I’ve finally started the next batch of ink reviews and, spoiler alert, these are for three of my favourite inks. The first is for Noodler’s Heart of Darkness.

The ink gets its name from the novella by Joseph Conrad, which he based on his experiences of the Congo in Africa. The story in turn was adapted as the movie “Apocalypse Now”. I haven’t read the book, or watched the movie apart from a few clips on TV, I realise that the latter is such a major omission in my movie-watching CV that I’ve just ordered it from Amazon. What’s this got to do with ink? Probably nothing, but it’s a cool and approriate name.

The label shows a jungle scene, with an elephant (the ears look authentically African) and what I assume to be the lord of the demon catfishes. As I doubt that the latter has ever been caught on film instead we are treated to a lifelike drawing. The text on the label is limited to “Heart of Darkness” in English and French, “Eternal” and “4.5oz”. The latter is probably with most significant with regard to this review, as it gives me my first opportunity to review the Noodler’s 4.5oz, after having floundered when trying to say something new about the 3oz bottles in recent reviews.

Let’s get the fact that he box is a typical Noodler’s white box with black line-art, upsized for a 4.5oz bottle, out of the way quickly. So what about the bottle? It’s purely functional, which I approve of – no surprise there, but it’s a different functionality to the 3oz bottle. The 3oz bottle is fine for filling conventional fountain pens, whereas the 4.5oz bottle is pretty awful for this. The neck is narrow and the bottle is deep, not a good combination for a cartridge converter or piston filler, for example, but necessary for the eyedropper in the cap of the 4.5oz bottle. That’s where this comes into it’s own – for filling eyedropper pens. In fact, when I bought my first bottle I decanted some into an empty Diamine bottle, just to make it easier to fill more conventional pens.

I’ve bought two 4.5 oz bottles so far. The first came with an unbranded Platinum Preppy (the bottom one of the pens in the photo able) intended to be used as an eyedropper pen. The o-ring was broken, so I needed to replace it with one I had to hand, which was a more chunky one. The plastic on these pens is very brittle so the cap quickly cracked, hence the classy piece of sticky tape wrapped around it in the photo. Despite it’s limitations I really like this pen and have used it to label almost every one of the Word Cards on this site. The second bottle came with two free pens, one a free flex pen of the type which seems to have replaced the Preppy (the top one in the photo), the other a “Charlie” pen, which I will leave to Mr Tardiff to describe.

I’m not a great fan of the newer flex pens. I can’t get on with the nibs and find the sickly smell of the plastic offputting. Although the Charlie pen uses the same plastic it has a different nib and I look forward to trying it with Baystate Blue. I’ll report the results another time.

The first bottle was from my usual US Ebay supplier, the second was from Niche Pens in the UK. As Noodler’s inks are difficult to get in the UK, I took the chance when I had it to get another bottle, even though it will be along time before I need it. There’s no discount that I can see for buying a larger bottle, but the free pens make up for that. Ingnoring shipping I would consider the ink to be reasonably priced.

The test pen on this occasion was a Pilot Metropolitan Violet Leopard with a medium nib. Usually I would use the Pilot MR Black, and I did try using this pen initially for the review, but the flow was so heavy that it looked like I was using a broad nib. I can only assume that as this pen has received so much use that the tines have spread or become more flexible, whereas the Violet Leopard (being newer) seems to be more of nail-like and gave what I felt to be more representative results. It is true that this is a very free flowing ink.

Water resistance was almost total – running water made no visible difference, I assume because any ink that did move was washed away. The droplet test moved some of the ink, just giving a faint grey overlay where some of the ink moved. I hadn’t left the ink to dry very long either before running the test.

Cleaning was surprisingly easy. Drying time was fairly quick at 25 seconds.

Rhodia Dot Pad No 16

The writing experience was great on this paper, I was however really surprised to see some feathering. I even tried a few writing samples on other sheets of Rhodia Dot Pad paper with the same results, although on Rhodia lined paper no feathering was apparent. I didn’t find it pronounced and maybe wouldn’t have noticed it if I wan’t looking for it. Maybe I’m just making excuses for an ink I already like. I usually use this pen with a Kaweco Dia 2 with a fine nib, which isn’t the most free-flowing pen, so I gave this a try too – some feathering was still visible. There can be no arguing with it being black though, with the minimum of shading.

Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm

Some spread here, and still some feathering but it looks even blacker than on Rhodia, if that is possible.

Yellow Post-It

A little feathering again but the ink performed well on this paper. The black holds up too, not truning to grey.

Field Notes – Pitch Black

Considering the feathering on better paper, I was expecting bad results, but although there was still some feathering it was acceptable. The blackness is diluted to dark grey, not a great surprise and still just acceptable.

Mnemosyne Word Card

Only on the fringes of the swab is any real variation visible – on the rest of the sample it’s more the texture of the paper under the lights.

