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3nding

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Hi everyone,

 

I am interested on making the point on Noodler's Black once and for all (if that is even possible) because I have read and heard lots of contradictory things about that ink which has made me hesitant to buy it and use it in my more expensive pens and I am sure I am not alone in that boat.

 

I have no bias against that ink, I know that some people here with lots of fountain pen experience and knowledge swear by it, and it indeed seems to have a lot of excellent properties that most people want, but I have also read other knowledgeable pen people such as Richard Binder in his article on inks be critical of it and say it could damage pens or at least dirty them a lot to the point of being very difficult to clean properly.

 

All these contradictory stories and opinions have left me a bit lost as to weather or not Noodler's Black is an ink I want to use.

 

So what is the definitive answer on Noodler's Black, if there's even one?

 

PS: Maybe this has already been discussed thoroughly in an other thread I have missed, if so let me know, but all the threads I have read so far have just left me as divided as before on the issue.

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I have read criticism of Noodler's inks that they are saturated, presumably with dye, and have more dye in them than some other inks, like Sheaffer's or other pen manufacturers' inks. More dye has a clogging risk? I have used Noodler's a lot in a Parker 51, and there were no issues.

 

I know from art work that some pigments can be toxic, like lead, but pigment is not used in ink generally, and I do not know if the dyes are toxic or harmful to pens. When I was two or three my mother said I drank a lot of Sheaffer blue black from a big bottle in the 1950s. Apparently no harm was done. I don't think toxic substances would be used in ink for pens these days, but some of the picture evidence by pen repairers showed deformed pen feeds, allegedly caused by Noodler's ink. I have used a number of Noodler's colors, including black, in Parker 51s, Sheaffer Imperials (inlaid nib) and Montblanc 144 and 146 at least, with no harm done to the pens. Personally I don't care one way or the other any more about Noodler's, having found other inks of the same colors that were easier to get for me. I had no problem with Noodler's ink, and I just used it all up.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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but all the threads I have read so far have just left me as divided as before on the issue.

 

Then this thread should be no different :)

​I use Noodler's black. I like it. I almost always have a pen inked up with it. If you are worried about how it will effect one of your expensive pens, use it in a cheap on. I recommend converting a Platinum Preppy to an eyedropper and filling it with Noodler's black.

Edited by doggonecarl
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Then this thread should be no different :)

 

Hey, sometimes I'm too optimistic for my own good... I'm still holding onto some hope that this might answer all my questions though :D

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Noodler's black is a safe ink. The ink tends to absorb straight down into the paper its on, so there is excess dye left on the surface that will smudge a bit after it dries. I have been using this ink over a decade with no problems.

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I have Noodler's Black, but don't use it often. But I don't use black ink often. I have had it for almost four years and it is till at the bottom of the neck of the bottle. My Apache Sunset by contrast

is less than half full. And I don't use it nearly as often as some other colors.

 

Noodler's Black is a bulletproof ink, and as such it is going to need more maintenance than say Waterman Serenity Blue for an example.

There are some pens I wouldn't necessarily use it in. (my 51 Vac) But I have used Noodler's inks in my Esterbrook J's. They are easy to re-sac though if there is an issue.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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I have Noodler's Black, but don't use it often. But I don't use black ink often. I have had it for almost four years and it is till at the bottom of the neck of the bottle. My Apache Sunset by contrast

is less than half full. And I don't use it nearly as often as some other colors.

 

Noodler's Black is a bulletproof ink, and as such it is going to need more maintenance than say Waterman Serenity Blue for an example.

There are some pens I wouldn't necessarily use it in. (my 51 Vac) But I have used Noodler's inks in my Esterbrook J's. They are easy to re-sac though if there is an issue.

 

Would you use it in say, a Parker 45 flighter if you really liked that pen?

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If you're talking about Noodler's Bulletproof Black, I consider that to be my standard black ink, and it has never acted up in ANY pen I've ever owned.

It;'s the most consistent, beneficial, and well behaved. I don't know who is reporting problems with it, but it's been problem free and high value for me, and I've used 2 whole bottles in many different pens.

