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Hello, I have some cartridges of a black ink that I like a lot and I am running out. I would like to find some more (either cartridges or a bottle), but I am not sure about the brand or type of ink. How can that be? you may ask; let me explain: Years ago (1999-2000) I was living in the US. I did not use fountain pens but I was interesting in them, so I bought a cheap fountain pen at a CVS. This is the pen: http://preview.ibb.co/iMEDua/pen.jpg As you can see, there is a faint "Mondial E.I" stamp on the clip. This fountain pen came with (or was sold with, I can't remember) 10 or so international short cartridges of the ink in question. I tried the fountain pen and ink once, but this was a horrible fountain pen and I was put off using them. About 15 years later I inherited some very nice fountain pens from my godfather, and my interest in them was rekindled. I discovered the old Mondial (?) cartridges in a box and started using them. The cartridges have a black "bottom" and a ball agitator. The ink was labeled black, and looks very black when wet, but it fades a bit when dry. I actually like this, since it gets an "old-timey" look. If smeared it looks dark brownish. Here is a sample: http://preview.ibb.co/gwurfF/ink.jpg This ink flows very well in all fountain pens and all rollerballs I have tried it in and does not clog them. It also writes very well in all kinds of paper: it does not bleed through and does not feather even on very cheap and flimsy paper; and it produces lines of the same thickness in all types of paper, even brown kraft paper where most other inks fail miserably: http://preview.ibb.co/bWvE0F/kraft.jpg I would really appreciate any help identifying it or anything close to it. edit: more info added

INK : DIAMINE JET BLACK PAPER : RHODIA #16 A5 white lined PEN : Onoto Magna 261 Medium nib tweaked for wet flow by John Sorowka (Oxonian). Scanner : IT8-calibrated Epson V600 flatbed Colour Space : Adobe RGB Matte : 50% grey and 100% white Post-process : Unsharp Mask Colour Balance : Neutral http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewJetBlack.jpg WATER RESISTANCE : I found that once dry, Diamine Jet Black is reasonably water-resistant. A fair amount of the colour lifts but what is left behind is clearly legible. DRYING TIME : Fairly long, particularly since I use a nib and feed adjusted for very wet flow. I found that 30s was about right for copy paper and a little longer for Rhodia. This was from a well-cleaned pen with very high flow however. BLEED THROUGH : I saw moderate bleed-through on Pukka 80gsm copy paper and even a little on Rhodia. It was just the odd tiny pinprick showing through but it was visible LUBRICATION : It is worth noting that Diamine Jet Black, while flowing wetly, felt a little "scritchy" under the nib. There was more feedback than I expected despite the ink flowing well. This may be the cause of some of the hard starting problems that other reviewers have reported. In this pen which is well cleaned, I did not find any issues with starting. I would caution against using this ink in a pen with a large breather safety hole in the cap. It did also cling to the insides of the converter but no staining was observed and it rinsed out easily. Here is a close-up of the swab. http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewJetBlackSwab.jpg Diamine Jet Black is a moderately dark black and is one of Diamine's older colours. If you are looking for the "blackest" black, this is not it. It has a slightly warm tint. It is not a densely saturated ink and cleans up well. And a close-up of the shading. http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewJetBlackShade.jpg Apparently it can be persuaded to shade in the right pen but under high flow I did not see much of this. The water smudge visible here was a handling mishap after conducting the water tests. The ink does not smudge at all once dry. Water tests were interesting... http://www.dcoffey.co.uk/images/fountainpennetwork/ReviewJetBlackWater.jpg The ink was fairly water-resistant and clung to the paper reasonably well. While a lot of the black did lift and run, a good residual grey remained behind.