Conclusion

It’s always interesting to use an ink that I already liked under more rigorous conditions and to find a flaw. The feathering really was a surprise, but not one that’s going to stop me using the ink any time soon, mainly due to its other qualities. It’s still fairly quick drying and as water resitant as any other ink I’ve used so far, and above all it’s truly black with the minimum of shading – just what I want.

I’ve heard the phrase “as black as the inside of a coffin on a moonless night” used quite often, and it sums up this ink perfectly, so I tried Googling to find the origin, and got as far as the movie Beverley Hills Ninja (1997). I want this to be wrong – if anyone knows of an earlier source, please post it in the comments.

Noodler's Heart of Darkness - Close Up

Noodler's Heart of Darkness

Noodler's Heart of Darkness - Word Card

The post Noodler’s Heart of Darkness Ink Review appeared first on Stationary Journey.

The latest batch of ink reviews will cover all the currently available Kaweco Fountain Pen Inks, and the first in this batch is for Kaweco Pearl Black.

These reviews also mark my first serious attempt at using lighting cube I received at Christmas. I need to play around with the setup a bit more – the exposure isn’t quite how I want it yet, there’s a curious colour cast coming from the right in some of the photos and the arrangement could be better.

This ink was supplied free of charge by Kaweco. I was not paid to write the review, which is my honest assessment of the ink, and is not influenced by the fact it was supplied free of charge.

The ink is supplied in a 30ml glass bottle, which is a model of simplicity, and in my view all the more elegant for it. It is almost identical to the bottles used by Pelikan for their 4001 and highlighter inks. The sloping sides allow the bottle to be rested at an angle, which should make it easier to get the last of the ink out when necessary, although the bottle is too full at the moment to try that out.

The bottle arrived in a clear plastic box, which almost looks like an afterthought in the design process and I can’t imagine offers much protection, other than to stop the two strips of paper which act as a seal breaking in transit. I haven’t come across a seal like this in other ink brands and it really contributes to the retro styling, but it does feel like a shame when the time comes to break it.

The retro styling carries through to the front label, which looks like it could almost date back to the founding of the company in 1883 (or at least to the early 1900s). The text is white on black, in fact with all the Kaweco inks the front and top label/sealing strips use white text on a background to match the colour of the ink, which is just as well as the label doesn’t actually stated what colour of the ink is (only two of the blue Kaweco inks state the colour on their labels).

The bottle cap is plastic and smooth but not too glossy so almost looks like bakelite. Despite the small size of the bottle, the neck is wide enough to allow easy access.

As stated above, this ink was supplied free of charge by Kaweco, and I’ve only found one supplier in the UK of the bottled ink, where it retails at £12.50 for 30ml. I would therefore consider this to be an expensive ink. Cartridges are more widely available.

The test pen for this review was a Pilot MR with a medium nib.

The ink showed very little water resistance, although lines were still present after holding a writing sample under running water. Water drops obliterated any text. The pen was easy to clean after use, apart from a few sooty deposits. Drying time was around 45 seconds, which is not too slow considering some of the results I’ve been getting in other tests.

Rhodia Dot Pad No 16

I found this to be a really smooth writing experience, pleasant and with exactly the kind of end result I want from a black ink – deep and saturated with the minimum of shading.

Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm

Another good result.

Yellow Post-It

Good performance on this challenging paper too.

Field Notes – Pitch Black

Not as good as on the other papers, but better than a lot of other inks.

Mnemosyne Word Card

The swab shows a small amount of sheen (not visible in the photo) and a hint of brown (visible in the photo) which do not show in any of the writing samples.

An updated image of the Word Card is here:

Conclusion

The name of this ink is quite descriptive – there is some gloss to it without it being a piano black. I like the colour and the way the ink behaves, although it would be nice if there was more water resistance. The only thing that would stop me replacing this ink when I have used it up would be the price – there are many inks that perform just as well at a much lower cost. However, if you want the reassurance that comes from buying an ink from a respected pen manufacturer, and are willing to pay a premium for it, then the performance of this ink should not disappoint.

Kaweco Pearl Black - Word Card

Kaweco Pearl Black - Close Up

Kaweco Pearl Black

Kaweco Pearl Black - Word Card

The post Kaweco Pearl Black Ink Review appeared first on Stationary Journey.

The next in this batch of ink reviews, and the first in a trio of fast-drying Noodler’s inks, is for Bernanke Black.

Both the name and the label are a critique of US financial policy and the Chairman of of US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke. The thrust is that if you need to print lots of money fast (whether that’s a good or bad thing I’ll leave to others better qualified than me) then you need a fast drying ink.

Those fast drying properties are demonstrated more fully in the following YouTube video, along with more comments on financial policy:

This ink came from a UK supplier and cost £10.00 for the usual 3oz bottle – this puts in in the “low cost” category for me. The label carries on the financial critique, showing Ben Bernanke, the seal of the Federal Reserve and money being helicoptered in.

