Boss (Laoban) Enterprise Blue-Black 854 Ink Review

[truthpil]

Greetings from the Far East!

 

This is my first ink review. As Chinese inks like Hero get more popular in the West, I wanted to introduce another brand of ink that is extremely popular in China and has popped up in a few posts on FPN. In the area of China I live in, Boss “Laoban” ink is much easier to find than Hero and can be found in every stationary store. Even most grocery stores carry it! Like most Chinese inks, Boss ink seems to only be available in the standard colors black (including carbon black), blue-black, blue, and red. However, these inks have been a delight to use and notably more vibrant than their Hero counterparts. All of them are scented as well. As time permits, I hope to post reviews for every Boss ink available.

 

Boss Enterprise “Laoban” ink (not to be confused with the Boss line of inks made by Ostrich in Tianjin) is produced in Guiyang by Guizhou Boss Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. More information about the company can be found here and their descriptions of their inks here.

 

 

The scan of my review doesn’t capture the color properly (it's much darker than the scan), so here is a close up of ink comparisons taken in natural light:

 

 

A writing sample comparing Boss Blue-black and Hero Blue-black:

 

 

Close ups to show the slight shading on a legal pad:

 

 

This blue-black is much darker and more saturated than that of Hero 202. It has also worked really well with flex nibs. I wish I had more standard blue-blacks to compare it with. Noodler’s 54^th Massachusetts is on the way, so I’ll post a comparison when possible.

 

If you happen to drop by China sometime, I highly recommend you pick up some this ink. Boss inks are only 4 RMB (US$0.62) per 52ml bottle.

 

The current bottle and packaging:

 

 

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

[visvamitra]

Hi, Thank you for excellent review. It's always nice to know about some unknown ink makers

[amberleadavis]

I've never seen this one before. Thank you.

[truthpil]

Thanks for the kind words! I hope to get a few more of these inks up on here soon.

[truthpil]

As promised, here is a comparison of Boss Blue-black and Noodler's 54th Massachusetts, both using a Pilot Plumix italic nib.

The dryness of the nib really brings out the tealish-blue in 54th Mass, but the Boss ink has more of a grey element to it.

Boss Blue-black doesn't have even a hint of green or teal.

 

Here is a writing sample of both:

 

 

And a close up with 54th Mass on top and Boss Blue-black on the bottom:

 

 

I think 54th Mass is a lot prettier and has superior shading with a dry nib, but it also costs 20 times more per bottle!