Hi guys, A few years ago, my art teacher filled an old Parker Quink bottle with some black ink from a large bottle of ink in the art room, and gave it to me. Tbh, I don't even know if it's Parker brand! I'm curious about it and would like to use it, but I have a question: I wrote a couple of lines with it with my glass pen, to compare it to the real bottle of Parker black Quink I have. With the glass pen used for both inks, I notice that the art-room ink comes out thicker, darker, feathers more than the Quink and bleeds through a lot! It is also waterproof with a good run under the tap (a bonus in my eyes!), whereas with my Parker Quink (I don't know if it's washable or permanent) being run under the tap, the writing remains, but the ink goes more blue and the back goes slightly brown. I wonder if this art-room ink could actually be India ink? I know NOTHING about India ink, and I wonder if the features I describe above match the characteristics of India ink? I'd like to know from your expertise before I accidentally ruin a pen with it!! Thanks!

Two months ago I received my first bottle of Noodler’s Black “bulletproof” ink. The no nonsense bottle was filled to the brim, but from there my experiences with this ink were not trouble-free. I used the ink in two different pens I both deep cleaned before filling them up with Noodler’s Black: A traditional Indian jumbo sized ebonite eye dropper pen fitted with an Ambitious 40 mm long № 12 nib. A pen fitted with a German JoWo EF #6 nib unit and a Schmidt K5 converter. I found my bottle of Noodler’s Black to contain a black writing fluid that has a surface tension that causes it to stubbornly adhere or "stick" against the inside of the Schmidt K5 reservoir. For my contemporary German technology pen I used a common solution for this problem by adding a 2.5 mm diameter 316 stainless steel bearing ball, to mechanically promote free movement of the contained ink and ink/air exchange during writing. The solution for making the Indian eyedropper write without introducing the rattling sound of an ink agitator was not easy nor elegant. After the initial lines, just after priming the feed, the pen simply refused to write further. That unpleasantly surprised me, as paired with other “dry” inks this eyedropper always provided a generous ink flow. The pen has a traditional feed made of ebonite (hard rubber). Ebonite has good hydrophilic properties. This makes ink (and other watery substances) travel well through the ink channel in a fountain pen feed. The traditional 6.35 mm (¼ in) diameter feed is about 51 mm (2 in) long and features an ink channel that dwarfs the channels used in modern plastic feeds. These oversized ink channels are a remnant from a time when “dry” iron gall ink and ink thirsty flex nibs were in widespread use. I had to add 0.5 ml of a homemade dish washing soap solution (1 soap drop diluted in 100 ml of water) into the 4 ml ink reservoir to make the eyedropper write as it should. Adding such a surfactant solution will chemically promote free movement of the contained ink and ink/air exchange during writing. The ink is a saturated black and permanent. I was not able to remove it from paper, but after using it for two months on a daily basis I cannot regard my bottle of Noodler’s Black as an easy to use ink. As it comes from a small manufacturer maybe I received a bottle from a fluke batch.

