Greetings!

Currently, the only piston filler I have is a Lamy 2000. I'm thinking of trying a Noodler's lubricating eel ink (probably the blue) to loosen it up a little and was wondering if anyone has an opinion on the eel inks. Do they flow well? Good color? Any negatives? Thanks!

Best Wishes,
Chris

My own experience has been that the Eel colors are nice. The inks might lubricate a piston filler well enough, but I find the ink sloppy. The ink I tried flowed almost too well and caused the lines in my letters to expand. I am not talking about feathering, but a tendency to spread evenly beyond the range or the nib's point size. The M nib I used wrote nearly like a BB. I have not used any more of the ink and I do not intend to buy more.

I use Eel Blue in an ED rollerball pen, and Polar Blue (a lubricating ink related to the Eels) in my Lamy 2000. I like both colors (the Eel Blue is brighter). Polar Blue feathers at temperatures above about 70F, though on some papers it is ok at any temp. The Eel Blue might give you a slightly wider line than another ink, but it is (in my opinion) nothing you'd be likely to notice. Both of them flow extremely well. The piston in the L2K was ultra-stiff when I got it and was using non-lubricating ink -- once I started using Polar Blue, the stiffness went away, so afaik PB works as advertised.

Eel Blue dries a little slow, so if you are a leftie, you might have a smearing problem with it. Polar Blue dries quickly, in my experience (I live in a dry climate, might take that into account).

If you are right-handed and live in a warm climate, I have no reservations about recommending the Eel Blue for your L2K. If you're fussy about feathering, and you don't work in an air-conditioned/cold environment, I wouldn't recommend the Polar Blue (even though I personally like it, in spite of living in Texas and working in an office that stays around 85F during the day in the summer -- I don't have feathering problems on Tops planning pads, though the lines are a tiny bit wider than they would be with another ink). If you live in a place that stays cool and gets downright cold in the winter, I whole-heartedly recommend the Polar Blue.

Don't use either of these inks in a Moleskine notebook -- not good paper/ink combos. If you use Moleskine notebooks, the best choice is Noodler's bulletproof Black (not the Eel Black) in a fine nib. This might militate against using the L2K in your Moleskine (I do use mine in the Moleskine, when it's the only pen I have handy, but I don't write much when I do that).

You can also mix Eel Blue with Iraqui Indigo (50/50) and get a nice color that does not lubricate as well (maybe) but that also does not make lines wider than your nib.

In their defense, not all Eel inks have the same characteristics. Eel Red, for example, is quite well-behaved (I use it for markup in editing).

I was amazed at how much smoother my Cartier, Diablo and Namiki, Golden Pheasant wrote with Noodler's, Eel Blue ink. It is not the fastest drying ink in the world, but I really like the ink. By the way, both of those pens have fine nibs.

Hi Chris,

I know this topic has been covered on this forum before.

{seems I can't get the links to work . Try doing a search.}

I bought some American Eel blue to try in a Pelikan Go! with a balky piston. I can't say it helped; perhaps I should have given it more of a try. I also tried it in a Pelikan Future with a medium nib. The ink takes a long time to dry; too long for my liking. Other people do like this ink, though.

I feel I should comment on my prior post. I've been emptying some pens this week and, as it happens, yesterday I got to one filled with the eel blue. I tried using it, but the writing smeared badly. This morning I flushed the pen, and while it wasn't empty, the ink was thicker and "different" from what I'm accustomed to. I think the smearing I saw yesterday may be the result of the dyes becoming concentrated over time as water evaporated. Slow drying times have been reported for intensely colored inks.

I just filled the Go! for which I purchased the ink, and wrote a few lines on the same paper as I used yesterday. The piston is still balky, so however much of this ink I ran through that pen before didn't do much good. The color is a lighter blue than I saw yesterday and the ink dries much faster. The bottle is still nearly full, and this Pelikan was sitting empty in a drawer, so I probably wasn't impressed before. But slow drying may not be as much of a issue as I thought.

Ed

Welcome back BillTheEditor!! Haven't seen your posts in a while!

Also, FWIW, putting some silicon grease on the threads of the L2K helped with some of the stiffness in mine. It's not easy to get it in there (maybe try applying it with a toothpick?) I haven't tried the Eels yet (I've wanted Eel Red ever since BillTheEditor has been acclaiming it for markup, but ... sigh... I have too many red inks.)

Thanks!

My Orange LE Pilot VP is now also an editing pen, filled with Noodler's Cayenne. Nice and bright.