Looking For Dark, Well Behaved, Water Resistant Ink...?

[IndigoBOB]

Hello,

 

I am looking for a dark ink with at least some water resistance, doesn't have to be bullet proof or iron gall.

 

I need it dark to have it easily legible, and prefer it to be on the blacker side.

 

I need it well behaved... Who doesn't?

 

I don't like red, orange, or brown.

 

I like dark greens, blues, purples, and in betweens.

 

I don't want a boring color though, which you wouldn't use for your own pleasure.

 

Need help with it : )

[jmccarty3]

Try the blue-blacks from Platinum and Pilot. Samples are readily available from the usual sources.

[KellyMcJ]

Pilot Namiki Blue Black

Sailor Nano Sei Boku

Sailor Nano kiwa Guro

[ENewton]

Depending on pen and paper, Rohrer and Klingner Scabiosa might be a very good choice. It is a smoky purple (my boss thinks it's black) with dramatic shading. It doesn't demand an especially wet pen and behaves quite well on office paper but looks most attractive in at least a medium nib on nicer paper.

 

Scabiosa contains iron gall, but I have found it very easy to flush from a pen.

[JakobS]

KWZ IG Green Gold, IG Turquoise, IG Gummiberry.

 

Depending if you like darker true greens versus murky greens, IG Green #2 or # 3 may work too.

Edited October 13, 2017 by JakobS

[welch]

Diamine Majestic Blue or Diamine Oxford Blue. Majestic has a strange sheen for personal fun, or at least strangeness. Akkerman calls their version "crazy blue", as best I can guess. Oxford Blue is a blue-black made from darker and darker blue; does not slip towards teal or gray...just a serious blue.

[IndigoBOB]

Platinum blue black is a little too blue.

 

Pilot blue black is always a consideration for its low price on Amazon and its agreeable characteristics, but but it seems to be lacking a little emphasis on the Dark I'm looking for, and the "interesting" that piques.

 

I like Scabiosa a lot, and though the hue is dark, it doesn't write dark unless I use it in my TWSBI Eco which allows me to saturate the feed easily with the turn of the piston knob. But for my other pens, it does write a bit faded for me and lacks that effortless legibility I get from the more saturated form my Eco does provide. The Eco just isn't that comfortable for extended writing sessions IMO, nor short sessions at that.

 

Sailor Kiwo Guro is just straight up black and I have a bottle of Aurora Black I like, a Sample of J. Herbin Perle Noire on the way. I will consider it later on as I have tried Sei Boku, which was very well behaved, but too bright a color for me and lacking that nice Darkness I'm looking for.

 

Diamine majestic Blue is nice, but I got Noodler's Elysium for the Jinhao x750 for when I need to add a little bit of color that isn't the Dark I'm looking for.

 

But the Diamine Oxford Blue is piquing my interest. That's the kind of Dark I was talking about and it appears to have some water resistance, too.

 

KWZ IG Gummiberry looks like a possibility as well, but not quite at the top of my list. The hue of purple is strong while still having a dark quality.

 

I have ordered a bottle of Noodler's Air Corps since I really liked that sample and is a great dark ink I am looking for that is closer to black, but still having subtle qualities of color. I'm hesitant about Noodler's because I have had varying results and inconsistent purchases from them and the mixed reviews are matching my own experience.

 

Despite that, I also ordered a bottle of 54th mass, although I haven't had good luck with previous purchases, I did get it from Goulet and they said if the bottle isn't that Dark blue I'm looking for they would work to try and help me find one that was, so I am happily surprised to hear that company work with me on that, since I love the color of the 54th.

 

I also ordered a sample of the Noodler's blue black, but I am not experienced with that ink, and am not expecting much.

 

I did try Sailor Jentle Shigure, but it didn't quite have the same vibrancy of Dark that the Air Corps had, which hit the spot. I find purples soften the darkness, though that is why I was so impressed with Scabiosa as it had a color combination that had a great dark hue I truly wish wrote a heck of a lot wetter to bring out the full potential of its darkness at its more saturated.