L'Artisan Pastellier Callifolio - Noir L'Artisan Pastellier is a small company in southern France that specialises in natural pigments, and offers customers authentic and reliable products in beautiful colours based on mineral or vegetable pigments. In a collaboration with Loic Rainouard from Styloplume.net, the chemist Didier Boinnard from L'Artisan Pastellier created the line of Callifolio fountain pen inks. These pastel-coloured inks are traditionally crafted, and can be freely mixed and matched. Overall these inks are only moderately saturated, and have low water-resistance. The inks were specifically designed to work well with all types of paper, and all types of fountain pens. Being pastel-tinted, these inks have a watercolour-like appearance, and are not only fine inks for journaling, but are also really excellent inks for doodling & drawing. I only recently discovered them, and they are already the inks I gravitate towards for personal journaling. In this review I take a closer look at Noir - the black ink of the Callifolio line. It seems every inkmaker feels obliged to have a black ink in its collection, and L'Artisan Pastellier is no exception. In my opinion they shouldn't have bothered... there are already enough black inks on the market. On the other hand Callifolio inks were designed to be freely mixed, so this black could probably be used in your own mixes to darken up some other colours (that's one rabbit hole I haven't dived into yet ;-) Noir is not a deep black but more of a very dark gray, which is especially noticeable in swabs. I found the ink to be undersaturated in the finer nibs, with an unpleasing aesthetics as a result. Below this review you'll find writing samples in different nib widths. It's only with broader nibs that the ink starts to look nice with some subdued shading. With fine nibs, the text looks really bland and uninspiring. On the smudge test - rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab - Noir exhibits quite some smearing, but the text itself remains readable. This ink smudges easily. Combined with a rather long drying time, this means you have to be extra careful while writing. Definitely not an ink for lefties. The ink has almost no water resistance. With a 15-minute soak in still water, the text is completely obliterated, leaving an undecipherable mess. Running tap water provides a better result. The ink detaches almost completely from the paper, but a faint greyish ghost image of your writing remains that can still be read quite easily. I have tested the ink on a wide variety of paper - from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. For the Callifolio reviews, I'm using a new format to show you the ink's appearance and behaviour on the different paper types. On every small band of paper I show you:An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturationAn ink scribble made with an F-nib fountain pen (Pelikan M200)The name of the paper used, written with a B-nibA small text sample, written with an F-nib (Pelikan M200)Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the F-nib)Callifolio Noir behaved perfectly on all the paper types I used, with only some very minor feathering on the lower quality papers in my test set (Moleskine and HP 80gsm printing paper). Drying times are fairly long in the 20-25 second range on most papers, with up to 30 seconds on the smoother papers like Tomoe River. In my opinion, this makes the ink useless as an everyday writing ink because you have to be too careful with regard to smudging. At the end of the review, I also show the back-side of the different paper types, in the same order. The ink behaved superbly on all paper types. Only with Moleskine did I notice a tiny bit of bleed-through. Conclusion Callifolio Noir from L'Artisan Pastellier is a not so great black (or should I say dark grey) that has too many shortcomings to be considered a good ink. Drying times are way too long which results in easy smudging of your writing. The ink also looks bland and uninteresting in the finer nibs, only showing some character with broad and stub nibs. If you're looking for a black ink, you should look elsewhere. There are lots of better blacks on the market. Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Pelikan M200, F-nib Backside of writing samples on different paper types

Most of my 40+ pens have interesting colors in them but a Parker Sonnet with a factory italic and a Hua Hong HH-8 have black in them. The Sonnet is really dark with Quink black at about double saturation (evaporated, filled again with ink without cleaning it out) and the HH-8 has a 20+ year old generic black cartridge I had to add water to. I'd kinda like to use them, but feel guilty sending a penpal a letter in boring ink. Kinda feel the same about unsaturated blues like 4001 or Waterman. I used to have a Vac 700 smoke with 80% Noodler's Black in it. Since that's waterproof, I used it for addressing envelopes. Not sure how, but it left a film in the barrel I had trouble removing, so that pen's empty and waiting for me to figure which of 50+ (100+ ?) untried colors to put in it.

Does anyone know anything about this multi-pencils existence? http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com/2007/04/rotring-trio-pencil.html Been scouring the internet and decided to stop here. If anyone has one that they would part with that would be immensely appreciated

