Noodler’s Atlantic Salmon is a highlighting ink. I use it regularly and quite like it.
I have it in a Platinum Preppy Refillable Highlighter Marker ($3 at Goulet Pens). I splurged and got the converter for an extra $7.50.
I have two things to say about Noodler’s Hunter Green:
There’s a tiny bit of spread on the Maruman paper I was using for this review. I’m inclined to believe this is an issue with the paper rather than with the ink. This also has me thinking that it’s time for me to be really consistent with my paper choices for ink reviews.
I am super-duper impressed with the water resistance of this ink. It’s not perfect, but it is among the very best.
The ink writes well. No issues with bleeding or showing through. It’s wonderfully saturated and seems very consistent as far as flow from the pen goes.
Even though the color isn’t for me (I’m more of a true green girl), Noodler’s Hunter Green is just about as good as it gets in terms of performance. Highly recommended.
I bought my sample from Goulet Pens. It is still available there and has mostly good reviews. Complaints seem to mostly surround dry time (an issue I definitely did not have) and spread (an issue I attribute to the paper).
Do you have a favorite green ink?
Noodler’s 54th Massachusetts seems to be a very popular ink. I’ve not written with it.
Maybe you can tell me – is it the color, the way it behaves, something else?
Noodler’s #41 Brown ink is a fountain pen ink that I reviewed back in October.
It falls a little flat for me and with so many other options (Lie de The!), I’d pass this one over.
Noodler’s can be controversial. Nathan from Noodler’s can be even more controversial. Care to share your opinions on either?
January 2015 Ink Drop from Goulet Pens
I received January’s Ink Drop from Goulet Pens earlier this week.
I usually super-saturate cotton swabs with ink before swiping across the paper, but this time, I barely barely got the cotton wet with ink. I thinking maybe this gives a more accurate idea of what the ink would look like from a pen? If you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
I’m about to reveal the inks from top to bottom. If you don’t want to know, this is the time to look away.
And the theme? Safe for Work
I like most of these inks – going to have to look at the De Atramentis a bit more, though. What are you thinking? Safe for work?
I’ve been on an orange kick. It all started innocently enough back in May, and then over the last few days, I’ve inked seven pens with seven different orange inks. CrAzY!
I won’t have room to go into great detail on each ink here, but let’s explore a little, shall we?
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| Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-gaki Writing Sample |
Pilot Iroshizuku’s Fuyu-gaki runs a bit toward the red side of orange. It writes wonderfully, doesn’t display much shading, and is an all-around nice ink.
Fun with ink splatters. I did these on Word Cards that I got from Jet Pens. The paper is more like a thin watercolor paper than writing paper.
Moving on . . .
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| Montblanc Gandhi Writing Sample |
Montblanc Gandhi fountain pen ink is no longer available. It can be found on eBay (I’ve been thinking about selling my spare bottle, but I’m not sure I want to let it go, you know?)
The ink is such a pretty pretty orange, lots of good shading, and is definitely one to try if you can find it.
Spatters, anyone?
Diamine Amber is next on our hit list . . .
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| Diamine Amber Writing Sample |
Diamine Amber is just so light and feels a bit dry. This ink is in a Lamy with extra-fine nib and that may be part of the issue, but I’ve had other orange inks in the same pen and they’ve not been this light. I like inks that work in all of my pens (makes life easier, you know?) and with so many orange options available, I’m not so keen on this one. Others seem to like it.
And look at the spatters – good saturation there, friends.
Montblanc Gandhi isn’t the only game in town . . .
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| De Atramentis Gandhi Writing Sample |
This was my first time using this ink and for some strange reason, I didn’t have high expectations. Silly me – it’s a perfectly fine ink. Some shading, writes quite well. No reason to be concerned. It’s really not like Montblanc Gandhi – not that it matters, I think it would be a little silly to compare the two just because they share a name. I like it.
I also think I did a pretty good job on the spatters here . . .
Next up . . .
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| Noodler’s Apache Sunset Writing Sample |
People are generally coco-crazy for Noodler’s Apache Sunset. Even using an extra-fine nib, I can see the potential here. Absolutely insane shading. The color is very orange. People who don’t like this ink seem to say that there is no practical application for it – I’m not sure I understand. Maybe they feel that way about all orange inks?
So . . . check out the spatter. See the streak? Please know that I waited a full 24 hours after creating the spatters before scanning. THE INK WAS STILL WET! Insanity. (Even more insane – you can see this streak on other images, too…arrrgh. I need to figure out how to clean my scanner.)
Anyway . . .
Dude. Check out Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-yake . . .
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| Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-yake Writing Sample |
Shading, saturation, great orange color – maybe a little red in there. Yu-yake is bright and cheerful. Writes like a dream. A new favorite of mine.
I’ve had good experiences with all Pilot Iroshizuku inks. They are a bit more expensive than other brands, but they are incomparable in terms of overall brand quality.
Last, and certainly not least: Noodler’s Habanero.
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| Noodler’s Hanbaero Writing Sample |
It’s been awhile since I’ve had Noodler’s Habanero in a pen. I’m not sure why. I fall in love with it every time. The beautiful shading, the gorgeous orange that reminds me of autumn. Yum.
The only issue is that it seems to stay wet forever. Though, apparently, not as long as Noodler’s Apache Sunset.
