Hello,

I wanted to hear about experiences of using Noodler's black on Clairefontaine paper (my main paper).

I am interested to buy it (though expensive in Europe) for lab notes (need for permanency and spill resistence) and to use Stabilo highlighter.

I heard that there were smudge and dry time problems.

Jmm

I tried this combination and found it horrible.
The ink didn't take long to dry, but i was using an XF nib. But the smudging was really bothering me. Liquid highlighters (like stabilos) made the ink smudge, even after hours of drying time. So did dry highlighters. So did no highlighter at all, because when I closed the notebook, the opposite page had tiny dots of ink on it. In all cases I am absolutely sure to have given the ink enought time to dry.
Maybe my bottle of Noodler's was faulty, but I've heard this from other people too (most of them european, interestingly). Noodler's black may be waterproof, but I dont need waterproof smudge.

Btw, I think even a better behaving waterproof ink will still have problems with liquid highlighting pens. Probably depends on how fast you have to take and highlight your notes in lab. Maybe Diamine Registrar's ink or Rohrer+Klingner Iron Gall Inks work at least with dry highlighters?

I happened to have some samples of Noodler Black on Clairefontaine paper. I agree with antigone's comments that it does smudge with a highlighter or a wet finger. It appears that there is a layer of dried ink that has not "attached" itself to the paper that is easily smudged. To me, there seems to be more "loose", smudge-able stuff with Clairefontaine than with other paper.

I have not tried any of Noodlers highlighting inks, but they appear to highlight without smudging based on the samples shown on the Pendemonium website. Maybe you should make an inquiry with them. However, even with those, there may still be a problem on Clairefontaine. Here is a link:
Pendemonium: Noodler firefly ink

Addendum #1: I just did a quick side-by-side using Clairefontaine French-ruled compared to standard office copier paper. Here is a scan. It appears that the smudging is comparable in both. The highlighters were two colors of "Sharpie Accent". The yellow marker actually picks up a lot of the ink on its tip and starts highlighting in a black smudge everywhere. (I also cut and paste in a blow-up of the word "Clairefontaine".) The last line of each sample was smeared by a wet finger.

Addendum #2: PLEASE don't interpret this post to mean that there is any "problem" with using Noodler Black on Clairefontaine. Far from it. I use this combination all the time. To me, there is smudging to some degree with every ink I've ever tried. Now I'm going to have to get some Noodler highlighting ink just to find out how it behaves and if, somehow, it doesn't "smudge" in this situation!

I use Noodler's bulletproof black on my Clairefontaine notebooks, writing with F and XF nibs, and haven't had any problems at all, quite the opposite.

I use Noodler's Old Manhattan Black in my MB fine nib on Clairefontaine paper. It's been very satisfactory.

bt

Well,

Based on the different inputs, I gave it a shot and baught a bottle of Noodler's Black.

I got it from "missing-pen.de" (www.missing-pen.de) in Germany. Very good, friendly and efficient service.

And I am pleased with the ink: it works well on my Clairefontaine notebooks. I use a Pelikan M600 with an XF nib. A nice crisp and dark line. A little thiner then my regular Pelikan 4001 black. So in my opinion it's better, and is going to be my regular black one.
Beeing "bulletproof" is (honestly) a gadget, but a usefull one: I spill things on my papers only two or three times a year . And then it's a mess.

The only drawback is that using Stabilo highlighters does indeed smudge the ink as shown on the pictures. Probably the solvants in the highlighter....
Still looking for a solution. Colour pencils are a possible solution.

Thanks for your opinions that helped make up my mind.

Jmm
Bruxelles
Belgique