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Would you use it in say, a Parker 45 flighter if you really liked that pen?

Yes

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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Really, I’d suggest getting a sample and try it for yourself.

 

I haven’t tried it yet, but I know what result I expect. I’m a lefty and I like relatively fast drying inks. And I expect a good ink to perform just as well in a fat italic nib as in an xf ball nib. So when I break into the sample, it’ll go in both an italic and a regular nib. And I’m betting I won’t like it straight. Haven’t tried it yet though, so it could be a surprise. (But so far every Noodler’s I’ve tried has been in line with reviews)

 

I do have Heart of Darkness inked, and my tentative impression is favorable. I’ll probably need another sample to really put it through the wringer.

 

And Noodler’s has enough other takes on black that it could take a while to work through them. With other brands if you want a permanent black there’s one choice, maybe two. So it’s much faster to knock those inks out of the running. Or in.

 

But just in general, vintage pen restorers tend to be strongly against all permanent inks and any ink that they haven’t thoroughly tested. It’s not just Noodler’s. And I can entirely see their point. It doesn’t really apply to my collection of very modern mostly plastic school pens that are intended to be more or less entirely taken apart. But for a vintage pen where you can’t get parts and it’s maybe not designed to permit a thorough scrubbing... ye-ah. And that goes about triple if you’re not inclined to clean your pens or if you’re cautious about a good scrubbing.

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Really, I’d suggest getting a sample and try it for yourself.

 

I haven’t tried it yet, but I know what result I expect. I’m a lefty and I like relatively fast drying inks. And I expect a good ink to perform just as well in a fat italic nib as in an xf ball nib. So when I break into the sample, it’ll go in both an italic and a regular nib. And I’m betting I won’t like it straight. Haven’t tried it yet though, so it could be a surprise. (But so far every Noodler’s I’ve tried has been in line with reviews)

 

I do have Heart of Darkness inked, and my tentative impression is favorable. I’ll probably need another sample to really put it through the wringer.

 

And Noodler’s has enough other takes on black that it could take a while to work through them. With other brands if you want a permanent black there’s one choice, maybe two. So it’s much faster to knock those inks out of the running. Or in.

 

But just in general, vintage pen restorers tend to be strongly against all permanent inks and any ink that they haven’t thoroughly tested. It’s not just Noodler’s. And I can entirely see their point. It doesn’t really apply to my collection of very modern mostly plastic school pens that are intended to be more or less entirely taken apart. But for a vintage pen where you can’t get parts and it’s maybe not designed to permit a thorough scrubbing... ye-ah. And that goes about triple if you’re not inclined to clean your pens or if you’re cautious about a good scrubbing.

 

I think it is an important point that a vintage pen you can't get parts for calls for caution about the choice of ink. That is using good sense.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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Would you use it in say, a Parker 45 flighter if you really liked that pen?

 

The Parker 45 is a tank. And even if Noodler's Black did something to the pen--which I don't believe could happen--but let's suppose...you can disassemble it right down to the nib.

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I'll admit that I prefer Noodler's Heart of Darkness over Noodler's Black because I think HoD dries a little quicker. Some people have complained about Noodler's Black being smudgy (the problem with the "bulletproof" inks is that they are cellulose reactive -- that means they chemically bond with the paper, but if you lay down a really wet line only the bottommost part of that wet line is actually going to touch, and therefore, bond, with the cellulose in the paper; it also can mean that it could bond with your cotton shirt...). I didn't particularly find that to be the case, but the ink didn't wow me, either. And since I'm not a great fan of black inks in general, it had better wow me at least a little bit.

While I haven't tried them all, here's my take on the various Noodler black inks:

Noodler's [bulletproof] Black -- "meh" IMO, but supposed to be good on bad paper

Noodler's HoD -- faster drying than the regular Black also pretty waterproof.

Noodler's Old Manhattan (exclusive to Fountain Pen Hospital in NYC) -- super black, but part of that is because there is more spread.