The test pen on this occasion was a Pilot Metropolitan Violet Leopard with a medium nib.

The ink showed some water resistance (black lines were still present after running a sample under water) but water drops obliterated any text. Cleaning was easy.

This ink is intended as a fast drying ink – so how fast did it dry? I wasn’t able to repeat the near-instantaneous drying on high quality paper shown in the video. In practice I found the ink to be touch dry after about 30 seconds on Rhodia. I ran this test several times. The more of these reviews I do the more I’m becoming conscious of the fact that my drying times seem to be a lot longer than many other reviews but I can only recount my experiences. I would still class 30 seconds as fairly fast, certainly compared to many other inks I have reviewed.

Rhodia Dot Pad No 16

The ink to be a good performer on Rhodia Paper, drying to a deep black i.e. the kind I like.

Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm

The results are very close to Rhodia, although I note that the black is slightly lighter – still fine though.

Yellow Post-It

The experience was good overall but looking again at the writing sample I do note some feathering.

Field Notes – Pitch Black

Feathering and bleed are the problems here, and they are significant.

Mnemosyne Word Card

There is a hint of shading here which didn’t really come out in the writing samples.

An updated image of the Word Card is here:

Conclusion

Better water resistance would have been useful, and I didn’t find the quick drying properties overwhelming, but overall I would consider this to be another good performing black ink from Noodler’s. I will be trying it again and it will be interesting to see how it performs on a range of papers with different pens.

Noodler's Bernanke Black

Noodler's Bernanke Black

Noodler's Bernanke Black - Word Card

Noodler's Bernanke Black - Close Up

The post Noodler’s Bernanke Black Ink Review appeared first on Stationary Journey.

After what seems like an eternity, here is the first in the latest batch of ink reviews, which in this case is for Noodler’s Black.

This is a no-nonsense ink – no backstory, no elaborate label – it’s a black ink, plain and simple. The label does state that it is “The only eternal black ink. Bulletproof on cellulose paper, yet washes off plastic with water”. This being the case, should it come as any great surprise that the strength of this ink is ink its functionality rather than its appearance?

Following this simple theme, the only decoration on the label is the catfish, representing the Noodler’s brand. The ink comes in the standard 3oz bottle, and was purchased from my usual Ebay supplier, so fell into the category of moderately priced.

The test pen was a Pilot MR with a medium nib.

The pen was originally filled before the Kaweco pen reviews were carried out, and the pen was writing very dry when I came to carry out the review, so I refilled the pen with ink again. Flow was okay after that, but I did note that the ink had started to feel on the dry side after a few days following the original fill.

Water resistance was excellent – possibly the best of any ink I have tried so far. Under running water there was no obvious change in the lines. Water drops caused only a small amount of smudging. Cleaning was more difficult than usual, with some heavy sooty deposits, but the pen has been inked up for several weeks. The ink was almost completely dry after 2 minutes, but could have done with longer.

Rhodia Dot Pad No 16

The ink laid down a decent, uniform line and flow was okay, but I like my blank inks much more deep than this. Overall the ink looks to me more like different shades of dark grey, not black.

Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm

Overall okay – not much more to be said – the line is still too weak for my taste.

Yellow Post-It

Still okay, but the line is still weak.

Field Notes – Pitch Black

This is where the surprise came – minimal feathering and bleed through on this very challenging paper. If only the line was a deeper black.

Mnemosyne Word Card

This really shows the amount grey shading, which is not really what I want from a black ink.

An updated image of the Word Card is here:

Conclusion

I was dreading writing this review, because when I first received this bottle of ink I was disappointed. I had heard great things about Noodler’s Black, which appeared to be the “go to” black ink for so many people. I had already tried a few Noodler’s black inks, and had been pleased with the results. This one would be different. I inked up a Pilot MR and tried trusty cotton bud on a Word Card. I found the results insipid, and after a few days in the pen I found the ink on the dry side too.

Then I tried it in my Pilot Capless Matte Black Pen, which puts down a lot more ink and should have given a darker line. Yes, the flow was better, and stayed so after a few days, but the line was not appreciably darker – it was still too grey for me. When I decided to base this batch of ink reviews around what could be considered the “staple” inks, i.e. black, blue and blue-black, I knew I would have to reassess and try to be objective about an ink that I disliked when I used it first time around.

So here I go. Taking a balanced view this ink is probably as waterproof as you are going to get and is one of the best performers I have seen on Field Notes Paper, which is no mean feat. The dry time isn’t great, although many of my favourite inks have very poor drying times. Cleaning was a bit more tricky than usual, but the pen had been inked a long time and I didn’t need to use anything other than water (and patience). After a few days the ink did start to feel a bit dry, but I didn’t experience hard starts until the pen had been left for a while unused. So for me it really all boils down to lack of depth of the black, which means I won’t be using this ink on a regular basis. This is purely a matter of taste, and others may find it the perfect ink for them.

