Aurora black ink - first impression

[Kento]

Hi, this is my first post on FPN. 

Aurora black seems to be highly regarded on the forum here, so I thought I'd give it a try. My first impression was ... messy. Opening the bottle ended with getting black ink all over my hands, especially thanks to the extra plastic cap thingy inside the bottle. I normally use Pelikan 4001 black or Lamy black and usually just ... well, open up the bottle and get going. 

Is there a special trick or something for opening Aurora ink bottles or should I have just covered my desk with newspaper and worn protective gloves and goggles before opening the bottle? Okay, the goggles part would probably be over-doing things. 

Also, it looks like there's another bottle style for Aurora with 55 ml (I have the tall one with 45 ml); it looks kind of like a Pelikan-style bottle. Is that one more user-friendly?

Thanks!

Kento

[torstar]

Welcome aboard!

 

Several crazy things have happened opening and filling from bottles, and lids that weren't on as tight as I had assumed. 

 

Aurora for me is a top 3 black ink. 

 

The Aurora bottles I bought made it hard to get "down there" after the first 1/3 was used.

 

If there is trouble in the design I pour the ink into a clean and more user-friendly bottle like this old Sheaffer Scrip. Picked up a dozen cheap on ebay years ago. Sometimes I haven't bothered labeling the bottles and forget after a year or non-use.

 

[Kento]

Hi Torstar,

Thanks for your reply. That's a good idea to just put inks into another bottle.

 actually already have an empty MontBlanc bottle so for now I could put the Aurora ink into that. 

Just out of curiosity... what are your other two black inks in your top three?

All the best,

Kento

 

 

[TSherbs]

@Kento but do you like the ink that comes inside this bottle?

[Kento]

By the way, that Sheaffer jar looks pretty practical...

[torstar]

6 hours ago, Kento said:

By the way, that Sheaffer jar looks pretty practical...

 

perfectly old school in design and function 

 

for my choice of the other two black...  Platinum Carbon and Private Reserve Velvet

 

I prefer greener blues so the Aurora blue isn't in the rotation, otherwise I may have just bought Aurora for a decade... nah, the fun is in buying new inks and using a few fills of the pen out of them

[Kento]

@TSherbs

So, I'll finally move on to my impressions about the black Aurora ink with pen and paper (instead of bottle and hands).

 

It looks ... black. My first impression is that it doesn't look all that much different from Pelikan black or Lamy black to my eyes. Most black inks look pretty similar to me, though.  (Blue inks all look different to me.)

 

Second impression... on some unscientific ad-hock smudge tests and spilling a bit of coffee on the paper (on purpose) it doesn't seem that much different from Lamy or Pelikan either. I don't notice a big difference in drying time or water resistance.

 

I kind of expected that Aurora would be way "blacker" than the others, but might smudge more. They all actually seem pretty similar to me, though.

 

Third impression... Okay, with some more actual writing, I’m starting to feel it. The Aurora is especially "smooth". It flows out my pen (Pelikan M205) very nicely, with no pressure. It “feels” nice.

[XYZZY]

Visual perception is a tricky thing.  How thick a line are you writing?  I think that the thinner the line the less we are able to perceive the subtle differences in color, our brain getting caught up in the contrast between the paper and the line.  A nib that lays down a wider line might make it easier for you to see subtle differences.  So what are you writing with, and do you have a pen with a wider nib?

 

On the other hand, I'm not a fan of ink swabs and ink puddles:  they look pretty, but are so far removed from my writing that they aren't predictive of what I'll see when writing.  So if you don't want to use a wider nib then don't, and if that means all blacks look alike then there is no harm in that.  Maybe pursing the best feel is a joy in itself.

 

I like the feel of Sailor Kiwa-guro.  I haven't used it in years since my sample ran out, and don't use black frequently enough to buy a bottle until I've used other blacks that I have.  But if I ever go buy a bottle of black ink it will likely be Kiwa-guro:  it's just black, blacks are meh to me so I don't care if it's not the blackest, but it sure felt special.  It's a pigment ink, though, so the usual warnings apply, although I personally don't think the warnings are as dire as they seem.

 

There have been many threads about black ink.  https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/341317-the-perfect-black-ink 

had more traction than many others and is g's top result for both "best black ink" and "favorite black ink" when you restrict the results by adding "site:fountainpennetwork.com"

 

And

[Mercian]

Hi @Kento, and welcome!

