Aurora Black! My old friend, forgive me for being away from you for so long! You have been missed.

I've been writing with exotic colors and inks that stop freight trains in their tracks. Travel and exploration is good for the soul, and I'm very pleased with the new friends I've made in Noodler's, Private Reserve, Herbin, Omas, and so many others. Still, I've been away for too long and none of those others make me feel at home as you do.

You flow so smoothly! I never see you on the top of my nib either. How is it that I've never tried you in my Edson before tonight? I was inspired to; none of those fancy colors really felt right coming from the black and platinum of the Edson Diamond Black. What ink could be better for it than you?

You do take a few seconds to dry, I confess, but nobody's perfect. Once you dry, however, you never smear! You may not stop bullets, but of all my non-Noodler's friends, you're the only one that survived the boiling water test with enough darkness to be read. I'll keep you away from solvents, but I know that I can count on you, even in stormy weather.

It's good to have you back, and you match the Edson so well. Please forgive me for letting you stay on the shelf for so long. I promise, I may not call, but I will write!

Here, Here! May you have many more wonderful years together.

When I started with fountain pens, my first pen was a Waterman Expert II, and I told the salesperson at Fahrney's that I wanted black ink to go with it. I assumed that, since the pen was by Waterman, that the ink should be also. However, the salesperson showed me a book of ink samples and suggested that I might prefer the darker, richer color of Aurora Black to Waterman Black. I was hooked. It has been my primary black ink ever since.

In the intervening years, however, I have shifted to using blue and brown inks, because so much of my writing is in the margins of black-on-white documents, and I need my notes and edits to stand out. Also, I need to be able to distinguish original signatures from photocopies. But there are still times when I want the crisp contrast of black ink on a white or beige background (such as labels for file folders), so I keep one pen (a Lamy Safari) inked with Aurora Black at all times.

Have either of you guys tried Herbin Perle Noire? In the review I've read, it says it has more character when compared to aurora black. I'm looking to purchase a black -- if anything, just to have around -- and am poking around trying to find the best option.

I have not tried any Herbin inks. I would like to do so some day.

I'm not sure what you mean by "character" in reference to a black ink.

If you mean "shading", then I don't think I would like it, because I want my black inks to have very crisp, sharp contrast against the paper. For an ink to shade, it has to have some gray tones.

If you mean that the ink has some other colors lurking in the background, then that wouldn't work for me either. I want my black ink to be pure black, with no blues, greens, reds, or browns, peeking out around the corners of the letters.

But that's just me. Others may have differing likes.

The Perle Noire is a very nice black too. I would rank it right up there with Aurora Black. The Aurora may be just a tad blacker, but not very much. I'd rank it with Aurora and Pelikan black as the darkest blacks, except the various Noodler's blacks, which are great, but don't exhibit any shading, if you like that look.

Pelikan is my second favorite black, after Aurora.

I have discovered the joy of Aurora Black this past week! I'd been resisting using Black but Aurora finally wore me down. It's been creeping into more and more of my rotation as the week went on...

The only problem i have with aurora black is its not bullet-proof. if it was i would be in heaven. seeing as ive shifted to using more blues, i only keep a bottle of noodler's black for when i need to write something on the page that wont come off.

I've done water-immersion and rinsing and boiling tests on written samples and found that, while Aurora does fade dramatically in water, it remains legible on paper even after some harsh treatment. If you need forgery-proof inks that will resist bleaches and solvents and powerful UV lasers, obviously Noodlers bulletproof inks are the way to go, but I'm fairly well convinced that Aurora will hold up well over time and against accidental exposure to the elements.

This is what I meant about being able to count on Aurora Black even in stormy weather.

I pretty much quoted the review of Perle Noire from the database. I'm not exactly sure how a black can have "character" either, but I digress.

Yesterday, ethernautrix and I had a Noodler's black-off between hers (Old Manhattan) and mine (Heart of Darkness).

I didn't actually look at the results, because I'm content to have a single black ink, but two of the other people were convinced that Heart of Darkness was the blacker black.

I agree with JJBlanche on the lack of character of blacks. Visconti black has a greenish cast in certain light, so I don't like that black (it's not black enough).

Now I'm really going to have to get a bottle of HoD. I use Old Manhattan as a drawing ink. If HoD is blacker and as well-behaved as Old Manhattan, I need it.

But there's just something about being able to say, "I start each day with a bottle of Old Manhattan."

Sorry you couldn't make it!

You don't think saying, "I start each day with a Heart of Darkness" sounds better? (I suppose you have to be dating goth chicks for that one to have the full effect.)