Noodler’s - Polar Brown - Ink Review

Hi all and welcome to Duck’s Doodles Inkmasday 21!

Today I pulled out Noodler’s Polar Brown, awfully fitting considering how cold it is here today in the Northeast.

This ink is designed to be cold-proof (hence the Polar moniker), as well as waterproof, bleach proof and ethanol proof.

Writing

I loaded this ink into my Noodler’s Nib Creaper, with a flex nib.

I was fully expecting this to ink to be wet, like most Noodler’s inks, but was actually on the drier side. 

I had no feathering in my Rhodia writing sample, none really in my field notes and some feathering on copy paper

There was some bleed through on my Field Notes, but none on the Rhodia. 

It was a pretty smooth writer, I had a little bit of skipping initially but once it got going it was smooth sailing.

Dry Time

This ink was essentially dry after 5 seconds. I was pretty shocked, since I never know how these nuclear-proof ink formulas will affect things like dry times.

Water Test

This ink has only a little tiny bit of ink come up immediately after writing, and is totally waterproof after 2 minutes of waiting

Color

This ink is a nice, deep chocolate brown.

You don’t get any shading out of it, but since this ink is bulletproof everything is a trade off.

Verdict

I really enjoy this shade of brown. The chocolatey hue looks great, and is a dependable writer.

The idea of an ink I can leave in pens that can be safe if I accidentally leave them in my car is A+ in my book.

Thanks for reading, happy writing and see you tomorrow for day 22 of Inkmas! 

Noodler’s - Fox - Ink Review

Hi all and welcome to Ducks Doodles Inkmas day 18! Today’s goody is Noodler’s Fox red

Let’s take a look-

Writing

This ink, like most Noodler’s ink, goes down wet.

It goes down every wetter than I expected, and honestly it feathered some on my Rhodia paper which was shocking.

It feathered like crazy on both Field Notes and general use copy paper.

There was a little bleeding through in all paper, but barely any on my Rhodia.

Dry time

This ink took a solid 20 seconds to be mostly dry, and was totally dry at 25

Water test

This ink is advertised as water resistant and is absolutely water resistant.

When I test water proof or water resistant inks I’ll always test immediately after writing and wait 2 minutes for it to soak in.

Both tests had about the same amount of ink drawn out of the paper, but the ink largely remained on the paper 

Verdict

I fully appreciate a water resistant red. I really do. This color might be a bit flatter than some other reds on the market but it’s orangey-red hue is a nice color and Noodler’s inks are pretty consistent.

If you like red family inks it’s worth adding to your arsenal

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you for Day 18 of Inkmas! 

Noodler’s - Borealis Black - Ink Review

Day 10 of Inkmas!! Oh my goodness I can’t believe how fast this is going

Out of today’s grab bag I pulled Noodler’s Borealis Black- the first true black ink of the Inkmas calendar

When I was loading my pen up I had some ink on my hands from cleaning out the previous few days pens, and totally thought some blueish purple was from this ink, so when I was writing my writing sample I was confused when I didn’t see any purple, whoops!

Okay, review time!

Noodler’s Borealis Black writing sample

Writing 

This ink, like most Noodler’s inks, goes down firmly on the wet side of the spectrum. The flow on this ink is great.

I’ve said this previously but I’ve only come to expect the best behavior of Noodler’s inks and Borealis Black is no exception; it pretty much stays where you put it. I noticed a tiiiiiny bit of bleeding on my Field Notes, and some feathering on general copy paper, but on my Rhodia I had no troubles at all

Dry Time

Wheew this one takes a while to dry.

On my Rhodia it’s solidly in at the 40 second mark.

Beware, any lefties or folks who were planning to use this for work notes- this one takes it’s sweet time to dry

Water Test

This ink isn’t waterproof, nor is it advertised to be. 

Like most Noodler’s inks it sinks pretty well into the page, so even when water is introduced and the color comes up, some is still retained.

I didn’t notice any shocking results from the water test that would usually prompt me to recommend it to folks using their pen ink for art.

