Hello,
Fountain pen literature can frighten you into staying with the same brand of ink for the pen. I'd hate to damage my pens but I'd love to experiment with new colours. I've ventured to a scented purple ink, I can't remember the name and it smelt bad anyway, but it was too runny for my pen. This experience has put me off a little. Noodlers ink seems very popular. Will it work well with a Parker Duofold or Waterman Carene?
Thank you,
Badge.

Absolutely. Whether you like it better or not is up to you, but it is safe. In fact, you can use any brand of ink that is intended for fountain pens.

For fountain pen safety:
Never use India ink.
Never use calligraphy ink or art ink or drawing ink.
Don't use ink more than 20 years old unless you know exactly what it is and know what you are doing.

If your pen is in constant use, rinse it out clean after going through several fills of ink, or any time you change ink colours.
If your pen is only used occasionally, rinse it out clean every couple of weeks.

Rinse your pen with plain water (never hot, just room temperature), or in extreme cases (i.e. if it is clogged) add a small amount of household ammonia to the water. If you need to use ammonia, rinse many times afterward with plain water, to get all traces of ammonia out.

I would like to add that some care is needed with violet and purple, colors that tend to stain transparent pens.

Keeping these simple hints in mind, enjoy the colors!

Alejandro

Thanks, now I can shop! I like the PR orange it is such a vibrant colour but I've always been a green girl at heart. So much chioice, so hard to decide.
Love
Badge

Alejandro's point would especially apply to something like PR orange. If any parts of your pens are stain-able (clear windows or translucent plastic barrels, for instance), then you have to decide whether to risk staining. A stained pen will still work perfectly, it just will be permanently stained and hard to sell.

But that all is not the same as saying that any Noodlers ink is the better performing ink in any particular pen. Some pens work better with other inks.

There are other recent threads on this. But Noodlers can cause nib creep, and it may be worse with steel nibs. I had a particular problem using it with my Sheaffer Prelude. In another thread, it was noted that some have trouble with Noodlers Black in the Namiki VP because it slowly accumulated in the trap door area. Just needs more frequent rinsing between fills. I still prefer Noodlers Black as an ink, just need to find the best pens for it---it works great in my Sensa Meridian (despite the steel nib), and does pretty well in my Esterbrooks, and in my Aurora Ipsilon.

John

Hi,

You will not see as much creep in steel nibs that are unplated since they do not have the wetting character of a precious metal.

Normally, I shy away from Noodler's permanent colours because it leaves this film that is not removed when the pen is being cleaned and does not come off in the ultrasound. You need to wipe it off, and you can't get it out of the feed channels.

The standard Noodlers colours can stain a bit.

Be careful with Omas Vision pens. (Not to mention that I have the Omas 600 series pen that has a clear barrel (called the extra by some, but the extra is a faceted pen made long time ago.) and I will get an Omas 360 vision). The Visions can stain easily. I recommend only Pelikan Washable colours and a few Diamine colours for these pens.

Dillon

This is interesting. I hadn't seen it discussed before. How do you know the film is there? Even ammonia or detergent won't remove it? What is the effect of "film" buildup over time in the feed?

John

I'd be interested in how you determined that.

Hi,

When you pull the nib, anything that the ink touched has this film of colour deposited on it. Ultrasound cleaners can't seem to remove this film.

Dillon

Wow! You people are impressive. I'm feeling a bit of a fountain pen virgin! What is nib creep? Sounds bad..... Thanks for all the help.
Love

Badge

Nib creep is when the ink starts to creep around onto the steel or gold nib. It can get excessive forcing you to have to wipe periodically.

John

Ok, I accept that as your observation, but I can not corroborate it. Anybody else?

In your opinion, does this "film" have bad consequences for the fp?

Most of the time, "nib creep" is just a cosmetic issue where the ink forms a light coating on the shiny surface of the nib. When you clean it off, it comes back, because some inks (Noodlers waterproof inks most of all) tend to coat any surface they come in contact with. The ink does not dry or stick - it's just there. When you clean the pen, it's completely gone - but if the same ink is still in the ink chamber, it will coat the nib again.

