I'm looking to buy a ink bottle for my fountain pen and I need help on deciding which ink.

Here's a list of the inks I'm thinking on getting.

1. Noodler's borealis black. the bottle is really ugly lol.
2. Noodler's black (Polar black or the bulletproof one)
3. Aurora Black.
4. Parker Quink black (both washable and permanent)
5. private reserve ultra black quick drying
6. umm... Any other good ink that I missed.

I'm really new to fountain pen and the only ink I have ever used are the Noodler's borealis black (Someone, kristi, gave me a sample) and a really BAD eBay ink.

What I'm looking forward is a PERFECT ink, by perfect I mean the best . I'm left handed and I use a Lamy Safary, and I am looking for a ink that writes well, dries fast, and maybe water resistant. Plus a good looking ink bottle like the quink one would be awesome too lol.

I hope I'm not being too picky, but if I buy a ink bottle I want to buy a really good ink and not one like the ebay ink

I'd consider the Lamy Black too.

Especially as you use a Lamy Safari. It means you can use a convertor, but also have back-up cartridges of the same ink.

- Mark

My Lamy Black fades to a dark brown in just ONE day after writing on some recycled paper. After a week or 2, it was a brown rather than a black. Quink black and Noodler's bulletproof black didn't have such a problem with the same paper. It doesn't seem to happen to such a large extent on other papers though.

I like both Noodlers Black and Pelikan Black.

I'd go with the Noodlers regular bulletproof black. You'd hate to have something spill on your work and it vanish.

Although I love the deep black look of Aurora Black, I wouldn't recommend it for left handed writers ... it can be VERY slow drying.

Todd

I use Noodler's Old Manhattan Black in my Lamy Safari.

And my Lamy Vista.

And my Nakaya Piccolo Cigar.

And my Visconti Metropolis.

Also, the Hero 240.


So, yuh know... I'd suggest Old Manhattan Black. You can get it only from the Fountain Pen Hospital.

I suggest Sailor Kiwaguro. Behaves well on every kind of paper I've tried it on, including newspaper!

Neill

Pelikan black; my black ink of choice (well, also aurora)

Juan

Hmmm... Hard to decided, but has anyone ever tried the Borealis Black?

The Lamy Black... I'll add that one to the list.

For the rest of the ink's I'll have to search them up.

Borealis Black, as you know, isn't waterproof. If you like it and don't need water resistance, enjoy it!

I'm another fan of Noodler's standard ("bulletproof") Black. The drying time is fairly fast but not super-fast. Polar Black does not behave as well on bad paper. I keep my N's std. Black in a Levenger bottle .

If N's std. Black dries too slowly for you,
the new Sheaffer Skrip Black in the multi-cone-shaped bottle from Slovenia (safe-opening, tipover-resistant and good-looking) is quick-drying, nearly as well-behaved on most paper, and water-resistant enough to remain legible after a few minutes in water (the paper becomes discolored, but not very much). Coming out of a dry-writing pen like a Safari, the new Skrip Black is darker than Parker Quink.

Parker Quink Black, even the non-"washable" variety, is less water-resistant than the new Skrip Black, as are Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black (also sold as A T Cross Black) and Lamy Black. Nonetheless, all three of these are quick-drying.

PR Ultra Black Quick Drying is finicky about paper.

(edited for grammar)

For the best value for your money (i.e., nice ink at a low price), I'd recommend Pelikan Black. If you're willing to pay more, get Aurora Black.

Noodlers Black is my current favorite ink. I've yet to find any ink that is better at minimizing feathering, making a fine nib yield a fine line, reasonably good flow, remaining "stuck" to the paper regardless of solvents/light, and ease of washing off of skin due to messy filling. If only someone (Nathan) made a non-black ink with these properties.

The new Sheaffer Skrip Black is also very un-fussy about what pen it is in or what paper it is on. The stuff even works on thermal receipts.

May I respond with :



As for responding to the original question, I like Pelikan black. It is deep, but not as annoying as Noodlers. Trust me, the last thing you need is for something to go wrong in school and to get the nice waterproof ink on you. Pelikan you can get out with some soap and scrubbing and about 5 to 10 minutes. Either way, it is not a pleasent experience (bad memories...), but it is evven worse if you cannot get rid of the spots.

-Nkk

Actually, the Noodlers Bulletproof inks work by bonding with cellulose. They rinse off of skin extremely easily. On the other hand, they are permanent on cotton clothing.

I have the same experience with Lamy Black and not only on recycled paper. Looking back at notes with Lamy Black from three years ago, they al faded a bit to brown.

