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Would a large unit of these about 7-8 work nicely?

Depending on how many available FA slots you have, 2 units of 5 have worked pretty nicely for myself and others.

I've heard good things about large Black Knights squads, but its a huge points sink and a Darkshroud is borderline mandatory to support them.

I have used two units of five and found they live just as long as normal Ravenwing. I am thinking of a large more annoying unit in order to absorb fire power and keep on going. Plus destroy anything they are pointed at.

Not to mention that larger squad sizes are harder to hide either in terrain or behind LoS blocking terrain and attract far more attention than you really want. I would stick with 5-6 man squad sizes. I would only go up to 6 if you are worried about losing your grenade launcher to get some redundancy.

I once ran a 10man Black Knight squad which got wiped out by a 15man Necron immortal squad, despite me having a libby, shooting and charging.

This was mainly due to Hit&Run being stripped from them, amazing armour saves and reanimations from my opponent , my libby being smite by overwatch! (Yes I failed look out sir on a 2+) and as you can tell, all round shocking rolling from me. More 1s than you can imagine and not one 6 in over 30 dice the first round of combat!

Anyway, personally I have found them more of a threat and more deadly in two squads of 5, but YMMV.

I use seven.
Size is not an issue the way I play them. Turboboost turn 1 charge turn 2.

Depends on your opponent. There are *usually* only specific units that you'll need the plasma against, so a single unit of 5 does nicely, or perhaps two units at 2000 points. Against horde armies taking a normal Bike squadron with the option to attach an Attack Bike/Speeder works out better.
If, on the other hand, you're facing an army with lots of 2+ saves... take lots. Against mass 3+ saves it can really go either way depending on how the rest of your army is tooled up.

If you're taking Sammael, he accounts for plasma effectiveness of 2 or 3 Knights all by himself so there's no need to go overboard on them in that case.

I took a unit of 9 in a recent game led by an Interrogator with the mace of redemption, they killed everything they looked at and 3 survived the game (including the chaplain). The unit was a lot of fun to use, with grenade shots crippling everyone they engaged. Trouble was they were overkill, murdered everything they looked at twice over. I think 6 is the best number as it unlocks the second grenade launcher which exponentially improves the unit. I love black knights, they are the spece marine bike unit I have been waiting for since 4th edition.

 jamin484 wrote:
I think 6 is the best number as it unlocks the second grenade launcher which exponentially improves the unit.

You are the second or third person to state this...
How does the second launcher work out better?

If one gets killed you still have the second, you can shoot both the stasis and rad in one turn and if the one you really want misses first try you get a second shot if you haven't fired t'other first.

 Lurker wrote:

 jamin484 wrote:
I think 6 is the best number as it unlocks the second grenade launcher which exponentially improves the unit.

You are the second or third person to state this...
How does the second launcher work out better?

So then 1 launcher reduces the unit's toughness and the other their WS and Initiative, making them easy prey for you.

 Blaggard wrote:
If one gets killed you still have the second, you can shoot both the stasis and rad in one turn and if the one you really want misses first try you get a second shot if you haven't fired t'other first.

Any single unit's firing is simultaneous...so I would *think* you'd have to declare who's firing what before rolling any To Hit rolls. Don't have the rule book to hand, but it should be in early Shooting phase, "which models can fire" or something similar...

It does indeed. My mistake.

 Ferrum_Sanguinis wrote:

 Lurker wrote:

 jamin484 wrote:
I think 6 is the best number as it unlocks the second grenade launcher which exponentially improves the unit.

You are the second or third person to state this...
How does the second launcher work out better?

So then 1 launcher reduces the unit's toughness and the other their WS and Initiative, making them easy prey for you.

Sounds like overkill to me...