Originally published at: Black 4.0 is the blackest paint you can buy | Boing Boing
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Is this difference something that you can even notice? Feels more like it’s numbers for numbers sake.
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I wanted to paint our ground floor guest bathroom with Black 3.0 and put a mirror table in as the floor.
My wife forbade this outright…
Maybe I can try again with Black 4.0. 
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Definitely. Think of it upside-down. Black 3 was a 0.4% light, but these are ~0.04% light.
However, the problem really is, that when you fatfinger it, you’re smoothing it to a much higher number. Vantablack is hard and fibrous and stays that way–paint not so much.
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Since they’re giving that number for the paint, isn’t the implication that they’re referring to the dried paint’s blackness? Or are you saying there’s a specific technique you have to use to get it not to gloss?
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My first thought was Hitchiker’s, not Spinal Tap.
“It’s the wild colour scheme that freaks me,” said Zaphod whose love affair with this ship had lasted almost three minutes into the flight, “Every time you try to operate on of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you’ve done it. What is this? Some kind of galactic hyperhearse?”
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I’d paint my furniture with it. Then I’d paint the walls black to lighten up the place.
I’d love to attribute this joke to Steven Wright, but I haven’t found any proof he said it, other than my bad memory.
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Could’ve been Lewis Black
/s
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I recall a similar statement, but I couldn’t swear Steven Wright said it. The closest I can find is attributed to Coco Chanel:
“When I find a colour darker than black, I’ll wear it. But until then, I’m wearing black!”
― Coco Chanel
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I do hope that at some point when someone invents one with 100% light absorbance they name their color “Spinal Tap Black”.
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The real trick is finding a clearcoat that will protect the super-black and be cleanable, without itself increasing specular reflectivity.
It is doubtful any of these ultrablacks can maintain their rating in an environment where dust accumulates.
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Some-sort of specified spectrum dependence to “Black <floating-point>” isn’t there? That is, is Black 4.0 that much better an infrared/heat trap as compared to Black 3.0? What to paint the hot-tub cover with?
I have an old t-shirt that paraphrases this quote. “I’m only wearing black until they make something darker”
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For any ongoing administrative legacy paper processes, I think we need this marketed in little vials called “Black-Out” or possibly “Redacto-Black”.
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Unless you’re Anish Kapoor or one of his sinister agents…
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That was the one that immediately came to mind! I think that was even the phrase I used to find the reference to Coco Chanel. 
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