 

I like the darkness of Diamine Eclipse, but it's not water resistant and is a bit dry on the flow.

 

I was using Diamine Lilac night, though not water resistant, but became insufficient in darkness after Noodler's Air corps hit the spot. And the comfort of knowing Air Corps could survive a clumsy accident made me enjoy my writing more, so I have been after that kind of security ever since.

 

I did order a sample of Aurora Blue Black after liking Aurora Black as much as I did, but the Blue black is as enticing to me as the Pilot Blue black (Not very much), but I thought I'd give it a chance since Aurora Black brought back my liking for black inks, which Noodler's Black deflated.

 

If you have other suggestions please let me know,

 

as it is always a great experience to find the ink that fits write, and I feel the closest I have come to that is Noodler's Air Corps Blue Black, but in my experience, even with Air Corps, I have gotten inconsistent bottles, leaving me a bit insecure, even about the bottle I ordered from Goulet (I wish I had had them check it first : (

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Sailor Kiwa-Guro. Bought a sample, now I want 10+ bottles. It smells strongly of paint. If that's not your thing, OP, then you might want to steer clear. It's such a gorgeous, well-lubricated, permanent black though... and I kind of like the smell.

[Carrau]

For dark ink, I keep coming back to Noodler's Blue Black (BB). It's appearance is crisp, with no shading, it's partly bulletproof, it's water resistant, and forgery resistant. I've not had any issues with feathering or bleed through on papers I've used, and I've never had it write dryly in any of my pens. I've had a Lamy Safari inked with it continuously for more than a year (with occ. flushes) with no problems. Diamine Oxford Blue, Denim, and Midnight are also nice dark blues I've found to be well behaved, without the other advantages of Noodler's BB.

[Sasha Royale]

From modern and vintage fountain pens, with fine and medium nibs, inks that I use regularly,

that give good service, include

Pelikan 4001 Royale Blue

Thornton Blue

Thornton Black

Montblanc blue/black

Noodler's Heart Of Darkness

 

My test is as follows: After three minutes of drying time, on common-use paper, I drip drop or two of tap water on the writing. After ten seconds, I blot with dry paper. (TP or PT) The writing must remain readable, in order to pass the test.

 

Sorry. My color choices are usually boring, and functional.

[IndigoBOB]

Sailor Kiwa-Guro. Bought a sample, now I want 10+ bottles. It smells strongly of paint. If that's not your thing, OP, then you might want to steer clear. It's such a gorgeous, well-lubricated, permanent black though... and I kind of like the smell.

 

Smells never been a problem unless they are intentionally scented. This ink is on so many lists that I must put it on the top of mine to try.

 

For dark ink, I keep coming back to Noodler's Blue Black (BB). It's appearance is crisp, with no shading, it's partly bulletproof, it's water resistant, and forgery resistant. I've not had any issues with feathering or bleed through on papers I've used, and I've never had it write dryly in any of my pens. I've had a Lamy Safari inked with it continuously for more than a year (with occ. flushes) with no problems. Diamine Oxford Blue, Denim, and Midnight are also nice dark blues I've found to be well behaved, without the other advantages of Noodler's BB.

 

I have tried Diamine midnight, and there's something about it that's not quite for me. I did order a sample of Oxford blue though.

 

It's promising to hear something about Noodler's blue black, because I wasn't sure about it, but after my experience with Noodler's Air Corps I thought I'd give it a chance and I have a sample on the way.

 

From modern and vintage fountain pens, with fine and medium nibs, inks that I use regularly,

that give good service, include

Pelikan 4001 Royale Blue

Thornton Blue

Thornton Black

Montblanc blue/black

Noodler's Heart Of Darkness

 

My test is as follows: After three minutes of drying time, on common-use paper, I drip drop or two of tap water on the writing. After ten seconds, I blot with dry paper. (TP or PT) The writing must remain readable, in order to pass the test.

