Manhattan Blue - Noodler's Ink

[visvamitra]

Noodler's is one of the companies that don't need any introductions. Nathan Tardiff is a legend and his work is well known by fountain pen and ink afficionados. Not everyone is crazy about Noodler's inks but I enjoy most of the ones I've tried so far.

 

Manhattan Blue used to be produced exclusively for Arthur Brown shop. When it went out of business, Fountain Pen Hospital managed to carry the ink. Now it's called Blue Manhattan but I believe it's the same ink.

 

The ink look rather nice and is decently behaved. Lubrication could be better, flow could be better but still the ink is enjoyable even in drier pens. It may cause some feathering on bad quality paper. It's not really water resistant, however after accidentally soaking it with water, you'll be able to read the text. As for use in vintage pens - I don't know. I haven't tried it in a pen with a sac.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

​Software ID

Color range

Tomoe River, Lamy Al-Star, B

Leuchtturm 1917, Kaweco Classic Sport, B

Fantastic Paper, Lamy Al-Star, B

[Tas]

Ooo this shades beautifully and the blue has some "life" in it.

 

thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[lgsoltek]

The colour variation in the splash looks interesting.

[migo984]

Thank you for your review. I have two of the FPH inks. They're quite pleasant but aren't particularly exciting or different.

 

[ Just for info, "Tardif" has only one 'f'. I understand Mr Tardif is very particular about that :-) ]

[lgsoltek]

I think it reminds me of MB Leo Tolstoy?

[white_lotus]

This was on my list to get upon my most recent visit to FPH, but they were out of stock. I've enjoyed the FPH Noodler's exclusives that I have.

[Tas]

This was on my list to get upon my most recent visit to FPH, but they were out of stock. I've enjoyed the FPH Noodler's exclusives that I have.

 

Same, I adore my Ellis Island

[Gazcom]

I love the colour and I love the way it shades. Unfortunately I will never be able to enjoy it

[Nikaa]

This is one of those colors, I want to try. Thanks for the review.

[Bhavna]

I do love this colour. I was lucky enough to pick up all th FPH exclusives on my first visit to Manhattan last year. They DO need to redo their swatch folder using decent paper however. I ended up opening bottles to look at the colours before buying 10 bottles of Noodler's Sailor and PR. The owner was not impressed, but I wasn't planning to travel back from the UK to change ink! Joe is amazing there!

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for the review.

Your bottle looks a bit brighter than my batch (which was from a few years ago, back when Art Brown's was still open; I also have an unopened backup bottle from FPH). I had gone to both stores trying to match a blue-black ink that had flushed out of an Esterbrook SJ I'd found in an antique store (and had even brought my journal with me to say "What modern ink will be a close match to that for color and shading?" And at Art Brown's, I was directed (by Mrs. Brown herself!) to Manhattan Blue, which she said was Nathan's attempt to replicate the old Carter's ink Blue Black (I also bought a bottle of Diamine Denim, which was a closer match to what I was trying to find, but didn't give me any shading).

The one problem I had with Manhattan Blue was that I ended up with a lot of bleedthrough on the (admittedly) crummy and absorbent Piccadilly sketch book paper. Did you have that problem with the papers you used?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

Someday, I'll make it to NYC and go ink shopping. I can say that I was gifted a bottle of Manhattan Blue and I really love it. It is a dark blue without too much teal.

[ethernautrix]

Oh wow... look at the shading! I haven't noticed that Manhattan Blue shades -- maybe because I use it in EF and F nibs.

 

 

Haa, you can't tell, but I just paged through my notebook and found that early last month, I was using Manhattan Blue in a Pelikan Toledo with F nib, and the writing confirms: no shading, unless it's very, very subtle. Interesting since I sent you the sample from this bottle. And (whoa!) the ink is a much darker blue than what I see on the screen. I would take a picture, but, ah, personal journal stuff.

 

I'm tempted to fill the Pelikan with it again (or try it in a different pen) and show a writing sample. Not right now, but... perhaps eventually. Just looks surprisingly different.