AURORA Aurora Bottle Ink Furaconi Aurora 100 Nero 124-N 2.1 fl oz (55 ml)

Being relatively new to fountain pens, I was looking for a good blank ink that would leave a nice, black/dark line similar to the cartridges that came with my pen (Cross Townsend, Cross cartridges). I spent time looking online and Aurora and Pelican kept coming up. I bought both. And it seems you get what you pay for. The Pelican ink was much less expensive, but the line it left reminded me more of the black watercolor that came in the plastic tray when I was a kid. Not quite as washed out as that, but definitely less black and more dark grey, and then enough that you could easily tell when a stroke would overlap another as it would be darker than the rest of the line or letter. And the smell - acrid and while not strong still somewhat unpleasant. But since we aren’t huffing it, I kept the bottle for practicing as I’ve found that a fountain pen requires a bit better cursive penmanship than I’ve had in a while.Not so with this Aurora ink. It is a deep, inky black. The line is the same darkness throughout, even on overlapping strokes. It does not smell bad (unless you stick your nose right in the bottle you won’t notice any real odor), it writes smoothly without forming globs, and is a joy to use. My only gripe is it was priced 4x the cost of the $7 bottle of Pelikan, but I also find it a much higher quality ink.I didn’t test either for water fastness, as I don’t plan to be using a fountain pen in the rain, the kitchen, bath, etc. I know the Pelikan is not waterproof, but I have no idea about Aurora. I just know I love writing with it and it leaves a nice, deep black line that is very satisfying (simple pleasures). I will probably buy it again when this bottle runs dry unless something better comes to my attention, though I’ll definitely be on the lookout for a lower price. But I like it so well that if I can’t I may still buy it again.

A wonderful and very “wet” (if you know fountain pens you know what I mean by that) ink.

This AURORA Black fountain pen ink is definitely black, BLACK! I had researched ratings on it prior to purchase, & THIS is what I definitely wanted. Flows very, VERY smoothly as well. Perhaps just a little pricey? But no worries.