Okay, I'm not sure if this qualifies as Inky Thought or Ink Review, but to be safe I'm going with the latter.

So, I received a bottle of Heart of Darkness yesterday along with some Platinum Preppy highlighters I'm planning to ED-ize later today. This is the third black ink I own, now, and I'm leaning really close to it being the best. For the record, I have Aurora Black, J. Herbin Perle Noire, and now HoD. I just can't describe how blacky-black this ink is... it's like looking into a black hole from which no light can escape (yeah, yeah, I know that's why you can't see black holes in real life, but let's go with the simile for now).

Also, the Preppy that came with it is wonderful with this ink! I have another ED Preppy filled with Perle Noire, and it puts out a much fatter line that's not as soul-wrenchingly black. When I make a wide stroke with it, it looks a little like water-color black - still black, but some shading. This HoD-filled pen, however, puts down a true fine line and is silky smooth against all the paper I've tried it with: cheapy notebook paper by Mead, Clairefontaine, Rhodia, even just plain old 20 lb HP printer paper. Also, it doesn't feather or dry slowly on any of the papers I just mentioned.

All in all, wow! Nathan: thank you for this gift. I mean, I paid like $19 for it, but I feel like it was a gift nonetheless... a gift to the FP world! Okay, okay, I'm done with the melodrama. But really, this ink rocks my world a little bit.

Here's a photo, HoD on Rhodia paper. The original picture came out kind of blue, so I adjusted it to look like a more natural light. It doesn't have any brownish or other cast in real life. Also, I can resize this picture it if it's too big:

I too like HoD, and use it at work. I find it feathers more than the standard Noodlers Black, but still a very good ink.

The angle of the photo and the blackness of the ink make it look like the letters are hovering over, and are not actually on, the paper. Nice effect.

Thanks! It is a very black ink, isn't it? Since I got it I've been wondering how much darker OMB could possibly be (having read that it's the slightly blacker of the two). It doesn't seem like anything could be darker!

"It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black."

Spinal Tap FTW.

Those 3 that you have and the Noodler's Polar Black were the 4 samplers I order from Pear Tree a few wks ago. It was no contest in terms of which one was the blackest black. I ordered HoD the very next day.

Which is the blacker ink: Noodler's Bulletproof Black or Noodler's Heart of Darkness?

I'd say Heart of Darkness.

I'm waiting on the Sailor Kiwuguru which from the reviews looks like it might be able to be even darker then HoD, but we'll have to see.

If you do a side-by-side comparison with a cotton bud swash, it is really easy to choose. HoD by a mile. Or two ...

But yes, it does tend to feather a little more, where BPB has never, ever feathered for me, not on the cheapest of rubbish paper. Discounting kitchen roll, toilet paper ... there are limits!

redshifteffect, let us know how the Sailor Kiwuguru compares after you test it.