Birmingham – Allegheny Arsenal Gunpowder Black

[crahptacular]

The Birmingham Pen Co.’s line of inks (30 colors when I bought the sample pack, but I think they’re at 40+ and counting) feature various colors based on or inspired by notable locations or people associated with its home city of Pittsburgh, PA. I bought their sampler pack, and plan on slowly going through the whole line of inks, though I expect it will take me quite a while. For those interested, I posted some color swatches in a different topic (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/328952-birmingham-pen-co-ink-swatches/) where you can get a quick idea of what the whole line looks like together.

 

Gunpowder Black is a very neutral black of moderate darkness. It’s not an extremely dark black, so those who are looking for the blackest-of-blacks will likely not be satisfied with this one; in fact, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to call this a very dark grey. In my broad nib writing samples you can easily see how it isn’t a deep, consistent black—there’s noticeable shading where all the grey tones come out. It’s definitely not as warm as Noodler’s Black, which I think leans brown, and not as cool as Nurebairo, which is definitely on the blue side. I’d say it’s very slightly on the cool side (for reference, I consider the two pigment blacks, Kiwa-Guro and Carbon Black, close to true neutral). Behavior-wise, it’s slightly watery in consistency (you can see the flex writing is kind of drippy) and feathered very slightly on FC paper, but not the others. Water resistance is decent; the water will lift some of the ink, but there’s plenty left afterwards to be perfectly legible. All in all, the ink seems very middle-of-the-road to me. I'm no connoisseur of black inks, so I personally see no reason to add another black to my collection when it has nothing in particular to set it apart from the pack. That being said, it is distinguishable from my other blacks, so perhaps some black ink fans will find it interesting.

 

Flow/Lubrication: Moderate flow, feels a bit thin

Shading: Low (but more than most blacks)

Sheen: None

Water Resistance: Moderate High

 

 

The following sample was done with a FC 27 (Needlepoint) and a FC 31 (Broad) on Tomoe River (68gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Kuretake Menso brush (Small). Flex writing was done with a Leonardt 30 dip nib.

 

Inaccurate Image(s) Disclaimer: I couldn’t get the tone just right. The big smear is accurate, and the comparisons are good as well (other than Kiwa-Guro looking grey rather than black, which I think is due to its pencil-ish sheen). The doodle in the scan is cooler than reality; especially the lighter parts, which come out as a warmer grey on the paper.

 

Scan:

 

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Noodler’s Lexington Gray, Noodler’s Black, Sailor Nano Kiwa-Guro, Platinum Carbon Black, Kyo no Oto Nurebairo

 

Writing Samples (scans; some color correction; papers of increasing absorbency), from Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Midori MD:

 

Franklin-Christoph:

[lapis]

Nice review as always. Interesting black due to its non-blackness. Reminds me immediately of Diamine's Graphite, that slightly brownish dark grey with its tick of green. Best of all is your own painting with that pencil's ink!

[Tas]

Lovely review as ever. Thanks for making the time to share your findings and creations.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.

Interesting color and of course as usual the artwork is superb. This one reminds me a bit of both Noodler's El Lawrence and Noodler's Luck of the Draw LE, because it seems to have a brownish undertone to it. But since I have both of those I can probably pass on this one.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intensity]

Very interesting undertones of olive green and brown. Beautiful review.

[visvamitra]

I like this one. And the artwork is perfect.

[yongsheng]

Sign in to share my gratitude, your review is always excellent.

[rudyhou]

love this grey-toned black. my kind of black ink.

[tropicalwitch]

As usual, awesome review!