Noodler's X-Feather -- supposed to be better on really cheap paper but slower drying (I have a sample but haven't gotten around to trying it.

There are a lot of other ones that I don't have/haven't tried: Borealis Black is supposed to mimic Aurora Black; Bernanke Black is supposed to be super fast drying (for left-handed writers); Bad Black Moccasin is part of the Warden series (forgery resistant; Eel Black is supposed to be more lubricated (so good for piston filler pens); Polar Black is good for low temperatures (I guess if you're doing scientific notations at someplace like McMurdo Station...); Dark Matter is supposedly reverse engineered to be like vintage inks, with some water resistance.

I also know of at least two other "exclusives": Texas Black Bat (exclusive to Dromgooles's) and Raven Black (which may be exclusive to Wonder Pens in Toronto). I don't recall what is special about those beyond exclusivity; I passed on Raven Black when I was at Wonder Pens several years ago, on the grounds that it didn't sound ENOUGH different from what I already had.

And I seem to recall mention somewhere along the line of something called Brahmin Black, which was either a pen show exclusive or exclusive (at some point) to Bromfield Pen Shop in Boston.

Me? I like Heart of Darkness. I also have a bottle of Old Manhattan, just because the first time I was ever at FPH, I felt guilty about not finding the blue-black ink of my dreams so I figured "Hey, a lot of people call it Old Manhattan Blackety-Black...." But I never seem to use it (mostly because of the spreading).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I see it as one (1) singular contradictory story from 10 years ago. Never substantiated, and never repeated.

 

Most of the complaints were about Bay State Blue, anyway, IIRC.

That ink gets limited to a single pen so I don't have to worry about cross-contamination with other inks -- that's the REAL issue with BSB.

I'm pretty OCD about flushing but know that I might not have gotten every speck of ink in the processes. Currently, that pen is a Charlie eyedropper (and that way I can have a bit of control on diluting the ink with distilled water to prevent feathering).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Hi 3nding,

 

I use Noodler's Black and have for a long time. I have probably used it in all my pens but I have other colors so there may be one or two that haven't had black in them. I've used Noodler's Black in my Mont Blanc 146, Pelikan M1000, Pelikan M400 and many others from expensive to inexpensive.

 

As a highly saturated ink Noodler's Black, and most other Noodler's inks, might call for slightly more frequent pen cleaning but I have used it in a Sheaffer triumph and went over a year without cleaning the pen, just refilling as ink ran low and never had a problem.

 

I also like Noodler's Old Manhattan Black (only from Fountain Pen Hospital), Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black and I have a little left in a bottle of Parker Quick Black.

 

As others have said, try a sample and see if you like it.

 

Rick

Rick

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So the only thing "wrong" about Noodler's Black is that it requires cleaning your pens a bit more often and that's about it?

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Well, IMX, Noodler's Black tends to dry really slowly and smudge, and ought to be diluted a little bit (5:1 or so). I had the same issue with Red-Black as well (same remedy, too). That's why I'd prefer Heart of Darkness. YMMV.

 

So you would go with Heart of Darkness over Noodler's Black or something entirely different like Pilot Black for a fine nibbed Parker 45 that has to write on both cheap paper as well as higher quality, less absorbent, paper?

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Noodler's Black was made with one of the goals being to do newspaper crossword puzzles. Noodler's ink also makes X-Feather ink, black, for writing on poor paper.

 

One thing you will find is an ink I love you may not like at all. An ink that works great in my pen may not work well at all in your pen, and vice-versa. So it would be best for you to try different inks to find the one that works best for you. The Goulet Pen Company sells ink samples of the inks they carry in 5ML vials. They're great for trying new inks. I am not affiliated with The Goulet Pen Company. Just a satisfied customer. There may be others who sell ink samples.

 

https://www.gouletpens.com/default

 

Get one of Noodler's Black, one of Heart of Darkness and one of X-Feather but also take a look at Noodler's ink properties on the Noodler's site to see if you like anything else they have.

 

Enjoy the ink discovery process and your fountain pens.

 

Rick

Edited by rickap

Rick

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