Got my FPN Starry Night Blue today. I carefully opened the bottle because I know that Nathan takes some ( perverse?) pride in jamming every last drop into each and every bottle of Noodlers ink.

Someone should tell him that this is NOT something people want, that it is annoying in the extreme, and that most folks don't WANT to get a bottle filled to the brim. It only makes it difficult to start using the bottle.

I would guess most folks would prefer to get 1/4 inch less ink in the bottle and wouldn't think they were getting ripped off for not getting a "full" bottle for the $.

Just another reason to love/hate Nathan's inks. Lately the HATE is far outweighing the love for me!!!

I love that Noodler's is a 3 oz bottle. You get a ton of ink. Maybe he could make the bottles a little bigger so that the issue you brought up wouldnt be a problem and there would still be the full 3 oz of ink

I like the full bottles. It's a nice change from some much packaging. I guess it wouldn't bother me, though, if there were a little more space under the cap.

I always set the ink bottle in a plastic kitchen container when opening either a new or used bottle.

I like the full bottles. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. It's just taught me to be careful when opening a bottle, is all. Ever since experiencing my first ink bubble and my first big spill - both with my very first bottle of ink, I try to take care in opening and handling all the rest.

The nerve on that Nathan! Feel free to send me any of those hateful bottles.

Another vote for full bottles!

Count me as another one who likes getting what I pay for: ink, not air. As mentioned, it's a very nice, refreshing change from everything else you buy these days that's all packaging and no product.

I received my bottle of NFPNVGSN yesterday and, while very, very full, I was still able to immerse a rather large nib and feed into it and tank up. No problems! If it's too full for you, use a Sheaffer Snorkel for your first fill or an ED or fill up a converter or refill a syringe or just use an eye dropper or syringe and squirt some down the sink.

What would we do if we couldn't find something we didn't like ?

"Please, Sir, I want some less!" (with apologies to Charles Dickens)

Heh, perhaps. I must give framebaer his due, though. There is going to be something out there to provide us all a "pet peeve." I know I have mine. I'm glad we can share our ink likes and peeves here.

Random thoughts...

you people are amazing...

Heaven forbid I don't get every possible last drop of my $12 ink!!

Doubt that "3 full oz." equals filling to the last possible brim (bottle makers are smarter than that.)

Guess i should have known better than to gore the sacred cow that is Noodlers around here.

Thanks to you Kiavonne for your rationality!

Noodler's gets gored fairly often. It behooves those of us on different sides of that issue to be nice to each other because it's hard to find anyone else to talk to about it. I don't understand why more people aren't interested. They are just letting life pass them by.

Another vote for full.

On the record, I am perfectly satisfied with the Noodlers ink line and the proprietor's current commercial philosophy.

(Note, that is not the same as saying every ink works in every pen the way I would like it to work. But, I accept the way the physical world works.)

Wow! After complaining the last 30 years or so about how much air is in the packaging of most every product I buy, it is a real pleasure to get a nice full bottle of ink! Most products use larger packaging than necessary to try and entice you into thinking you are getting more for your money. In todays world of conservation and recycling, it would seem natural for manufacturers to "right size" their packaging so that there wasn't so much waste in that area. As such I applaud Nathan for his full bottles. Besides at the most there will be only one or two ink fills that you have to be extra careful about with the full bottles. I am much happier with a nice full 3 oz. Noodlers bottle for $12 to $18 than the seemingly big Caran d'Ache bottle for $19 and only 1 oz. of ink!

Actually, I think everyone thus far has been rational. You have a right to be annoyed by the bottle being very full. If that's one of your peeves, so be it. By posting you invited others to comment on it and share their opinions which may or may not agree with yours. No one, from what I've read, has put you down for your opinion. Everyone has a right to respectfully agree or disagree.

FWIW, the first time I opened up a bottle of Noodlers I was annoyed at how full it was because, being new to FPs and new to Noodlers, I didn't know to be super careful taking the top off and . . . let's just say I had a bit of cleaning up to do. I now appreciate the extra few fills I get from a bottle of Noodlers because they're so full. Oh, just in case I seem like a complete Noodler's fanatic, Noodlers accounts for less than 1/3 of my inks.

I looove this comment!! So true!

I think this proves Nathan should be on the Board of Directors for Starbucks.
He could tell them that a venti should be 32 oz instead of 20 oz.

YAY Tardiff!

Random thoughts...

you people are amazing...

Heaven forbid I don't get every possible last drop of my $12 ink!!

Doubt that "3 full oz." equals filling to the last possible brim (bottle makers are smarter than that.)

Guess i should have known better than to gore the sacred cow that is Noodlers around here.

===================

Goring is not the point. You assumed that "most people" didn't like or want something, and most people who responded basically said, "That's not the case". Many of us were around before he started his line of inks, and were part of the market research he did. Bottle size was definitely an issue before he went to the drawing board, so to speak.

This is not to say you are not entitled to your opinion. It has nothing to do with sacred cows, but we do know that even God can't please everyone.