Noodler's Black - Word Card

Noodler's Black - Close Up

Noodler's Black

Noodler's Black - Word Card

The post Noodler’s Black Ink Review appeared first on Stationary Journey.

The last in this batch of ink reviews is for Noodler’s Zhivago. This is another “Speciality Issue” ink, which I have had a tendency to like so far.

The name of this ink harks back to the novel “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak, set during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. The label shows numerous Russian emblems – too many to try to identify, even if I could.

The standard 3oz bottle leaked a little in transit. The box suffered the most, so I didn’t include it in the usual group photo and the label was partially disfigured. The bottle came from my preferred Ebay supplier and so I would consider the ink moderately priced.

The test pen in this case was a Pilot MR with a medium nib.

Water resistance was moderate to good. Cleaning was okay, but with some sooty deposits which took a little longer than normal to remove. The drying time was around 30 seconds.

Many reviews of this ink describe it as a very dark green or green/black, and the green accents on the label echo this. However, I could see only the merest hint of green in this particular bottle of ink, and probably could only see it because I was trying very hard to. The Noodler’s website refers to this ink being of “variable combination” on a per bottle basis, which is intended as a security feature. This may explain the lack of green in this particular bottle.

Rhodia Dot Pad No 16

A nice regular line with minimal shading. As good as it gets for a black ink as far as I am concerned. The only drawback is that even once fully dry it was possible to smudge the ink by rubbing hard.

Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm

A little feathering, but still satisfactory. It was still possible to smudge the ink by rubbing hard.

Yellow Post-It

Still a little feathering but the coverage is okay. Satisfactory overall, and I couldn’t see only smudging on rubbing.

Field Notes – Pitch Black

Not great, but compared to some other inks this isn’t too bad. No smudging was noted on rubbing hard.

Mnemosyne Word Card

The texture of the card shows exposes a little more shading than is typical on a smooth surface. I really want a black ink that looks like staring into an abyss, and this may be as close as I am going to get on a Word Card.

Conclusion

It’s good to finish this batch of reviews on a high note. This ink will definitely feature in my rotation in the future. There’s only one other black ink that comes as close to my ideal black ink as this one, and as I haven’t reviewed that ink yet, that will remain a mystery for the time being. While Zhivago smudges a little on smooth paper when rubbed hard, I’ve not been testing for that with other inks so I won’t worry too much about that. I also have a slight reservation that if I buy another bottle of this in the future the “variable combination” may mean the ink performs differently, but only time will tell on that.

The post Noodler’s Zhivago – Ink Review appeared first on Stationary Journey.

A second ink review – and another Noodler’s ink – this time it’s Dark Matter. This ink has a story behind it, which is described on the Noodler’s website and on a small leaflet included with the bottle.

I could not find a supplier in the UK so this was another Ebay Purchase. It came in the standard Noodler’s box, in a 3oz bottle, full to the brim. The label gives more than a hint at the contents. The smell is more subdued (and conventional) than many other Noodler’s inks and I could only pick it up from the bottle (not the inked pen or fresh writing).

Rhodia Dot Pad No 16

Flow was generally good with some hard start, although I’m starting to think this is going to continue to be an issue with the Rhodia paper. No feathering or bleed through to speak of. The shading is most pronounced when the flow was worst. Overall though the experience was satisfactory.

Ryman Memo Block 9cm x 9cm

Flow was good with one slightly hard start. Feathering and bleed through were acceptable. Overall a good experience.

Yellow Post-it

A tiny amount of feathering, writes okay over the adhesive. I would rate this as good.

Field Notes – Pitch Black

No surprises here. I wouldn’t use this ink with Field Notes out of choice.

Mnemosyne Word Card

This came out darker than many samples I have tried on Word Cards, but I did try to get more ink on this time. The shading is less pronounced when compared to the writing samples (especially on Rhodia), and there does appear to be a faint greenish sheen. The bluish colouring also seems to tend towards the green on this paper.

An updated image of the Word Card is here:

Conclusion

I should say that this ink is outside my normal preference. I usually like pitch black inks without any shading or colouring (although I do like some “Deep Dark” colours, but those are to be reviewed another time). Despite that, ever since receiving the ink it has stayed in my “tester” pen (crowding out pens inks that I have received since), until it could be promoted to the black pen I use at work at the moment. It’s a testament to how this ink just works for me, and I am likely to keep it in regular use.

Noodler's Dark Matter - Word Card

Noodler's Dark Matter - Word Card

Noodler's Dark Matter

Noodler's Dark Matter - Close Up

The post Noodler’s Dark Matter Ink Review appeared first on Stationary Journey.