Ink Review #2592: De Atramentis Black

De Atramentis Black is from the Standard collection. This ink is also known as: Motorbike, Steam Locomotive, Halloween, Johannes Gutenberg, Cross Boys, Martin Luther, George Washington, Imperator Caesar Augustus, Acts of Murder Eifel, Fritz Reuter, Egyptian, Licorice and Durant. You can find these inks for sale at Vanness Pens.

The color:

Black is a medium black.

*For my swab cards I use a Col-o-ring by Skylab Letterpress, a medium Pilot Ishime and a Mabie Todd Swan.

Swabs:

In large swabs on Tomoe River paper the ink looks darker than it does on the Col-o-ring swab.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

*For my writing samples I use:

Dry time: 30 seconds

Water resistance: Medium

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: None

Other properties: no shading, no sheen, and no shimmer.

On 20 lb copy paper the ink worked pretty well, just a little bit of feathering and bleeding in the flex nib.

Comparison Swabs:

Black is a little bit lighter than these other black inks. Click here to see the black inks together.

Longer Writing:

I used a Kaweco Al-sport Anthracite with a medium nib on a Taroko Enigma notebook. The ink has a wet flow.

Overall, this is a good basic black. It’s not the darkest black ink out there, but it’s a good medium black.

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