Noodler's (Swishmix) Tahitian Pearl

[rwboyer]

Just received this ink yesterday so I thought I would post a quick review. Excuse the sloppiness I didn't really intend this for publication just a public service announcement for FPN'ers

 

Some observations:

 

- A big mess in broad wet nibs - at least for me.

- I shy away from quick drying inks in general due to their propensity to bleed and feather, this one is amazingly quick drying and seems to be well controlled on relatively decent paper. That being said, I find it unacceptable on most recycled papers, Moleskine, and really cheap inkjet paper.

- Virtually no shading on most normal papers and a tad on Clairefontaine and the like.

- Big surprise, great water resistance and here is the surprise.... the black component is the color that washes out not the blues/greens, so you end up with something that resembles PR Blue Suede after it soaks.

- Even though the flow is very generous it is not the smoothest feeling ink in the world.

- The color name is right on the money if you have ever seen a black pearl from the south pacific. Now if it only had a bit more shading it would probably give you the optical illusion that it was shiny.

 

All in all an ink worth considering if you are into the color.

 

 

Note - some of the roughness that you see in the scan is NOT bad feathering, it is aliasing on my piece of (Potty Mouth) scanner that is magnifying almost invisible imperfections by assigning them a pixel or two.

 

 

http://web.mac.com/rwboyer/scan0006-2.jpg

 

RB

Edited March 5, 2008 by rwboyer

[rwboyer]

just put up a more accurate scan.

 

RB

[southpaw]

Great review of my favorite blue-black! I think you got it pretty well summed up.

[rwboyer]

Great review of my favorite blue-black! I think you got it pretty well summed up.

 

Like I said, I just got it, I think that I am going to like it. I have no idea what possessed me to put it in the Lamy broad, this thing is a mess with inks that have generous flow. I can't wait to see what it looks like in a more "normal" pen.

 

Now that I am looking at the smear test it should have been obvious that the blue/green components are the slow drying (and hence probably the water proof) part.

 

I may screw around with it and see what happens if I add a little polar black

 

 

RB

[prasinos]

I have the Tahitian Pearl, but in my pens it is an muddy green-black (quite ugly). It does not look anything like the the scan here (or the scans in other threads) and it definitely is not a blue-black. I've tried in many different pens (like a Sheaffer Nononsense F, a Lamy Al-star F etc.) and it is ugly in all of them.

 

Is anyone else having this problem?

[QM2]

This is one of my favourite inks, because the color is oh so super-cool (I am fond of stormy oceans).

 

The flow is great, but it does have the worst nib-creep of all of my inks, especially in some pens like Pelikans.

 

I use almost exclusively EF nibs or finer, and the color comes out quite dark in most of them. I use Tahitian Pearl as my 'black', because I cannot stand to use true black.

 

QM2

 

 

[excarnate]

I have the Tahitian Pearl, but in my pens it is an muddy green-black (quite ugly). It does not look anything like the the scan here (or the scans in other threads) and it definitely is not a blue-black. I've tried in many different pens (like a Sheaffer Nononsense F, a Lamy Al-star F etc.) and it is ugly in all of them.

 

Is anyone else having this problem?

I find what you find, but, although as a blue-black it is horrible, it isn't a problem for me. Because as a green ink in my green Hero 329 it is great! The hooded nib hides most of the creep, the part that does peak out matches the green of the pen, and the color is actually pretty decent. Fortunately I ink-swapped so I don't have a huge, mislabled bottle, as no matter if I like it, I'm not really that interested in writing green letters :-) but for notes it works fine.

 

Try getting an old-style Hero 329 in green, you may find that the match works for you! For me it flows and writes wonderfully in this pen and on all the papers I use it with. I like that it is permanent.

 

Of course I'm overall upset at all the blue-blacks that are really green-blacks. Hope you can turn this problem into a solution!

Edited March 11, 2008 by excarnate

[CharlieB]

I had a bottle. The ink is definitely not blue-black, but green-black with a slight touch of blue. I do not like the color. I'm still waiting for the perfect blue-black ink.

[QM2]

Of course I'm overall upset at all the blue-blacks that are really green-blacks. Hope you can turn this problem into a solution!

 

The ink is definitely not blue-black, but green-black with a slight touch of blue. I do not like the color. I'm still waiting for the perfect blue-black ink.

 

No, Tahitian Pearl is definitely not a blue-black, so if you buy it hoping for that, you will be disappointed. But why would anybody expect a color named "Tahitian Pearl" to be a classic blue-black?.. The ink is exactly the color that its name promises.

 

http://www.seawear.com/images/StevenDouglas/octopus-ring~100.jpg

[lefty928]

Thanks for the really wonderful photo of a black pearl, pretty neat! Sadly, with my bottle (and my pens and my eyes), Tahitian Pearl just looks ... black, unless I stick it in the seldom-used broad and dry-writing pens. Black with rather generous nib creep. It does flow very well.

