Noodler's Eel Blue

[rwboyer]

Just got a bottle of this stuff last weekend because my bottle of plain old Noodler's blue is pretty much gone and I thought that I would give the Eel a shot for the heck of it. I have tried a couple of pens and all are working well. I thought that I would post a really quick review of my results so far.

 

The flow is well controlled, it does not make my wet pens gushers and still writes well in my drier f/xf nibs as well. For not being an especially wet ink, it is one of the smoothest feeling inks that I have used, think Aurora Black only smoother (maybe) it is a really cool sensation, even in a crisp italic nib.

 

I used my old regular Noodler's Blue primarily for mixing, this color is very close so I can't wait to see if it makes some of my favorite (semi-bulletproof) recipes as smooth. Even if you cannot see it in the scan the shading is nice, not dramatic but nice.

 

As for water resistance - none, forget the dark stuff you see at the bottom of the page, that is writing on the other side of the paper that is showing through the wet part (yes, I recycle my scrap).

 

Notice the very strange and variable drying/smearing behavior? Let's just say that this is not a quick drying ink in the least but it is also not the slowest most smeary in the world either. I can live with it, especially because there is no feather or bleed to speak of on the papers that I have tried (mediocre inkjet, moleskine, and a couple of others).

 

Even though nib creep doesn't bother me a bit, I did notice that in the 3 pens tried so far with the Eel Blue there as been NO nib creep at all. NONE, for those that get upset about such things.

 

Forgive the sloppiness, I wrote the review big for legibility and I am usually a small writer:

 

http://web.mac.com/rwboyer/scan0007-1.jpg

 

RB

[Russ]

This blue is my default ink. Every pen I have seems to write smoother with it. You are correct: it bleeds very little. However, I have had significant nib creep in a Pelikan 140 whose nib / feed is probably advanced too far out of the section, and has little clearance with the inner cap. Who cares. It writes so smooth and wet!

 

I especially like this ink's character of appearing dignified and dark in low light, while appearing quite vibrant and cheery in bright light.

 

It also copies as black on the photocopier. Not all blues will do so.

 

 

 

[rwboyer]

This blue is my default ink. Every pen I have seems to write smoother with it. You are correct: it bleeds very little. However, I have had significant nib creep in a Pelikan 140 whose nib / feed is probably advanced too far out of the section, and has little clearance with the inner cap. Who cares. It writes so smooth and wet!

 

I especially like this ink's character of appearing dignified and dark in low light, while appearing quite vibrant and cheery in bright light.

 

It also copies as black on the photocopier. Not all blues will do so.

 

I have had no issues with nib creep. Is the Pelikan the only pen that you have nib creep with? What is your experience with Eel Blue in other pens?

 

RB

[Russ]

Yes, it only occurred in the Pel 140. Not in any others.

The ink works very well in my Lamy 2000, CrossTownsend, Pel 400, etc.

 

 

[Cursive Child]

I got a bottle of this a month or so ago too. I wanted a smoother ink than the regular Noodler's, and something darker than the Navajo Turquiose that I had.

 

My experience has been mixed. I use notebooks of recycled paper for office work, so that may be a reason. I use a Pelikan M605 Medium. Don't have a finer nib to try it with yet.

 

I like the color, but not too exciting. However on the paper I use (Second Nature recycled), it blots a lot, and shows up on the other side of the page to an annoying degree. On better quality paper it doesn't do that so much, but you can still see a shadow, just like your scan.

 

Haven't felt the lubricating qualities of the ink yet. In fact my Pelikan Royal Blue is smoother to write with and doesn't blot as much.

 

 

[Clydesdave]

How fortunate! I just bought a bottle of this ink yesterday. I was going to go in search of a review as soon as I finished reading the posts for the morning when I found your review. Now that's cool! Thank you for the review and a great start to the day.

[psfred]

"nib creep" only with the cap on can be a matter of the nib being too close to the inner cap. This will be pen specific, and not occur with all inks. What happens is that the nib is almost as close to the cap as it is to the feed, and the ink will capillary out between nib and cap much like it does between nib and feed. Very annoying, as it usually doesn't happen every day.