Private Reserve is a US-based artisan ink company, originally an addition to the fountain pen department of Avalon Jewelers/Gallery. Most PR inks feature being highly saturated/concentrated, neutral pH, lubricated, drying crazily slow, of reasonable price and with a cheap looking(IMO...). First, let's take a look at it's box and bottle: http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB01_zpsx6nbka7v.jpg The bottle shape reminds me of that of acrylic paint here in Taiwan. At first glance, it doesn't look like something you'd expect to find in a gallery/ FP store, but in an art supply store, maybe? It's at the opposite end on the spectrum compared with the fancy design like Iroshizuku's. However, the practical broad brim is growing on me, especially when I try to fill/dip my pen and the J.H 1670 bottle wouldn't cooperate. Tag/Label http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB02_zpspqvo2gd7.jpg With all due respect, this low-resolution and unevenly glued tag looks like something done with a home use printer. And Private Reserve seems to make some of the least accurate color tags. In this case, Velvet Black is actually a purplish black but is given a greenish label. Writing Samples http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB05_zpsgvhuhpwz.jpg http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB03_zpsqtienqq7.jpg I'm never a fan of color black, nor have I tried any other black inks before, so I am genuinely surprised at the darkness and saturation of this ink---- it is so BLACK that it has no shading at all. Most inks tend to look lighter in a fine/dry nib, but PRVB remains as black in Sailor PG HF and LAMY Safari EF. IMO, it can almost pass for a ballpoint pen. http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB04_zpsoe3sxnrg.jpg And it's a very lustrous ink. Not sure if this should be called "sheen", though. Under yellow light http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB07_zpsk8t8e4al.jpg http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB06_zps5mbetejw.jpg http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB07-1_zps6g1pgpsi.jpg (Oops, wrong spelling...) Under white light http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB08_zpsv12nhk7o.jpg Looks like HB pencil. I find this ink very suitable to play with in a dip pen; the words look like print. http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB12_zpsytcism0f.jpg On the other hand, if you find the luster/sheen disturbing, you can dilute it a bit(also helps the ink dry faster). This ink looks almost the same even if you add of water 1:1. 1/3 Dilution http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB09_zpsr5qt5s8c.jpg Only now does it start looking gray... Chromatography http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB10_zps5tajrczq.jpg (1 min) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB11_zpschphrvwz.jpg (15 min) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/PRVB11-1_zps2dj7ngmp.jpg (dried/ backside) OOOoooOoOOooooohhh......... Overview Saturation: Extremely high Flow: medium Lubrication: good Shading: too dark to observe Sheen: lustrous Bleed-through& Feathering: on cheap paper Water resistance: to some extent Cleaning: requires extra soaking and flushing Dry speed: Extremely slow Conclusion This is the only black ink I have ever tried so I don't have much to say/compare. It's a pleasure to write with in a dip pen/ flex nib, but considering its dry speed it probably isn't the best choice for daily/official use, unless you dilute it. Thank you for taking the time to read this review: )

i have just bought a pilot custom 912 customized by john mottishaw to a spencerian. does anyone have experience with this set up, and if yes, any recommendations regarding black ink in terms of ink flow, feathering, bleeding etc.? thanks. best, nils

I thought I'd share an ink mix which I am really enjoying at the moment (I hope this is the correct sub forum). I bought a bottle of Pelikan 4001 Turquoise because I wanted something different in my blue ink collection, however I found it to be un useable for my office work; far too light and bright. In my ink draw I had a bottle of Pelikan Blue Black to hand so I used an empty cleaned out Pelikan Edelstein bottle and combined measures of the two in order to make a fantastic ink which I can use in the office. This ink is within my personal boundaries of what is "office friendly", obviously everyone is different, but this works for me and I thought I would share. I've been using this for aprox. 2 months and I've had no clogging issues, and the mixed contents of the Edelstein bottle appears to be fine. Let me know your thoughts??? http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/MattRegan/Photo%2020-07-2015%2017%2001%2002_zpsp6swcjpb.jpg http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/MattRegan/Photo%2020-07-2015%2017%2027%2034_zpsp5lttj0p.jpg http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/MattRegan/Photo%2020-07-2015%2017%2027%2053_zpsptus3o5a.jpg http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a633/MattRegan/Photo%2020-07-2015%2017%2002%2003_zpstupsalbk.jpg

I am looking for a fast drying blue or black ink that dries quickly and does not feather on cheap paper (mead, copy paper). I am currently using Noodler's bulletproof black with a fine nib metropolitan and although the ink doesn't feather, it takes quite a long time to dry, even on cheap absorbent paper; sometimes after leaving the ink to dry for a day, it still smears when rubbed. The only other ink I've tried is the pilot Namiki black that came with the metro, and that seems to dry fairly quickly, but feathers badly on cheap paper. Bulletproof ink isn't really important for me, any ink that works well with cheap paper and dries fast will do. I have considered Lamy, Quink, Waterman, and Pelikan inks, but I am not sure which one will work the best. Also, is there any ink that works well on whiteout tape? All on the pens I've tried including rollerballs smear horribly on whiteout. Thanks in advance.

I originally wrote this review back in March last year, but could never get the color right. Recently I reshot the images with the new iPhone and the color is much better. So without further ado, a belated review. I remember really liking the ink, it was quite wet, and a dark black. In going over my original writings on this ink I discovered I found lots of problems with hard starts. The particular pen used in this review usually doesn't have such problems. Pen: Edison Collier (F-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 Water resistant? Fuggedaboutit. Spreads, seeps into the back of the paper.

