Conklin's Endura Ink

This is an ink that I'm not sure you can get your hands on. It's a deep black ink that comes in a tiny little bottle in a nondescript box. I've looked around online, and it appears that this is an ink that Conklin sometimes hands out at pen shows. If you want some, then you have another reason to get yourself to a pen show.

It's a small glass bottle. The Noodler's Hunter Green (in their 1oz bottle) is for comparison.

If you're looking for the darkest black, then this might be it. I used to think that Aurora's Black and PR's Invincible Black were the darkest, but this one (I think) wins. If you look at the top-center of the picture below, you'll see a light area, but that's just the end of a smear. It's dark.

It's also well-behaved. It doesn't really bleed, even on regular office copy paper. There's a little ghosting, maybe, but I wouldn't call it a bleed. There's no feather or spread. It's sharp in this stub nib.

It's pretty wet, though, and it takes a long time to dry. Even absorbent office papers will smear for longer than I like. Guess how long it takes on Rhodia. Did you guess FOREVER? Good guess. That's the trade-off for a wet ink with this much pigment in it.

Here's the comparison up close. Einstein is a grey, so it'll look lighter, but that's Aurora right next to Endura and you can see how these three compare.


Water Drop Test Video:


This one was a surprise. Spoiler picture below!

It doesn't Endura water very well. See what I did there?