Hongdian Black Bottled Ink

This is a really good and underrated black ink. Its a nice deep dark black color.Of the 12 black inks I've tested, this is probably tied for 2nd or 3rd darkest. It may be difficult to tell in the picture, but its pretty clear in person. The darkest black is Cross Black. 2nd is a toss up between Noodler's X Feather, Kaweco Black Pearl, and Hongdian non carbon Black. Kaweco Black Pearl has a cool color temperature in some lighting conditions, X Feather seems neutral, and so does Hongdian non carbon Black.This Hongdian non carbon Black has good flow and is fairly smooth. It was well behaved on both ends of the nib spectrum - 1.9 Stub nib on one end (which is what I used in the picture for all of the writing samples), and a really tight Extra Fine nib on the other.I would put the amount of time it takes to dry in the medium range. It takes about 20 seconds to dry when using the 1.9 stub nib, which isn't too bad since it puts down a lot of ink. It only takes about a second to a second and a half when using the Extra Fine nib.It has pretty good water resistance, but its not as good as Noodler's X Feather in that regard. This leads to the one thing I don't like about this ink, which is that it turns purple when it gets wet. That is a minor pet peave of mine when dealing with black inks. I really prefer that they stay on the gray scale when they get wet. When cleaning out nibs or cartridge converters, this ink will turn a very deep purple when coming into contact with water and turns a nice light purple as it gets more diluted. When getting wet on paper, purplish color will come up off of the page first, but the color that remains on the page it still black, or sometimes charcoal gray depending on how much ink lifted off when it got wet.This ink is a great value and a real sleeper as far as black inks go. It will be in my regular rotation along with Noodler's X Feather and Cross Black (if I can ever find a bottle of it). Its also the least expensive of those 3.For what its worth, Kaweco Black Pearl is also pretty good except it has poor water resistance and doesn't flow for crap out of Extra Fine nibs. Hard Starts are the norm, and skipping isn't out of the question, which is why it won't be in my rotation once I am done with my cartridges. I haven't had any flow issues with it out of my stub nibs, but I need a black ink that works in Fine and Extra Fine nibs as well.

Beautiful medium blue color with hints of green; a shade or two darker, but not very much greener, than the Sky Blue option from the same company (which I also have and use). Flows equally well in fountain pens and on glass dip pens; on dip pens with metal nibs, I find the performance depends very much on the shape of the nib and whether there's a reservoir. I would consider this a relatively "liquid" ink - it flows easily in every pen I've tried, and that's often a struggle for me as I have hand pain that can make it awkward to apply the pressure needed with higher-viscosity inks. Great value for the money, would recommend. Ease of use:Nice-sized opening at bottle top, neither too wide nor awkwardly narrow; cap has a gasket for a secure fit. The bottle itself has a good "heft" to it, and is significantly wider at the base than at the top - very stable, which is a real plus if (like me) you are prone to knocking things over!!

This lighter shade of blue really pops on white paper! It looks good on the cream colors too like rhodia and Mnemosyne. Great smooth ink, not too wet or dry, and just the right amount of lubrication. Very impressed with the quality of this ink, and especially for the price! I love blue inks, and typically am a darker blue to even blue/black ink user. But this really looks good and adds some mix to my typical shades. This ink performs better than some I’ve paid a small fortune for because I figured they had to have some “magic” in them for that high of a price. Boy was I fooled. This ink is easily worth twice the price…. Try it, you too might be as surprised as I was!!! 5 stars for sure!!

Nice ink! Blackish green. Flows well. My doodle is on coarse paper with a cheap pen. I didn’t notice feathering, just a little inconsistency in the line due to coarse paper.Great ink for sketching/writing when you don’t want the harsh of pure black. Nice vintage type look.

Bought the peacock blue which is a beautiful turquoise. Works well with the dip pen I have and ink flowed smoothly. Unfortunately it does bleed a LOT on any paper with the remote chance of bleed.

Great ink! Smudge resistant, dries fairly fast. Nice texture and depth of color. Easy to use, and works very nicely with my Lamy with refillable well.

It can be a little frustrating buying ink when you don't really know what color you are getting. So, I posted a sample photo. What I see on my computer and what you see may be different but this gives you an idea of the color relative to other colors. The black ink on the photo is Platinum Black and all the other inks and the paper are identified.I really like the Bluish Gray. It is a dark blue with a gray/green base to it. It's kinda sorta similar to the Platinum Blue Black but it has a tiny hint of green in it.Use: I have put the Hongdian inks into different pens and they all responded well. No hard starts or trouble of any kind. On my comparison photo, I specified the source (cartridge or bottle) because I am not sure if the cartridge blue is the same as the bottle blue. Dry time was generally fairly fast but it is not a quick-dry ink.Feathering/bleeding: On the cheapest copy paper, the colors do feather and bleed through a bit more than say, Platinum blue black (my normal go-to color). On nicer Kokuyo or Apica paper, no problems at all. No feathering. No bleeding. No sheen or shimmer. But it does have a tiny bit of shading.Bottle: The bottle(s) arrived in perfect condition. They do not leak and they were not overfilled or under-filled.Value: For the price, I don't think these inks can be beaten.

While fairly inexpensive, the ink is a beautiful color and writes well. It's on the wetter side for a fountain pen ink, but it doesn't feather or cause ghosting on quality paper.The bottle is designed well, making it very easy to refill a fountain pen. I highly recommendI highly recommend.