You may have gathered from the title that I am not that fussed on Edelstein's Mandarin. When I first saw it I thought, 'Oh, a truly popping orange', but that thought was rapidly replaced with a retina burning headache. I tend to like reds and oranges, but I like them to have a little subtlety about them and not quite 'true' in their colour spectrum (if that makes sense). Iro's Yu-yake, the Fuyu-gaki, Noodler's Apache Sunset, couple of the Diamine oranges, Herbin's Orange Indien; you get the idea, I like reds and oranges. Mandarin seemed like a great choice, but in a very short time I grew to truly loathe it. I even contemplated throwing it down the sink just so I could use the bottle for something else. Then I had a brain wave. Why don't I add a few drops of Edelstein's Onyx Black? So, three small drops later and with dip pen in hand I tested it. It's a little similar to Apache Sunset. Now bear in mind I tested this with a dip pen on highly absorbent paper. At first it was extremely similar to the Noodler's, but as it dried the shading disappeared (not unexpected with this ink). Dried and unshaded you are left with a rich orange saffron with a noticeable red aspect. It still 'pops', but it isn't headache inducing and it has left me with an ink that I can now happily use. I will try and get a pick uploaded later. Just thought I would let you all know in case, like me, you had contemplated ditching the ink, or wondered how on earth you might ever use it.

A while back in May 2016 there was discussion of new inks from Japan from Kyoto. I'm not even sure of the name of the company, but the box has the letters TAG on it as practically the only English. Vanness now seems to carry these inks which will make them readily available to US ink lovers. The price is $28 for a 40ml bottle, so fairly expensive, but the dollar:yen exchange hasn't been as favorable to purchasing from Japan of late so higher prices are expected. Visvamitra did a very thorough review of this ink https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/308594-nurebairo-kyo-no-oto/?p=3629525 and Tas did a wonderful rambling with it for us https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/311574-ink-rambling-kyo-no-oto-nurebairo-no-01/?p=3675830 I'm not going to duplicate what they have so excellently said. I really like this rich black ink. I like black inks. The issue I had was nib dryout leading to hard starts after only a few seconds pause. Once writing, the ink flowed great. It could be the pen has issues that other inks obscure. The nib has never been tuned, so that could be the problem especially if others didn't experience the same problem. The ink is also a very slow drier. This won;'t be as much of a problem on more absorbent papers but on harder sized papers this will become evident. Pen: Pelikan M400 (F 14kt) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 Not water resistant at all, but washes nicely with blue-black. The ink also comprises a blue dye and a small quantity of brownish dye that you can see at the edge of the ink droplet.

Dorcus hopei binodulosus = Japanese Stag Beetle I thought I'd reviewed this ink a long time ago, but I never did. So here it is now. This ink is for lovers of black inks. It is one very seductive bug. In a number of Asian countries these creatures are kept as pets. However they only live for four months as a beetle: their larval stage lasts about a year. This is a black with good shading. On TR is has amazing green sheen, especially when wet. I'm very happy I have a bottle of this. It seems like there could be some water resistance, but as always take care in that regard. The color ink droplet is amazing. Pen: Edison Premiere (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 The writing sample on MvL is from this article at NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4022812/ Not really showing the shading... but looks nice anyway. This poem is from the website of the American Poetry Review, you can read the full poem at this link. http://aprweb.org/poems/this-did-not-happen !!!!!

Here is my comparison of 4 Noodler's Inks: Bulletproof Black, Heart of Darkness, Borealis Black, and X-Feather. I used 2 pens, a Parker 21 and a Pilot Metropolitan. The comparison was done on 3 different papers. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Album in link below. http://imgur.com/a/jcnWa

