Black -- Oh, the Humanity!!

[Brilliant Bill]

Over time I've come to prefer black inks. There are some blues I like, and I have cause to keep one pen inked with Skrip Red. Recently I got a bottle of Noodles Heart of Darkness. With that in my Diplomat Excellence A, I'm having to force myself to use other pens. So, I decided it might be fun to collect black inks. I have quite a few now, but mostly in sample form...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

I'm not inclined to collecting for collecting sake. It's just not my nature. The pens I have are really only pens I use (except one Esterbrook for sentimental reasons -- I grew up near Camden, NJ, and half the people I knew back then worked for Esterbrook.). But I got this idea that it might be somewhat novel to own every black ink currently available for fountain pens. It seemed conceivable you could buy a bottle of every black without too much expense. I knew Noodles would be rather a hurdle; they have more than a few blacks. So I began cataloging the blacks available. And things were fine until I got to "D" in the alphabet.

If you look at the Vanness site, they offer 32 different black inks from DeAtramentis alone. At $13 per bottle, the whole schmear would be over $400. How does an ink maker come up with 32 different blacks? One of them is "Fragrance Steam Locomotive." What is the "fragrance" of a steam locomotive? It's coal smoke; that's what it is. From a pure novelty standpoint, I'm going to order a bottle of that, but really? How can that be differentiated from 31 other blacks?

As I said, I'm not a collector by nature. So maybe I'll have to get used to the idea of slow acquisition. A bottle or two here, a few bottles there; over time you've got a good percentage of what's available. And then again, maybe tomorrow I'll think differently!

Does anyone here collect black inks -- or even have a lot of different ones?

[TSherbs]

Yikes!! I like black ink a lot. I own l four bottles and two samples.

[carlos.q]

Let's see... I've got these blacks:

Aurora
Herbin Perle Noire
Lamy
Montblanc
Noodler's bulletproof
Parker Penman Ebony
Parker Quink
Pelikan 4001
Sailor Jentle
Sailor kiwa-guro (sample)
Sheaffer

So yes... I guess I like black inks.

[Lady Onogaro]

I have some black cartridges that came with a pen, and I have samples of Diamine Eclipse, Cross Black, and a few other blacks. That's it for me as far as black goes.

[grainweevil]

But I got this idea that it might be somewhat novel to own every black ink currently available for fountain pens.

Globally? Or just the USA?

I gather a number of De Atrementis inks are duplicated across various ranges; couldn't tell you what the situation with the blacks are, but it may be that one ink could be ticking a regular, scented, and writer's box, for instance.

Anyway, I don't really like black ink, and yet seem to have
Platinum Carbon Black
Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black
J Herbin Perle Noire
Dollar Black
Pilot Black
Delta Black
plus several old ones that wouldn't qualify.

Black ink is a big old can of worms to attempt to corral.

[FredRydr]

Steam locomotive fragrance.... Hmmm, maybe it's a heady mix of hot iron and grease.



Fred

[Amanda]

In ordinary bottled fountain pen blacks I have: Parker Quink, Pilot, Lamy and Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

Then there are a couple fo waterproof ones for art stuff: Platinum Carbon and Noodler's Bulletproof.

I keep boxes of Rotring's ArtPen black cartridges around because I swear they don't evaporate their ink, at least nowhere near as fast as the converters they replace, in Jinhao, Hero and other pens.

The ones that really fascinate me though are the near-blacks such as Diamine Eclipse, Noodler's El Lawrence and many others. They are so dark they look black but can shade or wash with a hint of the underlying colour.

[Brilliant Bill]

I'm with you on Rotring; they seem to make good stuff. I have a couple of their "Art Pens." Haven't tried their inks.

I'm also with you on the near blacks. They were a real quest for a couple of high end pens I have. Tried a lot, Eclipse e.g., but finally settled on Silent Night by Bung Box. It's technically a blue-black, but so dark you really have to seek out the blue undertones.

In ordinary bottled fountain pen blacks I have: Parker Quink, Pilot, Lamy and Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black.

Then there are a couple fo waterproof ones for art stuff: Platinum Carbon and Noodler's Bulletproof.

I keep boxes of Rotring's ArtPen black cartridges around because I swear they don't evaporate their ink, at least nowhere near as fast as the converters they replace, in Jinhao, Hero and other pens.

The ones that really fascinate me though are the near-blacks such as Diamine Eclipse, Noodler's El Lawrence and many others. They are so dark they look black but can shade or wash with a hint of the underlying colour.

[Brilliant Bill]

I'll let you know, Fred. I ordered a bottle!

