I have just been in touch with some of my fellows ink geeks on FPN and the Noodler’s debate is quite raw. Despite the left field nature of Noodler’s as a fountain pen ink manufacturer, many of the inks are hit and miss. The drying times are of concern for many of them. Here is a quick study of some trees using Polar Brown. The ink was ‘sticky’ for a couple of days. Not ideal for taking into the ‘field’ – which is a great shame. Also of note is the that some of these inks bleed. It’s a great asset for subject matter like this but just take a look at the zoom in and you’ll see that my monicker is totally blown! Not desperately good for handwriting surely? Admittedly, this was on a watercolour paper but even so? And then there’s the issue of nib clog! Many of these inks are heavy and sludgey. As you can see, great for art but you’ll need to regularly clean any fountain pens as the there is a real issue that the feed and nib could fuse together! That said, my job is to investigate these inks for creative purposes and there’s no denying, these ARE creative!

Here is a link to an article on the Jetpens site that fairly comprehensively describes the many and varied groups of Noodler’s inks and how they are expected to behave: http://www.jetpens.com/blog/noodlers-fountain-pen-inks-a-comprehensive-guide/pt/902

Art test on Bockingford 200lb watercolour paper using a No.6 and a rigger.

Many thanks to Brian and Rachel Goulet for the sample vial: https://www.gouletpens.com

Just for the record – I do this for myself, I receive no remuneration what-so-ever and I tell it exactly how I see it.