Noodler's X-Feather

[savarez]

Last week, Jetpens announced that they started selling Noodler's inks, and that they had a couple of bottles that had been damaged due to a bottle leaking in transit, and offered to send these bottles out in exchange for a review.

 

In truth, I've been wanting to review Noodler's X-Feather for a while. I've already gone through nearly a whole bottle of the stuff, and the free bottle from Jetpens was just the impetus I needed to both finish my review, and restock my supply!

 

A year ago, I switched over all of my notes to Levenger Circa. At the time, I ordered two packages of the Circa paper from Levenger. Much to my chagrin, this is *the* most useless paper for Fountain Pens other than, say, newsprint or Charmin.

 

This paper sat on my shelf for months. Noodler's Black wrote adequately on it... but, when my first bottle of X-Feather arrived, the Levenger paper went into my notebooks, and my Pilot VP is now always inked with this ink.

 

The biggest problems with X-Feather are, (1) the nib seems to dry more quickly than other inks, and (2) on smooth paper, such as HP 32# Premium or Rhodia, X-Feather does not dry quickly.

 

Image 1: Handwritten review on the Circa Paper.

 

Notice, in particular, the feathering with the Van Gogh Starry Night, and the Noodler's Kiowa Pecan. With X-Feather, a "F" nib draws a fine line. The Starry Night, in a Pelikan M200 with a Binder XXF nib writes like B on this paper.

 

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t41/savarez/abraxas/x-feather-1-small.jpg

Full-Sized Image

 

 

Image 2: Comparison on HP 32# Premium Choice

 

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t41/savarez/abraxas/x-feather-2-small.jpg

Full-Sized Image

 

 

Image 3: X-Feather in Daily Use

 

Here is a sample scan from my Ancient Greek class notes. The passage is from Book I of Xenophon's Anabasis.

 

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t41/savarez/abraxas/x-feather-3-small.jpg

Full-Sized Image

 

 

X-Feather is a decent ink which I use daily, and if you are a person who only uses the smoothest journals and writing paper, you probably don't need this ink. But, if you pull out your rollerball or ballpoint because your inks feather on cheap copy paper, newsprint, or the c*ap paper that Levenger is sending out these days, you might just want to give this ink a try.

Edited November 10, 2008 by savarez

[PenTieRun]

Hey that Greek homework is a treat! Wish I could read the stuff. Oh...and the review is pretty good as well

[Journaleur]

Enjoyed the ink review, but was especially impressed by your handwriting in both English and Greek. But a question: Did you print the Greek text at the top of the page, or was this a text that you pasted on the page? I am sure there is a Greek aphorism that relates to curiosity, but cannot think of one; nor one in Latin either. The best I can come up with: It was Anaximander, was it not, who said that everything was Seltzer? Id est, since the two primary atoms are air and water that combination makes seltzer. Sorry, but I tried to resist and was too tired to fight the impulse. And now to bed. :bonk:

[savarez]

Enjoyed the ink review, but was especially impressed by your handwriting in both English and Greek. But a question: Did you print the Greek text at the top of the page, or was this a text that you pasted on the page? I am sure there is a Greek aphorism that relates to curiosity, but cannot think of one; nor one in Latin either. The best I can come up with: It was Anaximander, was it not, who said that everything was Seltzer? Id est, since the two primary atoms are air and water that combination makes seltzer. Sorry, but I tried to resist and was too tired to fight the impulse. And now to bed. :bonk:

Thanks for compliment on my handwriting!

 

I did indeed run the Circa paper through the printer to print out the Greek section at the top. I usually print out several sections of the text in advance, so that on each page I can concentrate on the vocabulary, grammar points, and translation. This format works well for me.

Edited November 11, 2008 by savarez

[wvbeetlebug]

Excellent review. Thank you.

[Mrsal]

does this ink bleed through paper too like all other inks?

[rhodes]

The organization of your Greek notes is well deserving of another compliment, it's as well organized as I've seen. I always prefer (for Greek and Latin) to just gloss above words and write any other notes on identification, etc in the margin so that I'm always in direct contact with the text, but your notes look so much nicer than my Homer notes from class tonight.

[leicamaster]

My Circa paper behaves horribly with Old Manhattan Black. It bleeds waaaay too much, so I use it for Math since the side bar lets you do small computation