My choice would be Parker Quick Black. It's dark enough but not so dark as Pelikan, Aurora or J Herbin blackand that's just what I really like about Parker. I mostly write on white paper and don't like the high contrast from al really deep black on white paper. Parker Quink Black remains black and doesn't get brown like Lamy Black. The flow is really good; it behaves better than Parker Quick Blue in my 'dry' Parker Latitude; it doesn't feather like Sheaffer Black does. Futher, but that just an argument fore me living in The Netherlands, and it's much better availeble. Indeed it's just a bit waterresistant, but when I really want to take notes that need to last a century, I take a 'Din archival' ballpoint like Lamy, a Uniball Signo 207 or East Indian Ink with a dip-pen.

I believe you missed two workhorses.. Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black and Skirp Black. Among the inks you mentioned, I used
Noodlers(one of my shirts remembers it quite well), and Quink black. Quink is too light and watery(Quink grey would have been a better name) but otherwise an excellent ink from all respect. For schools I do not think bullet or fireproof
inks are a good idea(sadly, I do not know about a homeworkproof ink, if you can find out one, all the best!). So I suggest
give Skirp black a try... it is the one of the best all round ink around. It's price is reasonable, and after all it comes with a
very good looking bottle.

Okay, I haven't tried out all inks, not even all of any one colour.
But do try out Pelikan's 4001 black. A good workhorse in general. And in any case affordable. Okay, other bottles (themselves) like those of CdA are more handsome but today it's about the ink itself, I think.

Mike

Yeah, I was mainly reffering to clothing. Ink on the skin is not really a big deal, but its horrible to have on clothing, espedcially somewhere highly visible.

It depends on where you work. While permanent ink on clothes/furniture is worse, overly inky hands isn't exactly desirable at work.

Yeah. Just, being 17, I guess I only put it in the student perspective, and did not even consider having inky hands at work.

-Nkk

Hi,

Another vote for Pelikan Brilliant Black, I quite like Noodlers for dark colour but hate the way it takes ages to dry even when blotted and can smudge even when it looks dry.

Andy

Hmm...Everyone has pretty much listed them all.

Now, if you ever find some Doctor Black, I would be grateful if you let me know.

After many years, I'm still trying to find the "perfect" black ink. Right now I have Aurora, Noodler's, Pelikan, and Skrip. Though I can't recommend an ink for you because I'm just as confused about what works best, I can tell you that the Noodler's has been relegated to a Chinese knock-off of the P51: in my experience, the ink leaves a sooty residue all over the place, even if you flush. I have Pelikan nibs whose engraving looks like you traced it with a B pencil, and that have residue on the underside; and the P51 knock-off's ink sack has turned a sooty black. Were it not for this problem, I'd be using Noodler's very frequently.

Ok the top 2 ink atm are -

1. Noodler's Borealis Black

-I must admit this is the only high quality ink I have ever used and its amazing. It's fairly new if I'm not mistaken and hardly anyone has tried it.

2. Pelikan 4001 Fountain Pen Black.

-After reading it seemed better than the Aurora and Other inks, but I looked at some reviews and its dry time seemed a little high.

-I removed the Quink because it was too gray.
-I removed the Bulletproof because it was too permanent for school.

I'm a little biased at the moment because most of the inks have problems that I haven't experience with the only good ink I have used. I'm going to post a scan of the Borealis black, since I didn't found one on the forums.

Borealis Black



Cheap Ebay ink

-This ink came in cartridges, but I transferred the ink into a mustard glass awesome looking bottle. The ink is REALLY bad as you will see. Plus to make things worse the ink smells like a nasty mustard with coffee (The cap of the bottle had the smell and I tried everything to remove it and failed, lol.)

Bump, It seems no one saw my awesome scans

I'm not worried about drying time, so if I have to use black rather than some interesting color, I do extreme black and use Heart of Darkness.

My experience is limited. I have used Aurora Black and Pelikan Black. I think the Aurora is slightly more saturated but the Pelikan is very dark and dries faster than the Aurora. For work I use Pelikan (mostly taking quick notes), for personal correspondence I like the Aurora.
Cheers,
Nick

As a school ink, I use Noodler's Black ink. I can't find a better ink for durability and for performance on cheap paper. However, I cannot recommend it to you. The ink doesn't dry very quickly at all, so I would imagine that it would be bad for you as a left-handed writer. Though I've never used them, I'd suggest that you look into quick-drying inks.

It seems they fixed that drying problem with the new Borealis Black from noodlers. I think, look at the scans