Home Forums Explore Media Pen and Ink Speedball Super Black – first try

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  • #485559
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        I have been using Dr Bombay black as a very waterproof ink for use with watercolors, but oil paints tended to cause some bleeding, plus it is REALLY expensive in my opinion. $5 / ounce on sale or $160 / quart!

        Wanting something that would hold up to oils and not break the bank, I decided to try a new ink. I found some Speedball Super Black on sale for $12 / quart delivered. (Blick currently has it on sale at $14.89 / quart – still a great price.) Some quick testing has shown it is just as waterproof as the Bombay but is also very resistant to oil paint and odorless mineral spirits so it will work perfectly for both applications.

        For use with acrylics, both the Bombay and the Speedball bleed, so I will stick with acrylic inks for that.

        #962978
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            I ran some of the Super Black through a Jinhau X750 $5 Chinese fountain pen with a Zebra G nib on it with great results. All I had to do was open up the feed groove a bit with a razor blade and flatten the curve on the nib slightly. It was slow to start a few times but even with that, I was able to ink an entire 8×10 drawing without having to refill or dip the nib. I tried this several times with the same results. I tried thinning the ink with some distilled water which did help the flow. I have read that you can get away without cleaning the pen immediately after use with India ink, but it is so easy to clean this pen that I chose to empty it and clean it at the end of the day. Zero dried ink left in the feed that needed a deeper cleaning. The pen came with a screw turn plunger filler that makes removing the ink and flushing the bulk of the ink out of the feed and nib very easy.

            One video I watched said that the Jinhau X750 would fit the Zebra G nibs without modification. I did not find that to be the case with this pen. The curve of the G Nib was too small, requiring some adjustment with flat jaw pliers.

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