Could I add a bit of Noodler's Bulletproof ink to any of my inks and make it a bit more Bulletproof?

Possible, but then again this type of ink precipitates when mixed in water, it could do the same in other brands of ink.

Yes, I've done it successfully. But mix em in something other than pen
first, then if in 2 or 3 days, no sludge, it should be alright.

This has probably been covered elsewhere, but it states in the first text box of http://www.pendemonium.com/ink_noodler.htm:

This has not been my experience (at least with Polar Black): The black component does not lose its waterproof properties, at least, when mixed with Diamine Sepia. It does, however, result in a fine but dense precipitate which is bad for some feeds (e.g. Platinum Riviere).

Does anyone know of an ink which, when mixed with a Noodler's waterproof ink, nullifies the cellulose-binding character of the Noodler's fraction?

[edit: cellulose, not celluloid!]

I know you've had this experience with Polar Black, but I wonder if that's a function of the "anti-freeze" properties of that particular ink. I've never seen a Noodler's ink precipitate, and I've been using many of them -- the bulletproof, near-bulletproof, and regular varieties -- for four years. (I've never tried any of the Polar inks, though.)

I think that its caused by the lack of surfactants in the water,

When I mixed polar black in a cleaning solution with a 1:10 ratio of ammonia to water, the ink never precipitates and stays evenly suspended in the solution for days, where as a drop of polar black in water precipitates in a matter of hours.

Again I'm not a chemist, I've only noticed these things from trial and error, I don't have enough knowledge to explain why its so.

I have mixed in bulletproof inks with others in various combinations and never had a precipitation problem. And the warning about the ink losing its bulletproof properties is, in my opinion, nonsense.

What happens when you add a bulletproof ink to another ink is simple to understand but hard to explain in words for some reason. Let me give an example to see if I can explain it sensibly:

Let's say I add 10 percent bulletproof black to an ink like PR American Blue that is totally washable and disappears completely when rinsed with water. Adding the black in will produce a dark blue ink. When rinsed in water all of the American Blue will wash away and what will remain is a gray color reminiscent of pencil, but that gray is 100 percent bulletproof and will withstand all the abuse you can throw at it without changing or fading.

You will get the exact same result if you make up an ink consisting of 10 percent bulletproof black and 90 percent distilled water. It will write gray, like pencil, and will be 100 percent bulletproof. In other words, if you wash your American Blue / Black mix under running water, the American Blue component might as well have been plain water.

Does that make sense?

And a very nice one, too. One of my favorite blue-blacks, in fact.

I need to see this mix! How does it compare to Manhattan Blue?

They're similar, but I'd say it's closer to PR Midnight Blues. It has less of a green undertone than Manhattan Blue.

Click to view attachment

Here's another scan that maybe captures the color a little better:

Click to view attachment

In any event, it makes a really nice blue-black.

Lovely! Can you wash it down and then post another image of it?

'Fraid not. I had the scans saved on disk, but danged if I know where the paper originals are (they were made almost six months ago). But I recall doing some soak tests at the time. As you'd expect, the AmBlue washes away, but the bulletproof black stays put.

The answer is "probably." I've mixed a lot of inks with various Noodler's bulletproof inks and what happens is what captnemo has described. When you soak it the non-bulletproof ink disappears but the bulletproof ink remains, albeit in a diluted form. Noodler's Black is quite good for mixing with other inks, although I'd try it with new inks in something other than a fountain pen for a few days to see if anything bad happens. So far I haven't had any problems with mixing Noodler's Black.


You must have some really awful water! I've thinned out Noodler's Black in tap water and distilled water and all it does is thin it out. I've mixed various Noodler's waterproof inks with other inks and only once did I have a problem. That was mixing Noodler's Gulf Stream Blue with Waterman's Florida Blue. And that was washable out of the pen with ammonia.

So in terms of Noodler's precipitating on contact with water, that just hasn't been my experience over the past 4 years. And of course the ink is already in water so it's not like something new is getting mixed with it.

This makes perfect sense. Basically, I want to have at least some safeguard just in case Ye Olde Journal gets wet or whatever. At least something would be left behind.