Let me know if you aren't able to read the venerable written language of the 'jittery scrawl' civilization and I can type out a translation. This is my first review...be gentle.

Jim

Click to view attachment

Thanks Jim. Very nice. I wish these bulletproof inks wouldn't nib creep - but that's the price we pay.

"Schmearage" - I love it!!

Jim,

Great review. How does the ink compare to Aurora black?

Thanks
Chris

I have a bottle of this ink and am quite fond of it. It is extremely dark.

However, I do find that it takes a long time for it to dry when used in my Moleskin.

Hi All...So far this Noodlers Ink is the ONLY one that does not nib creep in any of my fountain pens....Cross..Parker and Waterman...unlike the HORRENDOUS Polar Black....
Pete

My bottle of Old Manhattan arrived today and I haven't gotten much time to play with it, but it surprised me by how fine a line it lay down. Most of my Noodlers inks go down wet and leave a broader line than other inks in the same pens. Polar Black is exceptionally bad, turning a 0.25mm point into a 0.50mm line. The other Noodler's inks I have don't go down anywhere near that heavy, but they still add a little weight.

My first impression was that it was nowhere near as black as people have been saying, but when I took a closer look I realized that the *color* was not light, my F nib was actually laying down a fine line!

I sure hope that this is not just a fluke. I don't want to get my hopes up, but if this is a trend, it could be the ink I've been looking for for drawing with fountain pens. *fingers crossed*

Nice review.

Makes me wonder if there is much of a difference between this OMBlack and HOD. At some point, I have to realize that black is black and if there is an ink that's "blacker", it can't be by much. I was happy with Noodler's black and eel black, until I got HOD. HOD is darker than both reg. black and eel black, but not by some exorbitant amount.

I'm just wondering where the blackest black ends?

Didn't Einstein say it was "relative" If Nathan's not careful, the search for the blackest black could end up where even light cannot escape.

Great review!

--Roy

Hi, I just joined -- and I'm really curious about your experience with this ink. I use black ink almost exclusively, and I prefer XF nibs, so I'd like to know if your experience here was a fluke or not.

Thanks in advance!

-Lisa

Welcome Lisa!

I don't think it was a fluke or anything special about this ink. At first glance a heavier line always looks blacker than a finer line. Well, as long as it's black ink anyway. Old Manhattan behaves like an ink should, putting down a line that corresponds to the nib you use. The flukes are when the inks go down heavier.

As I posted in another thread, I've had great success with Old Manhattan in a flex nib for this reason, because it returns to an XF line immediately after having been up at BBB. I'd been blaming poor "return" on the pens I've been using, but it may be a characteristic of the ink.

I'd be very interested in finding out whether the x-feather will also work well in a flex nib. It would seem that feather resistance and flex performance go hand-in-hand.

Stephen

Well, scientists recently announced they had created a new <A href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/16/darkest_material/">blackest material</a> out of carbon nanotubes. Reflecting only 0.045 percent of the light its pretty impressively black. I don't think we are gonna see it in an ink though.

I've tried this ink because I was curious, as it was praised the blackest black ink of all. Hm after all my tests in my even wettest nibs, I have been disappointed about it. The ink is not bad, but in my opinion just ordinary stuff, it is very black, but not blacker than Aurora which means it is not very black to me. And even disappointing to me was Heart of Darkness and even PR Ultra Black both look darker to me than Old Manhattan.

Viseguy did a papertowel test (chroma-something), and the ink showed shades of green! And sometimes when I look at a page of my handwriting, there's a green sheen, but then if I look harder (!), it goes back to black (or maybe I am fooling myself). But OMBBBBB is still my favorite black. The Aurora was too wet, the PR Ultra too feathery and bleedy, and the HoD... negligibly different. (I don't think I've ever spelled "negligibly" before, and it looks like nonsense!)

I love my Old Manhattan Blackety Black Blackest of Black!

Even if it has a tinge of green. Green is pretty.

I've also noticed that Old Manhattan Black has a green tinge, but it is hardly visible so that doesn't bother me. It is more a neutral black to me, but what bothers me really is the fact that it looks so grey. I have expected the ink to lie a dark, real black line on the paper, a clear and crisp line and my Old Manhattan Black is only a tint darker than Waterman Black which is a very poor black ink (but a great grey ink as far as I could say). I have thought that Old Manhattan had to be ages darker than Aurora or Waterman, but it isn't - this has disappointed me.

Maybe it's just my Waterman pens going wrong. As inks don't work well in every pen, I'm gonna to try this in my Parker Sonnet very soon.

REALLY?!

This is not my experience at all. Not using Watermans, though. Maybe that's why. Do you have any Sheaffers you can try it with? Also, it is FABULOUS with a Hero 240. REALLY BLACK!

I have experimented a bit and found out that this ink doesn't flow as well as Heart of Darkness. It's a good ink for wet writers because the ink is not gushing out of the pen, the flow is moderate (OK it's better than Pelikan Black, really), but in dry writers this ink tends to look greyish-greenish.

Unfortunately my wettest nib is reserved for another ink, so I have mixed this ink a bit with Private Reserve Ultra Black, the black gusher. I know I'll lose the eternal qualities of this ink, but that doesn't matter to me that much. Given the Old Manhattan ink being an ink with no feathering and no bleedthrough, I've found my mix practical (concentration: fewer than 10:1 I guess), still, it doesn't feather, but it flows much better now, giving me a blacker line. Although I've found out now that under UV-light, this ink always a greenish cast.

OK, the bottle is so big, so I definitively WILL have some time spending on this ink, probably.

I have to agree with Lisa on this one...out of the three, OMB is the darkest. Waterman is darker than many of the pre-Noodler's inks, but OMB and HoD are darker.

Bumped up for giuli9p

Hi y'all,
Been away for awhile.
I'm looking for a black ink for work. I use an old style Rotring (EF) & Namiki VP (F) exclusively. I'd like one that is waterproof if possible & also one that dries quickly.
I've been using Pelikan & Aurora, but neither offer the 2 features previously listed.
Suggestions?

I have had very good experience with OMB, but J Herbin Perle Noire is vying for top spot. The OMB is bulletproof, while the Perle Noire is merely water-resistant, but water-resistant to an acceptably high degree. They both dry fast (I use F and XF nibs).

if I can pop-in and help... I have both, but aurora is far more better flowing and blacker ink. Old Manhattan is ok, but not exceptional.

This thread is amusing, since all the "What is the blackest black?" threads I have seen include a large number of "Old Manhattan Black is the blackest black of all blacks!" posts. This is the first thread I have seen in which anyone has said that OMB is not amazingly, fantastically, void-causingly black.

(I have no idea what OMB is like in person, though I am sure that I shall try it sooner or later. I just found this funny.)

Oh! Thanks for doing this review.
That's a black that is on my list to get and I was wondering what it was rally like !
Your writing in is just fine - I have seen way way worse!

My thoughts exactly. I like OMB, it's a nice ink though not perfect for every pen, but after having read all those "blackest blackety black black"-comments I was quite disappointed to see there's hardly a difference between HoD and OMB (at least in blackness). A fine ink though.