‘Which is the best black ink?’ and/or the ‘blackest black ink’ are questions that have been debated many times on FPN. If you use the ‘Search’ function you can find old threads and look for people’s recommendations.
Do make sure to look for the properties of any ink such as feathering, ‘wetness’, ‘bleedthrough’, drying-times, and resistance to water, or skin-oils etc, as well as just its colour.

 

That said, I think that if you are happy with your 4001 Brilliant Black and Lamy Black, you may as well stick with them, unless you want specific ‘extra features’ from your black ink.

 

If you want increased water-resistance, I too recommend Sailor Kiwa Guro.
Somebody once said on here that it ‘feels like writing with liquid silk’, and I agree. It doesn’t spread or feather either.
But it does have a tendency for ‘nib-creep’. And it isn’t cheap.
And some people think that its graphite-like ‘sheen’ can make it look a bit grey from some angles.
 

If you want resistance to other chemicals as well as to water, Noodler’s Black is very black, very permanent, and very easy to clean out of the pen. It doesn’t spread or feather.
It works well in my M205.
But it too displays nib-creep.

 

If you want a smooth black ink, Pelikan Edelstein Onyx is a smooth-writing black, and it works well in an M205.
I think that Edelstein inks contain a component that is intended to help lubricate the piston in your pen.
It does though cost significantly more than 4001 Brilliant Black does.

I wish you good luck, and hope that you have fun on your journey 😊

Slàinte,
M.

[PPPR]

On 6/11/2024 at 5:42 AM, Kento said:

Hi, this is my first post on FPN. 

Aurora black seems to be highly regarded on the forum here, so I thought I'd give it a try. My first impression was ... messy.

[snip]

Is there a special trick or something for opening Aurora ink bottles or should I have just covered my desk with newspaper and worn protective gloves and goggles before opening the bottle? Okay, the goggles part would probably be over-doing things. 

[snip]

Sooo, about that messy bit, opened any Noodler's Ink bottles, lately? ;0)

 

With apologies, my old 45-ml Aurora ink bottles do not have inserts. I can't help there.

 

Aurora black is one of my top three favorites, as is Aurora blue in its own way. I rarely mix inks. One of two is the mix of Aurora blue with a bit of Aurora black. To my eyes, the extra black adds depth to the, already, deep blue.

[torstar]

10 hours ago, PPPR said:

Sooo, about that messy bit, opened any Noodler's Ink bottles, lately? ;0)

 

With apologies, my old 45-ml Aurora ink bottles do not have inserts. I can't help there.

 

Aurora black is one of my top three favorites, as is Aurora blue in its own way. I rarely mix inks. One of two is the mix of Aurora blue with a bit of Aurora black. To my eyes, the extra black adds depth to the, already, deep blue.

 

with those 2 Auroras up there, did you ever figure you had your inks for life? nothing more to explore?

 

 

[PPPR]

45 minutes ago, torstar said:

 

with those 2 Auroras up there, did you ever figure you had your inks for life? nothing more to explore?

With hundreds of bottles of ink, explorations have gone in other directions.  ;0)

[torstar]

34 minutes ago, PPPR said:

With hundreds of bottles of ink, explorations have gone in other directions.  ;0)

 

i resemble that remark as well

 

100% approval :   greeny-blues

75% : purple

25%: purply-blues

 

 

 

 

[Fuzzy_Bear]

On 6/11/2024 at 7:42 AM, Kento said:

Hi, this is my first post on FPN. 

Aurora black seems to be highly regarded on the forum here, so I thought I'd give it a try. My first impression was ... messy. Opening the bottle ended with getting black ink all over my hands, especially thanks to the extra plastic cap thingy inside the bottle. I normally use Pelikan 4001 black or Lamy black and usually just ... well, open up the bottle and get going. 

Is there a special trick or something for opening Aurora ink bottles or should I have just covered my desk with newspaper and worn protective gloves and goggles before opening the bottle? Okay, the goggles part would probably be over-doing things. 

Also, it looks like there's another bottle style for Aurora with 55 ml (I have the tall one with 45 ml); it looks kind of like a Pelikan-style bottle. Is that one more user-friendly?

Thanks!

Kento

Do not go near a new bottle of Nooders. They are filled to the brim

[Chris1]

It is a shame that some ink bottles are just, well, bottles. I have a stock of nice Montblanc shoe bottles, a Sheaffer Scrip, a Lamy bottle and a few Parker Penman bottles that are used for inks that need a new and more user-friendly home. Yes, remembering to label them is important.

 

There is a lovely post somewhere here comparing the practicality if different bottles; a lot of work went in to it and it is well worth a view. (I'll come back if I can find it.)

[Chris1]

Here it is, under Ink Comparisons: