Noodler's X-Feather...feathers Badly

[bunnspecial]

I've had a bottle of X-Feather sitting around for a little while, and decided to crack it open a few minutes ago.

 

My work-supplied printer paper is like a sponge, which is a problem for me now since I'm often finding myself printing off spreadsheets with teeny tiny boxes to fill in manually(grading online is a pain...) and in fact bought a couple of F and EF pens to try out just for this. One of those was a Pilot Vanishing Point EF, which of course is good for that for a couple of reasons, but I found it still feathered badly on this paper with "normal" inks I'd use. So, I decided to try it with X-feather.

 

Working with a couple of different pens, I find that the EF of the VP still writes like a Pilot F on more normal paper FP friendly paper(not necessarily high end stuff), which is a bit large for what I need, and has very visible feathering. In fact, I'd put feathering with it down as bad as the Lamy 2000 with a B nib and current filled with Black Swan in English Roses, which is a really wet/almost puking seemingly, combo that I love on Rhodia and other better papers.

 

The X-feather in fact seemed to feather worse than something else I had handy-Lamy Blue in an M Studio Palladium(which writes a decent bit narrower, again on good paper, than any of my other German M nibs).

 

Did I get a bad bottle, or is this par for the course? BTW, it doesn't feather on Rhodia, but then almost nothing does...

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Yikes!

I have a sample of X-Feather, which I've never tried (early on I ordered a bunch of black samples for a project that later sort of fell by the wayside, and some of them have never been opened).

My understanding, though, is that NOT feathering was the entire POINT of X-Feather....

Is your bottle something that you had previously used, or were just opening the first time? Because if the latter, I'd consider contacting Noodler's directly (or at the very least, contacting the retailer). If this is a new phenomenon, though, I don't have a good answer -- although there was another thread where someone had a bottle of IIRC Noodler's Black which seemed to have gone bad and that contacting Noodler's was what a lot of people told that person.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

This is the only 'paper' on which I remember seeing Noodler's X-Feather ink feather badly:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/340671-a-paper-that-makes-noodlers-x-feather-ink-exhibit-feathering/

 

but I do have some paper on which just about every ink will feather, so perhaps I'll give those a try in the morning.

[bunnspecial]

Yikes!

I have a sample of X-Feather, which I've never tried (early on I ordered a bunch of black samples for a project that later sort of fell by the wayside, and some of them have never been opened).

My understanding, though, is that NOT feathering was the entire POINT of X-Feather....

Is your bottle something that you had previously used, or were just opening the first time? Because if the latter, I'd consider contacting Noodler's directly (or at the very least, contacting the retailer). If this is a new phenomenon, though, I don't have a good answer -- although there was another thread where someone had a bottle of IIRC Noodler's Black which seemed to have gone bad and that contacting Noodler's was what a lot of people told that person.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Thanks-this was bought from Goulets about a month ago, and I quite literally just opened the bottle this morning. I did shake it thoroughly before opening, which I know is standard advice but also something which TBH makes me uncomfortable with any ink(if it will precipitate in the bottle, what stops it from doing this same in my pens?) but I'll test a bit more on known-bad paper and see what happens.

[silverlifter]

I did shake it thoroughly before opening, which I know is standard advice but also something which TBH makes me uncomfortable with any ink...

 

Noodlers is literally a roll of the dice; you always shake first!

[txomsy]

I haven't found yet any paper where X-feather shows feathering. I wonder if either it is a rather exceptional paper or a bad ink batch. Perhaps it is not cellulose paper (or it is a paper with some additive that makes X-feather spread)?

[loganrah]

I've only tried a small sample of X-Feather but also found it to be a rather high feathering ink, certainly worse than many others in my ink drawer.

 

If you really want no feathering my best suggestion is Iron Gall inks, especially Rohrer and Klingner. For applications where no feathering, bleeding, or other spreading is required they are great. Plus permanent.

[mannschott]

I have one bottle of X-Feather. Its resistance to feathering is not *bad*, and in fact I use it in a mix with Legal Blue, which feathers for me, to mix a blue-black that feathers less.

 

That said, Its not my first choice for feather resistance. I find Lamy Black; Lamy Blue; Pelikan 4001 Black, Royal Blue, or Blue-Black to all be better choices on that front.

 

The ink I own that is most resistant to feathering is Diamine Archival Registars Ink, which I choose when the paper is really really bad.

 

Also consider: Scabiosa and Salix are very nearly as feather resistant as DAR, but easier on the pen.

[bunnspecial]

Thanks everyone-it seems like a lot of Noodler's inks, folks are all over the place on their experience with this particular one. As much as I like a bunch of their colors and other properties, plus the fact that they make about 100 different ones, I'm about to swear off of them after probably a dozen bottles. Some act exactly as I expect and right now I'm in love with Black Swan in English Roses, but others seem too iffy.

 

BTW, on the same page where I was testing this, I wrote with a sample of MB Midnight Blue iron gall(the old stuff) and yes, I've found IG inks in general forgiving of bad paper. I should stick to that. I'm nearly out of Mont Blanc, but have been using Pelikan as a reasonable alternative for a couple of years now and even though I don't like the color as much as the Mont Blanc, it otherwise performs similarly. I have a bottle of TWSBI iron gall here that I haven't used enough yet to draw a conclusion.

 

I should mention that this paper is a bit weird in that a lot of the surface writes fine with most any ink, but I seem to hit patches that are spongier. I suppose that's the nature of cheap bulk paper, but it's still annoying...

[bunnspecial]

Here's a small sample of it. It seems to get especially bad when I start laying down thick lines of it, which unfortunately is something I often need to do on copy paper.

 

 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

Hmmm. Upon testing just now, Noodler's X-Feather really just isn't that good at resisting feathering on nasty and/or ultra-absorbent papers.

Firstly, this is how each of the pens I used write on a Rhodia Dotpad, so you can gauge the fineness of the nibs when writing on good paper with no feathering:



Next, a nondescript notebook I picked up from Muji (on which the only product information on the item comes from a sticker that has the barcode, the words "MUJI 無印良品" and "MADE IN JAPAN", and nothing else), which is cheap and nasty, notwithstanding that it's made in Japan and the paper feels smooth — almost slick — to the touch. Every Pilot Iroshizuku ink I tried feathered and bled through on its pages, and so I've just given up on using it at all:



This Daiso 'Rakugaki' sketch pad is an absolute disaster to use with ink, and I only keep it around as an exaggerated example of 'bad' paper:



But that's still not as 'fountain pen unfriendly' as filter paper:

Noodler's X-Feather behaved acceptably on the Muji notebook paper, but Sailor Kiwaguro is better at resisting feathering on every type of paper used.

 

By the way, Diamine Registrar's Ink offers no advantage in being an iron-gall ink, when it comes to resisting feathering.

 

In case anyone is wondering about the show-through and bleed-through aspects, there is of course none on the Rhodia Dotpad 80g/m² paper; and this is a scan of the rest:

[bunnspecial]

Thanks for the comprehensive test.

 

I've been going around gathering up whatever paper samples I could find from around here.

 

Our work-supplied legal pads are actually halfway decent for fountain pen use-they show through, but then so does Tomoe River, but there's no bleed-through at least that I can make happen. Letterhead is really good. I found some older copy paper of a different brand, and it handled a fair bit decently well(about what I expect of a better end of the spectrum but still ordinary bulk copy paper-definitely useable with FPs) and found that X-Feather still feathered on it worse than anything else I could throw at it.

 

 

Also, in all of this today, there's this unfortunate downside to a new bottle of Noodler's. This is the first where I've actually done this, but have always been terrified I would accidentally.

 

[pearlfox]

Also, in all of this today, there's this unfortunate downside to a new bottle of Noodler's. This is the first where I've actually done this, but have always been terrified I would accidentally.

 

IMG_1575.jpg

Look! No feathering!

[inkstainedruth]

Look! No feathering!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Apologies to bunnspecial, but I've been there, done that. Only in my case it was an almost full 4-1/2 oz. eyedropper bottle of Noodler's Kung Te Cheng, and instead of the bathroom counter it was the bathroom floor....