Steam locomotive fragrance.... Hmmm, maybe it's a heady mix of hot iron and grease.



Fred

[Brilliant Bill]

I'd have to think globally; actually I think very few inks are made in the U.S. at this point. Noodles sort of has that distinction.

Yes, I agree that some of those DeAtramentis blacks are duplicate formulations. But as a collector, it seems you'd want all the different labels.

And yes, black does seem unruly.

But I got this idea that it might be somewhat novel to own every black ink currently available for fountain pens.

Globally? Or just the USA?

I gather a number of De Atrementis inks are duplicated across various ranges; couldn't tell you what the situation with the blacks are, but it may be that one ink could be ticking a regular, scented, and writer's box, for instance.

Anyway, I don't really like black ink, and yet seem to have
Platinum Carbon Black
Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black
J Herbin Perle Noire
Dollar Black
Pilot Black
Delta Black
plus several old ones that wouldn't qualify.

Black ink is a big old can of worms to attempt to corral.

[grainweevil]

I should have clarified - I meant available globally, or only in US retailers?

And thanks to Amanda I have to add rotring to my list. Forgot about those cartridges.

[Brilliant Bill]

Well, I promised, Fred. From the "fragrance" perspective, it stinks! Some awful chemical smell; I guess you could associate it with railroad given enough suggestive marketing. The label is good, but not good enough. Otherwise, it seems a pretty common black, not one I'd use as it's not dark enough.

I'll let you know, Fred. I ordered a bottle!

Steam locomotive fragrance.... Hmmm, maybe it's a heady mix of hot iron and grease.



Fred

[R.A. Stewart]

Ah well. I hope it wasn't real expensive--I'd get steamed if I spent a lot on SLF and it stank. I'd feel like I had been railroaded. But that's the breaks, and sometimes we just have to get back on track, otherwise we'd go loco.

[ethernautrix]

I feel I've tried most of the blacks. Before I bumped into fpn eight or nine years ago, I was on the quest for the darkest, best black (that meant: very dark, waterproof (or very water-resistant), no feathering, and no bleed-through). After using Noodler's Black for a couple of years, I decided I could stop looking.

That didn't actually stop me from looking, though. I have one-and-a-half bottles of Platinum Carbon Black. I had Noodler's Dark Matter, but sold it with a bunch of other inks.

On a recent road trip through Czechia, I picked up a small bottle of Koh-I-Noor Document Black. I was going to pass on it, but my travelling companion picked up a bottle of Document Blue and said, "It's so cheap! If you don't like it, I'll use it." I didn't open it until a couple of days ago, and surprise, surprise, I like it very much. Is it the blackest black? Probably not, but it is sufficiently black, very, very water-resistant (nearly waterproof), dries quickly, and doesn't feather, doesn't bleed-through. I might like it as much as I like Noodler's Black.

[alanlight]

I have three different blacks from Noodler's alone: X-Feather, Heart of Darkness and Old Manhattan.
All part of my search for the "blackest" black.

[PS27]

Elsewhere I started to post about how I'd just ordered 10 samples and five were black -- and that I was a little disappointed when I opened the package and there weren't more--uh--blacks. I thought better of posting it and didn't. But I feel at home here.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[R.A. Stewart]

Elsewhere I started to post about how I'd just ordered 10 samples and five were black -- and that I was a little disappointed when I opened the package and there weren't more--uh--blacks. I thought better of posting it and didn't. But I feel at home here.

This made me smile. I can totally relate, even though I am (as noted elsewhere) incredibly pedestrian and boring and always have only one ink going at a time. But it's almost always black. :-)

[rluka]

I keep boxes of Rotring's ArtPen black cartridges around because I swear they don't evaporate their ink, at least nowhere near as fast as the converters they replace, in Jinhao, Hero and other pens.

Have few cartridges of this but wary of using it.
Are they safe for fountain pens ?

[picautomaton]

I too like black inks and have the following:
Omas
Montegrappa
Sheaffer Skrip (USA)
Montblank
Parker Quink washable
Diamine Onyx
Hero
Hearth of Darkness
Noodlers Black
Sailor nano
Pelikan
Cross

personally I prefer inks that shade

[Amanda]

I keep boxes of Rotring's ArtPen black cartridges around because I swear they don't evaporate their ink, at least nowhere near as fast as the converters they replace, in Jinhao, Hero and other pens.

Have few cartridges of this but wary of using it.
Are they safe for fountain pens ?

The Rotring ArtPen is a fountain pen and the ink is water soluble so I believe it to be safe. I use the cartridges in a number of pens that take that size and haven't seen any reason for concern.