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Noodler's Red Black


Titivillus

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Let me preface this review by saying that I purchased this ink expecting something similar to Zhivago = a dark ink that had color highlights.

 

I inked up a Pelikan BB ( for solidarity with SPCBN) and found that I had purchased a burgundy :crybaby: A watery red burgundy that was muddy from the start and did not improve.

 

The ink was a disappointment from the first letter (D) and continued down the page, it looked like someone had taken a black ink and watered it down until the purples and reds appeared then bottled it. A true red black is a misnomer as I searched for any semblence of black in any of my writing and could not find it.

 

Up to this point all of the noodler's inks have at least been pleasant looking.

 

This is something that I feel will go down the drain rather than on the page or at least will be cut with some black to create what the label promised.

 

I would not recommend this ink to even my worst enemy :rolleyes: and I am a little unhappy that I now have an $11 bottle of ink that I don't like.

 

I wish I could have made a more positive review of the ink but what's on the page out of my pen will not allow me to.

 

 

Kurt

 

 

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sorry to hear about your negative experience with the ink.

i havent tried noodler's red-black...so havent seen how it looks.

do you have a writing sample you could post?

 

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Did you shake the bottle adequately first? I have & like this ink quite a bit. In wet writers it is nearly black & in dry writers it is burgundy.

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Oscar Wilde

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Wow... weird. My experience is exactly like Lloyd's - it really is red-black ink like Zhivago is green-black! But you MUST shake... otherwise all the black sits on the bottom...

Laura / Phthalo

Fountain Pens: My Collection

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Hmm,

 

I don't like the you must shake... Wouldn't this impede the flow and potentially block a pen?

 

I am also looking for a nice dark red-black or purple black (Nightshade)

Commit to be fit

ClaudeP.com

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A scan would be helpful, since all the scans on FPN are tiny writing samples. Is it darker than PR Black Cherry?

I'm interested in this ink, but Rolf Thiel is always just out of this ink whenever I ask him. :D

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Kurt,

 

I'm sorry you don't like the Noodler's Red/Black. I like mine well enough. Not as a red/black, for me it is a nice brown.

 

I think this ink has some problems with settling, stability, etc. Stirring the bottle before filling is probably a good idea. I give all my inks a little agitation before I fill a pen. I don't imagine it can be improved with mixing in other colors, either you learn to like it or you don't use it.

 

Good luck,

 

Andy

"Andy Hoffman" Sandy Ego, CA

Torrey View is Andy's BlOG and Facebook me! If you visit my blog, click on the ad. I'll send all proceeds to charity.

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Wow... weird. My experience is exactly like Lloyd's - it really is red-black ink like Zhivago is green-black! But you MUST shake... otherwise all the black sits on the bottom...

 

 

I was using Zhivago as a touchstone and I never have shaken a bottle of it to get the black/green :embarrassed_smile:

 

Needing to shake it concerns me more than the color- exactly what is the black and why is it sitting on the bottom of the bottle :unsure: I find it hard to believe that the dye has that large a density difference. :unsure:

 

It might find its way to the marketplace sooner than later now.

 

 

Kurt

 

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Noodler's regular black does this to me as well. Nathan explained why shaking the bottle was good and necessary in this case, but I forget the reason. Anyway, do try shaking the bottle before you sell.

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I bought some of this recently, and I was thinking how I rather liked it. Now you've made me doubt my own judgement!

 

Actually though, I think it's quite a subtle ink. Personally, I don't see a trace of burgundy in it; neither do I see it as merely brown. To me, its subtlety lies in it somehow managing to appear both red and black at the same time. Sounds implausible I know, but there you are.

Col

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I bought some of this recently, and I was thinking how I rather liked it. Now you've made me doubt my own judgement!

 

Actually though, I think it's quite a subtle ink. Personally, I don't see a trace of burgundy in it; neither do I see it as merely brown. To me, its subtlety lies in it somehow managing to appear both red and black at the same time. Sounds implausible I know, but there you are.

 

 

Unfortunately I didn't purchase it as a subtle ink :roflmho:

 

The scan sort of shows the red brown look to the ink without any hint of black. Still disappointed even after shaking

 

Kurt

Edited by Tytyvyllus
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I don't have this ink, but I've been curious about it. Please do post a scan if you're so inclined -- perhaps "non-shaken" and "shaken" versions, if possible. I'm with you though -- I don't like the idea that I have to shake the bottle to get the desired color. However, I use enough Noodler's that I've gotten into the habit of doing this -- even with non-Noodler's inks. Most of all, I don't like the froth that appears in some of the Noodler's inks once it's shaken.

 

Edited: Oops my post crossed-wires with your post with the scanned image! Thanks! :)

Edited by girlieg33k

Talking about fountain pens is like dancing about architecture.

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Interesting. When I ordered it, I did not know what to expect -- a reddish black? blackish red? dark red? When I used it I discovered that nothing my imagination could have come up with would have been right. I consider it the most unique ink that I have in my collection and I love the stuff.

