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Noddler's 54Th Massachusetts


LostInBrittany

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I'm a huge fan of 54th! I love the label, and it was the first bottle I bought when I got into fountain pens. I find it to be fairly quick drying, even when used in my pens ranging from a 1.5mm italic to a EF. It's color also seems to remain very consistent across pens.

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I just picked up a bottle of this as well and really enjoy it. I normally only use black ink, but when I saw this ink and watched Nathan Tardif's video on it, I just had to have a bottle. I love the color of this ink and have been using it in my Noodler's Ahab and my Pilot Prera as an everyday ink and haven't missed my black ink at all. Also, I enjoyed reading your review. Well done!

 

heymatthew - being someone coming from a "black" background - do you find 54th Mass dark enough to almost become a replacement for black? Or would you still want to keep a black ink around in addition to 54th?

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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...coming from a "black" background - do you find 54th Mass dark enough to almost become a replacement for black? Or would you still want to keep a black ink around in addition to 54th?

 

I really enjoy 54th Mass. ink, almost to the point of forsaking my Noodler's Black. But it's no replacement for black. However, I have mixed this ink with black ink for a nice blue-black combination that is waterproof and dark.

 

I've also made it a lighter blue by mixing it with Pilot Blue or with Noodler's Upper Ganges Blue/

Edited by doggonecarl
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  • 11 months later...

Cross post:

 

I'm losing all patience with Noodlers 54th Mass. It gums up my nibs and feeds. Total killer to clean.

 

Biggest problem is that it is a hard starter, at times it even dries in the feed so quickly that it'll skip during writing a sentence, and you can be assured that it will skip if I pause for even 2 or 3 seconds. Ive even tried a 4:1 (ink:water) dilution as recommend in another thread.

 

Cleaning is one thing but not writing well is a deal breaker.

 

Used the ink in:

Lamy Safari (m, f)

Lamy Studio (m)

TWSBI 540 (broad)

Edison Collier (m)

Edited by jayh
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jayh, yep, mine does all that too up unless diluted but works a treat when it is. Sorry to hear that diluting hasn't helped. :(

 

Such a gorgeous colour.

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I've been finding inconsistency with the 54th Mass. Sometimes it will be a dark blue grey color (if I shake up the bottle) and other times when I DONT shake the bottle, it's a very dark blue. The "eternal" aspect of the ink is the only thing that is making me hold on to it dearly in my vanishing point until I can find another one that's similar to it (I use it for clinical and handwritten notes).

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Oddly, I tried a sample of it last summer, and the teal-ish tone grew on me. So I bought a full bottle, and it's obviously from another batch -- it's a *lot* bluer (more like a darker version of Upper Ganges Blue, which was a bit light and chalky for my taste). So I like the color of the bottled version of 54th MA actually *more* than I did originally for the sample. But the inconsistency between batches is starting to make me nuts. I know that Nathan's kinda a one-man operation, but still....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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You'll find that Upper Ganges Blue to be a very pale blue when dry.

 

The Warden Series inks are all unique in that they will somewhat run with water and then dry in strange looking ways to show that there was an attempt at forgery. Also, Nathan deliberately makes each bottle of certain inks slightly different and keeps documentation of it, in case the police ever need it. Why he feels the need beats me...unless this story is a way to cover his own process variations. :D

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I inked my Lamy Safari extra fine with 54th Massachusetts and had epic ink creep. The creep was so bad that the nib slit crusted over within a day or two. Big, big mess.

-- Ellen

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I just purchased a few samples from Goulet and 54th is in the mix. From some of the posts here I am rethinking trying it in my Lamy 2000. Thoughts??

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I'm also not all that hot about it. The colour is okay (no harm meant) although for me too chalky. But it creeps like crazy (which actually doesn't bother me at all). It's just that it dries out too fast in the pen and ends up being a slow starter. I don't like to dilute inks; I also don't like having to dilute inks.

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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I have been writing almost continuously with 54th Mass since last November.

As for creep, it varies with the pen.

In my Pelikan 800, creeps like crazy.

