Hoover Color’s Bone Black #6 is truly a unique pigment. Bone Blacks or Bone Charcoals have been used as pigments since the dawn of mankind. While they are significantly weaker than more modern Carbon Blacks, this pigment is used in many specialized niches. Bone Black is one of the “jettest” or “bluest” black pigments on the market, allowing color designers a truly “black” black. It also is more compatible in water-based coatings systems. Its relative weakness is also a benefit in certain cases, where it is difficult to control the exact loading of a Carbon Black to achieve a specific gray color shade.

Bone Black’s weakness is, in part, due to its relatively large particle size. This has made it the pigment of choice when formulating graining-inks for wood coatings. Graining inks fill in the depressions that wood grains create in the surface of the wood. The Graining ink is then sanded off the surface of the wood, leaving behind a more visible wood pattern.