Thank you for the review. I am envious of your artistic talent!

Thanks! Enjoyed your review.

I love the illustrations in your review!

Now - if you were to put a watercolor wash on your pic, what would happen? I've tried to do this with regular Noodler's Bulletproof Black, and it does bleed off a little bit - enough to muddy the color. If HOD stays in place better, then I'd be interested in it.

Is this ink only a limited edition, that will be discontinued?

Thanks! I love to draw and thought it would be fun to do a review this way. I used HP 32lb Premium paper for the review, so if I tried to put a wash on that it would be bad. Usually, when I draw with noodlers, some of the ink comes off with a wash, but it's only because of the absorbancy of the paper. Some of the ink never reaches the paper and that is what comes off.

Next review I'll try some different paper.

I'm not sure if the ink will be discontinued. It just came out, so if you want a bottle I'm sure you can find some now.

Thanks! Very useful. My bottle of this ink just arrived yesterday and I'm eager to use it. I'll compare it to my Pelikan Brilliant Black...

Erick

Thanks for a unique and fun review.

I have been hearing good things about this ink so far, and I will probably have to try a bottle of it. I generally do not use black inks, but this one has me intrigued.

I also like Hewly Packard 32-pound paper. I do not write well on unlined paper, and never have, so I put lines on mine (with the computer). Funny, isn't it? I use my comuter to set up my paper so I can write with a FP. But it is worth it since the paper is very FP friendly.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense - especially in an ink with good flow and a paper with lots of sizing - some of it just won't have chance to bind to the cellulose.
I really like the cross hatching on the ink bottle. And the elephant too.

Excellent review! I love it.

Great Review!

Wow, nice work!

I'd like a very black black. My question would be which is the blacker black.....Old Manhattan or Heart of Darkness?
And...which would flow better?

Impressive artwork and review both.Many thanks!!!

Jim

Others have written here or elsewhere, and I agree, that the OMB is a bit darker.

Quite the creative review, cmenice Thanks, for I have been curious about this ink.

Have you tested the included Platinum Preppy pen, by the way?

I have not tested the preppy pen yet. I'm actually planning on using it as a test subject for a nib regrind.

Can't wait for mine to arrive and now that's just been made WORSE... AUUUGHH!

Where are my goodies!!!

Great drawing and review. I've always had good luck with the regular Bulletproof Black, but mo-darker mo-better! I'll have to try some now. Thanks.

How does the post-dry smearability compare to the regular bulletproof black? My main complaint about the original Noodler's Black is that it smears easily after it has dried. If the Heart of Darkness improves on this, I'm definitely interested.

--Stephen

With a dry finger, barely any smear. With a wet finger, it smears.

There has to be a footnote though. It depends heavily on the paper. The paper I used is HP 32# Premium. It is a very smooth, almost glossy paper. This means that it doesn't soak all the ink the pen puts out. So the chemical bond that makes these Noodler's inks permanent is not present because some of the ink dries on top of the actual paper with no bond. This is the ink that smears. Make sense?

This ink is definitely darker than regular Noodler's black.

Ok, I think this is the coolest ink review I've ever seen! Well done, and thanks for the good and creative work. It almost makes me want to buy a bottle, but I very, very rarely ever use black ink.

That is a very nice review. My thoughts on the ink (and included pen):

1) This is a very smooth-writing ink - lots of lubrication. The Platinum Preppy pens (at least the ones with Legal Lapis and Nikita) have been very dry, scratchy writers. With HoD, the pen I expected to be scratchy writes very smoothly. I loaded a fine-nibbed Sheaffer Imperial (not 'as fine' as the Platinum Preppy) and writing on a Rhodia pad is, as the phrase goes, "smooth as glass".

2) I'm not a black connoisseur, but I wouldn't label HoD as necessarily 'blacker' than Bulletproof Black. HoD does seem to be a duller ink than BB, if that makes sense. (i.e. Bulletproof Black seems 'shinier'.)

3) The Preppy pens are very nice for having the ink on hand without having to worry about letting a 'nice' pen sit unused with it for awhile. I now carry in my bookbag the eyedroppers with HoD, Golden Pig, Legal Lapis and Nikita in them - each of them starts up very nicely. As a general rule, they're very dry somewhat scratchy writers, and put down a very fine line. (I find them to be perfect for annotating in book margins, particularly the eyedropper with Legal Lapis. Legal Lapis does not bleed through newsprint-style paper as easily as HoD appears to.)

Just wanted to join the throng in complimenting your drawing. I'm not sure I could do that well with a pencil, let alone unforgiving indelible ink. Very Nice Job!

Looks like photocopier toner

I bought a bottle. I don't like it as well for drawing (yet) as the original Bullet Proof Black but it is a very smooth silky ink that does seem to make my slightly scratchy XF feel smooth. That same XF is my driest nib (that I still like to use) and the HoD seems to have darkened the line a bit.
Most of my nibs are pretty wet so the old standard Bullet Proof Black is still very dark.

Thumbs up here, and the clear ED pen that came with it is pretty handy. It's now in my traveling art kit.

I hadn't gotten around to trying a watercolor wash over the HoD ink but now I don't have too. I've been using it in my main pen for a couple days now, a very smooth gliding ink. I just went to the grocery store in a light rain and my grocery list ran down the page.

It says eternal on the bottle, maybe that doesn't mean waterproof too? Perhaps I'm just denser than than the ink.

It's a nice black ink but I'll stick to the Bulletproof Black. (I still need to try the Old Manhattan Black.)

I've seen this with many of the Noodler's Eternal inks. The top layer of the paper gets saturated, leaving some ink unbonded with the paper sitting on top. It gets damp and smears, but the underlying mark will never go away.

Seriously. Try writing on a piece of paper with HOD and then boiling it for five minutes. Your writing will still be there clear as day, and the water will be looking a bit gray from the ink that didn't bond.

Fantastic review. The drawing really illustrates strengths & weaknesses of the ink.

I think its kind of cool that the ink comes with an eye dropper pen, what is the size of the nib?

Thanks Splicer, I haven't had time to play with the HoD although I have it in 2 pens right now. When my grocery list ran it still left plenty to read behind on the paper so it's still a good GP black for me. The regular Bulletproof black holds up well to a wash so I guess I gauge everything to that.

The nib is about a fine...

I've kept Noodler's "Heart of Darkness" ink in one of my main pens this week, while I also used about 6 other pens with regular Noodler's Bulletproof Black (my mainstay ink).

I had an issue with a grocery list last week (using HoD ink) that ran when I stepped into a light rain. Well that must have been due to something else like the cheap notebook paper I was scribbling on or who knows what.

The HoD holds up as well to a light wash as the Bulletproof Black. I just tried it and scrubbed lightly with a watercolor brush. Both bled slightly but both did well. My scanner's on the fritz or I'd post it.

Now I'm glad the HoD comes in those big old bottles as I'll be needing more.

Thanks again for the review cmenice!

great work!