[satrap]

THanks for posting, I like that colour. Will have to get it~!

[excarnate]

Of course I'm overall upset at all the blue-blacks that are really green-blacks. Hope you can turn this problem into a solution!

The ink is definitely not blue-black, but green-black with a slight touch of blue. I do not like the color. I'm still waiting for the perfect blue-black ink.

No, Tahitian Pearl is definitely not a blue-black, so if you buy it hoping for that, you will be disappointed. But why would anybody expect a color named "Tahitian Pearl" to be a classic blue-black?.. The ink is exactly the color that its name promises.

You are implying there is some sort of pearl named Tahitian? That's interesting.

 

I suspect that I, and many others, go by this, from http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFro...&GalleryID=

 

 

Quite a nice blue-black, with hardly a trace of green. What comes out of my pen is much like what is at the top of this topic--green.

Edited March 11, 2008 by excarnate

[Jimmy James]

It may be the pens I have tried my sample in, but I have a tough time seeing the difference between this and Legal Lapis. I hope to do a more accurate test by writing a sample of LL in one of my regular LL pens and then filling that pen with the remaining bit of Tahitian Pearl I have.

[QM2]

No, Tahitian Pearl is definitely not a blue-black, so if you buy it hoping for that, you will be disappointed. But why would anybody expect a color named "Tahitian Pearl" to be a classic blue-black?.. The ink is exactly the color that its name promises.

You are implying there is some sort of pearl named Tahitian? That's interesting.

 

Not sure if you're making fun of me, but assuming you're not:

 

Yes, Tahitian Pearl is a very famous type of pearl. It is a "black pearl", meaning a dark metallic color rather than the classic cream color typically associated with pearls. The best ones are a sort of dark blue-green-gray color, like in the photo I posted above. The Tahitian pearl is my favourite precious jewelry material, so I find this Noodler's ink to be particularly special.

 

As for the scans from Swishers: they may all be skewed in color balance. I have the Seminole Sepia, and it looks a lot more "warm amber" than on the scan; it definitely has more yellow in it in reality. I also have the Burgundy, and it does not look so purple in real life. So it seems to me like all the colors they posted have too much blue and not enough yellow in them.

 

Jimmy James: I have both the Legal Lapis and the Tahitian Pearl. I daresay they are in the exact same color family, but Tahitian Pearl is darker and more somber, whereas Legal Lapis is lighter, brighter and more saturated.

 

QM2

 

[Jimmy James]

Jimmy James: I have both the Legal Lapis and the Tahitian Pearl. I daresay they are in the exact same color family, but Tahitian Pearl is darker and more somber, whereas Legal Lapis is lighter, brighter and more saturated.

 

QM2

 

That's really what I expected, but I'm not seeing it. I'm not sure if it's that my LL pens are putting more ink down and therefore darkening it up or what, but I have to get to the bottom of this. I expected to be able to tell the difference between the two, and I may be able to do it if I compare in the way I talked about. I just need to get one of my LL pens empty so I can swap to TP.

[PAKMAN]

I like the color, it looks a lot like Legal Lapis. My main question would be does it creep like Legal Lapis??

Edited March 12, 2008 by pakmanpony

[Jimmy James]

I like the color, it looks a lot like Legal Lapis. My main question would be does it creep like Legal Lapis??

 

I don't think anything creeps quite like Legal Lapis!

 

If I remember right, the pen I have TP in exhibits about as much creep as I've seen with Bulletproof Black or Heart of Darkness -- there is a bit of bleed right near the slit, but that's all. My Legal Lapis covers the entire nib of my Pelikano. I've learned to accept it as part of the charm of that pen.

[rwboyer]

I like the color, it looks a lot like Legal Lapis. My main question would be does it creep like Legal Lapis??

 

I don't think anything creeps quite like Legal Lapis!

 

If I remember right, the pen I have TP in exhibits about as much creep as I've seen with Bulletproof Black or Heart of Darkness -- there is a bit of bleed right near the slit, but that's all. My Legal Lapis covers the entire nib of my Pelikano. I've learned to accept it as part of the charm of that pen.

 

Tahitian Pearl creeps like crazy in the Lamy Vista Broad that was filled with it for the review, at least as bad as LL in the same pen, maybe worse. Covers the nib, the feed, everything.

 

RB

 

[Deirdre]

Legal Lapis is darker and greener. In the above swabs, Tahitian Pearl is less saturated than either Navy or Squeteague.

 

I haven't tried Tahitian Pearl, but I have the other three.

[excarnate]

I don't think anything creeps quite like Legal Lapis!

 

FPN Galileo Brown. It is very creepy. And it makes a Japanese fine point write like a German fine point. And it clogged up my wife's pen. But it's preeeetty.