Noodlers "Prime of the Commons"

[darkgreen]

Bear with me. My son has finally qualified as a lawyer - with honors and trailing several prizes, notes the proud father. I have been looking into getting him a special pen, befitting his new professional status. All very hush-hush, if you put aside the few hundred people who may read this on FPN - he doesn't yet know the depth of my interest. I finally settled on the Sailor Professional Gear, based on excellent reviews here. That is my idea of a lawyer's pen: sleek, shiny, black with silver-rhodium trim, solid, classy. He won't get the pen fresh - I wanted it tested and primed... with an excellent ink to match.

 

Hence a punt on Noodler's "Prime of the Commons" from the UK (Pelikan Pens) an ink designed especially for lawyers, it seems. Eternal, bullet-proof "security contract" ink with the bonus 007 feature that if bleach is applied, the black element goes but the blue base remains firmly embedded and reveals the tampering. Gotcha! When I tried to research it, there was no current review on FPN.

 

 

Now, is it just me, or is green the new black? Lately, other posters have, like me, sought shades of our favorite color. But green is a bit too "out there" for a respectable lawyer starting on the corporate ladder so "blue-black", Noodler's description, seemed an ideal compromise.

 

Well, the pen is superb. I finally get to say this... just what the doctor ordered! Just as anticipated, the nib is smooth as silk (so to speak, ahem). I have little more to add to the several reviews attesting to its excellent properties: thank you again FPN.

 

And the ink is great! To my surprise it is mainly black with shades of blue ... and a hint of green. This could be the dark green that some of us have been seeking. Not as black as Zhivago. The color is ambiguous and looks greener on some papers than others. Writes smoothly and without any fuss. Very smooth and slightly wet on good quality Clairefontaine 90 g/m2 paper, slight feathering on copy paper. Overall, like you might wish your lawyer to be: establishment solid, tamper-proof, a hint of mischief, with unplumbed depths that you might need to call on one day. Tricky to convey on a scan but here is my best shot.

 

As for my son, he might not take to the charms of Fountain Pens ... yet ... but I am confident that I have set as good a piece of bait as I can find.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2009 by darkgreen

[dandelion]

THANK YOU. I've longed to see this ink reviewed. Excellent review. (Sorry for shouting in the beginning, but this made me very happy).

[dandelion]

PS You don't happen to have Noodler's Aircorps to compare with?

[darkgreen]

PS You don't happen to have Noodler's Aircorps to compare with?

 

Hi Dandelion - thank you for your kind response so soon. No, I did consider Aircorps blue-black but opted for the more definitive bullet-proof aspect of Prime of the Commons. When I compare my samples with posted reviews, it looks very similar, especially to PenguinMaster's review. The difference would be subtle, difficult to compare on screen and using different pens and nibs and paper. I wonder whether they are basically the same stock, with Prime being a UK regional label with extra bullet-proofness (is that a word?).

[QM2]

Very handsome ink! To me it looks similar to Tahitian Pearl. I like that you say it is not too wet (unlike Tahitian Pearl), as well as that it does not have an overwhelming smell to it. After longer use, do you notice any flow issues at all, such as slow-starting, drying up, etc?

[Hemingway]

Great review , now I have another ink on my list. (I just love blue-black inks with some green to it )

 

Peter

[darkgreen]

Very handsome ink! To me it looks similar to Tahitian Pearl. I like that you say it is not too wet (unlike Tahitian Pearl), as well as that it does not have an overwhelming smell to it. After longer use, do you notice any flow issues at all, such as slow-starting, drying up, etc?

 

I tried leaving the cap off for several minutes without any writing and it wrote without any problem: prompt start, smooth line. However, I have only played around with it for a day so I will post an update if it seems to be heading off course.

[lefty928]

Thanks for the excellent review, both thorough and with personal touches. I also appreciated the second image, where you had the comparisons and water resistance test. Congratulations on your son's achievement!

[Phormio]

As a solicitor myself, I might have to consider purchasing this ink....

 

Thanks for the review

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

Intriguing ink -- thank you for the review.

[WendyNC]

It reminds me of PR Ebony Blue. A member here recently sent me a note written with that so I could see the color and I can report that the PR Ebony Blue truly shifts around depending on lighting. If Prime of the Commons does the same thing, I can see it being an intriguing color for an attorney.

 

I am not an attorney nor do I play one on television, but I have assisted attorneys in the private practice of law in my part of the world for over 30 years and can tell you that Prime of the Commons would be considered an appropriate color among my folks, even back in the olden days when I started and everything was written with a dipped quill.

[Jared]

Thank you very much. Like others I have long wondered what this ink looks like. Also, like others I wonder how it compares to similar Noodler's blue-blacks.

 

 

[chkuo]

Thats looks like a very interesting ink, thanks for the review.

[Geoff V]

Hi there,

 

Thanks for the comprehensive review of an interesting ink. As others have noted, it looks like a lighter version of ACBB. I use ACBB and prefer this dark ink to POTC. Still, it's good to know that another of Nathan's innovative concoctions has found a niche in the market!

 

By the way, from which law school did your son graduate - Auckland, Vic or Cant?

 

Regards

 

Geoff V

[Viseguy]

I tried a sample recently. The color has a lot of character, and the security features are nifty. I did find, however, that it has a tendency to "spread", so that, for example, an M nib writes more like a B. That bothered me a little; it may not bother you.

[darkgreen]

I tried a sample recently. The color has a lot of character, and the security features are nifty. I did find, however, that it has a tendency to "spread", so that, for example, an M nib writes more like a B. That bothered me a little; it may not bother you.

 

Hi Viseguy, that is an interesting point. The paper that I use at my workplace is fairly cheap and absorbent and that, along with my compact script, led me to favor Fine nibs to reduce the feathering. The Sailor M-F nib is actually quite narrow (0.36 mm on the nibs.com "tipping size" chart) and narrower than the European "Fine" nibs that are charted at 0.40 mm and a lot narrower than the M nibs (0.5 - 0.7 mm). Nett effect, I presume, is that feathering is likely to be less apparent in this Sailor and it was probably not a good pen to test that facet of the ink.

 

It dawns on me that a thorough review could test the ink separately with a Fine and then a Medium-Broad nib because they demonstrate different aspects of an ink.

[someonesdad]

Hi, darkgreen! I need to be adopted, as all four of my parents are dead (long story). I too graduated from school and need a graduation present. Your choice of a Sailor is impeccable! I'll PM you my address.

[Inkanthropist]

PS You don't happen to have Noodler's Aircorps to compare with?

 

I posted a picture comparing Prime of the Commons to Aircorp B-B in the following thread a while back:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...rt=#entry844941

 

Neil

[Grigio]

Nice review darkgreen,

 

As for the comparison to Aircorps Blue-Black, ACBB has gray as the bulletproof colour. So when you wet it the teal washes completely off and what is left on paper is gray.

From what you say about PotC, the teal is the bulletproof colour.

Makes me wonder if you can get a completely bulletproof blue-black.

[ZeissIkon]

Makes me wonder if you can get a completely bulletproof blue-black.

 

I've read reports that mixing Polar Blue and Polar Black (both bulletproof in their own right) in the correct ratio -- heavy on the blue -- yields a very nice blue-black that's still bulletproof. Unfortunately, I don't have either of those inks...