Intense Black - bad batch?
 

Would intense black ever look purple? I've only bought it twice, but neither turned out to be like I expected.

I thought intense black looked black, even if pulled very thin (hense the reason for buying it). This is the second batch of intense black (I used two different suppliers) that I've gotten that looks transparent purple when I pull a fine stringer. When using really thin stringers on a white bead, it looks more purple than black. When making thicker lines or dots, it mostly black, but tends to look like it has purple edges.

Is this right?

That's how I test my intense black if I get it mixed up, I draw a really fine stinger and look at it through the light. If it looks like transparent purple it's not intense black.

*nods* that's what I thought.

I did the ivory test too, and it didn't web. It kind of sunk into the ivory, or the ivory bled over it a little. I like it, but I didnt' think that was right either.

The worst part is that it's marked Intense Black, so it's not like it was a simple error on the part of the supplier. I hope I don't have any issues returning it.

It costs a whole lot more than regular black.

The supplier may have gotten it mixed up with their regular black stringers. It's an easy enough mistake to make. Give them a ring and see if they'll fix it for you.

"It costs a whole lot more than regular black." Captain Obvious :lol:

Oh yeah, it was all marked, and priced, as Intense Black. *chuckles* Every rod is marked. Since this is the second batch (from two different suppliers), I'm wondering if there was a mistake on the glass from Italy...

It happened to me, too! I bought some from Arrow Springs. They were all labelled as IB, but a few of the thicker stringers were obviously normal black that had gotten mixed up. I was annoyed but didn't make a fuss since most of the batch was good, and I didn't play with the "bad" stringers to notice it until months after I ordered.

-H

Bingo, Heather! Did you ever tell them though? Even if you don't return them, it's good for a supplier to know that.

And some of them were good? I haven't tested every rod (they're all pretty much normal sized rods). I think I'll wait to hear back though.

Test them all... I found that most of the thinner (2mm) IB stringers were OK, but for the 3mm stringers is was about 1/2 and 1/2. Do you have any real IB to compare it with? IB stays black even when hair-thin. I only ordered a tiny amount from AS and thought the weak black was an isolated incident... but since it's recent for you and you probably ordered more, I think it would be a good idea to give them a heads up. My order was probably 6-10 months ago, so this might be a pretty extensive problem.

On the other hand, it could be Effetre itself that had a significantly less-intense batch and shipped it out that way. Or mislabelled the glass straight out of the factory. But AS should hear about it anyway, since it's their reputation that will be affected.

-Heather

Thanks for the info, everyone *S* Arrow Springs is taking them back, which I was sure they would, but it's nice to have confirmation. They were all full size rods, btw. Very strange...