Heheh, so true. I'm a Noodler's fan, I admit.

Agreed. If you're tired of ink, you're tired of life. (Apologies to the city of London.)

But when these discussions go off the rails, they do get tiresome. Can we tweak the board so that a red squiggly line appears under religious metaphors (e.g., "sacred cow") and their supposed opposites (e.g., "rational")? Can the software suggest alternate phrasings? Is there such a thing as a rhetoric checker (in both senses of the word "check")?

I've never given much thought to the "too full" question, but now that I do think of it, I am a wee bit disappointed if my new bottle of Noodler's isn't filled to the brim. It's not about the money; I just like that trademark Tardif exuberance. Some might say that the whole Noodler's enterprise is over the top, so why not the ink itself?

Classic, Viseguy!

I like the full bottles, but perhaps two fewer converterfuls in the bottle would help prevent the worry factor about spilling ink all over. You stick that nib in the first time and you panic that you'll slop ink all over the dazzling art work.

How true! Next time you see your ball-point-using neighbor outside, try talking to him about the pros and cons of Noodlers ink and see what happens.

Judybug

I have a number of the 3 ounce bottles and have not had a problem. I know they're going to be full, so I plan ahead and open them carefully the first time.

With that said, my first Noodler's experience was a 4.5 ounce eyedropper bottle of Legal Lapis. It was apparently REALLY full and spilled out over the top and onto the label when I opened it and tried to transfer some of the ink to a smaller container. I was not happy.

I don't know that there is any point to debating this. Nathan has been making ink for a while, and he's going to fill his bottles the way he sees fit. That's fine with me -- I know now to have a paper towel ready and to open the bottles very carefully the first time. I'm a fan of Noodler's overall and will keep buying. If it really bugs you enough to stop buying or a combination of factors has led you to that decision, I'm happy to report you have a whole world of ink out there to explore. It's truly a wonderful time for those of us who love color.

So far, I have only bought the one bottle of Noodler's, Ottoman Azure.
I was pleasantly surprised by how full the bottle was. It reminded me of the time when you could buy a HP product and get more in the box than you expected. Not any more in these days of economic rationalism.
Although the colour wasn't what I was expecting, I do like it, and it is now my most commonly used ink.

If only he would do a replacement for Penman Sapphire...
(Reminder to sacrifice a chicken to the ink gods. Extra reminder to roast chicken afterwards. (Don't want to waste a good sacrifice now, do we?))

I say, "Fill 'er up!" I love the full bottles!

~ Reading Cat

I don't think that's the issue here at all. I love Noodler's, but do not hold back when I feel criticism is due. For instance, because of the staining issues, I will never touch the Baystate line of ink. I do not think it is reasonable to even put such an ink into production without massive warning labels. Nor do I think it is reasonable to produce inks that simply do not flow and clog 80% of the pens they touch (Boston Brahmin Blue, El Lawrence, & Co). I have not been shy in voicing these opinions, and neither have been many others who are generally fans of Noodler's. I have not been censored or stoned so far : )

But when you wrote that lately you're leaning towards "hating" Noodler's, and the bottles being too full is what drove you over the edge... I just couldn't believe at first that you were serious.


QM2

I regularly fill bottles and leave just a few milimeters of space at the top. Doesn't bother me.

Since I can't seem to use a 3 oz. bottle all the way to the last drop without transferring the ink into a smaller bottle, I just start by using an eyedropper to transfer some ink from the over-full bottle to a smaller bottle. I like the way Noodler's fills all the way to the top. It makes me feel "rich" with ink!

Doug

This is so ironic. When Noodler's first hit the market, Nathan came under fire when someone did "exhaustive" research (it exhausted me anyway) and accused Nathan of not providing a full 3 oz. of ink in his 3 oz. bottles. Up to that point, the bottles were filled with a bit of gap at the top - at least the bottles I received were. Now Nathan fills them to the brim, warding off the "he's cheating us crowd", and is criticized for that approach. I think this goes into the "damned if you do and damned if you don't" category.

IMHO we should be thrilled to have someone willing to be so creative with such a variety of colors and types of fp ink. It could be just black and blue.

They are probably very full to meet the labeling/content requirement laws -- those are standard laboratory bottles, bought off the shelf, not custom bottles (they'd cost much more if they were), and since he labels them 3 oz, they MUST contain very close to 3 oz of ink or he's violating Federal content laws (there to keep people from shorting you a mL or so per bottle).

The result is that, since they are NOT precision bottles, some are going to be full right up to the brim. So far I've not gotten one full to overflowing -- probably pure luck.

I'm happy -- I've no interest at all in buying bottles, just the ink inside. Mind you, I really like my old Skrip side well bottles, and use them for modern inks sometimes, but I'd much rather have a plain bottle and more ink!

For the last bit of ink in there, nothing beats a Sheaffer Snorkel -- if you don't have one, it's time to start looking!

Peter