Black Is Black: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Does Coronas

Dr. Inkenstein is not particularly a black ink aficionado. Oh, sure, we are familiar with Lamy Black in carts. It's black. It works in my red Lamy Safari with a Fine nib. As I say, it's black. So, too, with Platinum black carts and the Preppy .03 and .02. They write black.

I recall buying my first bottle of used (beg pardon, 'previously owned') Montblanc ink on fleabay. Yay! I thought; I'm significant now! I own an ink bottle shaped like a shoe!


It was black. It wrote black. And so on and so forth, until I had acquired a couple more bottles of black ink, all of which wrote...black.


But then something interesting happened. Seeing a review of PR Velvet Black, and being impressed with the brilliant corona produced by dropping it on a paper towel, Dr. I did a series of paper towel chromas, with four bottled blacks. The results were not what I expected. The Levenger Raven Black was...black. 

The others were a surprise, and far more colorful. Now I wonder...is the Montblanc even a black? It sure writes like one. Waterman and Quink seemed very close in color components, but in daylight, and not scannage, Quink's corona was slightly more intense orange. Still, I don't think any of them were as much of a rainbow as the PR Velvet!  Which clearly will be coming to my ink shelf soon.