Looking To Change My Black Ink

[dragos.mocanu]

Hello,

 

A while ago I started practicing italic calligraphy with a bit more dedication, and so far my go-to pen is the 3.8mm Pilot Parallel, filled with Pelikan 4001 Brillant Schwarz. I tend to use what paper I can find in the office, and this ink really helps keep the feathering/bleedthrough in check; however, I was thinking about switching to a darker ink, since the one I'm using now tends to look quite grey if I write with the very broad 3.8mm nib. Living in the EU, my options right now seem to be 3 of the Noodler's inks: Black, Heart of Darkness and X-Feather. Does anyone know how these inks compare when used in a 3.8 Pilot Parallel in terms of 'blackness'?

 

Cheers!

Edited October 8, 2015 by Murky

[Randal6393]

In a 3.8 nib, some greying is apparent in the darkest of inks. But, HoD is considered the darker, Black is the go-to ink, and X-Feather is supposed to be the "No-Feathering ink".

 

Best of luck,

[inkstainedruth]

Have not tried X-feather so I can't say. But of the other two, I prefer Heart of Darkness, because I think it dries a bit faster, and doesn't smudge the way the standard Black does sometimes. Mind you, I have it in the Charlie eyedropper that came free with it, and sometimes it takes a little to get the ink flowing well; but after that, it works great.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Tas]

I'll pop some HOD in my parallel tomorrow and let you know.

Mine has behaved impeccably in everything especially my Charlie and to me seems darker than ordinary black but that could be the name playing tricks on me.

[TSherbs]

X-Feather

 

Here is the review with a broad calligraphy pen that sold me, and it has not disappointed. The X-Feather segment begins at 13:25 and runs until 18:10.

 

[dragos.mocanu]

I'll pop some HOD in my parallel tomorrow and let you know.

Mine has behaved impeccably in everything especially my Charlie and to me seems darker than ordinary black but that could be the name playing tricks on me.

 

Thanks, I'm waiting for your update

[Tas]

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_hod_watercolour.png

 

As Randal6393 rightly says, some see through will be evident in such the 3.8 nib but to be fair it's the only time I've seen see-through with HOD. This seems to be my wettest blackest black.

(Ignore the blue in the spill, it's window light. There is no blue hue to this black. It's slightly warm if anything)

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_hod_paper.png

This is on poor quality printer paper but no real feathering.

 

The ink is excellent value for money. Go for it. With any luck you'll get a fabulous Charlie Pen to use with it too.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Tas

[dragos.mocanu]

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_hod_watercolour.png

 

As Randal6393 rightly says, some see through will be evident in such the 3.8 nib but to be fair it's the only time I've seen see-through with HOD. This seems to be my wettest blackest black.

(Ignore the blue in the spill, it's window light. There is no blue hue to this black. It's slightly warm if anything)

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_hod_paper.png

This is on poor quality printer paper but no real feathering.

 

The ink is excellent value for money. Go for it. With any luck you'll get a fabulous Charlie Pen to use with it too.

 

Thanks a lot for testing this ink in your Parallel, seems quite black indeed! I've ruled out the regular Black, since from what I can tell from reviews/other pictures, it can come out quite gray from a broad edged nib; however, I was wondering how the last 2 contenders compare: Heart of Darkness and X-Feather

[paddrino]

Personally I keep X-Feather in my parallel. It's dark and it can be used with a variety of paper.

 

Here is the problem with X-Feather. If you use Rhodia or some other slick paper, it will take FOR-EV-VER to dry 100% with broad nibs. Even though it will dry mostly, it will still smear if you touch it for quite some time after writing with it.

 

If you use mostly slick paper, my personal recomendation would be to go with heart of darkness.

 

If you use a variety of paper, or if you are using paper that is suspect at times as far as quality goes, X-Feather is the bee's knees.

 

On normal / default Office Depot 20# white copy paper (basically middle of the road copy paper), the 'Charlie' Pen takes about 10-15 seconds for X-Feather to completely dry.

 

That same exact pen with the same exact X-Feather in it, I can write in my Rhodia webbie and it will take 30 seconds to a minute to dry to the point it won't smear, and then if I touch it again for about 5 minutes with a broad line, it will smear across the page.

 

However, in my experience, both are very dark blacks. In fact, I don't think you can get a 'blacker black' than HoD or X-Feather.

Edited October 13, 2015 by paddrino

[tmenyc]

Tas, great drawing, I do so wish I could do that...

 

I've used Black, OMB, and HOD almost interchangeably for some years, and always have one or the other. Almost because I tend to add a bit of water to HOD and OMB to dry it a bit, but not to black, and interchangeably because I really can't see the difference in blackness among them. And, I've never tried x-feather, has not been in front of me when buying a Noodlers black before.

That said, all of the three I know are blacker for me in my pens and on my paper than Pelikan, Waterman, Diamine, current Parker, and Aurora, all of which I own and like for different pens. The outlier among those is the Parker, which is the first acceptable bottle of it I've seen in years -- a colleague left it behind so I confiscated it, but I would not have bought it, with Aurora, Diamine and Waterman already on hand.

Finally, my fav of all of them, which I don't have any more, is 1940's Parker Microfilm black. Now that's wonderful ink.

 

Tim

[dragos.mocanu]

Personally I keep X-Feather in my parallel. It's dark and it can be used with a variety of paper.

 

Here is the problem with X-Feather. If you use Rhodia or some other slick paper, it will take FOR-EV-VER to dry 100% with broad nibs. Even though it will dry mostly, it will still smear if you touch it for quite some time after writing with it.

 

If you use mostly slick paper, my personal recomendation would be to go with heart of darkness.

 

If you use a variety of paper, or if you are using paper that is suspect at times as far as quality goes, X-Feather is the bee's knees.

 

On normal / default Office Depot 20# white copy paper (basically middle of the road copy paper), the 'Charlie' Pen takes about 10-15 seconds for X-Feather to completely dry.

 

That same exact pen with the same exact X-Feather in it, I can write in my Rhodia webbie and it will take 30 seconds to a minute to dry to the point it won't smear, and then if I touch it again for about 5 minutes with a broad line, it will smear across the page.

 

However, in my experience, both are very dark blacks. In fact, I don't think you can get a 'blacker black' than HoD or X-Feather.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'm generally using what paper I can find in the office (I print my guideline sheets on whatever paper is in the printer), so I guess X-Feather may be the way to go