Color

This ink is BLACK! I mean deep, dark, lost in space time black. “In space no one can hear you write” type of black. 

If you’re looking for something on the extreme end of the spectrum, I’ve found your ink.

Verdict

I really dig it! I generally am not a fan of black inks, even in Bic pens I always gravitated towards the blue ones, but this is a *really* nice black ink.

The drying time is a bit on the long side for my meeting-note needs, but I’ll certainly be happy to keep playing around with it.

Okay, thanks for reading! Happy writing and see you tomorrow for Inkmas Day 11!

Noodler’s - Tokyo Gift - Ink Review

Hello and welcome back to Duck’s Doodles DIY Inkmas advent calendar!

Out of the goodie bag I pulled Noodler’s Tokyo Gift! I loaded it up in my Nib Creaper - like yesterday it only felt right to load up my Noodler’s pen with Noodler’s ink

Let’s take a look!

Noodler’s Tokyo Gift writing sample and tests

Writing

This ink went down pretty middle of the road- not too wet and not too dry. I used my Noodler’s Nib Creaper which has a flex nib and I felt the flow was about what I expected. 

There wasn’t any real feathering on my Rhodia paper, but when I wrote on some copy paper it feathered- there wasn’t a ton but it was noticeable 

Dry Time

This ink was mostly dry at 20 seconds, and fully dry at 30. Please note on my dry time test it looks like the 20 seconds isn’t dry, but it’s because a tiny drop of water dripped and ran the ink. I super promise it was mostly dry on my Rhodia notebook at 20 seconds

Water Test

This ink isn’t water proof, nor is it advertised to me.

I actually really like the range of colors you can get from this water test, so if you’re an artist who substitutes in fountain pen inks for things, this seems like a good candidate to play around with for some pink-red shades

Color

Okay, this is supposed to be pink. This just....is not in my opinion. This ink was made specifically to emulate a cherry blossom pink but it feels closer to a cherry red. 

Now, Noodler’s inks are hand crafted so it’s possible that my particular batch just was heavy on the red and other bottles will get a very pink ink. 

Verdict

This ink just doesn’t “wow” me in the same way that other Noodler’s inks do. I love the idea of a cherry blossom ink, but I just don’t think that this is what I was looking for. This feels more like a candy apple red or a cherry red. Still, I can appreciate the versatility this ink can bring to artists.

Thanks for reading day 4 of Inkmas, see you tomorrow for day 5- happy writing! 

Noodler's Dragon's Napalm Ink - Review

Hey everyone and welcome back to Duck’s Doodles!

I took a step back from the blog for a bit; the unfortunate truth of being an adult is that sometimes real life takes priority over the most loved hobbies.

But I’m back, with things a little more in balance in my life. And I figured, what better way to come roaring back than with an ink review for Noodler’s DRAGON’S NAPALM *cue sick metal riff*

Seriously, this is such an intense name for an ink and I absolutely LOVE it. 

Okay without further delay, let’s jump into the review!

Coloring

In every picture I’ve seen of this ink, the swabs all look orangey to me. You always see on ink sites things like “real colors may vary based on monitor settings”. And that’s totally true. So when it looked orangey, I expected a fairly orange ink.

I started to write and, unsurprisingly, it goes down orange. 

But when you let it dry fully, it takes on a very vibrant red hue. It’s even more apparent when you swab it next to the most orange of orange inks, Robert Oster x Pen Addict Fire on Fire (the review of which can be found here).

I swabbed a few other inks I had on hand to help illustrate the real color of the ink, since I think having the others as a visual comparison really helps make the vibrancy pop.

I totally get why the name Dragon’s Napalm is the perfect name now, it’s that bright red is always used in the depiction of a dragon- it’s the reddish orange color of the fireball about to shoot out of a dragon’s throat. 

