Ink Flight #1 Reveal

Welcome to the maiden voyage of our Ink Flight. We start our journey of inks in our own backyard with American-made Noodler’s Ink. Each bottle has a story imagined by the passionate founder, Nathan Tardiff.

ink flight 1 Noodlers on tomoe river paper

With well over 100 colors with some of the most eccentric names, it was difficult to choose a set of colors that not everyone would have already used before. We aimed to mix a variety of newer inks (Dostoyevsky & American Aristocracy) with some of the unique Noodler's varieties, like the lubricated Gruene Cactus Eel, the forgery-proof Bad Green Gator, the freeze-resistant Polar Blue and the fast-drying Q'ternity. 

My personal 2-cents on each of these inks:

Favorites - American Aristocracy, Dostoyevsky and Gruene Cactus Eel.

Least Favorite - Bad Green Gator

American Aristocracy is an enigma of a color. It dries quickly and seems to go from a plummy red to a brownish violet all on the same page. I love its warmth and rich subtlety.

Q'ternity dries wonderfully quick, even while laying down a thick, stub line on tomoe river paper. The ink is a little on the drier side, but still writes smoothly and without hesitation. 

Dostoyevsky is my stand out favorite of the group. I haven't fully tested it yet, but this is a wicked shading ink that is also supposed to be water resistant. The light blue/turquoise color is a wet, wet ink.

Polar Blue is your run-of-the-mill, medium toned blue. It tends to feather a bit on a number of papers I tried. If we had a polar vortex while the ink sample shipments were being delivered, this would have been the only one that you could ink up with right away!

Gruene Cactus Eel is an unsung hero and sleeper pick within the Noodler's brand. My OMAS 14kt nib already wrote like buttah, but putting this lubricated eel ink in made it like butter and bacon grease put together. mmmm.. bacon. You get the idea. It's smooth. Real smooth.

Bad Green Gator was my least favorite of the group, particularly because the color wasn't vivid enough. I'd characterize the color as a green-black, but only a hint of desaturated green. It feathered a bit, even on Rhodia paper.

Let us know what you thought of the inks. Please go ahead and share your thoughts on the inks below. I have a Noodler's Charlie Fountain Pen (eyedropper fill) that will go to one lucky, randomly-picked commenter. Deadline for comments is Thursday, February 23rd at 7pm.