Review: Speedball Super Black India Ink

Submitted by  Teoh Yi Chie on  December 19, 2014 - 12:14 pm

Speedball is a company based in USA that sells various art supplies, mostly inks and paint media.

Speedball Super Black India Ink is the ink I'm reviewing today.

The ink comes in a 2oz (59.2ml) plastic bottle. The base is wide which is good because it keeps the bottle more stable than other brands. The opening is also quite big so that's good for dipping your nibs and brushes.

This is an India Ink so it's not suitable for use in fountain pens. It's pigmented with 100% carbon black pigment and contains shellac. The ink is designed for drawing and calligraphy.


This scan is adjusted for exposure leaving the paper texture. Below are the close ups.

Speedball Super Black India Ink - 02
The ink is highly opaque and intensely black. It dries to almost matte neutral black with tinge of sheen.

Speedball Super Black India Ink - 03
It's able to keep a sharp edge.

Speedball Super Black India Ink - 04
Dries fairly fast to become smudge-proof. It's also waterproof.

Speedball Super Black India Ink - 05
It's permanent and holds up to erasing well.

Speedball Super Black India Ink - 06

Speedball Super Black India Ink - 07

Conclusion

There's really nothing to fault about this India ink. It performs consistently and is predictable. It's excellent for dip pens and brush works.

This is one of the best black India inks compared to the others that I've reviewed.

It's also highly affordable so it provides fantastic value for the money.

Highly recommended to those looking for waterproof, dark black ink.

Availability

Find more reviews at Dick Blick Art Materials (US) | Jackson's Art (UK)

Tags
ink reviews
speedball
art product reviews
black ink reviews

Comments

Mango Man (not verified) Thu, 15 Apr 2021 - 10:13

Hi Teoh! Thank you for your constant hard work, you make the lives of your readers so much easier.
I bought this ink thinking it would be waterproof, but even after waiting for fifteen minutes, water still reactivated it and I couldn't use it with watercolors.
Looking at the reviews on Amazon, I see a couple of customers with similar claims.

What do you make of this? Did I get a bad batch? Is it the paper? I tested it on Fluid 100% HP and Canson XL as well. I'd love to hear if someone else found the same thing.

Thanks

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
About text formats

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Comment Notification, please choose "All comments". "Replies to my comment" does not work.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------