I got a sample of Heart of Darkness in a trade. The note sent with it was written with it, and my first thought was "dark brown." It looked the same way in the other pens I tried it in, whether the wet EF Lamy 27 or the also wet F/M Lamy 2000.

I thought Heart of Darkness was supposed to be a really dark black. It's looked like a dark-chocolate sort of color in all the pens and papers I tried. Is it just me?

Regards,
Aaron

From all that I have read, it is the blackest ink available. No red, blue, or green tones to it, just pure black. That's why I ordered it. I usually don't use black inks, but when I'm using one, I'd like it to be the blackest out there.

This thread may help you:

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=64685

It is black
Maybe the sample you got was contaminated or they sent the wrong color

I have no tint or shades of any other colors in my bottle. I recently cleaned up a mess of my HOD and my paper towel looked just like the one mentioned in the linked trhread.

Hrmm... Interesting! I traded with GaryN, who included some ink from a friend, who he said only uses Heart of Darkness. I can tell it's an incredibly saturated and viscous ink- when dipping, most of the ink doesn't get sucked up into the feed through the slit/breather hole. The wetter the ink, the less is left on the nib after a dip. Rinsing a dipped nib takes a lot longer than with regular Noodler's Black, which I expected from HoD. I wonder if his friend uses Old Manhattan, which does appear to have some brown in the kitchen chomotography? I shall run one myself.

The HoD samples I have both write in a black that's less black than Swisher (though that's a cold black, but blacker looking to me) or regular Noodler's Black.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Aaron

I can't speak to HoD, per se, but I have noticed that regular Noodler's Black will look just a touch brown in a very dry writer (in my case, it's a steel-nibbed M Lamy Safari).

Do you have a 'normal' or wetter writer to try it in?

I have the 4.5 oz bottle that no pen has dipped into. I pull ink out of the bottle with a syringe and needle (blunt) and insert it into cartridges or into small 2 dram bottles for those pens that "suck from the bottle only." I never resue a syringe and needle until it has been thoroughly cleaned so there is no possiblility of cross contamination. My HoD is the the darkest of all the black inks I have ever personally used besides Platinum Carbon Black or India Inks. Now, I have NOT yet, dipped into the other specialty black from Noodler's besides the Polar Black, but I can't imagine that any of them are darker than the HoD.

If you are seeking a truly dark black ink, I suggest you buy yourself a bottle of HoD and try it that way. I highly doubt you will be disappointed.

It comes out shiny and blacky-black black from my Visconti Metropolis. It's like... the definition of black.

Huh. I'm not sure what I have that's wetter- I've a Sheaffer Feathertouch'd TD that's really wet and it still has some noticable brown. The ink, diluted in the water, still looks black- just when it's on the page, whether on Rhodia or Cambridge paper.

*shrug*

Heart of Darkness is the epitome of black. I've never seen anything as black as this ink. I love it to death but it behaves poorly in my pens. It's such an amazing ink. If your ink looked brown, send it back to Nathan.

I would offer to send you a sample of the black but I have nothing to send it. I keep menaing to order some of those trading vials but since I don't have anything really exotic I am not sure anyone would want to trade with me

No worries... I don't think there's anything wrong with the ink, just how it is in non-gusher pens perhaps. It does look a lot blacker in a vintage Pelikan w/ a very wet medium nib. Just odd, as regular Noodler's Black doesn't get a brown hue when in a dry pen.

Aaron