That’s it!
Which are your favorites?
xoxo
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The above photo started a discussion about flex pens and that started a discussion about Noodler’s fountain pens and how I don’t have a single Noodler’s fountain pen that works like I’d hoped.
Feeling inspired, I found all of my Noodler’s fountain pens and a container of one of my most reliable inks – Pilot Iroshizuku’s Fuyu-syogun.
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| Noodler’s Konrad Flex Fountain Pen – Clear |
This one accepted the ink easily. I love the blind cap covering the twisty thing for the piston. If you’ve ever accidentally twisted a twisty thing and gotten ink all over the place, you know what I’m talking about here.
How’d it write?
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| Noodler’s Konrad Flex – Writing Sample |
I tried. I did a little scribbling, a little shaking. I gave the piston a little twist. I looked at the alignment of the thing to the other thing. Yeah. No.
Moving right along . . .
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| Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex Fountain Pen – Yellow and Blue |
The Nib Creaper is super-slim and has a great ink window – stylish and functional. I love the way they look.
How do they write?
Yellow first . . .
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| Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex – Writing Sample |
It started out so well, but quickly became inconsistent. In the image above, it’s easy to see that the writing is darker at the top of the page and lighter as I near the end of the top paragraph. There were also some hard starts. The flow just wasn’t right.
You know what makes me crazy? Inconsistent fountain pens. Work or don’t work, darn you!
Let’s look at the blue version . . .
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| Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex – Writing Sample |
OK! Alrighty! The blue Noodler’s Nib Creaper (why is it named that??) is kind of nice! It writes, it’s fairly smooth a bit of happy feedback. It flexes! And it recovers quickly from railroading – very nice!
I’m going to call this one a win. For those keeping score, that is one win out of three pens.
Let’s keep going . . .
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| Noodler’s Konrad Flex Fountain Pen |
A black version of the Konrad Flex. Love that big ink window and, again, a blind cap protecting the piston’s twisty thing.
How’s it write?
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| Noodler’s Konrad Flex – Writing Sample |
Wait. What?
This pen wouldn’t take up the ink. I tried several times, several different ways. I took the thing out of the other thing, adjusted it a bit, and tried again. No go.
I don’t know.
Fail.
What’s next?
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| Noodler’s Ahab Flex Fountain Pen – Clear Demonstrator |
Pretty sure the Ahab is the biggest of the Noodler’s pens. It fills with a plunger mechanism (fancy!) and looks like it could easily be converted to an eyedropper (but don’t quote me on that).
This is a pen I’ve reviewed in the past.
The ink sucked right up into the pen and I was feeling hopeful.
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| Noodler’s Ahab Flex – Writing Sample |
The Ahab wrote decently – until I started flexing the nib.
Does it work as I’d hoped? No.
What’s the score now? Is anyone keeping track?
Argh.
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| Noodler’s Konrad Flex Fountain Pen – Red |
This pen is pretttttty. I really really wanted it to write well.
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| Noodler’s Konrad Flex – Writing Sample |
It wrote fine! Passed all but the hardest of the hard flexes. Seems like it recovered well from the over-flex. I like it! Thank goodness because it really is a looker. In fact, when Mr. Pentulant saw it, he asked, “Are you sure that’s a Noodler’s?” Ha!
I set all of the pens aside overnight and came back to them the next morning. How’d they do?
You’ll notice that the two pens that didn’t write the night before, didn’t write the next morning. No surprise there (especially since one of them didn’t have ink..ha).
To the defense of Noodler’s for a moment . . . These pens are made to be tinkered with. If you’re a fiddler and you want to fiddle, maybe you’ll have more success than I have had.
I watched Brian Goulet’s video. I tried. I freakin’ tried (and then blamed myself? no.). I have come to the conclusion that I’m willing to tinker a little, but I mostly just want my pens to write when I pick them up. You know?
I’ve also concluded that Noodler’s pens are inconsistent as a whole. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I went out to the living room, picked up the blue one, and it didn’t lay down a single line of ink. Likewise, that plunger-fill pen might just work today.
And it’s that inconsistency that I cannot stand. Noodler’s pens are not for me. Noodler’s inks are a different story!
OK, what do you think? Noodler’s pens – love ’em or hate ’em?
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| Noodler’s #41 Brown Ink Review |
Instagram friends may know that I actually have fallen in love with a brown ink. More on that another day. Do you have a favorite brown? Which is it?
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| A handwritten review of Noodler’s Luxury Blue fountain pen ink. |
Noodler’s Luxury Blue is from the line of Noodler’s Eternal Inks. That is, they are meant to be water, light, and (yes, folks) even bleach-proof. These forever inks are sometimes referred to as bulletproof and fraud-resistant.
While I won’t take the time to list them all here, here’s a link to the bulletproof inks that Goulet Pens carries.
Let’s dive in . . .
Some reviewers have published pictures and statements that indicate that the ink is more dusky/chalky than I have shown here. This is a little surprising to me because while the ink is not super-saturated, the color is definitely clear and bright.
Noodler’s Luxury Blue is an expensive ink. As of this writing, it is $13.50 for one ounce at Goulet Pens. Meanwhile, another bulletproof ink (Bad Belted Kingfisher) is $12.50 for three ounces.
Bottom line: I like it, I don’t love it.
Have you tried this ink? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