 

It's almost impossible to describe but to me it looks like a dark black, not quite as dark as Bulletproof Black but definitely black with the faintest hints of red around edges of the ink traces. When I first tried it, my initial reaction was, what the heck, this is just black. But I had to put my high powered glasses on to see the effect.

 

Chromatography shows a pure black component and a small but very red component. I suspect that these two components do not willingly mix to create a new color and on the page you get a microscopic chromatography effect.

 

Anyway, I consider it the "coolest" ink I have because it's so weird!

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I'm with Kurt on this.

 

I bought this ink thinking it was just what I was after and was hugely disappointed with the limp colour that I see on the page. It just does not hit the spot at all. Ditto Zhivago and walnut. In fact I think I will steer away from Noodlers and stick to Private Reserve, which I just love for the amazing colour (despite the terrible smearing issues). My fave green is Sherwood and having picked up a bottle of Chocolate in the WES show I am converted to this too. This Choc just kicks the sand in the face of Noodlers Walnut and red black.

 

I am a bit sorry to say this as Nathan sounds like a nice guy but I think the inks are average colourwise and I suspect that the only Noodlers I would ever buy again would be the black and I would do so solely due to its permanency. Otherwise if I wanted a black it would have to be the Aurora or Penman Ebony, which flow much better and look the part - black, black as it should be.

Edited by mr goldfink
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I...a dark black, not quite as dark as Bulletproof Black but definitely black with the faintest hints of red around edges of the ink traces. ...

 

Hmm, this sounds like the red-black I am looking for - in my imagination! :P

Really. And I found PR Black Cherry to be still not dark enough.

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It's almost impossible to describe but to me it looks like a dark black, not quite as dark as Bulletproof Black but definitely black with the faintest hints of red around edges of the ink traces. When I first tried it, my initial reaction was, what the heck, this is just black.

 

I think there must be some serious lot to lot variation with this ink as you can see from my posted scan above black don't enter into it at all :roflmho:

 

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Hey Kurt, a couple weeks ago I had some inks to trade, and I was looking for Red-Black. I wouldn't mind another bottle as I think the ink looks great. Here's a list of what I have to offer. All of the inks have been purchased within a year and a half and have been kept in a lidded box. PM me if you're interested in doing a swap. Also if you have any Noodler's Purple Martin or Wampum that you're not using, I'd be happy to take it off your hands. I ship Priority :)

 

Inks for Trade:

 

*Noodler’s

 

Green Marine - (near bulletproof – one converter less)

Walnut - (near bulletproof – one converter less)

Tiananmen - (full)

Maroon – SwishMix (full)

Purple – (about a converter shy of the bottle’s shoulder)

Black – (bulletproof – full)

Hunter Green (bulletproof, 1 oz bottle, down to just above the shoulder)

 

*Private Reserve

 

Burgundy Mist - (1.5 converter less)

Plum - ( 2.5 converters less)

 

*J. Herbin

 

Lierre Sauvage - (1.5 converters less)

 

*Diamine

 

Washington DC Supershow Presidential Blue 2004 - (2 converters less)

Imperial Purple (slightly past the bottle thread, maybe 2/3 converters?)

 

*Sailor

 

Gray ( maybe 2 converters less)

 

*De Atramentis

 

Sepiabraun (about 3 converters less)

 

 

A hot wind was blowing around my head, the strands of my hair lifting and swirling in it, like ink spilled in water. ~ Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

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Oops! I see this was already sold on the Marketplace - sorry!

A hot wind was blowing around my head, the strands of my hair lifting and swirling in it, like ink spilled in water. ~ Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

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It's almost impossible to describe but to me it looks like a dark black, not quite as dark as Bulletproof Black but definitely black with the faintest hints of red around edges of the ink traces. When I first tried it, my initial reaction was, what the heck, this is just black.

 

I think there must be some serious lot to lot variation with this ink as you can see from my posted scan above black don't enter into it at all :roflmho:

 

Yeah, was looking at your scan. Have you tried it in a normal nib (fine or medium)? It might be that with a really broad nib you get that pinkish black I see in your scan. The stuff I write, if you glanced at a page of it you'd think it was black but if you look closely with good glasses on (or sharp eyesight) you see that there's something odd about it. It's black with a twist.

 

Hey, in the middle of writing this I decided to do a swab test with a Q-tip. My bottle has been sitting undisturbed for a month or more so I got two tests for the price of one. First I carefully opened the bottle without disturbing it and I took a sample from the very top of the liquid. The swab test produced a lovely ROSE color, quite light. Then I shook it and did it again with another swab and got the color shown in your scan.

 

So, I have ascertained two things beyond any doubt. Shake before using. And a broad swath of it produces the color in your scan, while the thin line from a medium nibbed pen looks more black than anything. How very odd.

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Sorry you don't like this ink color. I have bottle of it, it's what I've got in my Lamy and I rather like its "dried blood" color.

Katherine Keller

Culture Vultures Editrix

Sequential Tart

(A webzine by women who love comics and pop culture.)

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