 

Sorry. My color choices are usually boring, and functional.

 

 

I will keep these inks in mind.

 

I haven't heard about Thornton much, but I will note them especially if they work well in your Finer nibs, which is the big test for me as well : )

 

I would like to try Mont Blanc BB. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

I do have a sample of Noodler's heart of Darkness on the way. Had to give it a try.

Edited October 14, 2017 by IndigoBOB

[Shaggy]

If you haven't tried Pilot blue-black for yourself, why not get a sample? I think it will tick a lot of your boxes.

Edited October 15, 2017 by Shaggy

[jmccarty3]

More suggestions:

 

Diamine Regency Blue (don't know about water resistance, but it's an elegant dark blue business ink)

Akkerman #10 IG Blue-Black

KWZ IG Blue Black

Monteverde Blue-Black

[Checklist]

If you haven't tried Pilot blue-black for yourself, why not get a sample? I think it will tick a lot of your boxes.

Where can you get a sample? Goulet doesn't carry Pilot Blue-black. I'm interested in trying it without buying several months' worth of an ink that may not pan out.

[LizEF]

Where can you get a sample? Goulet doesn't carry Pilot Blue-black. I'm interested in trying it without buying several months' worth of an ink that may not pan out.

 

Odd that more people don't sell samples of this - the top is the only one I know:

https://vanness1938.com/collections/pilot-inks/products/pilot-blue-black-ink?variant=42825578182

 

https://www.gouletpens.com/pilot-blue-black-fountain-pen-ink-cartridges/p/PN69102

 

http://www.andersonpens.com/Pilot-Namiki-Blue-Black-Ink-Cartridges-12-Pack-p/69102.htm

 

(You can always use a syringe to extract it out of the cartridges and put it in a converter...)

[IndigoBOB]

I tried noodler's blue black, and it was good. The ink is dark, but the hues don't stand out as much as I'd prefer.

 

Though this isn't a thread for black inks, I was impressed with Noodler's Heart of Darkness. It had better flow than my Noodler's black and was more legible.

 

But I still very much prefer Noodler's Air Corps Blue Black. Even though the colors are dark, they are still vibrant, which is what I think provides it with a wonderful legibility and alternative to Black inks.

 

Also gave Noodler's liberty's elysium a try and was very happy with the legibility of its high saturation, BUT it gave me very bad hard starts.

Edited October 15, 2017 by IndigoBOB

[Intensity]

Sailor Sei-Boku pigment blue-black

 

R&K Salix and Scabiosa (iron gall content but reportedly easy inks)

 

Noodler's Aircorp Blue Black and Lamy Petrol: surprisingly similar inks in appearance in person, and both leave behind a highly visible dark gray line after washing the top teal away.

 

I have a J.Herbin Lie de The bottle on the way, as I've seen a lot of photos demonstrating its high degree of water resistance (some washes off, but a clearly legible line stays behind).

 

I'll do a comparison of the above once I have them all on hand (except for Salix, which I did not order).

[Arkanabar]

You should go through the Ink Review Index [page 1 page 2] and look for member Sandy1's reviews. She loves her some blue-blacks, but by no means exclusively. Her reviews generally include writing samples using a number of different pens, on a variety of different papers. Writing samples on HP 1124 laser paper gets both splattered and soapy soaked with water.

 

A surprising number of Iro blues hold up pretty well.

[Shaggy]

Where can you get a sample? Goulet doesn't carry Pilot Blue-black. I'm interested in trying it without buying several months' worth of an ink that may not pan out.

PM me your mailing address.

[Padawan]

Here are good options:

 

https://www.gouletpens.com/bottled-ink/c/14/?sortBy=productName%2Basc&facetValueFilter=Tenant~Brand%3Ade_atramentis%2CTenant~Brand%3Agraf-von-faber-castell%2CTenant~Brand%3Apilot%2CTenant~Brand%3Aplatinum%2CTenant~Water_Resistant%3Atrue