This is not a detailed review of the Borealis black so I posted my thoughts in this forum. Mods feel free to move it to appropriate forum if necessary.
I've got a bottle from Swisher's yesterday (usual disclaimer blah, blah, blah..)
This ink competes directly with my long-time favorite Aurora black. It's dark, very vibrant dark black, similar to the HOD, however a little free-flowing than both Nile ebony and the HOD. According to RB's scale of wetness, it definitely ups the flow by at least two points for my XF/XXF nibs. It does not feather much on Cahier or HP # 24 paper, no nib creeps on the 14k/18k nibs and has a somewhat lubricating flow. I think it's waterproof, but did not had the time to do any torture test, but it nicely passed a spill-over test. It also comes in both regular 3 ounce and the larger ED bottle, so filling the piston-fillers is not a problem.
This ink is going to be in my regular rotation and probably I can save some $ too because it's a lot cheaper than the Aurora black

Thanks for the review. I put back a bottle of this to get my Libelle Summer Breeze pen, but the ink is still on my want list.

I thought it was supposed to be a washable ink.

http://www.swisherpens.com/catalog/compani...en-ink-3-oz.htm

According to this link, the ink is NOT waterproof. It was developed specifically not to be.

I received a free 1oz bottle of this ink in a goodie bag for the Raleigh Pen Show. Black it is... but wet for my tastes. I've put it on a shelf so that when I come across a dry writer one day, I'll have a good match.

Brent

Is it not supposed to be relatively water resistant, though?

-Nkk

It's definitely not washable. It stays on the paper albeit, some of the ink washes off. I did not do any soak test, but the scribbles are still legible after a spill-over. I don't have a scanner so I can't post the image.
Also the information on Swisher's site does not matches the one on noodlersink.com
As I've said before, I am extremely pleased to have a cheaper alternative to Aurora black. This ink is very well behaved, free-flowing ink suitable for those XF/XXf nibs.

AIR, Borealis emulates ink from an earlier era (1950's?), when people wanted an ink that wouldn't wash off the envelope if the mail got rained on. I remember old inks that weren't waterproof, but they weren't "washable" either. "Washable" meant just that -- if your pen leaked on your shirt, it would come out in the wash. That didn't mean it came completely off of paper in the rain or under running water. "Permanent" in those days didn't mean "bulletproof" or "waterproof" in the sense that we use those terms today. "Permanent" meant that if you got the ink on your white shirt, you were going to be buying a new shirt, and retiring the old one to the rag bag. But even "Permanent" ink would come off of paper or fade to illegibility with a good soak, and of course a checkwasher could make short work of it.

I think we've been spoiled (if that's the right word) by all the inks today that wash right off of the paper. Maybe I should say, our expectations for ink persistence have been considerably lowered in the last 50 years.

Borealis seems to be a product from another era, as advertised. I just got my first bottle today, and haven't had a chance to do much with it. I think I like it. It has an ever-so-slight greenish cast to it when it dries, just as the black ink I used 50 years ago did. HOD is purest black, and when it dries it has that same odd look (some refer to it as "chalky" but that's not right, and I don't want anyone thinking there is anything white or ashen about HOD) that some of the other bulletproof inks have. Call it a "patina" maybe. When I get a chance, maybe over the weekend, I'll try some tests.

Nathan addressed this in another thread. Apparently Borealis IS washable - it washes out of clothes - but it is ALSO waterproof on paper.

(I, of course, have no knowledge of how this is done, just passing along the information.)

Hope this link works:

Post where Nathan comments on qualities of Borealis Black.