3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - Ink Drop

I don’t own or review a lot of black inks, but when I do, I want them to have a little bling and drama. I like them to bring something unique to the page. When I opened 3 Oysters Night Black from the 2023 Hunters series, I immediately liked the consistency. As the ink dried, I was happy to see that not only is this ink is a rich, jet black, but it has a nice, bright brassy sheen that makes it different from others that I’ve tried.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - on Cosmo Air Light

The swatch on Cosmo Air Light reveals a lot. Night Black is a rich and consistent black in writing. Strokes are decorated with a polished brass sheen edging. This makes them jump off the page and twinkle like a deep night’s sky. The swatch is a very dark grey on the left where a single pass of the swab applied the ink. That first pass dried almost immediately. On the right side, I went back and added a thicker coat to bring out the sheen. In saturation, the sheen blankets the midnight black of a starless night.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - Shades and Sheen

Night Black is rich in flow with a medium to low viscosity. It’s flows smoothly from the nib and feed without hesitation. Most inks that sheen to this level are more syrupy. Night Black is wetter than many of those. It loves to play on the paper.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - on Rhodia

Overall, the writing experience is very nice. There’s no issues with feather or spread, and on most papers, showthrough is only a problem is really wet examples. Ink drops on Rhodia show as a golden yellow on the back of the page, which i find really interesting. In the chromatography, there’s a bright yellow band at the very top that explains why that’s the only color that gets through the page.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - Writing Samples

On uncoated papers, drying is quick and problem-free. Coated papers are a different story. With a wet, medium nib, drying was longer than average, but I kind of expect that in an ink that sheens so nicely. On coated papers, smearing is also something to be careful about. It didn’t occur consistently across a sentence or paragraph of text, but there were a few instances where a particularly wet stroke end remained smearable longer than I expected. With a little extra care, this won’t be a big concern, and sheening inks are normally less forgiving than this. I really enjoyed the writing experience.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - Ink Swatch Card

I like Night Black, and I think it rounds out the series nicely. The 3 Oysters Hunters series is a very enjoyable set of inks. Throughout the series, the writing experience has been exceptional. I’m also a big fan of the beautiful 38ml, angled-corner, glass bottles and packaging that are standard for 3 Oysters inks. Their attention to detail is something I really appreciate. These inks are easily available in Asia, but for some reason, they aren’t widely offered in N. America and Europe, yet. I expect that will change before long.

Keep scrolling down to see the swatch card, comparison inks, and the bottles and packaging.

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - Swatch Comparisons

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - 38ml Bottle and Box

3 Oysters - Hunters - Night Black - 5ml Sample Bottles

Special thanks to 3 Oysters for sending this and the other inks in the Hunters series for me to try. As always, my review reflects my full and honest opinions about the ink based on my personal experience using it.