As I said, on most pens this is a purely cosmetic issue. On a very few pens, a big pool of ink forms on the nib, and threatens to drip, or to mess up the inside of the cap, somebody's clothes, or whatever; and therefore they have to keep cleaning it up. (That would be a rare and strange case of nib creep, and I would suggest there might also be something wrong with that pen.) Of course, if nib creep with a huge pool of ink happens, change inks to find out if another ink prevents the problem.

I have always had nib creep problems with my Namiki Falcons--to an annoying degree with anything very saturated, so that I am always getting smudges of ink on my clothes etc. Apart from those pens, it happens once in awhile but in most cases really no big deal at all. Seems to just happen with certain combinations of pen and ink.

I just tried Legal Lapis for the first time, in one of the Falcons as it happens. Creeporama. Quite interesting.

In my day a 'nib creep' would be given a sharp slap on the wrist and told to mind their manners.

Thanks.

Badge

I use Noodler's Legal Lapis in an Esterbrook desk pen with a steel nib. There is always a light ink film on the top of the nip, but I don't find this to be a problem. It never builds up to the point of making a mess. Once in a while I wipe it off with a paper towel. It wipes off easily and doesn't appear to stain.

Of course, it would be nice if this nib creep wasn't a reality, but I'm not about to give up Legal Lapis. I always use it to address envelopes. I like the waterproof attributes - and I love the color. It's conservative enough to be business-like, but different enough to be ------- well, different.

Judybug

I might add that the nib creep phenomina can be totally without logic. I have two modern Conway Stewart pens, a58 and a Dandy,both with extra fine nibs. Noodler's does not creep at all on the Dandy's nib but I'm always having to wipe the nib on the 58. I'm one of those anal people that like to see a beautiful, clean, nib. Drives me nuts. Why don't I change inks in the pens that creep? you ask... I'm hooked on the Aircorp color and haven't found a similar color yet.

I keep a Pelikan 140 with a nice springy EF nib loaded with Ottoman Azure for making notes in my Moleskine (no bleedthrough, no feathering), and I experience nib-creep like nobody's business. No staining though, and it wipes off easily. Ottoman Azure seems to fit that pen very well indeed, and shows some nice variation in tone for such a fine nib.

It's been alleged that steel nibs tend to be worse with nib creep. The stories I'm reading in this thread seem to dispute that, and suggests that nib creep is idiosyncratic---no prediction which pen will experience it. My Sheaffer Prelude was the worst with Noodlers, while my steel Sensa does fine.

John

To resurrect an old thread, it seems what Dillo was mentioning is true. I happened to take out the nib and the feed from my Dani Takumi and there is the black film beneath the underside of the nib which I wiped off easily with a clean tissue. And after a good wash, the ink flow has dramatically increased. It was the Noodlers regular black. Now I use them extensively in my Pelikans and Bexleys, but they all get a good wash every month or so and I do take out the nib/feed and wash them separately. My older MB 149s also don't like Noodlers, they clog very easily. My observation suggests if you can somehow take out the nib/feed section and wash off the "soot" mechanically Noodlers is fine. The problem starts when you can't remove the nib e.g. Mont Blancs. It may also be Noodlers work trouble-free w/ the modern pens, and w/ older feeds it may create some clogging.
BTW, I don't have a US cleaner, so I don't know the effect of it on the soot.
Other's observations welcome.

When I loaded my Safari with Bank Note green, the film seeped all over the place and DID NOT rinse out

All of my vintage pens, (when the nib is removed with Noodlers black) the result was no "Film" under the feed or any part of the pen. All of Noodlers bullet-proof colors wash away as good as waterman ink.

I tend to change colors with each pen load, so I clean my pens a lot, and I have never run across such a thing. Were the pens washed upon receiving? Could it be some sort of reaction with manufacturing lubricants? I'm just guessing here, but it seems as if other factors are involved and that it's not just the ink itself.

(Note that almost all my pens are modern ones, not vintage, though I do use a Parker "51" that I keep filled with either Noodler's Black or Blue-Black.)

It depends on how often you wash your pens. If you are cleaning them regularly, I guess the sedimentation does not happen. Also with some of the older pens, the design of the feeds may be a part of the problem. And for the record I still use Noodlers but I make sure that they are getting a wash every month as advised by Mr. Binder(he actually says every 3 weeks) and that's the best thing you can do for your pen.