Noodler's Black Swan And English Roses

[Ruminator]

It's been awhile since I last posted one of my reviews. I have a rack full of ink samples that I'm working through. I got a little ahead of myself, I think. But, I've read a lot about the Noodler's Black Swan and English Roses and decided to try a sample. It's a color that I would not normally choose, which makes it a little interesting to me.

 

I'll let the handwritten review speak for itself, but I can say I like this ink. There is some subtle shading with my test-Estie and the color is unique. It's somewhere between a red and a brown with a shade I can't really describe. It looks good on the page and it even looks good in my Moleskine journal, although with a moderately wet-writing pen (like my test-Estie) there is some ghosting and bleedthrough. That partially depends on the stage of fill in my pen, it seems. I reloaded the test-Estie from the sample bottle yesterday and noticed the bleedthrough seems to be mitigated somewhat.

 

Like many inks, BSER is not particularly waterproof. I believe that a modest wetting would leave residual dye on the page that would be legible. But, I would not use this ink for important writing or signatures.

 

Enjoy...

[3rdlakerobert]

Thanks for the review. Looks like an ink I'll like.

[7th Wave]

Thanks for the review, just ordered a bottle!

[wyldphyre]

When I saw your scan it made me think of Noodlers Red Black but with a less saturated look.

[XiaoMG]

When I saw your scan it made me think of Noodlers Red Black but with a less saturated look.

In my experience, which is admittedly limited to fine nibs, Red-Black is less saturated than BSER. In fact, I was surprised how low the saturation of Red-Black was. Both inks seem to be decent shaders though.

Edited October 27, 2012 by XiaoMG

[wyldphyre]

When I saw your scan it made me think of Noodlers Red Black but with a less saturated look.

In my experience, which is admittedly limited to fine nibs, Red-Black is less saturated than BSER. In fact, I was surprised how low the saturation of Red-Black was. Both inks seem to be decent shaders though.

 

I guess it's going to vary betweens pens etc. Here is a quick sample on a Rhodia pad with a Pilot Heritage 91 with an FM nib.

 

To me it looks darker than the BSER does.

 

[impossiblebird]

This is my very favourite ink. I love the dense red-brown colour, and I love how free-flowing and pen-friendly it is. I get practically no nib creep, even with my pen rattling around in my thigh pocket all the time, and it's never been a hard starter.

 

As for waterproofness: if I wash a page of writing, so that free colour is washed away, and the writing let behind is perfectly legible. If, however, the writing is smudged with a little water, so that the free colour just migrates across the page without being washed right off, it can somewhat obscure the writing, and, once dried, this smudged colour is remarkably persistent (considering water shifted it the first time). So I don't use it for signing important documents. Mind you, I've not checked whether leaving it on the page for a week, or month, or more, changes its response to wetting.

[impossiblebird]

I discovered yesterday that this ink is remarkably resistant to full-strength household bleach; a 15-minute soak left behind perfectly legible writing, which is now noticably (though not massively) less saturated, and black. It certainly fared better than the Polar Brown.

[IWantThat]

I bought a bottle of this some months ago and absolutely love it. This is after deciding I didn't love the Black Swan in Australian Roses (too pink/magenta for me) and giving that bottle away. I also love the shading of BSER, and it's a nice color for edits - different enough to be noticeable but not angry red.

 

Thanks for the review!

[ruben50]

Thanks for the review. I think I may order a bottle. Like the color. There is another ink I saw here that was a blood red. If I can remember which one it was I may order that as well.