4-1/2 oz. of ink, minus a single Noodler's Konrad fill's worth of ink, is a LOT to clean up -- especially after the bottom of the bottle sheared off.... Even though the bulk of the bottle actually remained intact, there was still a LOT of glass, and glass shards really travel....

Edited October 25, 2020 by inkstainedruth

[bunnspecial]

Yes, you all are correct, at least it didnt feather on my desk. Thank goodness too this isnt a fast dry ink, as it cleaned up well. The edges of my thumb are still black, but I can also blame that on my MG

 

And having a bottle of any ink break sounds terrifying. Im glad that it wasnt one of the liter bottles or whatever the massive size of Noodlers that I dont remember if they were actually made or not.

[inkstainedruth]

I have owned a couple of large-fish bottles of ink: a (full) 8 oz. bottle of vintage Quink Permanent Violet; and a 3/4 full pint bottle of vintage Skrip Peacock. I transferred the ink into smaller 2 and 4 oz. Boston round eyedropper bottles, with the help of a sanitized turkey baster and plastic funnel (both bought specifically for the job) and my husband (to be an extra set of hands) -- there was no way I trusted myself to pour directly from the larger bottles to the smaller ones without making a total mess.

The sad part was that the bottle of Permanent Violet was designed to have a nozzle attached to it -- presumably to refill inkwells -- but the nozzle did not come with the bottle (an eBay purchase from a few years ago); it had a small (maybe 1/2" diameter) cap over the nozzle holes, which were in a rubber stopper with a cotton wick attached, dangling down into the bottle).

I ended up giving the two empty large bottles away, once empty, to a guy in my local pen club; the bottles were both too tall to fit in the IKEA storage boxes I keep ink bottles in, and I am not a bottle collector.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

And having a bottle of any ink break sounds terrifying.

I haven't broken a bottle of ink myself (yet, fingers crossed!), but I did get this in the post once, years ago:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/339098-pens-inks-and-samples-pass-around-in-australia/?p=4098393

 

that stained most of the other otherwise-undamaged products inside the parcel, through which glass shards were scattered. There was no satisfactory resolution, either; and so that UK retailer never saw another cent of the several tens of thousands of dollars I've spent on the hobby since.

 

Im glad that it wasnt one of the liter bottles or whatever the massive size of Noodlers that I dont remember if they were actually made or not.

The largest bottle of ink I have is a one-litre (~33 fl.oz.?) bottle of Pelikan 4001 Brillant-Schwarz I ordered from Amazon this year. It arrived with nothing but the cardboard shipping sleeve (usually used for orders of just one or two books) wrapped around it as protection for the journey halfway across the globe in this climate. It leaked... just. >95% of the bottle's contents remained, which is kinda a miracle in itself; but when I complained — HARD, since this wasn't the first time Amazon has failed to package bottled liquids adequately for international shipping, and half the time they arrive with cracked lids, leaking, or just a complete soggy mess — it gave me a full refund and let me keep the product, since it'd be more of a problem for them to pay for me to ship what's left of it overseas at its expense.

[WarrenB]

I haven't broken a bottle of ink myself (yet, fingers crossed!), but I did get this in the post once, years ago:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/339098-pens-inks-and-samples-pass-around-in-australia/?p=4098393

 

that stained most of the other otherwise-undamaged products inside the parcel, through which glass shards were scattered. There was no satisfactory resolution, either; and so that UK retailer never saw another cent of the several tens of thousands of dollars I've spent on the hobby since.

I thought to myself at the time, "there must be a story there," and there was.

 

Commiserations. That would drive me loopy, to find a parcel like that.

 

X-Feather... I vaguely remember it feathering on bristol board. Step one on my FP + waterproof drawing ink quest.

[RJS]

It always amazes me how little care so many companies (the majority) take with their packaging. I can only assume most consumers don't mind receiving items that are a little worse for wear...

[Honeybadgers]

Sounds like maybe you got a dud batch of X feather - maybe email luxury-goods with a pic? They've always taken good care of me.

 

But even still, I've hit a couple papers that my known good bottle of X feather still feathers on. Some paper is just irredeemable and made from old soviet toilet paper.

Edited October 28, 2020 by Honeybadgers