In my TWSBI Vac 700 no creep whatsover.

Why? Not sure.

Nib metal composition? Nib design?

 

I did a swab test on this ink when I first got it and promptly set it aside as not interesting enough.

One day I filled a pen with it and never looked back.

I am hooked on the waterproof properties.

Also it's fade resistance.
I had an index card in a window facing east for like 2 months and there was no serious fading.

 

I love it.

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  • 4 months later...

Cross post:

 

I'm losing all patience with Noodlers 54th Mass. It gums up my nibs and feeds. Total killer to clean.

 

Biggest problem is that it is a hard starter, at times it even dries in the feed so quickly that it'll skip during writing a sentence, and you can be assured that it will skip if I pause for even 2 or 3 seconds. Ive even tried a 4:1 (ink:water) dilution as recommend in another thread.

 

Cleaning is one thing but not writing well is a deal breaker.

 

Used the ink in:

Lamy Safari (m, f)

Lamy Studio (m)

TWSBI 540 (broad)

Edison Collier (m)

 

Were you able to get it to flow? If so, what does it work best in for you and is a dilution your best way to use it?

 

I first used 54thM in a Lamy Studio and it rarely wrote without lots of pressure. Oddly though, it wrote fine in a Lamy Al-Star and in an Jinhauo X750. I actually sold the ink with a Jinhao pen to a friend and just repurchased it. I'm going to try it in a Pelikan M215 next, if I can manage to stop inking that pen with Visconti Blue.

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I got a bottle of 54th Mass. as a freebie from Goulet pens, and have had one pen or another inked up with it, almost constantly, since then. My experience is very different to some other posters, though: I find it flows really well, almost TOO well in some pens - never dries up in the nib, never a hard start, this is my go-to ink for pens that seem to struggle for consistent flow with other inks...

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I got a bottle of 54th Mass. as a freebie from Goulet pens, and have had one pen or another inked up with it, almost constantly, since then. My experience is very different to some other posters, though: I find it flows really well, almost TOO well in some pens - never dries up in the nib, never a hard start, this is my go-to ink for pens that seem to struggle for consistent flow with other inks...

 

 

I got a bottle of 54th Mass. as a freebie from Goulet pens, and have had one pen or another inked up with it, almost constantly, since then. My experience is very different to some other posters, though: I find it flows really well, almost TOO well in some pens - never dries up in the nib, never a hard start, this is my go-to ink for pens that seem to struggle for consistent flow with other inks...

Sounds like a new version/charge to me...

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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Sounds like a new version/charge to me...

 

I suppose that's possible - was just listening to the latest Q&A Session with Brian Goulet, though (http://www.inknouveau.com/2014/06/goulet-q-episode-35-open-forum.html), and he fielded a couple of questions (#16 and #17) from customers whose experience of 54th Mass. was similar, i.e. a wetter rather than a drier ink. I've never found it to be dry, but had it in a Diplomat pen just recently, and it was definitely too wet for its own good! For mine, best in Fine to Extra-Fine nibs - at least with the ink that came in my bottle. Just sayin...

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hmm1.gif

I was interested in trying this when it first came out, but then a lot of the reviews seemed to show this with a greenish overcast to the color, which isn't what I wanted. But your review seems to show it as more of a straight blue-black. So now it's back on my radar again for the next time I have money to order ink samples....

Anyone know whether better paper would elicit more shading? Or make for slower dry times?

Also: @ jhataway -- could you post scans of your mixing results? Thanks.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Ruth, I had a pen inked with 54th that I took to a pen club meeting a few months ago and had written with it in my Franklin planner. There was someone there who had a Pilot Prera (I think) inked with R&K Verigris. I wrote with her pen right below where I'd written with 54th. The color looked very similar except that I saw more green in Verigris. I don't know if you've used Verdigris before but I thought I'd post this as a bit of a non-pictoral comparison.

 

I know you originally posted your question last year, but I thought I'd post this anyway. Did you ever get a sample? I'd be happy to send you one if you send me an FPN message.

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