating quality/feel for the nib that is very nice.

 

Generally, IME, NB cleans up pretty well - especially if you have an ultrasonic cleaner. It is black-black though and a great ink. Be sure to shake it well before filling your pen.

 

More recently, I have been using Montblanc's Permanent Black. It is very dark black as well and has similar qualities to Noodlers. It is not as viscous as Noodler's Black and it cleans up a little easier IME. MB Permanent Black also has a shiny sheen to it and Noodler's Black is matte. MB PB also has a crisper line from my pens.

 

I own both and use both.

[BlazeOrangeGuy]

Sailor Shigure is a great black/purple. Looks like a black that is a tad off/interesting from a fine nib pen. Very lubricating on the nib, dark and saturated. Cleans up about as well as NB and MBPB.

[prf5]

Platinum Carbon Black serves all my black needs - it's kind of a matte black but it's more permanent than time itself. I also have a Noodler's Nib Creaper filled with J. Herbin Perle Noire which is a really nice, wet, black black. Completely washable though.

 

These two are my favorite black inks, but the reason I favor Noodler's Black is that it is far easier to clean and doesn't leave a residue on the underside of the nib (which makes me wonder what's happening to the feed). I do like Platinum Carbon Black - it is very black, blacker than Noodler's, and it leaves a kind of sheen (not red as with some saturated blues). Sometimes I like the sheen, but not always.

 

Noodler's Black might take a few seconds to dry, but I've long been in the habit of placing blotter sheets between pages of my notebook, so it has not been a problem.

 

Forgot to mention that I use PCB in pens with nibs I can easily take out to clean with a soft toothbrush (nibs and feeds).

 

Thank you both. I asked about Platinum Carbon black because I recently bought some Platinum pens which, as you, know, have proprietary cartridges. The pens aren't good enough to serve as everyday writers, but they are pretty good and useful enough for special purposes. So, on those relatively few occasions that I need a permanent ink, maybe Carbon black is the way to go -- especially if I use it in only one inexpensive Platinum pen that keeps the ink relatively fresh for months.

[ethernautrix]

 

 

Thank you both. I asked about Platinum Carbon black because I recently bought some Platinum pens which, as you, know, have proprietary cartridges. The pens aren't good enough to serve as everyday writers, but they are pretty good and useful enough for special purposes. So, on those relatively few occasions that I need a permanent ink, maybe Carbon black is the way to go -- especially if I use it in only one inexpensive Platinum pen that keeps the ink relatively fresh for months.

 

If you choose a Platinum Preppy, the ink likely won't dry out for months and months. Once upon a time, I had five or six Preppies filled with various inks -- and "forgot" about them in the pen cup for months, maybe even a year. All the pens except one started right up, and the one that didn't was cured by holding the nib under running water for maybe two seconds. I wish I could remember what that ink was. It was blue....

 

Anyway, the Preppy takes the Platinum Carbon Black cartridge, so you wouldn't have to buy a bottle of ink that you would rarely use.

[drawline]

Thank you both. I asked about Platinum Carbon black because I recently bought some Platinum pens which, as you, know, have proprietary cartridges. The pens aren't good enough to serve as everyday writers, but they are pretty good and useful enough for special purposes. So, on those relatively few occasions that I need a permanent ink, maybe Carbon black is the way to go -- especially if I use it in only one inexpensive Platinum pen that keeps the ink relatively fresh for months.

 

My only beef with it is that it does cake up a little bit, and stains more than Noodler's black, like inside an Ahabs filling mechanism at the bottom inside the rod (which is one of the less glamourous functioning parts of said pen) or in the cap if left to dry out. But unlike Noodler's which can leave a film that budges with manual wiping, it does seem to be more permanent (only a tiny line of microscopic film, and I have not tried anything but water and q-tips).

 

I more or less let it dry short term in that Ahab, and I am not sure how well fitted or seated the nib to feed and pen was (and Ahabs are probably not air tight to begin with, which plays a part in how pens dry out when left idle like that). And when I disassembled the nib unit it did not look too bad at all.. So I dont think it is a real worry - if anything it seems to perform admirably for what it is, but I just dont like seeing that tendency. As my using and maintance regime is more sporadic. So I personally use it more as a special ink, in one pen at a time.

 

But I would definitely give it a go for that use, probably nothing in the slightest to worry about.

[Buzz_130]

I use Platinum's Carbon Black and Sailor's Kiwa-Guro as my go-to blacks. The nano pigments don't fade, don't wash away, and will last long past all of us. I play close attention to the pens these inks are in but have had no problems. I also keep a Preppie with a Carbon Black cartridge handy, and I've never had a problem with it starting up immediately after a long spell.

 

Buzz

[eyesa]

I've tried Noodler's Black, X-Feather, Heart of Darkness and Old Manhattan. X-Feather seems to be not only the most well-behaved on most papers, but of equal (but different) darkness to Old Manhattan. Old Manhattan is a 'cooler' deep black either than X-Feather, Bulletproof or HOD (which are all 'warmer' in tone) and on cheap paper Old Manhattan tends to feather, even in a medium nib.
I'll always have a bottle of the original Noodler's Bulletproof Black, but definitely also a bottle of X-feather, both for it's depth and good manners.

Edited May 2, 2015 by eyesa

[Goudy]

Yes, X-Feather is the most impressive black I've used for cheap paper (which is what the initial post of this thread was asking for). It'll write on almost anything without bleedthrough or feathering. You can write on toilet tissue with it. It can be slow to dry, though.