22 Noodler's Inks In Pilot Varsity's

[Grendel]

I use Pilot Varsity's to test inks and so far I ended up with 22 of them loaded up with a variety of Noodler's Inks. Here's how these look like on Staples arc system paper:

 

http://s2.postimage.org/csxlzsf8/MG_2764_3.jpg

 

The image is a full size crop (3157x4735, 4.5MB), processed in LR3. I did use X-Rites Color Profiler to create a camera profile for just this picture, white balanced on the 18% grey patch. Further adjustments are: minimal croma noise reduction, minimal sharpening, minor local contrast enhancement, some tone curve adjustment (for contrast), lens distortion correction, and lens abberation correction.

 

Inks used (top-down):

 

Fox Red *+

Nikita

Black Swan in English Roses

Cayenne

Dragons Napalm

Brown #41 *

Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia *+

Baystate Concorde Grape

Kung Te-Cheng *

Baystate Blue

Luxury Blue *+

Polar Blue

American Eel Blue

Bad Blue Heron

Blue Nose Bear +

Hunter Green *+

Polar Black

Bernanke Black

Heart of Darkness

Bad Black Moccasin

Anti-Feather Black

Bulletproof Black

 

* 7:1 H2O dilluted

+ UV reactive

 

Take it with a grain of salt -- Varsity's use a felt based feed and are rather dry (but fairly consistent from pen to pen.) Most inks look quite different from wetter pens. Enjoy !

[efchem]

This is a great way to see different colors compared. Why do you dilute some of the inks with water and not others? Also, I would be interested in a relative comparison of flow/wetness of each and drying time.

[OldGandy]

Thanks. I always appreciate it when the comparisons are done with the same/similar pen.

[Grendel]

Glad it's of use to some people

 

The dilluted inks are not flowing well in the Varsity as they are (high saturated inks.) As for drying time -- since the Varsity's are really dry all inks dry pretty much w/in the first 5s. Exceptions are KTC and NMWS, they dry considerably faster.

[Lefthand_Smudge]

This is really great! I love your work. But sadly this is going to cost me money when I see which noodlers ink i'm going to buy next. Although at least I'll be picking the right one though.

[rapid_butterfly]

great job and very helpful. thank you!

 

I will say I am astounded at how light Bad Blue Heron is in your pic, though - it is almost a blue black in my pens, even my preppy ED pens.

[GreenVelvet]

Curious! I have loaded both HOD and bulletproof black in Varsities, and found the HOD to be darker. I wonder if that shows inconsistencies in the pens or the inks? (Yes, I ALWAYS shake Noodler's inks thoroughly before I refill.)

[Grendel]

Partially the Varsity's are to blame, partially the paper -- it's very absorbant. I was most surprised by how purple Polar Blue appears

 

Here's an older pic for BBH reference:

 

http://s2.postimage.org/2v8dn7gkk/MG_2759.jpg

 

Again, take it w/ a rock of salt -- this image is processed slightly different. Top-down:

 

Bad Blue Heron - Platinum #3776 Music

Bad Blue Heron - Lamy Logo 1.1mmm

Kung Te-Cheng (7:1 H2O) - Lamy CP1 EF

Anti-Feather Black - Lamy 2000 EF

 

The blacks are interesting, all show as very black when loaded into medium to wet flow pens. The Varsity's dryness seems to bring out the base colors. HOD & BPB are very close in "blackness", my guess would be that the paper used becomes the defining factor in "who's more black". Well, that and whatever batch the inks are from of course And finally, the camera is a big factor too -- very different from an eye/brain combo !

Edited September 7, 2011 by Grendel