Anyone used the Black Eel? $12.50/3oz. I'll make a review once it arrives, if anybody is interested.

Yes, i would be interested..

I am interested too. I have been considering purchasing some of this ink but I haven't heard anything about it from someone who has tried it. I am curious as to how it compares to the regular Noodlers Black and the Old Manhattan Black.

Thanks.

Greg~

Cool, just ordered it. Should arrive early next week and I'll get a review put together.

I'll try to do a "heads up" comparison of the traditional black and black eel.

I've used Noodler's American Eel Black in a couple of pens as their first inking. I like it. It isn't as saturated at Heart of Darkness or some other blacks I've used, at least in a fine nib, but it feels nice when writing. It's also didn't seem as dry as HOD, although that may have been due to the fact the pen was new and the ink very saturated.

I look forward to a more comprehensive review when someone has time.

I`m another that`d interested

I attended the Raleigh Pen Show (NC USA) and the organizers were giving out 1oz sample bottles of this ink. I think that it is an ok ink, but nothing to crow about. It's a good neutral (not overtly yellow, red, green, whatever casted) black. The big thing with this ink is it's flow... if you like slick, you'll dig this ink. It would probably be good in a scratchy nib, in my lamy 2000 it was a sensation like writing with s stick of butter on a plate of glass. Yeah, slick stuff. I also recall that it might have had a propensity to feather more than some inks (but I use a lot of cheap papers, and that's probably the problem).

It's noodler's, but I don't know it's bulletproof status. Like I said, a good ink.

Just my two cents worth.

Brent

Indications have lead me to believe that Noodler's Eel Black is the same as Polar black, and though another review of the ink is always welcome I just wanted to make mention of this. Polar Black is listed as the black under the Eel inks on Noodler's color sample page here,

http://www.noodlersink.com/samples.html

It is listed as "Eel Polar Black." This may simply mean that the lubricating chemical, whatever it is, reduces the freezing point of the ink. It's probably just an unexpected property of the lubricating chemical rather than a copy of traditional polar black.

If it were simply a matter of the lubricating property than all of the Eel inks would should a tendency to be freeze resistant. I don't think Nathan would use a different lubricating property for Polar ink than the Eel inks. Whatever makes Polar Black or Polar Blue freeze resistant is separate from it's lubricating properties.

Additionaly, Pear Tree Pens, lists Polar Black as the only black in the Eel line, and has a quick explanation about it's placement in the Eel line, http://www.peartreepens.com/product-p/ni-eel.htm.

A-ha! I had a sample of Polar Blue and it wrote really well in pens that had a bit of squeak in their nibs. Hadn't occurred to me that it was the lubricated Eel stuff. I have to put a little +1 in for this ink, something I keep meaning to go buy. Almost looks blue-black, even more so with a little bit of a gray-black that can shade, like Quink Black. Not tried the Polar Black.

I thought the Eel inks were supposed to have slow drying times? The Polar Blue sample I used up seemed to dry pretty quickly, even in a wet pen. Hrmm!

Aaron

So I loaded three pens with the Black Eel. My collection isn't nearly as extensive as many of the members here, so I chose an assortment; a new Scheaffer Agio (medium), a 20-some year old Montblanc Meisterstruck (medium) and a fairly older Parker 21 (fine) in need of restoration. I also loaded it into a couple cheaper models (all fine) I have around, a Wearever, etc., just to see how it worked.

I performed the tests on Hammermill 20lb great white copy, on some random archival paper I had around, on 3x5 index cards and on standard legal pad paper.

The color is, as far as I could discern, the exact same as the regular black. Side by side under natural and flourscent light yielded the same darkness and opacity.

Indeed, in the very fine steel nib which was in need of restoration, the ink seemed to lubricate a bit better than the standard ink. Enough to make a significant difference, probably not. With the better flowing ink I feel I held the pen a bit lighter as well, and not being an accomplished scribe, that helped my technique so there were compounding factors.

When writing with the medium nib, the flow was as another poster described "a stick of butter on a plate of glass." I liked the feel although at times it got a bit sloppy, and I wasn't properly forming the letters. Again, someone with superior penmanship would not have an issue with this.

Regardless, I didn't notice that much creep or feathering even with the cheaper paper. The fine nibs still had a tendency to scratch here and there, in particular when writing quickly (such as note taking) but it never dropped, spattered, blobbed or otherwise.

Drying time, water resistance, etc. all comparable to the standard black.

I was going to do a more extensive review, but honestly I don't feel like there's all that much to review, at least not for the pen-paper combinations I employed. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with the Eel because it is the same price and works well with all the pens I currently own. If I owned many pens, and kept different inks in them, then I may prefer to specialize, but the black eel presented itself to me as a very good value, multi-purpose ink.

Polar Black and Polar Blue, at least at the time Nathan developed and began promoting them, had three features: bulletproof, anti-freeze, and lubrication. The information about them online advised that the lubrication was intended for pens with "reluctant" nibs and for piston fillers. In fact, I use Polar Blue in a Lamy 2000 for the latter reason and find it works very well at keeping the piston free-moving (it was very very stiff when new). I use Polar Black as my normal Black in a couple of pens that had tended to write "dry" and have been very satisfied with the results.

SFAIK, Eel Black is not the same as Polar Black. Information online leads me to believe that it is simply the Bulletproof Black with the "Eel" lubricant added. It's intended for balky nibs, piston fillers, and refillable roller ball pens. I use the Eel Red (Red Rattler) and the Eel Blue in a pair of Swisher/Tardiff eyedropper rollerball Kaweco Sports, and these inks work really well for this purpose. The Eel inks are not advertised as freeze-resistant or freeze-proof, and I wouldn't expose a pen loaded with an Eel ink to the same kind of very low temperatures for which the Polar inks are intended. Both of the Eel inks that I use take longer to dry and become smudge-proof than the Polar inks, which dry smear-free within a few seconds, and neither of these Eel inks is waterproof -- not even especially water-resistant.

Polar Blue (and to a lesser degree, Polar Black) tends to feather on some papers when the temperature rises above 70F. I obviously don't find the amount of feathering bothersome, since I keep some pens loaded with Polar of one color or the other all the time, and from May to October the temperature in my office tends to run around 85F in the afternoon and early evening. Some people would be driven to distraction by the small amount of feathering that I tolerate, of course.

Hope this helps, until Nathan finds this thread and can correct any inaccuracies in what I've said.

Booker,

Thanks for sharing your experience with this ink. I think I'm going to try a bottle of this ink when my regular Noodlers Black runs out.

Greg~

I'm now breaking in a new Pelikan M200 loaded with Noodler's BP Black Eel. The nib creep ( I think that's the right term) is horrible. After just a few letters, I get ink building up on the tip. This is the first time I've experienced this with a Noodler's ink.

I will say that I like the line it lays down with this medium nib. Similar to my gel ink pens.