 

I have a lovely Estie in Copper with a 9550 nib that I love, but Noodler's standard brown ends up all over the nib all the time for this reason. Doesn't do it with this nib in other pens, but it also happens with Skrip Blue-black, which is what tipped me off. For some reason this particular nib ends up too close to the inner cap (it's set a bit far out in the holder, I think). Minor bumps or thermal changes (I carry my pens in my shirt pocket) will eventually deposit either ink droplets or condensation droplets between nib and feed, and once they are large enough and over the slit, out comes the ink to fill the space.

 

I have to clean the cap once in a while, and the problem gets worse as the ink collects in there, reducing the clearance even more.

 

 

Don't discard an ink for nib creep until you are sure it's not the pen! I suspect this is actually the case when people have severe nib creep where the section ends up with ink on it. Not just the ink at work here, although a "creepy" ink will make the problem much worse. Try a different pen.

 

Peter

[offbase]

I've been playing around with it for the past few days (ok, no wisecracks!). It performs extremely well in my xf pens. I just don't know if I can deal with the color, though ... it's REALLY close to being an aqua or turquoise. It looks more like a "blue-green" than a true blue to me.

[BillTheEditor]

I use Eel Blue in one of those Kaweco Sport eyedropper roller ball pens from Swishers. Also use the Red Rattler in another of the same pens. In both cases, I chose the Eel inks for their lubricating properties. I agree that they do not dry quickly, but this does not bother me -- a little smearing in my daily notebooks or memos or shopping lists is not the end of the world.

[Melnicki]

i've tried the gruene eel ink, and my opinion is that Nathan ought to make some more colors with the "eel" properties, because I found it to be very good with some of my "edgier" nibs!!

[john3]

just read rwboyer's post about eel blue ink. can you or someone explain to me backchannel what is meant by

"nib creep"?

thanks, john c. at flexinib@gmail.com

[jorgerp1]

It looks a very usable ink

[Ed Ronax]

Nice review, thanks, a nice looking ink.

[Conz]

I wish had read your review before I went out and got a bottle.

 

Having some waterproof quality is important to me, and Noodler's Eel Blue is so washable that if they invented washable paper, you could clean it off and reuse that paper as easily as rubbing off, sorry, easier than rubbing off pencil marks with an eraser. Even pencil marks don't soak off.

 

On the plus side, it lubricates pen pistons and may have some problem nibs flow better.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/146124-noodlers-ink-american-eel-blue/page__p__1450718__fromsearch__1&&do=findComment&comment=1450718

[kittytoug]

I picked up a bottle of this ink recently and have used it in my Lamy Safari Fine nib. It runs very wet. And if water resistance is important to you, you need to know that it rinses off the page very easily (at least on the cheap paper I used to test this).

But I do so love the color!

[WOBentley]

This ink has become a regular in my rotation for piston fillers. I love the color and the lack of waterproof qualities is not important to me for my usual uses. Pistons glide like they have been freshly lubricated (in essence I guess they have been ) and I like the lubricity of the ink that makes the nibs glide along the page. This is all so individual...but for me this is a great ink.

[Dougal]

My experience has been mixed. I use notebooks of recycled paper for office work, so that may be a reason. I use a Pelikan M605 Medium. Don't have a finer nib to try it with yet.

 

I like the color, but not too exciting. However on the paper I use (Second Nature recycled), it blots a lot, and shows up on the other side of the page to an annoying degree. On better quality paper it doesn't do that so much, but you can still see a shadow, just like your scan.

 

+1. Unfortunately my experience has been poor, because of feathering. I love the smooth feel to this ink, but the amount of feathering and blotting has been awful.

 

This is perhaps because I use a broad nib. Can anyone recommend a well-lubricated / smooth ink that doesn't feather?

 

I see that Noodler's does an X-Feather ink. But not in blue

Edited January 1, 2014 by Dougal