Feathering

This ink is pretty wet, which usually tends to lead to at least some feathering. But I was pleasantly surprised that this ink stayed put- I noticed no feathering on the Rhodia notebook I was writing in and minimal when writing on non-fountain pen friendly paper (my Field Notes book)

Dry Time 

As mentioned above, the ink goes down pretty wet. When I was writing out the writing test I guessed it would take about 15 to 25 seconds, and it was on the higher side at 25 seconds. 

I wrote in a Rhodia notebook and with a Pilot Metropolitan (Fine nib), so your dry time may vary based on the paper you use and the specific pen.

Shading

Often times with wet inks I’m able to play around with the shading some- it soaks into the paper and allows me to get some lighter or deeper shades based on how much ink I’m throwing on the paper, but I really wasn’t getting any variety from this ink. It stayed the bright reddish-orange the whole time.

Water Test

This ink is not water proof, but it isn’t advertised to be so.

The water test really pulls out the highlighter pinks and deep reds that went into this ink. 

(Water tests are my favorite, you can really deconstruct the inks)

General Writing Experience

The ink goes down wet but not globby, so it creates a smooth glide as you write. It goes down super bright and stays super bright, so I imagine that I’m not going to be using it in my every day office job. But for fun and for my personal projects it’s an enjoyable ink. 

Verdict

I’m going to buy the full size of this ink.

No, seriously. I got this as a sample and I love it. It’s such a fun color, it’s a wet ink that doesn’t take a full minute to dry, and it’s got an AWESOME name. I can see late writing or trudging through meeting notes becoming a more enjoyable experience if this ink was used. I love it, I really do. 

If you want to pick it up, I purchased this sample from Goulet Pens. Here is a link to the sample and here is a link to the full sized.

Thanks for reading and happy writing!

Note- All opinions expressed are my own, and all items mentioned in this post were purchased by me.

Noodler's Apache Sunset - Review

Welcome back to Duck’s Doodles and Happy Fountain Pen Day!

In honor of FPD, I wanted to review one of my favorite inks of all time- Noodler’s Apache Sunset.

Maybe I have some bias because this was one of the first inks I used, but when I first put it on paper it I said “WOW” out loud. This was one of the inks that made me fall deeply in love with this hobby.

So, without further delay, let’s get into the details!

Close up of the color variation from the ink’s writing

Coloring

The most distinctive property of this ink is the coloring. In the bottle, the ink is a deep red. However, when it goes down on paper it ranges from a yellow to a deep orange.

The coloring of this ink is so rich- no matter how thickly or thinly you’re putting down the lines the range comes through.

The thing I love about this ink most is that this color variation happens of it’s own volition; you don’t need to “layer” the ink to get a different color- the ink just seems to settle to the different parts of the letters so naturally.

I have used this ink on several different kinds of paper and I must note, to get the most out of it I would recommend using a fountain pen friendly paper. Copy paper just absorbs it too quickly for the ink to settle and really let the coloring shine through.

A closeup of the ink in the vial

Feathering

I’ve never really had any feathering on this ink- I’ve used it in Field Notes, on regular copy paper and this ink test was done on the Rhodia softcover notebook I’ve discussed in the past.

Dry Time

On this paper I found this ink to have a dry time of about 20 seconds. While writing in my Field Notes books or on copy paper this ink has slightly different dry times (usually closer to 30 or 40 seconds).

Water Resistance

This ink isn’t water resistant, but it’s not advertised as such. Normally I find that the water tests help deconstruct the colors that make up the ink, but this water test didn’t reveal anything earth shattering; the colors follow the deep orange to yellow range that you get while writing.

Writing sample of Noodler’s Apache Sunset

Writing Experience

This ink goes down super smoothly and evenly on paper. It flows a little on the heavier side of medium and I’ve never had any problems with this ink clogging pens. I’ve used it in a Jinhao Shark, a TWSBI Go and a Lamy Safari. The coloring of this ink has attracted some attention while at work, since it’s not the usual black or blue ink you might see in an office.

