Hunt "Extra Black" FP Ink?

[MacMorrighan]

Hey, I was listening to an interview featuring Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in which he whipped out his former lab book from his college days and they were just as dark and black as the day he had inscribed his notes. He said, if I heard him correctly, that he used Hunt "extra black" fountain pen ink. I plan on returning to college to obtain my master's degree in vocal pedagogy, and I want my pedagogy notes, as well as the notes from the master classes that I attend, and my own voice lessons to be just as dark after 20 years or more as the day when I wrote them. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone still produces this ink, of if you can recommend anything that's just as good?!

[Yazeh]

Hello, I didn't know Hunts made fountain pen ink.
If you want black ink, I would recommend get a bunch of samples and see which one suits your habit.
If you want your documents to stay put you need water resistance and light resistance. ( IG/Bulletproof/ Pigment)
IG inks (Essri/ Diamine Registerers) will probably turn into black quite fast. However, if you live in a very humid area (above 70%) I won't recommend it.
Noodler's has some favourite blacks for some.
Others prefer Platinum carbon black. Im sure others will suggest more interesting inks.... :)

[Chrissy]

An interesting post as a friend happened to ask about waterproof and lightfast ink qualities. When I searched I found that in order to be waterproof as well as lightfast ink needs to be a permanent pigment based ink but not necessarily IG as IG black ink can fade over time. Platinum Carbon Black is frequently mentioned as the go to ink but R&K Documentus Black might also fit the bill. Sailor Kiwa-Guro Black is another.

[Yazeh]

I forgot to mention Koh I Noor, document black. Though it's a dark green black. And you can get it in Big cartridges. Practical when you run out of ink, while taking notes!
Also De Atramentis has a line of document inks.

If you really want a really black ink. Noodler's Polar Black is one of the blackest inks, I've used. But I recommend you get a sample and see if you like it. Some hate it.

[DrPenfection]

Many suggest that one must use a permanent, bulletproof ink for academic studies. I found that, during my doctoral work, if I wrote with an ink that was comfortable for me - one that I enjoyed writing with and that caused no issues (hard starts, blobs, etc) - that my notes were far more readable. What I found more important was using archival paper in a bound notebook rather than notebook paper. This was particularly important for my laboratory protocols and notes. Also, I have always made sure that I write in an area with no liquid substance is within arm's length, protected my notebooks from rain, sun and wind, and treated them as historical documents (i.e. gently). While it may seem surprising, I used Waterman Seven Seas (now Inspired Blue) as my main ink and they are still as bright and readable as they were many years ago.

With that said, for class notes, I used whatever I found useful for the class - sometimes pencil (i.e. dif eq and stats) and sometimes a combination of pencil and pens (o. chem, imm and tox).

[bunnspecial]

Most inks tend to fair decently well in a notebook that's only opened occasionally.

Any time I get into black inks(which I seem to do somewhat cyclically), I seem to keep coming back to the fact that Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black is a suprisingly good black for an ink that's traditionally considered "gentle." It was one of the first bottled FP inks I bought, and stuff I wrote 10+ years ago is as black as new writing with that ink.

It's easy to find, inexpensive in small bottles, dirt cheap in 1L bottles, and really is just an all around solid black that's nice to your pens.

BTW, a decent bit of my graduate lab notebook was done with Montblanc Midnight Blue iron gall. As my former advisor has those notebooks I can't say how it's held up, but I'd expect it to remain quite legible.