This is my first ever ink review, and as far as I can tell, the first online review of the Boss Enterprises "Lao Ban" Black ink in English. I have only ever owned three black inks, Lamy Black, Parker Quink Black, and this one, and this is the most saturated black ink I have ever used. If anyone with more experience would like to review this ink, I'd be happy to send them a sample for a more comprehensive and educated opinion. I will pay for shipping if you're in the continental USA. I forgot how much I got this ink for, but if I remember correctly it's less than $2.00 USD per bottle. As far as I can tell, it is unavailable in the United States of America, but widely popular in the People's Republic of China. It's very black, and dries with a sheen. I don't believe the sheen comes from micro-particles, but more from the nature of the chemicals used. According to their website, their inks are on the alkaline side, which might not be good for celluloid pens, but it's okay in the lucite Parker 51 and the polycarbonate Lamy 2000. I don't have a ph testing kit so if anyone has one, and would like to review this ink, let me know. There is quite a bit of nib creep, but it doesn't bother me since it doesn't get on the paper. In terms of ease of cleaning, I'm able to clean it out of my my Parker 51 Vacumatic using a few rinses of water. I pour water into a container and push the pump until that water gets saturated, then I keep repeating until it's clear, like with every other ink in a pen that uses the vacumatic mechanism. This takes me about five to ten minutes. Drawing using Boss Enterprises Black: Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to know, and if you know any blacks that are comparable to this one! Thanks!

Hey guys, I recently tried a sample of Diamine Grape and really loved the color. However, the ink is a bit weird and gets a little cloggy if left for a couple days in a pen. I have been looking at Lamy Dark Lilac swatches online and I really love the color as well. I am considering getting the ink, then making my own mixes to achieve a darker purple when I am in the mood for it. Does anyone have any experience with making grayish purples like Diamine Damson or a dark purple like Diamine Grape? I don't want to purchase two bottles of purple ink - as I am likely never going to use them up. I think getting the lilac ink will let me play with both - bright and dark purples if things go to plan. I look forward to hearing your experiences! Thanks!

A couple of months ago I received a sample vial of Blackstone Barrister Black, and have had one of my pens (a TWSBI Diamond 580) constantly inked with it ever since. I didn't know at the time that it was nano-pigement based, only that it was supposed to be permanent (and may require more frequent flushing to be safe). I've actually found it to be a very well-behaved ink - good flow, minimal clogging, fantastic waterproofness. A little slow-drying, and sometimes needs a little 'encouragement' to get started writing after a weekend layoff, but otherwise I'm really impressed.. I'll try and upload some photos of papers that I've soaked later - for now, I'm attaching a scan and a photo of my review sheet. Scan: Photo: If you're wavering about trying this out, I'd suggest ordering a sample vial - available from JustWrite.com.au in Australia, or Anderson Pens in the US. My 30ml bottle (purchased out of my own funds) has just arrived - this'll be one of my two go-to Black inks for the foreseeable future!

There are some thing that makes me behave like flies on sugar: fancy and strange ink bottles and fountain pen. This is what brought me to buy this incredible bottle, forgotten in a shopwindow of an old stationery, for just 6 euros, and since we're in the end all interested in what's unusual more than what's common, today I'm gonna review the ink that I found inside it, and since I don't really know which one it is, I'll just call it : Pelikan Amerigo Vespucci Black. Before talking about the ink and it's properties, I've to write about some hints that suggest me that this ink is nothing more than a Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black in a fancy bottle. The bottle is an old 70 ml Pelikan one (as also written on the bottom of the bottle), free of any sticker or box that can identify it as a Pelikan ink, but as you will see from the review, comparing it to the reviews already done from other members of this forum, in my opionion this is just a standard 4001 Black ink. I don't like black inks and I hardly find great differences between blacks and blacks. If I've too say, I've two kind of favourite blacks: the one's who tend to have a good ammount of shade (a little more on the grey side), and the ones that are black as the void. This ink fails to enter in both categories and represents my perfect ink nemesis. In terms of performance, is a decent ink, behaves well on most of the papers i've tried it on, with some feathering and bleed on copy paper, but nothing to define it unusable on cheap paper. Flows well and has good drying times. Displays a little shading on Tracing and Schizza & Strappa paper, but nothing exceptional. Shows some water resistance but is never going to be a waterproof ink. On the other side the bottle is estetically gorgeous, the silver finishes are cool, the cap with the helm and the engraving "Amerigo Vespucci" is cool, the silver bass relief with the Amerigo Vespucci ship is gorgeous and I enjoy it even if I'm not passionate of vessels, boats etc... Unlike the j.herbins bottle, this one has enough space to hold a modern Fountain pen steadily on the silver support I usually end my reviews questioning myself if the ink is worth the effort and if I reccomend to buy it and to whom, I think that this time the question is misplaced fors several reasons: 1) I don't know if this is part of a limited edition or whatelse, I asked Pelikan but they haven't answered me yet. 2) I don't think this particular bottle it's easily obtainable anymore. 3) I think this ink is just 4001 Pelikan Brilliant Black, which is probably the most widely available ink in the world. In the end, if you like the ink, buy it. If you like this particular bottle you can check around the web, I'm sure it's not the only one around like this. PARTICULAR OF THE BOTTLE COPY PAPER SCHIZZA & STRAPPA PAPER TRACING PAPER CROMATOGRAPHY INKDROP PS: If someone has a cromatography of 4001 Black, it could beinteresting comparing to mine to have the final proof that this is just a fancy bottle for that ink. Obviously if anyone is able to give me some information about this particular ink bottle, is welcome to share with me his knowledge! thanks in advance!

So... I have settled in on my Lamy Safari and it's my pen of choice. I have a charcoal black pen with a fine nib and I absolutely love it. The ink I use is the Noodler's Bulletproof Black and it is the best black for me. So now, I want to look for a blue that I would like to use. I have ordered some samples from Goulet and tested them, such as Liberty's Elysium and 54th Massachusetts. Unfortunately, they didn't work well for me... Liberty's Elysium looked beautiful, but it would stain my converter and cause very slow starts. I noticed that Liberty's Elysium would actually dry my feed and my nib so it could take 10 seconds before I actually start writing. I definitely won't be going back to Elysium and I experienced the same with 54th mass, but the slow starts weren't as bad. I am hoping you great folks can tell me what your favorite inks are for a Lamy Safari, or something that would work well for this pen. I am not too worried about it being waterproof, I just want something that looks nice, flows well, and won't cause problems with clogging. I ordered a bottle of Waterman's serenity blue and looking into Pelikan Royal Blue. Hopefully these inks might be good. Give me some suggestions please!!

Hello everyone, just recently I somehow discovered the fact that I own a few nice pens. I am not an expert of any kind when it comes to pens, but I have a general love of handwriting and of beautifully crafted things, amongst those also fountain pens, especially piston fillers. In the age of computers not much work is left to accomplish by handwriting. Some cards, some signatures... Nevertheless I rediscovered some of my old pens and gave them a good simple cleaning (no disassembling). The little black OMAS belongs to the ones I used to write with a lot, simply because writing with this pen is a really pleasant experience, as it is soft and rich in writing and moreover a real lightweight. (A nice counterpart to the much heavier Waterman MAN 100 Opera with broad nib that I mainly use for signatures, cards or short letters ) The OMAS. I think I bought it new sometime in the 80s or early 90s. The way I remember it I was told that it is made of celluloid. But now I think I might be mistaken there. Or maybe not. I think I just gather what can be said about the pen, maybe this will ring a bell with somebody: - I think it is clear that the pen belongs to the "Arte Italiana" series. - It is a piston filler of black colour with gold trimming and 12 facetted barrel and cap. - It has only one Greek decor band, the cap band, no second one on the barrel like the "Paragon". - "OMAS Extra" is engraved on the barrel. - The length is 120 mm capped, 110 mm uncapped. - The nib is made of 18 Kt. gold, without twotone inlay. It displays the arrow design. One tine has engraved the letter "M" for the nib grade, the other tine bears an oval stamp. Inside the oval stamp is something that looks like a fir tree (or maybe arrows) accompanied by two letters. Left of the "tree" is a "T" engraved (or sth. looking similar). The right side of the "tree" has engraved "F". Does someone recognize the pen by the totality of this description? I very much hope so! I have done quite some search on OMAS, but it seems difficult. I do not even know if Milford e.g. is the name for a model or for a size... It seems it is never mentioned as anyone knows it anyway... Looking at the catalogues posted here (great, thanks!) I can add the following to the above description: The pen does look very similar to the "Gentlemen" pen in the 80s catalogue (see here) - only one Greek decor band, no twotone nib. But on the other hand mine has engraved "OMAS Extra" instead of "Gentlemen". And moreover the "Gentlemen" pen does not appear to be smaller than the "Paragon", while mine is certainly not a big pen. Second possibility: The pen looks also exactly like the 8201 - 556/F (medium) and the 8211 - 555/F (small) pens in the 1991 catalogue (if you care to open the pdf-file in this thread). But as far as I can see, nothing is said about the actual sizes. So I would guess mine might be the medium pen or even more probably the small one? (If my understanding is correct, the old pre 1950 "OMAS Extra" also came in three sizes, the smallest one being "Dama". Has there been a change of models and/or sizes between the two catalogues of the 80es and of 1991? Apart from identifiying the model I wish I knew what the engraving "OMAS Extra" does signify. Is it a separate model or does it stand for something else? Maybe someone knows? I would also be happy to find out if the pen is made from "resin" or celluloid. Right now I have no photographs of the pen, but believe me, it is looking exactly like the mentioned models in the catalogues. I still might add photos later, although the pen is not looking as impressive as many of the coloured resin and celluloid varieties. Nonetheless it is an elegant non-spectacular beauty with impressive writing characteristics. Thank you for your help! Amelie