I haven’t used this ink for anything outside of note taking, but the variety of color and the ease of control might make this a good candidate for folks who use their pens for sketching

Verdict

I love this ink. So much. The coloring is unique; it’s depth makes it a joy to look at, and it goes down so smoothly it’s a joy to use. I have had some difficulties with cleaning up Noodler’s inks in the past, but I have yet to have that with Apache Sunset. It’s not perfect since the dry time is a little longer than I prefer, but it’s not so significant that it’s ever stopped me from using it.

You can pick up a bottle from Goldspot pens, from Goulet pens or from Noodler’s on Amazon for $12.50 for a 3 oz. bottle (note- I’m not affiliated with any of these companies)

Thanks for reading, happy writing and enjoy Fountain Pen Day!

Noodler's Ink- Liberty's Elysium- Review

Welcome back to Duck's Doodles, today the topic of discussion is the Goulet Pens exclusive shade of Noodler's Ink, Liberty's Elysium.

This ink is marketed as "water resistant and semi-bulletproof" ink. (Noodler's defines their bullet proof classification as "Noodler’s Ink that resists all the known tools of a forger, UV light, UV light wands, bleaches, alcohols, solvents, petrochemicals, oven cleaners, carpet cleaners, carpet stain lifters, and of course…they are also waterproof once permitted to dry upon cellulose paper.")

For this ink test, I used the Starbucks' Reserve Field Notes. In addition to this ink test, I wrote with this ink for the day at work in my Three Missions Field Notes notebook and some standard copy paper.

Liberty's Elysium swab test

Coloring

This ink goes down as a gorgeous shade of blue. It's a consistent ink that gives a depth to the vibrant blue color. It looks like a "traditional" fountain pen blue, something you might see used in a TV show with an older setting or in your grandparent's attic. This shade contrasts well on white paper, making it easy to read; something that I consider in all inks I try out.

There is no real sheen to the ink and very little variation as I was writing.

The name of Liberty's Elysium is truly perfect for this shade since it hits right into that sweet spot of blue shades that make me thing of the American Flag. Though this ink could have just as easily been named Goulet's Blue, since it's essentially the exact shade used in all of their branding, I'm glad they chose something with a little more flair.

Writing Experience

The ink itself goes down dry, so dry it deceives you into think it's dry when it's not....speaking from personal note taking experience on this one. Writing shortly after inking it up I found no skipping in the ink and the writing was generally smooth.

When I put this pen down for about an hour between meetings I found that getting it to start up again was a bit of a challenge, having to deal with some skipping before it would flow evenly again. Between this and the experience of loading it, I felt like this ink was a bit thicker and less watery than some of the other inks I've used in the past. Goulet's site does note that all Noodler's inks are handmade and that some some variation is to be expected; I'm hoping that the "thick" feel of this ink is from the particular batch of ink I received and not a property of the ink as a whole.

Feathering

On this test paper, the ink showed no signs of feathering. I also didn't see any signs of feathering on the copy paper I was writing on in the office.

Dry Time

This ink likes to take it's time to dry properly. I'd say on a paper that's made to take fountain pen ink this would take a good 15 seconds of dry time, but on this Field Notes book it took about 30 seconds to be dry.

I will note that when I do my dry time tests I tend to do 2 passes of the pen in a down stroke then up stroke, so there may have been a bit more ink going down on the paper than when you are writing normally, but even with this consideration I felt like a 30 second dry time puts it just to the edge of practical use for my every day writing experience and certainly is a consideration for any lefties out there.

Water Resistance

On this particular paper, this ink doesn't stand a chance of being water resistant. The water test on the right labeled "Smear Test" was allowed to dry for 10 minutes, then had 2 drops of water put on each test pattern, allowed to dry for 15 seconds, and then I ran my finger over it. 

The "Blot Test" on the left had more water dropped on it than the Smear Test, and a picture was taken about one minute after I dripped the water with no further intervention.

Noodler's does note that their ink's water-resistant properties are really tested on dried ink on cellulose paper, so I wouldn't hold this test against them.

Stain Warning

The Noodler's ink clinging to the walls of of my Lamy converter.

