REVIEW: NOODLER’S GOLDEN BROWN (Near bulletproof)

The photographs are of a sample written with a Waterman Hemisphere (fine nib) on 80gsm recycled paper. I cap my pens when not writing so cannot comment on how the ink starts up after a leaving the pen uncapped for a few minutes. The review includes a nib creep rating. I am not worried about nib creep unless the ink creeps onto the section or leaks into the cap and I’ve not had this problem with any of the Noodler’s inks I’ve tried. The reason for including this rating is to inform those of you with differing views on nib creep.

General comments:
My favourite ink. It pops off the page and behaves amazingly well. What a colour – especially the different shades depending on how much ink is laid down. This ink, like the Bulletproof Black, really makes the nib skate across the paper almost without any friction at all. I have used this ink in my WM Carene and Hemisphere.

Colour:
High saturation, really pops off the page. The ink creates an interesting colour variation: caramel where the line was laid down fast and chocolate where the line is a bit heavier. A broader nib would really show this off. When blotting up excess ink onto tissue paper after a refill I noticed an interesting colour migration that looks just like a Jaffa chocolate (see photo below). One of these days I’ll have to taste test this ink.

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Ink flow:
Very reliable. It lays down a tight line and lubricates the nib very nicely.

Dry time:
Not the fastest drying ink, full stops and other punctuation marks may take half a minute or so to dry.

Nib creep:
Negligible.

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Start up:
Excellent. It starts up easily even after the pen has not been used for several days and lays down a solid line immediately.

Bleedthrough:
No bleedthrough with this ink.

I was just about to post a review of this ink -- but you saved me the effort!
The great color and shading of this ink make it my current favorite. For those who are concerned about the waterproof qualities of the ink -- a brief water soak will cause the brown color to wash away leaving a permanent grayish color on the paper. Pretty much what one would expect given that it is listed as "Near Bulletproof". I love the color. I just wish it could take a drop of water...

Nice review, I have been interested in this ink for a while, although I haven't managed to find anywhere in the UK that stocks it

I have Swisher's (Noodlers) Grizzly and they look similar. Keep hoping someone has both and could compare. I like Grizzly.

Thanks for your review.

Wow, very nice ink! Thank you for the review.

I was seriously interested by this ink, was just wary of its lubricating quality but now that you commented positively on them it is at the top of my wanted list!

Scan it looks like a "yellower" version of Lie de Thé (which is has a light green tint sometimes). Lie de Thé worst aspect is poor lubrication knowing that Golden Brown has that part good and that it looks as nice as Lie de Thé I guess it will become my favorite ink to when I lay my hands on a bottle!

Good review, HarryR! Golden Brown is one of the richest browns I've tried as long as the bottle is shaken. Otherwise the color will show a bit too much yellow and lack the full brown tones. Drying time in my fine Asian pens is a bit slow on some paper though acceptable on others and not dramatic enough to be a deterrent for daily use.

Hi Harry,

Very nice review. Thank yo.

I have Noodler Summer Tanager, and it looks similar to this scan. Can anyone compare the two and let me know if I am seeing ink things?


Thanks!

satrap
got milk? add espresso!

Thanks for the review and scans, Harry.

Neil

I have both. Grizzly doesn't have that two-inks-in-one effect that golden brown does.

Stephen

Great ink going to get this one next!

Here are the results of the water- and alcohol resistance testing of this ink:

Water test: 30 seconds under running water followed by 30 minute soak.

Alcohol test: conducted after water test by wiping wet page with alcohol soaked swab.

Result: This ink is marketed as a ‘near-bulletproof’ ink. The caramel-coloured part of the ink washed off the paper in the water test, leaving behind a clearly legible grey colour with a brown hue. There was no smearing or running of the ink at all. I would definitely class this as a waterproof ink. The alcohol swab released a negligible amount of ink from the paper but this did not produce any additional smearing or running.

Harry,

Wish the moderators would increase the attachment limits for you soon. Would love to see the actual water scans. Nice review by the way!

The moderators have no powers to increase attachment limits! This is in the hands of the admins.

Best, Ann

I am sorry, I (of all people) should have known. I actually lead a forum and I just didn't think that through. Apologies. Hope the admins decide to increase the attachment limits for everyone after weighing the bandwidth issues if any.

i don't want to divert the topic of the golden brown review (which is one of my favorite inks, because it is both vibrant and partially waterproof... take that, all you eternal inks!!! I feel similarly about Green Marine, by the way),

but I think it might be a better idea for posters to use external image hosting (especially for big scans) and link to them. there are so many free image web-hosting sites (Flickr and picasaweb (no software installation necessary, by the way) are two that come to mind)... both aforementioned sites include a quick way to embed HTML postings of the images, but you have to make sure you change the HTML settings on your FPN posts (not visible in "fast reply")... another way to do it is to use the sunset-looking button above your posts and link to the image's URL. it's really easy and it doesn't burden the FPN community, which is growing so much that cost of storage will likely become a big problem

Thanks Anne for clarifying the attachment limit issue and Melnicki for suggesting a solution. I have a review of Noodler's Navajo Turquoise that I'd like to post and have recently bought Noodler's Beaver, Walnut and Lexington Gray which I'll review at some point. In case you haven't noticed, I rather like Noodler's inks.

Golden Brown is the least resistant of the near-bulletproof range, and arguably the most gorgeous. Good review, and I love this ink.

I use this in my Pelikan Place del la Concord and really like the color and have no flow issues.

Nice review ....

I just received my Golden Brown ink. I tried it on a normal medium nib with medium flow and a very wet vintage flex nib. I learnt that the ink writes with a different shade of brown with differing thickness of the lines. With the former pen, it wrote a nice golden brown and so did it with the flex for the horizontal strokes without much flex. With increasing flex and increasing flow, it tends towards the Walnut.

I did a water test where I let water flow over it for 5 minutes. Glad to know that it leaves a brown line with no shading underneath - not a grey line. It might appear as though it is a mixture of walnut and a golden yellow dye. The yellow sure washed away. In the medium nib, the leftover was a moderately dark brown while with the wet flow nib, the areas of wet flow stayed the same dark brown.

Very happy with the ink finally. Thanks Harry and others who helped me decide on this one!

P.S.: I have a feeling shaking the bottle well before use helps a LOT with its waterproof ability.

Stanley, I tried the waterproof test once more and came up with the same result: a permanent gray line. In fact, it looks like a lighter version of Lexington Gray. I always shake my inks well before refilling (only after checking the tightness of the lid - that's one mistake I'll not be repeating ), so don't think that explains the difference. Maybe we have different results because we're in different hemispheres