Ran across this today on the Jet Pen site. As I was quizzing friends recently on this very topic, I thought I would share. Please note this is NOT all inclusive, but does have a nice color swatch table towards the bottom of the page. Anyway, hope it helps someone. http://www.jetpens.com/blog/black-fountain-pen-ink/pt/20

So one of my favorite fountain pen inks out there as far as black is concerned is J.Herbin Perle Noire. IMO it writes like silk no matter which pen I put it in. Just one question: does anybody else find that this particular ink tends to leak in the cap more often than others? Do you find your nib to be exceptionally wet with this particular black? Any insights would be great!

I bought this pen in November 2014 for about $36.00 from Ebay. I knew the pen from FPN pen turning and makers’ forum. This is the original post: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/278507-black-is-boring/?hl=jj9ball I said I will do a review of this one, so here it is: In terms of packaging the pen arrived in a faux leather presentation box, noting fancy but enough to protect the pen from bad handling through mail system. I like the appearance of the pen, massive black with a dark titanium clip, no other blings to distract. Minus points on the end of cap and barrel there is a sort of logo...I don’t like. Construction and design is straight forward, straight lines, no tapering and a flat top. There are some visual quality issues with threads, but the pen is opening and closing perfect. The pen is very light compare with the mass and dimensions. When I brought the pen it was 6 inches long, but I manage to cut 3/4of an inch, then send to a jewellery shop to polish the barrel’s end (adding another £8.00). Now the pen looks a bit fat, but somehow like a senior size! Now I can take the pen in my shirt pocket. Also by doing this now the cap is longer than barrel, that because of the long section. A long section means the grip is not affected by the cap’s threads! Some dimensions: Weight (my wife’s cooking scale) +/- 24 grams / 0.85 OZ Pen closed 5 ¼ in / 13.4 cm Cap 0.6 in / 1.5 cm Barrel 0.5 in / 1.3 cm What can be said about JoWo fine nibs #6? Good, reliable and boring nib. The best feature of this pen in my opinion is the threaded converter. I had to add a plastic ball inside to agitate the ink (from a standard small cartridge). I have used exclusively in this pen a mix of Parker Quink blue with black, resulting a darker blue ink, sort of blue-black without fading out like regular BB Quink. As conclusion I think the pen worth the $36.00 spend on it, also I like I can use more the pen now by shortening a bit. It’s a simple design, senior size pen, using standard C/C, where the quality can be improved a little bit! An 8/10 score from me for this one. PS: I didn’t cut at 90 degree angle, so the pen cannot stand upright, but the jeweller have done a great job polishing by rounding a bit the end so the pen it’s looks like it was made like this. Also the end logo disappears now! TWSBI 580 AL, JJ9Ball, Parker 51