Monteverde Raven Noir
Ink Review #168
*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.
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The Color | Properties
Monteverde Raven Noir is a black ink. It’s highly saturated and decently dark, though there’s still some visible shading that’s mostly noticeable when writing in print with larger nib sizes. I wouldn’t call it a sheen, but you may notice a dull black luster around the edges of letters or areas where the ink pools heavily enough. On some papers, the ink may also have a slightly matte look to it when it dries. The ink has a slight brownness to it, but it’s mostly noticeable when comparing it with other black inks.
Ink droplets
Ink splat
Chromatography
Performance on Paper | Dry Times | Water Resistance
Raven Noir is fairly well-behaved. There is the usual bleeding on the Kokuyo paper, as well as some (very) minor traces of bleeding on the Leuchtturm and Maruman papers. It should be fine on many of the more ink-resistant fountain pen-friendly papers without bleeding, but I’ve noticed the ink is prone to minor feathering around small punctuation marks (such as periods and commas, or the tittles on i’s and j’s).
Rhodia
Leuchtturm1917
For the dry times, the finer nibs perform slightly better than average, at a consistent 10 seconds, while the larger nib sizes dry at a more typical 15 to 25 seconds (although the overall dry times were particularly good on Rhodia)
When exposed to water, the color quickly clouds over the writing. Despite this, the remains are still crisp and dark enough to be easily read.
More Pages
Performance in the Pen | Cleaning
Raven Noir has a medium-wet flow and okay lubrication, but during my tests, I noticed the ink had a slightly gritty feel to it. It wasn’t terrible, but it became increasingly noticeable during my extended writing tests. Still, the overall performance is good, without any hard starts, skips, stops, or drops in flow. Like many of the other inks in the Noir Collection, the ink worked particularly well with the Needlepoint nib as well.
Cleaning the ink out was easy, and it only took a single set of soaking and flushing with a bulb syringe to clean out the pen, without visible traces of ink or residue remaining.
Writing Samples
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper (white, 6mm ruling) with a Pelikan medium nib (writes like a broad).
Written on Midori MD paper (cream, 7mm ruling) with a Pelikan medium nib (writes like a broad).
Written on Leuchtturm1917 paper (cream, 5mm ruling) with a medium nib.
Written in a Traveler’s Company 026 notebook insert (white, 5mm ruling) with a fine nib.
Written on Midori MD paper (cream, 7mm ruling) with a needlepoint nib.
Performance in a pen: 10/10
Performance on paper: 7.5/10
Color saturation: 8/10
Sheening: 1/10
Shading: 2/10
Dry time: 7.5/10
Water resistance: 4/10
Ease of cleaning: 10/10
Shimmer: None
My Personal Thoughts…
With the Noir Collection’s color-plus-black motif, I suppose it was only a matter of time until black-on-black came around. The thing is, it’s still just a black ink, and that’s something I’m rarely excited for, even if it’s not a bad black ink. It’s not quite as dark as you might expect, but where it appears lighter is more black than grey, and like a lot of the Noir Collection inks, I really enjoy the slightly matte look it has when it dries. It also has a great flow, so it might not be a bad option for drier-tuned pens, but I also can’t get past the noticeably gritty feel it had despite that. All in all, Raven Noir is decent, and I say that knowing black inks aren’t generally my thing, but at the same time, I don’t know if I would see myself reaching for this one over another black ink if I needed one.
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with a Pelikan M605 (medium nib).
More images/info:
Featured in the photography and writing samples:
Monteverde Raven Noir
Pelikan M605 Tortoiseshell Black (Amazon)
52 gsm B6 Tomoe River notebook by Sterling Ink
Midori MD A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
Franklin-Christoph traveler’s notebook cover
Traveler’s Company 026 insert (Amazon)
Leuchtturm1917 A6 dot grid notebook
Traveler’s Company TRC Clip (Amazon)
Tim Holtz mini bulldog clips (Amazon)
Current text: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Amazon)
Tools and materials used in the writing samples:
A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units, including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.
A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad
A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook
A Midori MD A5 Notebook
A 52 gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook