Anybody have a recipe for a very dark red, very saturated ink?

Im thinking either a deep, dark red, highly saturated, OR a dark red, almost to the point of being a black with ever so slight red undertones...

Any help appreciated!

1 part noodler's red-black....

...oh, wait. that's it!

There was some discussion of this recently, and the consensus seemed to be that when you add black to red, you get brown. Noodler's "Red Black" is a brown, and nobody that we know of puts out a red black or black red that is red and black in the same way that a lot of blue blacks are blue black or that Zhivago is green black.

But I'm not sure at all that's the last word. There must be some shade of red or pink or something that can be mixed with a black to get the color you're talking about. And another thing regarding the blacks--both Noodler's Black and both PR blacks have some brown undertones. Maybe better results could be obtained using a carbon black such as FontIndia.

To get a dark red, you cannot mix it with black. (So is the case with the inks I have tried.)

Instead, concentrate red.

I think it is the problem of absorption and reflection. Translucent objects, which absorb certain parts of the spectrum may come near to red black. But reflected and filtered light light, like that from white paper and opaque ink, just achive brown instead.

See as an example of the first group the translucent barrel of the yet to be released Pelikan M625 "deep dark red". It is just that.

I like Private Reserve's Black Cherry and Burgundy Mist, depending on the color you're going for. Black Cherry is darker. How dark it comes out depends on a number of things, not least how wet your pen is.

the best red/black mix ive seen on this site is a mis of aurora black and diamine monaco red. the monaco is a dark red already, and with the aurora black mixed in, the resulting color was dark red with black shading.

Latro - Can you remember if the mix was 1:1? I am not above ordering these two inks in if I thought it might result in what I want!

Scott.

I've only seen scans, but this sounds like Diamine Monaco to me.

Anyway, I'd take a look here.

My homemade red-black (Noodler's Tiananmen + Noodler's Black, about 2:1) looks brown at first glance, but then it is definitely dark red if you look at it in a brighter light, or up close, or held next to other reds or browns. Next to blues or greens is definitely looks brown.

Swishmix Burgundy is a very dark red in my opinion, and has a waterproof component. It's less dark in some pens, but very dark in a wet pen. I was futzing around with dip pens last night and was amazed at this color, and was wondering why I don't use it more often.

This sounds contradictory, but maybe if we darkened our reds with a brown instead of a black, the end result would seem less brown? I'm thinking Noodler's Walnut, which has some pink components to it.

Another mix that may work for you (darken to taste, ) is:

Noodler's Fox Red (3-5 parts)
Waterman Red (1 part)

and add:

Aurora Black (1/8 part)
Noodler's Black (a few drops, optional)

...taking care to add black slowly as you test for dark redness.

Aurora Black works better than Noodler's Black with the red, I think, because AB is a purple-black (like octopus/squid ink) verus Noodler's brown-black. Wholly unscientific supposition.

(edited to add Noodler's Black info)

well, after some experimentation, I have found a few mixes that produce good results:

1) 2 parts Diamine Monaco Red to 1 part Noodler's Red-Black: produces a nice dark red, no brown undertones.

2) 1 part Monaco Red to 1 part Noodler's Red-Black: Exceptionally dark red, still clearly red, but deeply saturated, with good shading.

3) 10 parts Monaco Red to 1 part Aurora Black: Dark red, close in tone to #1 above, not as nicely saturated.

4) 5 parts Monaco Red to 1 part Aurora Black: Still visibly red, but quite dark-- not an attractive combination compared to the others.

5) 2 parts Monaco Red to 1 part Aurora Black: VERY dark, bordering on black (or at least not being predominately red toned. This is close to what I intended at the start, but have found #'s 1,2, and 4 nicer to my eye.

Noodler's Red-Black, straight up, might serve most purposes for a red/black ink.

I experimented a bit with Noodler's Fox Red, Waterman Red, and Aurora Black, but found these combinations drifting toward brown.

Nice job on the recipes!

Did you try a Noodler's Red-Black combo and Waterman Red, by chance, or did it turn out brownish? I like Noodler's and don't know how Diamine will work in my precioussses.

I never thought I'd like dark red ink, but after playing around with what I had on hand to reply to this thread, it's my current fave. Whodathunkit.