Aurora Black, Hero 234 Carbon Black, And Sailor Kiwa Guro

[mhosea]

Just a quick comparison of the blackety-blackness (or lack thereof) of Aurora Black, Hero 234 Carbon Black, and Sailor Kiwa Guro.

 

Notes:

• Please account for the different line thickness. A thicker line that is equally saturated tends to look darker but may or may not actually be. The filled in rectangles are a better guide because they factor this effect out.
• The squares in the upper right were filled in once. The 3-part larger rectangle near the middle was filled in twice, so the ink is over-saturated there (this sometimes leads to a slightly different appearance than normal).
• The carbon inks look less dark from an angle, whereas Aurora maintains a consistent or even darker appearance from an angle.

 

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3685/13299754695_18eaeb4cdd.jpg

AuroraHero234KiwaGuro1

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3666/13299754665_85a3069d64.jpg

AuroraHero234KiwaGuro2

 

[JonSzanto]

Well, the angle shot sure is enlightening - and I mean that!

[mhosea]

Aurora wins in my book, BTW, though each of the other two seems to have its charms. Will have to see how the Hero ink behaves after it has been in a pen for awhile. I gave up on several Noodler's cellulose-reactive inks not because of the way they performed initially, rather because of "skip starts" later on after the ink had been in the pen for awhile. The extreme graphite sheen of Kiwa Guro is either a defect or a feature, depending on your point of view. It disqualifies the ink from the blackest black contest, but it is possible to love it, nevertheless, if you find the variability of its appearance engaging.

[Koyote]

It's difficult to conclude much when the writing samples were done with three different nibs...A wetter nib will, other things equal, make a darker mark on paper.

[Seele]

mhosea,

 

Next test: submersion test: the Aurora might falter but I am sure the carbon pigment inks would shine here, while the Hero 234 Carbon is no match against another Chinese-made ink, the Oriental 8214 Carbon, it would be interesting to see how the Kiwa-guro holds up over a 48-hour submersion period.

[JonSzanto]

I don't care. Nothing I write will be submerged in water. If it is, so be it. Life is transitory. The sun could go nova.

 

I just want a good, well-behaved, very black ink. Aurora is it.

[mhosea]

It's difficult to conclude much when the writing samples were done with three different nibs...A wetter nib will, other things equal, make a darker mark on paper.

 

Well, for that matter, it's hard to conclude much when the same nib is used because the flow rate varies. In some sense a comparison like that is more practically useful but only to people who are trying to pick the ink for a given pen rather than selecting both the ink and the pen for maximum effect.

 

As for the effect of wetness on darkness, it's more complicated than what you say. The darkness increases with wetness to a point and then decreases if the ink begins to take on a sheen. You can see this effect comparing the double-filled rectangles to the single-filled ones. I can just fold the paper over and examine it under different lighting conditions. Aurora Black is darker in the single-filled rectangle than the double-filled one. The Hero ink is darker when laid down twice, and coupled with the sheen effect on the Aurora, it's enough to invert the comparison between the two. Kiwa Guro is not much affected by being laid down twice, remarkably so, perhaps.

 

The writing per se is not there for comparison purposes, anyway, rather as documentation. I intended for the comparisons to be the rectangles and swabs. I'll do a little bit using the same nib. I'll put it up if it reveals anything new. BTW, I should add that although the Hero ink is in, by far, the wettest pen with the widest line, I am pleased with just how dark it is in the writing.

[mhosea]

I don't care. Nothing I write will be submerged in water. If it is, so be it. Life is transitory. The sun could go nova.

 

I just want a good, well-behaved, very black ink. Aurora is it.

 

I have enjoyed the character of Sailor Kiwa Guro for awhile, but I hesitate to put it in anything but c/c pens because the cleaning difficulty and because I am not sure whether it is significantly alkaline or not. I bought Aurora to be a very dark black that I could put in my vintage pens. Water resistance is not one of my criteria for that (it is more a function of ease of cleaning), but there are times when I am interested in water resistance to the extent of being, say, "splash" resistant. Both Hero 234 and Kiwa Guro excel in that sense, while Aurora leaves something to be desired. But I've got maybe a dozen blues. I think I can tolerate a few different blacks with different qualities. I would say that Aurora is my favorite black ink to date, though. I've tried around 10 or so.

[mhosea]

I'll do a little bit using the same nib. I'll put it up if it reveals anything new.

 

 

Hmmm. It doesn't show a lot. Aurora and Hero are neck-and-neck at 90 degrees, and Aurora wins at other angles. Aurora feathers a little on Rhodia if you lay it down wet, whereas the Hero 234 doesn't feather at all.

[lapis]

It's difficult to conclude much when the writing samples were done with three different nibs...A wetter nib will, other things equal, make a darker mark on paper.

+1 on that. Whether the nib is wetter or not, it's still the same nib, and as we used to say in our good ol' science days... a real comparison has to be an A-B comparison.

 

Mike

[mhosea]

Aurora Black, Hero 234 Carbon Black, and Kiwa Guro -- Rectangles drawn and filled in with a wet pool of ink. First set 1 layer of ink. Second set, 2 layers of ink.

[mhosea]

I repeated the whole exercise, tediously, with the same pen, a "Danitrio" with a #5 medium JoWo nib.

 

First the scan...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7209/13342691644_29b5278364.jpg

Hero 234 Carbon Black, Aurora Black, and Sailor Kiwa Guro

 

Now the equivalent photo...

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3753/13342301515_f73d7478e2.jpg

Hero 234, Aurora, Sailor KG

 

Now a photo at about 45 degrees...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7241/13342445053_81c57829e4.jpg

Hero 234, Aurora, Sailor KG

[lapis]

Thanks! That looks great. Convinces me as always!!

 

Mike

[mhosea]

One interesting thing I see is that on the second round, I didn't seem to generate as much of the ruddy sheen that I got with the Aurora on the double-pass rectangle the first time around. I chose this pen because it was the nib and feed are easy to pull and only fit one way and to one depth, both, so that it would be easy to toss the parts in an ultrasonic cleaner, rinse, and then dry the feed completely before filling with the next ink. However, the pen is slightly dryer than any that I used the first time around, and I guess I just couldn't get quite as much wet ink on the page at once with this pen.

Edited March 24, 2014 by mhosea

[magnus919]

Be careful with the Hero Carbon Black #234. I've been using it in a variety of cheap Chinese pens and every one of them has gotten gummed up over a period of weeks. Even the ones that get used every 2-3 days. Every time I run into this, I clean out the pen, give it a delicate nib flossing, & refill with a known good ink and the pen functions fine. I like using the ink but its future use will be limited in light of the maintenance considerations.