Wow does this ink love to stain. It stains everything it touches. Which, considering I brought it to work, was thankfully only my pen and my finger tips. I ordered up the sample size from Goulet on this one, and when I saw how much it loved to cling to the side of the vial it came in I knew I was in for one stain-tastic ink. At first I was thinking that it was just the aforementioned "thickness" of this batch, and then I found out about Noodler's Infamous Bay State Blue. For those unacquainted with this ink, Bay State Blue's most famous quality is staining everything you love. From some research I've done online the Liberty's Elysium ink isn't as bad as Bay State Blue, but it still has a penchant for making the whole world blue.  

Verdict

This ink is an ink that stays where it goes down; the limited feathering is definitely a point of appeal, but the longer dry time may make it impracticable for left handed daily use, or for someone like me who writes a lot and then tends to squeeze additional comments into notes I've just written.  I'm willing to chalk the thickness and skipping of this ink as something due to the batch of ink I purchased, but the potential mild inconsistencies between batches is a consideration for anyone interested in buying it.

This ink is such a great writer and a the color is amazing, but I'm not sure that I want every pen I own coated in it. As my fountain pen collection grows, I'll likely dedicate one pen just to this ink, since I enjoy it enough to make purchasing a whole bottle worthwhile.

Liberty's Elysium is available in a 3 oz bottle (with some pretty cool labeling) exclusively from Goulet, which at the time of writing this is available for $12.50.

Noodler’s - Fox Red - Ink Review

Note- this item didn’t post yesterday because I scheduled it wrong, sorry for those folks who have been following the Inkmas saga!

Hi all and welcome to ducks doodles Inkmas day 18!

Today’s goody is Noodler’s Fox red!

Let’s take a look-

Writing

This ink, like most Noodler’s ink, goes down wet.

It goes down every wetter than I expected, and honestly it feathered some on my Rhodia paper which was shocking.

It feathered like crazy on both Field Notes and general use copy paper.

There was a little bleeding through in all paper, but barely any on my Rhodia

Dry time

This ink took a solid 20 seconds to be mostly dry, and was totally dry at 25

Water test

This ink is advertised as water resistant and is absolutely water resistant.

When I test water proof or water resistant inks I’ll always test immediately after writing and wait 2 minutes for it to soak in.

Both tests had about the same amount of ink drawn out of the paper, but the ink largely remained on the paper 

Verdict

I fully appreciate a water resistant red. I really do. This color might be a bit flatter than some other reds on the market but it’s orangey-red hue is a nice color and Noodler’s inks are pretty consistent.

If you like red family inks it’s worth adding to your arsenal

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you for Day 19 of Inkmas! 

Noodler’s - Blue Eel - Ink Review

Hi all and welcome to day 19 of Duck’s Doodles!

I’ve been traveling all of December and today was no exception- but I’m on an extra time crunch today because I’m also going to see THE RISE OF SKYWALKER!!!

Okay let’s get this review going-

Writing

Woahhhhhh this ink is a smooth writer. 100% goes down on the wet side. I wrote with it in my Noodler’s Nib Creaper (flex nib) and totally assumed it was just the flex nib and wet ink combo

But I loaded this up in my Pilot Prera (fine nib) and boy did this sucker glide across the page.

I did some quick research and that’s actually the design of the eel ink line- to be lubricating 

Dry Time

Every feature comes with a trade off, and the smoothness of this ink has it’s trade off in dry time

On my Rhodia it took a solid minute to dry

Water Test

This ink is definitely not water proof or water resistant, but it’s not advertised to be

Color

My brain just wants to call this ink “Electric Eel” because this is 100% an electric blue color.

This color looks like Blue Raspberry flavored candy.

And it’s AWESOME. 

I really dig the shade. It’s a bit of a one trick pony because it’s only this electric blue, but it’s awesome

Verdict 

This ink is not practical for me, since I need quick drying inks for meetings, but gosh do I LOVE this color. Noodler’s totally nailed this shade.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow for Day 20!!