Best Black

[eclectic2316]

Has anyone compared Noodler’s Old Manhattan and Sailor black?

Thanks

[tinta]

My experience: no for Noodler but yes for Sailor.

All I can say is that the Sailor regular Jentle Black is not black enough for me. Not water resistant but a dark black would be Aurora (an old fave) or if you want good water resistance & very dense black, then Sailor's Kiwa-Guro (nano-particle ink would be my pick.

BTW:

Edited June 12, 2020 by tinta

[Karmachanic]

You may benefit from this current continuing discussion of black inks:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/341317-the-perfect-black-ink/

Edited June 13, 2020 by Karmachanic

[Eclipse157]

My Old Manhattan is very underwhelming as a "blackest black". Even Dark Matter is WAY blacker..

[holtzmann]

I’ve been looking for the perfect black, too. The contest came down to Platinum Carbon Black and Sailor Kiwa-guro for their waterproof properties. I’ve read that Platinum Carbon Black is darker (good) but isn’t well-behaved and bleeds and feathers on cheap paper, so I went with Kiwa-guro and I’m satisfied.

[grmbrk]

I'm quite content with J.Herbin Perle Noire, I have only tried a few blacks but got myself a 30 ml bottle and I liked the color so much I ended up buying a 100ml one.

 

Its not the blackest, the water resistant is there but nothing amazing compared to noodlers, but I really like the feeling of using iit in a wet medium nib, so smooth its a pleasure to write with.

 

I'm left handed and it dries quite fast compared to my other inks in that wet M, so it was my battlehorse for college writing. If you could rate the ink properties in an scale from 1 to 10, I think this ink would score 8 in all of them. Not the best at anything but a trusty ink for any situation.

 

The other blacks I tried that in my opiion are inferior to perle noire were pilot black (cartridge), faber castell black (cartridge), diamine onyx (inkwell).

 

If I were in your situation I would get 3 blacks from samples, consider Perle Noire being one of them.

[tim77]

grmbrk, it's always good to hear about a lefty-friendly ink. I'm using Pilot Black cartridges right now -- is the JH more smudge-resistant than the Pilot?

[dhanks]

I have settled on Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black as the best black ink for me. It works great in all my pens, and especially well in my juicy-writing Pelikans. After 35 years of daily fountain pen use, I have found Pelikan 4001 inks to be the best for me.

 

Rumpole

[carlos.q]

I have settled on Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black as the best black ink for me. It works great in all my pens, and especially well in my juicy-writing Pelikans. After 35 years of daily fountain pen use, I have found Pelikan 4001 inks to be the best for me.

 

Rumpole

 

You have phrased this very well. There is no such thing as a "best black ink". If there existed such an ink all the other ink manufacturers would be out of business. There is only the best black ink for me, for my particular needs, tastes and pens.

 

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black really rocks in vintage juicy-writing Pelikans!

[grmbrk]

grmbrk, it's always good to hear about a lefty-friendly ink. I'm using Pilot Black cartridges right now -- is the JH more smudge-resistant than the Pilot?

 

I think not, pilot cartridge dried pretty quick, cant really say for sure cause I was using a japanese F at that point, JH takes little time but I have hardly ever end up with my hand black as opposed as diamine majestic blue which loves staining my hand.

 

In an M JH Perle takes about 7-8 secs to dry to touch and about 12 secs to fully dry, so I would say in my experience it is a good ink for lefties, specially with copy paper.

[Honeybadgers]

I have tested about 15 or 20 different blacks, and for me, there are three standouts. Everything else had some combination of weird back-tone color (blue or purple under tones are just yuck) or bad performance on bad paper.

 

Pelikan 4001 black, Noodlers dark matter, and Noodlers X feather.

 

X feather is the abject best on uncoated paper, no contest. But on coated paper it's horrendously smear-y.

 

4001 is the best jack of all trades. Not the blackest, but I don't mind that. Sometimes a little shading to a dark warm gray is exciting looking. I don't like flat blacks anyways, just look like black rollerballs IMO. Never feathers or bleeds, works on all paper.

 

Dark Matter is kind of in the middle. A little better on good paper with a richer color and a slightly antiquey-faint green undertone, a little more waterproof than 4001. Not as great as x feather, about as good as 4001 on bad paper, about as good as 4001 on coated paper.

 

I keep dark matter in my vintage sheaffer desk pen since it has a very antique black color. Everything else gets 4001.